Priorities
People get upset I never seem to have enough time.
I’m supposed to be doing exercises to offset my knee-change, and the earlier prostatectomy.
But finding time for them is a struggle.
My stack of unopened mail is about seven inches high. I’ve culled out the bills, which I pay online. Processing that stack of unopened mail might take 2-3 hours, which I don’t have.
My last load of laundry is still in the dryer. Putting it away would gobble up 15-25 minutes, so I live out of my dryer.
“I saw an Amazon box in the garage,” my in-home physical-therapist said.
“That’s my dog-food. I haven’t had time to bring it inside yet, and may not until I run out of dog-food.”
“What’s this other box?”
“That’s mailing-envelopes for my calendar. I haven’t been able to open it yet, and may not get to it until my calendar shows up.”
“And what’s this other box?”
“That’s probably an unwheeled walker. I haven’t needed it, so it remains unopened. It’s been that way almost two months.”
“I can’t believe you don’t have time for this stuff. Five minutes here, five minutes there....”
“Well, five minutes here, five minutes there — pretty soon you’re up to 30 minutes. That’s 30 minutes when I could be doing something more important. Priorities, man!”
The other day my home nursing-service wanted to schedule a visit. They called and said they would visit the next day.
“I already have two other appointments that day,” I said.
She got all huffy.
Who am I to question the vaunted medical establishment?
“Is it a Doctor’s appointment?” she snapped.
“Yes, but Urology Associates of Rochester not Canandaigua Orthopaedic; it’s followup of my prostatectomy.
Thud! Couldn’t be rescheduled.
“The other is in-home Physical Therapy at 11 a.m., but if you come at 9:30 as you suggested, we should be all right.”
Sorry, I have appointments galore. I have to interlace everything; that’s the way it is.
“So maybe you could do your exercises while you watch TV.”
“I never watch TV,” I snapped. “It’s dreadfully boring compared to my computer.”
“So maybe you should spend less time on your computer.”
“Less time than no time at all?” I said. “Yesterday was no time at all.”
I used to write a blog every day. Now I’m down to maybe one per week.
Writing takes place during breakfast. Keying in is about 45 minutes to an hour per day, and that ain’t enough for an entire blog. That may take three days: “yesterday” becomes “a couple days ago,” which becomes “a week ago.”
I also have other computer functions I hafta do, bookkeeping, bill-paying, etc. My calendar got done and ordered over the hospital’s wi-fi. But I couldn’t take my giant printer with me. Christmas-cards got processed here at home in the middle of January.
Then there is computer madness.
I just recently installed this fantabulous bank app on my Smartphone that allows me to photograph and deposit checks. Great idea, five minutes online here at home instead of driving to the bank.
So I set about to deposit a check from the State.
It of course wanted a password, but my password didn’t work.
So much for five minutes.
“Forgot password” led to “reset password” via e-mail from the bank.
And of course, what you type isn’t shown, so mistypes are valid.
Mistypes are common to a stroke-survivor, but if you can’t see ‘em, you can’t correct.
After all this horsing around I was up to an hour, so I gave up. I would deposit the check in a couple days when I drove past the bank.
But then I had to log into my bank from my laptop.
My Firefox browser has a gizmo for memorizing passwords, and, of course, the password it had memorized wasn’t my new password. So that crashed too. I couldn’t even get into my bank.
I called the bank, and got a service-rep. Amazingly she could speak English — she didn’t sound Indian.
We reset my password yet again, and it was the same password my Smartphone wanted.
My laptop Firefox gizmo probably memorized a mistype.
Great; five minutes of processing took two hours.
I’m supposed to wedge in exercising amongst laundry, lawn-mowing, my many appointments, and our wondrous technological advances. (“Can you hear me now?”)
• On December 7th, 2015, I had my left knee replaced. On August 26th I had my prostate-gland removed because it was cancerous. I took my computer for both hospitalizations, although I wasn’t able to do anything following my prostatectomy.
• Each year I produce a calendar of train photos by my brother and I taken near Altoona, PA. I pass out these calendars as Christmas presents. My brother and I are both railfans interested in photography. —This year my calendar was produced in the hospital.
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. But it left me with sloppy keyboarding, among other small detriments - like taking away my ability to play piano. But I can pass for never having had a stroke.
I’m supposed to be doing exercises to offset my knee-change, and the earlier prostatectomy.
But finding time for them is a struggle.
My stack of unopened mail is about seven inches high. I’ve culled out the bills, which I pay online. Processing that stack of unopened mail might take 2-3 hours, which I don’t have.
My last load of laundry is still in the dryer. Putting it away would gobble up 15-25 minutes, so I live out of my dryer.
“I saw an Amazon box in the garage,” my in-home physical-therapist said.
“That’s my dog-food. I haven’t had time to bring it inside yet, and may not until I run out of dog-food.”
“What’s this other box?”
“That’s mailing-envelopes for my calendar. I haven’t been able to open it yet, and may not get to it until my calendar shows up.”
“And what’s this other box?”
“That’s probably an unwheeled walker. I haven’t needed it, so it remains unopened. It’s been that way almost two months.”
“I can’t believe you don’t have time for this stuff. Five minutes here, five minutes there....”
“Well, five minutes here, five minutes there — pretty soon you’re up to 30 minutes. That’s 30 minutes when I could be doing something more important. Priorities, man!”
The other day my home nursing-service wanted to schedule a visit. They called and said they would visit the next day.
“I already have two other appointments that day,” I said.
She got all huffy.
Who am I to question the vaunted medical establishment?
“Is it a Doctor’s appointment?” she snapped.
“Yes, but Urology Associates of Rochester not Canandaigua Orthopaedic; it’s followup of my prostatectomy.
Thud! Couldn’t be rescheduled.
“The other is in-home Physical Therapy at 11 a.m., but if you come at 9:30 as you suggested, we should be all right.”
Sorry, I have appointments galore. I have to interlace everything; that’s the way it is.
“So maybe you could do your exercises while you watch TV.”
“I never watch TV,” I snapped. “It’s dreadfully boring compared to my computer.”
“So maybe you should spend less time on your computer.”
“Less time than no time at all?” I said. “Yesterday was no time at all.”
I used to write a blog every day. Now I’m down to maybe one per week.
Writing takes place during breakfast. Keying in is about 45 minutes to an hour per day, and that ain’t enough for an entire blog. That may take three days: “yesterday” becomes “a couple days ago,” which becomes “a week ago.”
I also have other computer functions I hafta do, bookkeeping, bill-paying, etc. My calendar got done and ordered over the hospital’s wi-fi. But I couldn’t take my giant printer with me. Christmas-cards got processed here at home in the middle of January.
Then there is computer madness.
I just recently installed this fantabulous bank app on my Smartphone that allows me to photograph and deposit checks. Great idea, five minutes online here at home instead of driving to the bank.
So I set about to deposit a check from the State.
It of course wanted a password, but my password didn’t work.
So much for five minutes.
“Forgot password” led to “reset password” via e-mail from the bank.
And of course, what you type isn’t shown, so mistypes are valid.
Mistypes are common to a stroke-survivor, but if you can’t see ‘em, you can’t correct.
After all this horsing around I was up to an hour, so I gave up. I would deposit the check in a couple days when I drove past the bank.
But then I had to log into my bank from my laptop.
My Firefox browser has a gizmo for memorizing passwords, and, of course, the password it had memorized wasn’t my new password. So that crashed too. I couldn’t even get into my bank.
I called the bank, and got a service-rep. Amazingly she could speak English — she didn’t sound Indian.
We reset my password yet again, and it was the same password my Smartphone wanted.
My laptop Firefox gizmo probably memorized a mistype.
Great; five minutes of processing took two hours.
I’m supposed to wedge in exercising amongst laundry, lawn-mowing, my many appointments, and our wondrous technological advances. (“Can you hear me now?”)
• On December 7th, 2015, I had my left knee replaced. On August 26th I had my prostate-gland removed because it was cancerous. I took my computer for both hospitalizations, although I wasn’t able to do anything following my prostatectomy.
• Each year I produce a calendar of train photos by my brother and I taken near Altoona, PA. I pass out these calendars as Christmas presents. My brother and I are both railfans interested in photography. —This year my calendar was produced in the hospital.
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. But it left me with sloppy keyboarding, among other small detriments - like taking away my ability to play piano. But I can pass for never having had a stroke.
posted by BobbaLew at 8:22 AM
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