There is life after Tuesday.

My exam yesterday went OK, except for the sitting around waiting for people and running back and forth in between. Had to go to the lab twice--I think they dropped my first four vials of blood. Dr. G. sent me for ultrasound of my carotid arteries, because he said he "heard something" in my neck; probably just a frog in my throat. And a minor condition I thought might be Something turned out to be Nothing.

All of that took so long (nearly 6 hours of sitting and running), I didn't even mention the warts on my forehead, lest I couldn't get home before dark. When the Checkout asked when I wanted my next appointment, I said 2012, but had to settle for January in the year of ten. I hate appointments. Even for something good, an appointment is like a great Gordian knot hanging over my head.

The worst thing (so far) about a med exam, is that it takes several days to recover my enthusiasm for participating in civilization. I just want to crawl under the bed and cease. But there isn't room under the bed or sofa, nowhere to hide.

Old Abe (my car) hummed along like a new Mercedes. I had forgot how pleasant it is to drive up and down the highway on a nice day.

Autumn Leaves

This may not be the most beautiful autumn I've ever seen, but it's certainly close. I remember driving through Tennessee one November when the fall colors were glorious, the temperature had dropped in the night and coated everything with ice, and the morning sun made the ice-glazed leaves blaze with color.

Today Mo and Wilder and I walked under the trees for an hour, gazing and rolling in the leaves. That is, the cats rolled; I just gazed, and picked up a load of beautiful colored leaves to carry inside. Jerry's little yellow house is framed in gold and green and red. On the other side, there's a huge perfectly shaped evergreen tree, out beyond Mark's back yard, against a setting of fiery autumn colors. The view from my deck every day gets more gorgeous in all directions. I'm so glad I live here, in one of the most attractive neighborhoods in Leeds.

But I still like to remember the Southside apartment: the brown-and-white pigeons; the little fluffy birds that looked like baby robins, that migrated through; the December day that a big bush across the alley was full of painted buntings that were all colors; the mockingbird that collected Bob's hair when I brushed him on the steps; the stray cat I called Socks who helped me hunt for Bob; the Meltons who made me come to their big house in the tornado, and when the blue house caught on fire; the bathroom floor that Jack and I put in to replace the torn-up linoleum; the night Jack and I "stole" Mus from in front of what we convinced ourselves was an empty house. And Larry Cohn's black lab named Blackie that traveled in the bed of Larry's truck. I had a lot of sad and glad times during the apartment years, wrote a lot of poems and made a lot of quilts, most of which I sold or gave away.

This morning I called and rescheduled the CT scan for November 30, the same day as the Dexa-Scan.

I finally went today for my yearly medical checkup. Everything was OK except my right ankle is infected from that fall the other day. I thought it was just bruised, but Dr. Gruman said it looks like it has some infection, so he wrote a prescription for some antibiotics--which I forgot to stop and get filled, doggone it!

Anyway, from the time I left the house this morning until now, I haven't coughed. I also slept for hours and hours yesterday and last night, so I guess the bronchitis is cured.

I still have bruises on my torso from the fall. Dr. Gruman said "Bless your heart" three times, looking at my leg and my bruises. It sounds like a lie, but he really did. I guess he's getting old and weak.

They set me up an appointment for a CT scan on THURSDAY--THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW! Confound these people! Also a bone scan (Dexa-Scan) on November 30, and a mammogram on December 12.

If I can write 50,000 words and keep up with everything happening in November, I will give myself a medal of honor. It's a good thing I'm ahead on the word count. I'll try to get even further ahead in case I have to fly to Africa or something this month. Come to think of it, I would give up the writing project if I could fly to Africa.