Tommy had 3 doctor's appointments, at the Veteran's Affairs Hospital, in Columbia today. We were there by 7:30 a.m.
It was already busy. There was a flow of people everywhere, like water rushing to the shore only to make a quick retreat.
I have to admit I like going to the V.A. I always meet some interesting characters. Today was no exception.
After blood draw, we had breakfast. That is the only meal really safe to eat there. It is hard to mess up biscuits and gravy. Everything else they fix is--debatable.
After breakfast he was scheduled to see his heart doctor. The waiting room is small. It is impossible to have a conversation without everyone listening. The nurse who was working the desk, did not have time to be at work today. She was in the process of moving and that was all she had on her mind.
She is a small black haired lady with little patience for waiting. However, waiting she was, for two calls, one from the water company and the other her mother.
She puts her cell phone down by the man at the computer and told him to answer it if she should happen to be gone. He told her, he didn't want to answer her cell phone, and that she should take it with her. She told him she didn't want to pack the cell phone and to "do it anyway" and marched off. He looked at me and said, "I don't want to answer her phone."
I told him, "Well, don't do it" then Tommy tells me to be quiet. The computer man and I both scowl at Tommy. Thankfully, no one called.
Then she is back, just in time to break the B/P cuff. An old man comes in and his blood pressure is too low and needs to be retaken. He told her to "sit on his lap and it might rise a little" I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. He weighed all of 90 pounds soaking wet and he was ready!!! He put on quite a show. It was almost like watching a rerun of "I Love Lucy".
Next we go to the Diabetes Clinic. Another small waiting room, full of funny old men. The man sitting next to me had forgotten to wear his hearing aide and tried his best to join in every one's conversation. He just couldn't keep up. I became his interpreter, rather reluctantly.
The man to his left was a Korean Vet. and had been shot up pretty bad during the war. We had a long intense talk about getting shot, about war in general and his war wounds in particular.
Evidently, a bullet that had been embeded in his shin bone for fifty years, finally worked it's way to the top of the skin. It abscessed and had to be removed.
He pulled up his pants leg and showed me his new scar. I had never seen a "real" bullet hole and I was kind of amazed.
That's when I felt Tommy's eyes burning a hole through my back. I turned to look at him to discover he was not at all curious about the old man's scar....and just as soon I wasn't either.
I started laughing again. He had been called back to see the doctor and yanked me up to go with him. I continued to laugh until I was almost crying.
It took Tommy 41 years to get jealous!!!! I am still laughing and shaking my head. Unbelievable!!! He was on a roll!!!
"If I die first, I guess you can hang out at the V.A." Oh my gosh!! Tell me that is not my fate!! I never did get completely under control.
As we were leaving, the old man was still in the waiting room. I stopped and asked him if he kept the bullet. He said "No, I threw that thing in the trash"
I walked on thinking," dang I would have liked to have had that bullet"
The things people throw away----the things other people collect. The human race on the whole is an odd bunch of ducks! Wonder if God laughs or shakes His head and thinks "I'll do better next time."
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