How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “I have seen the future and it doesn’t work.”

I have written a few times about going hiking up Squak Mountain but today, I was not alone.

My bro-in-law, his wife, and their two kids wanted to go so they called me up and I was more than happy to join them.

I figured that with two little kids, we wouldn’t do the whole 1:15 up and 45 minute run down routine but it was a good break from the training I’ve been doing.

The similarities were pretty spot on between my kids at that age and the two munchkins along for the ride this time.

We had one that blazed trail and one that, well, didn’t.

And the genders held true: the girls are the trailblazers and the boys were the ones who needed help in the motivation department at certain points.

Only the comparative ages were flipped: my trailblazing girl is the younger sibling while Scott’s trailblazing daughter is the eldest.

I was even more impressed that my niece wanted to run starting about halfway down and kept right on my heels the entire way to the bottom. We might be seeing a budding trail runner at work here.

By the time I got home, I got showered and then took care of some errands before my appointment today.

If you remember, I had made a VA appointment only to have it cancelled by the counselor because she was sick. That wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t take 2 weeks to get another appointment which then took two more weeks to get here: today.

I had all my paperwork ready and was happily driving the 5 miles to get to the appointment when terror hit.

SHIT!

I grabbed my iPhone because a thought had struck me that made me break out into a cold sweat.

I pulled up the calendar (almost wrecking in heavy traffic) and I saw what I most feared.

Here is what happened.

My original appointment was at 2:00. When I made my new appointment two weeks later, I just dragged the reminder from the old date to the new date on my Outlook calendar.

The problem was, the new appointment was at 1:00 and that is what was tickling my memory as I headed to the VA office, at 1:30.

SHIT!

I called the counselor but only got her voicemail and left a somewhat edited version of what had just happened. I then told her I was more than halfway so I would just come in and hope.

You know what they say about hope.

Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which filled up first.

Sure enough, the receptionist said he had talked to her when I didn’t show up at 1:00 and she told him to have me call her to reschedule.

Again.

First time was her fault.

Second time was my fault.

You would think that would make us even.

But recall, it took 2 WEEKS to even get her on the phone after SHE cancelled our first meeting and 2 more weeks to get another appointment.

Now that it’s my fault, I might be eating tapioca pudding and shitting my pants by the time I can get in another time.

Or maybe even longer than a month!

Free Advice for Today: “When babies are born into your family, save the newspaper from that day. Give it to them on their eighteenth birthday.”