I’m ok, 6 Years, 5 Hours, Laugh
So Friday morning I get a call from the med clinic, finally. I had been asking for my CT results for two days, all I wanted was a phone call with the results. Well I got the call but instead it was to schedule an appointment to go over the results, wtf. I protested, asking why can’t they just give me the results now. They said it had to be done via an appointment, which I scheduled for 2:15 Friday afternoon. For the first time since this all started I had an oh shit feeling in my stomach. If the CT was ok, why would I need an appointment? Did they see a tumor? Am I going to die? All of these thoughts poured through my head in a short period of time. I felt emotional thinking about the possibility that something serious was going on.
As the morning went on my anxiety eased a bit. My buddy at work said how he had to go into the clinic to get the results of his x-ray which was totally clear. I’m not sure if this is a HIPPA thing or just a way to post another office visit to insurance to keep the dollars flowing. When he told me that I felt more inclined to think this was the same scenario. Yea I have lost weight but otherwise I don’t feel like I have any other symptoms. I tried to keep my mind off the results during the day, playing pickleball at lunch and keeping busy.
I head over to the clinic for the appointment and get the news, the same news I got in 2018 when I had a CT. They asked if I was constipated, told me I had nodules in my lungs, a small kidney stone and arthritis in my back, the SAME things I was told 4 years ago. There was no tumor, which is all I cared about. The stuff they did see had not changed in appearance so I called it a clean bill of health as far as I was concerned. I told the people that knew about the test, they shared my relief.
When I got home Friday I got a piece of mail that tempered my good mood from the test results, a letter from Wyoming. Wyoming is where I was prosecuted for a drone flight in Yellowstone 6 years ago. I knew this letter was going to piss me off, I was right. The letter claimed I owed them $500, the donation part of what I had to pay. $500 went to the Yellowstone slush fund and $285 was the fine and court costs. As soon as I saw this I was pretty sure I knew what happened.
When I got the bill in 2016 to pay it included the case id I was supposed to reference. When I paid the $285 via pay.gov I got a notice 3 months later that my bill was unpaid. It came to my attention that whomever sent me the bill put the case id of the other guy that was “on trial” with me at the same time for the same thing. So my payment got applied to his account. When I contacted collections and told them this they relented and I thought all was good, evidently not.
My assumption is they did the exact same thing with my $500, applied to the other guys fine. But the fact that it is now 6 years later makes it much harder for me to document the case. I no longer have that check and I am not sure if my credit union can get me an electronic image of something that old. It’s extremely aggravating. I emailed the contact on the letter. I plan to back it up with a phone call to make sure this is squashed immediately. The letter drug up just how angry I was about how the initial incident was handled. I’m glad to see they are continuing the tradition of ineptness.
Friday night I celebrated my health win with another 10 mile ride where I posted my best time/pace for at least 6 months. I then immediately weeded the yard into darkness as Sadie supervised me.
Saturday afternoon was consumed by mowing, nearly 5 hours of it. I tackled the normal mowing and the back yard which has finally dried up from all of the rain from Ian. The grass was a jungle at spots, consuming a lot of time. During the morning I did some more chicken area decommissioning, relocating a couple of the Ring cameras to the house area, throwing more stuff out and just cleaning up. The process is far from done. Elsa is amazed that she is now allowed to go inside the chicken yard.
Saturday evening I met up with Monique and her mom. We took a run to Sam’s Club, a place neither of them had been to in years. I hadn’t been there lately myself but it only measured in months. I grabbed a few things I needed and so did they. It was fun for me to have them tag along for the shopping experience and they seemed to have fun as well. When I got back to their house I took one of Gladys’s other sisters, Margaret for a ride in the Tesla. I drove a few miles out and then she drove it back to the house. She was VERY excited.
Sunday morning I drove to DD to stage a short ride on the T4. I felt a bit out of sorts during the video and I think it showed.
Most of the afternoon was spent editing videos which got to be a bit too much eventually. I still have more work to do but it can wait. I will be leaving in a few minutes to go attend a comedy show JP, Cindy’s brother is in. I attended one other of his shows a month or two after Cindy and I split. A lot has transpired since then for everyone. All I want to do is drink a few beers and laugh. I could use a break from the serious side of life for a little bit.