Availability, testing, cancelled trip, repairs

Mama and I made an early morning run to Sam’s yesterday. Very early. They opened the doors to senior citizens at 7 am. Mama and I were there when they opened. It was not really a mad house, but the line to get toilet paper and paper towels queued up quickly. Mama did not like the type of toilet tissue they were selling so we passed on that, but we did get a package of paper towels. I have to admit being impressed with the efficiency of the staff to get the packages of toilet paper distributed. Once they started to distribute the items, the line disappeared almost as quickly as it had formed. Mama and I were out of the store in about forty-five minutes. Some of the items we were looking for were purchased at Walmart since Sam’s was still out of those items.

Since we were so close, we stopped at Chick-fil-a to get breakfast. I typically do not get breakfast at Chick-fil-a so I am not as familiar with the menu offerings as Mama is, so when we drove up – there is no going inside because of the social distancing restrictions – I could not see the breakfast menu. Turns out that did not matter. When I asked about breakfast items, the server inside told us that the only breakfast item available was the chicken minis. That worked for Mama. The server also told us that all the all lunch items were currently available. That worked for me. I got a standard chicken sandwich. Mama and I never imagined them being out of food to prepare, but they were. That made the economic contraction we are in quickly personal. I was back in the office by 8:15.

I worked in the office yesterday until about 1 pm. I got a lot done in those few hours. Just a couple hours on the internet allows me to advance the projects I am working on in huge steps. Now I have the resources to continue from home from the remainder of the week. How long we will keep this up should be announced today or Friday, but it looks like it will continue through the end of April. It is not all bad, but I can see my role changing dramatically in the very near future if we limit our instructor led training. Maybe they will record me delivering the course and use that as a platform for online instruction. Time will tell.

I had a nuclear stress test at 1:15 pm. I did not know how long the test would last but my hope was to be done by 4 pm. That did not happen. I was initially called in to the exam room and an IV was started, medicine injected, and I was dismissed until I was called for. With the social distancing rules being observed, I was asked to wait in the car. So, I did. I was then called back into the office – about an hour later – to have some images taken of my heart prior to the test. Dismissed for a second time, I went back out to the car. On my third call, another hour later, I was put on the treadmill. I walked/ran for about ten minutes and was not able to achieve the heart rate needed to complete the test. I told the tech I had to stop, and he took me off the treadmill and gave me the medicines required to make the blood vessels in my heart dilate. That was an interesting sensation. Another twenty-minute wait, more images, set up a follow up appointment and I was finally dismissed. It was 5 :15 pm.

I had unwisely scheduled a fishing trip with the pastor for yesterday afternoon. Obviously I had to call and cancel. When I realized the test was going to take much longer than expected, I called to cancel a little after 3 pm. We rescheduled for Thursday. The beautiful weather should hold through then. Tonight, I will set out some jug lines to see if we can get some catfish. So far, we have caught multiple other kinds of fish. Large representatives of each f those species. I am curious to see how large the catfish are in the quarry lake. We will only catch them on jug lines since we do not fish more than a couple hours per visit to the lake. It is not a function of allotting time to fish. we limit the time because, so far, by the time we have been fishing a couple hours we have a very full stringer of fish that need to be filleted. That takes time as well.

In preparation for the anticipated trip yesterday I made a couple repairs to the aluminum boat the pastor has lent me Monday evening. I attached a sturdy board to the back of the boat, so we do not have to worry about hanging the trolling motor on the stern of the boat. It is far more than what was needed, but it was a scrap I had on hand that will serve the purpose for the remainder of the life of the boat. Plus, if I can find a small outboard for the boat, the new reinforced stern will certainly hold that. I also fixed a tear in the side of the boat. The tear was not an issue as far as serviceability. Getting cut on the tear was more of a concern to me. So, I closed it up and smoothed it out. I am happy with the repairs. Tomorrow, I will show them to the pastor.

Hopefully, we will have another very successful evening on the lake. At least, we know where to start this time.