The New Normal?

Recently my granddaughter and a relative have been involved in a lockdown or evacuation. This got me thinking about the time our jury pool was evacuated from the courthouse because of a bomb threat, and I wondered if perhaps this is not too uncommon. I’d like to hear from you. Maybe everyone around me is very unlucky or perhaps the times they are a’changing.

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In the Wee Hours

At 2:30 this morning an electrician with dreadlocks and I were taking eye tests with the chart on the wall. Did you know 20/20 is not the best vision? Apparently not, because if you can read two lines down (even smaller print) you are 20/10. We did not know that.

I also didn’t know an ER room could go so long without cleaning. There was a layer of grime on the waste baskets, bed controls and certainly the floor. I kept my hands in my pockets and used hand cleaner frequently.

While the electrician with the eye problem and I entertained ourselves in the hall, my poor son waited for relief from his back pain. He has had therapy since his bad automobile accident a few months ago, but physical work yesterday erased all that apparently. So with endless re-runs of “Earl” and “Sex in the City” on the TV, I alternately rubbed his back and exercised my legs and feet—well, as much as I could without touching walls or anything. We were there for five hours, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. My tote of magazines helped for a while, but articles started looking familiar.

While my son did paper work earlier I discovered that many in the waiting room were just there to see their 70 year-old-grandmother who was experiencing her first heart attack. My son wanted to know how I knew what was going on with people. Simple. We talk.

Going back in the night even earlier, I spied my son in a chair just inside the door of the ER waiting room, but had to go through security check before entering. No one was doing checks, so I finally sat down. When the policeman returned I got up and put my tote bag on the table as well as my purse. I was asked to open the tote, which I did. He shined a flashlight on the reading material and OK’d it. I raised my arms facing, then not facing while the wand waved past my body. Cleared. That was a relief since I had a pop-out razor on my keychain (in purse), a nail clipper and serrated defensive flashlight in the tote. One patient did have to take his pocket knife back to his car before entering, but that had been in his pocket. He should have had a man purse – or not.

The challenge when my son was released was finding an open pharmacy at 3 a.m. There were none within ten miles of the hospital. My son stopped at one near his home in a neighboring town on the way home. There are a lot of things wrong with the health care system and cracks are beginning to show even more. Apparently hospitals are cutting back on cleaning (if this one is representative), we never saw a doctor, only nurse, and you still can’t easily fill a prescription at 3 a.m. Don’t get sick and stay out of accidents, people.

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And I Might Add–Older

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Google Snooping

It felt a little freaky finding our street and our house in living color on a Google map. I was simply mapping the route to a new restaurant from our home and clicked on the little green blob indicating our address. Suddenly the green blob was standing in the middle of our street and looking with my eyes to the intersection. I clicked the curved arrow to the left again and again, until the green blob was looking at our front door! There was our car, the firebush plants, the Roman baptismal fount (don’t ask). Spinning on to neighbors’ homes, it was possible to set the time somewhere in the last six months to a year. During that time a neighbor built a sandbox, another started bringing home a work van. But it was before we painted the house and trimmed the trees.

 

 

Where were we while someone stood in the middle of the street and videoed a 360 degree shot of our homes? No privacy was breeched, no secrets given up that I know of, but now I kinda know how the woman felt who discovered a view of her home so clear one could almost hear the cat purr from the window sill inside her living room.

 

 

If you haven’t checked your address out, you might be in for a surprise. Some homes I searched for were there, others not—YET. Just a warning if you’re not on Candid Camera as yet: careful how you bend over, keep your stomach sucked in, and for heaven’s sake, don’t have any visitors you wouldn’t want the world to know about. Just in case.

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