my mom

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Yay!!!

[thatguy]

Hakone Gardens had their fall 4th Annual Toro Nagashi (floating lantern festival) so I figured I’d check it out and honor my family…I wrote a little note for my dad, mom, and sister and wrote “Ad Infinitum Et Ultra” on it (“to infinity and beyond” in Latin according to google. My co-worker that was the president of his latin club in college couldn’t tell me if there was a better translation…

Weather was nice, and I took the cycle to make it easier to park. Not a lot of announcement or instruction. After the majority had lanterns in the water, a group did some traditional dancing. That was follower by the head of the zendo that meets there on Sundays. He rang the bowl a few times and then talked a lot about what the festival is about…I think that was the best part of the whole affair. 

It started early enough that the electric candles in the lanterns werent doing anything. I walked the gardens, took pictures, waited till after dusk, took a few more pix and skedaddled.

—tg

[Drunk Monk]

That sounds lovely.

I don’t think I’ve been back there since El Dingo’s wedding, and that was over 30 years ago because I went to the Dead show afterwards at the Frost.

[King Bob]

I went last summer. They have improved the grounds somewhat I think, although I didn't walk around much at ED's wedding.

Couldn't find my Latin dictionary but looked online and ultra seems to be the best fit. You might also say "Ad infinitum ultraque." That seems the most Latin-ish to me because Latin tends toward compression of syntax.

[Drunk Monk]

Fuck the default world.

I had a virtual appt scheduled for my mom today but it was cancelled at the very last minute because her insurance doesn't cover it and virtuals aren't available to new patients. I went virtual because it was the earliest and her blood pressure medication needs refilling, but her previous doctor, who is now out of network, stopped fulfilling it because he's no longer her doctor. An in-person appointment has been scheduled for March but she'll be off her med for well over a month by then. This all happened just minutes before the virtual appt was to take place. 

When I got to my mom's, she was upset that she didn't remember the appt, and that she thought I was in Mexico this week and that I visited her last week. She kept cycling over this, calling herself 'stupid' and hitting herself. I dstracted her with some xmas cards from people that neither of us remember, relatives I think. 

I'm emotionally raw after returning from Mexico to lackluster sales at YMAA and the passing of Bobby, of course. I'm taking tonight off.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Sorry, Dude.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah. Thanks. Moving on. I'm tackling some KFM work now. 

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down...

[Drunk Monk]

This was the 4th...

I must take my mom to her new doctor - an appointment we scheduled back in January because her old doctor fell out of her coverage. 

Well fuck. I was getting text reminders up until an hour before the appointment. We roll up and find the office closed and abandoned with a note on the door that had a QR code for other facilities. What the actual fuck? I messaged back but there was no phone number on the new app for this doc. There was another couple there who were experiencing the same situation. They had an appointment just before ours. 

And now, they seem to be ghosting me.

I managed to get an appt rescheduled for last Tues which got as mercurial as it gets.

I left early and got caught in traffic going over hwy17 due to construction. But I made it in time to pick up my mom. My liephone map sent me the wrong direction into one of those huge living/working complexes - apartments, restaurants, recreational areas, and businesses. The number listed didn't exist there. After wheeling my mom around blindly, I went into one of the businesses and asked. The counter person was nice, but there was someone in front of us that was taking forever and I'm watching my time, getting down to the minutes. The counter person clarified that my lie phone was wrong and that the medical facility is across the street, so I'm wheeling my mom there. It's a lot of wheeling her about but I'm good with wheelchairs after using them a lot during the last 39 years of being a medic. We get there just in time and the clerk informs me that the visit we're about to attend is NOT covered by my mom's Medicare Advantage. WTAF?!? She does some magic and finds a way to use my mom's general medicare number, cutting the price from $250+ to about $100. That's doable. My mom needs a refill of her bp med so she needs to see someone ASAP. We see the NP and he's fantastic. We get the full story. He was previously the NP under the doc my mom was supposed to see last week - the one that her medicare advantage set her up with back in Jan. But that doc moved out of the area 10 days ago, and the health care system neglected to update us (never mind the closed facility - I know they will try charge us $50 for a missed appt, but I took photos and documented everything knowing this may be an issue to come). That NP was in a bit of a transition too, but served as a good bridge, renewing my mom's prescription for 3 months instead of the usual 1 month. He also provide a resource for finding a new doc. We are back to square one with this. I take my mom back to the parking lot for the huge complex, ready to pay because the medical center doesn't validate (its across the street) and of course, the pay machine doesn't work. I put my mom in the car and walk that whole damn lot to find a working pay machine. 

I get my mom back to the center and luckily cross paths with the manager there to explain the current state of her lack of doc. She tells me that it's happening a lot to some of her other clients (she only has like a dozen clients). I go back to my mom's house, which is in chaos because the kitchen and den are demolished. But the new windows are gorgeous. Stacy went high end - solid white oak - and enlarged them so it brings more light into the house. I luv it. 

Man, I've had a day. So mercurially frustrating.

I'm gonna go get me some salmon at Fish's Wild, an odd fast food kinda joint near me that I discovered by chance last week and I'm kinda into now. Then I'm tucking into svale to write and work - might be an allnighter, definitely a late night work until I pass out sorta Tuesday...

After a nice cajun salmon dinner, I go home to work and admire the sunset. I forgot how beautiful sunsets can be at my parents' house. The court lines up with the solar path and it gives a stunning view of the sun sinking below the mountains. 

I haven't started the new doctor quest yet. That's next.