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Probably my number one gripe about living in the country or semi-country or faux country is this:

This little cutie came to us via a dumping.  Rather than spay their animals, people drive out into the country and drop the animals off in front of someone’s home then zoom like crazy to get away.  We live on a pretty busy back road so this happens occasionally.  Usually it is an older dog, though, rather than a cute puppy.

This was probably the youngest dog ever to get dumped here - about 8 weeks old:

She had MAJOR personality, too.  Smart as a whip (whatever that means) and a climber.  She’d climb up to high places to either sit or get Leland’s jeans to sleep on.   No matter where I put them or how high up, she would find a way to get up there and pull them back down to the floor.  That’s the only thing she did that with. 

I can’t understand someone spending time with a dog, teaching it how to play, then taking it and dumping it in the country.  Thank goodness, this dog found a wonderful home 3 days after coming to our house.  My friend Tammy was looking for a puppy for her grandbebe so it all worked out for the good.  The puppy adopted her immediately – left me like I was an old sock she was through with.  It hurt… nah, not really!

It’s just that it makes me go grrr that someone is too cheap to spay their female dogs, too cheap to take a dog or puppy (or cat) to the pound ($20) and too stupid to take responsibility for the puppies once they are here.  Yeah, I’m talking to YOU – you stupid person who dumped an amazing puppy in our yard.  Don’t think I don’t know who you are (well, actually I don’t but I have a really good idea). 

Grrr.

Even more grrr?  Today after she left, I found all her farewell droppings in the sunroom, just for me (to clean up).  She was so sweet to leave me those many reminders of herself – ’cause it means I won’t miss her.  Peee-you!  Except it wasn’t the first part of that word!

So here I am, having a few cold symptoms part of which feels like it got into my chest.

I had something like this about a year ago and knew all I needed was a round of antibiotics (and no, no “pro and con” about the bad or good about antibiotics, OK?) – just trust me, a 5 day Z-Pack takes care of anything like this that has tried to come along over the years.

So silly me.  I called in to get a quick appointment with the doctor I usually see.  She wasn’t going to be in for a week.  So I went to my second-best choice.  Dumb move on my part.

I got in there and had the usual 45 minute wait in the waiting room… oh!  That’s why they call it a waiting room – I’m slow (I’m not there enough to get the joke, smile).  Then I experienced the usual 30 minute wait in the tiny consulting room.  Finally the nurse pops in and very quickly asks what’s up.  The following is a true shortened version of the conversation.  The names have been changed to protect the … oh, I didn’t use names. 

Nurse: What seems to be the problem today?  (Mind you, no one even took my temperature; I left the house with a mild fever.)

Me:  Well, I’m experiencing some cold symptoms.  I have a little pain in the lung area and experienced some shortness of breath the last couple of days.

Nurse: OH! (Scribble scribble - I know how to diagnose this one, yippie)  Is there any history of heart disease in your family?

Me:  Uh, no – oh, well my mom developed very mild symptoms the last couple of years in her life.

Nurse:  (Scribble scribble - I’ll bet you’re lying to me.)  How about heart attacks? Any history of those?

Me: (By now I can see which way this is going).  NO!  No heart attacks. 

Nurse:  (Scribble scribble - Well rats.  There goes that diagnosis.)  When do you experience this shortness of breath, is it all the time?  And do you have any coughing?

Me:  NO.  Just occasionally since the cold symptoms started.  I don’t even experience it on the treadmill.  I had a little coughing with runny nose last week .

Nurse:  (Scribble scribble)  Well!  The doctor will be in in a few minutes.  (And in you believe that I have some beach front property to sell you in Arkansas.)

Doctor:  Rushing in and sitting down.  Hello.  I understand you’ve been experiencing some shortness of breath and chest pains! (Scribble scribble)

Me:  Um, no, not really.  I’ve been having some cold symptoms… exactly like last year.

Doctor:  (Scribble scribble)  Well, where is the chest pain?  (Scribble scribble – hack, snort, wheeze, cough) And do you experience shortness of breath all the time?  (Scribble scribble).  Are you coughing at all?

Me:  (Pointing to center of chest)  Just a little bit right here and it just started today, a little while ago.  And I don’t really have shortness of breath; just a little when walking uphill the last day or so.

Doctor:  Well, OK  (Scribble scribble - What the heck was the point of sending my nurse in here if you’re going to deny the diagnosis we think you should have?  I’ll teach you!)  I’m going to send you back for a chest x-ray and an EKG.  (Sniffle, snort, wheeze, cough)

Me:  Oh.. ummm.. OK. 

After a humiliating time with open-backed gown, etc., and having the chest x-rays be taken twice since he didn’t like how light it was the first time, I’m back to sitting in the room for 15 minutes.

Doctor:  Rushing in and sitting down.  She sounds almost disappointed:  Well, your EKG came back clear and fine.  BUT, they aren’t ALWAYS accurate (snort, sniff, sniffle, wheeze, cough) so you might want to schedule a Nuclear Stress Test to make absolutely positively sure.  (They’re having a sale on them at the hospital this week.)  And your chest x-ray shows your lungs to be clear.  (Darn it!)  BUT!  It “looks like” you might have the beginning of arthritis in your lower back and it looks like you ”could”  have osteoporosis.  The x-ray wasn’t really clear on that so you might want to schedule a bone-density test to make absolutely sure.  (I’m not making any money on that test but you can if you want to, loser.)

Me:  (After explaining to her that I don’t want to schedule those tests right now)  Umm, osteoporosis…? 

Doctor: (She interrupted) That’s because of your age.  (Cough, COUGH!!, blow nose, sniffle, sniffle, cough, wheeze, MAJOR nose blow)

Me:  Umm, you sound like you need to be home in bed yourself.

Doctor:  (Snapping) NO, I just have allergies (I’m actually giving everyone who comes in here a cold so they’ll spend more money by having to come back). 

Me:  So what about what I came in here for – the cold symptoms?

Doctor:  (shaking her hand at me in a wrist fluttering go away sign)  Oh that.  That will go away on its own in a few days.  (Sniff, sniff, snort, wheeze, cough)  Here, I am giving you a prescription for this drug Fosamax that gets calcium down in your bones.  That’s where it has to get.  But I have to warn you that along with all the normal side effects of drugs (I’m thinking here, HUH? I don’t take any drugs, what side affects?), it has been known to cause jawbone death.  You know, your jaw bone rots  and crumbles and all  your teeth fall out.  (snort, sniff, sniffle, wheeze, cough)

Let us stop the story here.  I have to interject that she is not making a joke when she told me that.  She was serious.  And when I went to fill the prescription even the pharmacists asked if I’d been warned.  I found out online what some of the side affects were – you don’t want to know.  But to give you an idea, look at this sentence:

But don’t throw out that Fosamax just yet!  It’s in the same chemical class (phosphonate) as the cleaners you use to remove soap scum from your bathtub. So, maybe you can make use of it in your bathroom after all.

YIKES!!!  THIS is the drug she wants me to take?  Based on a “might have” diagnosis?  WhatRya NUTS???

Needless to say, after some online research into the healthy ways I can keep my bones strong, I decided something.  I figured out that every morning at the clinic, they put their hands in a “disease” hat and pull out the disease they are going to push that day.  They have a quota they must meet.  “OK folks, we’ll get a kick back on this drug so today we’re pushing Fosamax.  Get all the oseoporosis diagnoses’ you can get.”

The worst part?  That evening all the symptoms she was looking for – runny nose, itchy eyes, small cough, hit full force.  I probably got them maximized while waiting in the waiting room!

And me with no antibiotic. 

Things that make you go grrrr.

(and yes, Caro, I will eventually go get a Nuclear Stress Test and Bone Density Test)

So I wandered into the Revenue Office the other day to renew my tags. It should have taken 10 minutes tops since the room wasn’t full of people. I walked in and pretty much got to go right up to the counter. That is where it all ended.

I got Granny Smith.  I’ve never seen Granny Smith in this office before.  She’s old and worthless new and apparently “in-training”.  I am not saying that her grandmotherly visage meant she had a slow mind and inability to function.  I am not saying she should be tarred, feathered, shot retired and sent to a nursing home.  I wanted to but it wasn’t up to me.

No, Granny Smith only had one problem.  This was her problem:

Granny Smith apparently thought she was having leisure time at home in her recliner because when her cell phone rang, way back in the break room, she felt the need to hop up and go answer her phone, bringing it back to the counter.  Right in the middle of waiting on me.  Then she had a personal conversation or two that sure didn’t sound life-threatening to me.  You know as in, “Are all his limbs intact?  Did they do the surgery?  Is she going to live?”  Those kinds of necessary phone calls.  This was more of a chit-chat with a friend phone call. 

Then I was sitting in a beauty salon the same day.  I watched a stylist answer her cell phone at least 5 times while she was trimming someone’s hair.  They were personal calls, too.  As in, “BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT’S WHY.  Quit hitting your brother.”  Those type phone calls.  And I know I don’t want anyone cutting my hair while they are trying to sort out their personal life on a cell phone.

What is it with people?  What on earth did they do before they were joined at the ear to the world via cell phone?  How did they ever function without chatting with someone 200 times a day about very important things like, ‘”Nuh uhn.  No, she doesn’t like him.  Nun uhn, I’m telling you.  She likes that other guy.  No!  She did??”  This is stuff I did in the privacy of my own parents’ home in the evenings to the loud noises of, “GET OFF THAT PHONE RIGHT NOW!  Mom, she wont’ get off the phone.  I’m expecting a phone call.  Tell her to get off the phone.”

I’m beginning to find cell phones are interrupting real life.  People dont’ interact in person much anymore.  People can’t stay off them at work when they are supposed to be dealing with the public.  People have to be told not to use them while driving down the road – especially texting.  Employer’s have to make rules to keep people off their cell phones.

I don’t know about you, but I think the next time a salesperson sticks that finger up in my face indicating, “Hold on a minute while I answer this oh-so-important phone call that is far more important than waiting on you and getting you want you want” – I am going to grab their finger and bend it backward.  Then I am going to take my business elsewhere and not darken the doors of that store again.

But that’s just me.