Another Day, Another Trip to Kaiser

This one was going to be easy.  Walt and I were going to get flu shots first thing in the morning and then a quick re-check of my blood pressure and then we were outta there, Baby.

Only it wasn't easy.  Of course.

The shots went fine, but my friend Sherri took the BP and again the BP was fine, but the pulse today was higher than it had been yesterday--by 10 points.  Nobody knew what was going on.  So it required another visit with Terry, the nurse from yesterday, who had me sit and relax for 5 minutes before she took the BP.  In my right arm, the machine wouldn't register a pulse at all (I assured her I was alive) and in the left, this machine matched Sherri's.

So I'm now set to see the doctor herself tomorrow morning after she has all the results of my tests back.  I have now seen all the results and everything is "wnl" (as I used to type on medical forms -- "within normal limits").  The shocking number was the LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, which a year ago had been 186 (it should be less than 120) and today was 85.  My A1C, the glucose, which is supposed to be 7-8 was 13 a year ago and is 9 today, not quite within range, but oh so all but.  So there is nothing immediately visible, to me, at least that may be causing this pulse spike.  I'll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow.  MAYBE I can get by with only one appointment, and not have to run around to several different departments, but after the past two days, I'm not going to hold my breath.

I was meeting my friend Lisa for lunch at 11:45 and hoped to mail 2 packages at the post office and get my hair done before that.  Knowing that this is approaching post office hell season, I anticipated a huge line and wasn't sure I could get both errands run before lunch, but there was almost nobody in line and I got the packages mailed AND there was plenty of time to get a long-overdue haircut.

To my surprise the woman who cut my hair asked if I wanted some "body" put in it.  It has been a long time since a hair dresser has complimented me on my thick hair and I have been aware that it has lost a lot of body, so I said yes.  It seems to have a bit more oomph now, which will, of course, disappear as soon as I wash it.  But I wasn't going to spend $15 for a little bottle of oomph.

I made it to the restaurant with 5 minutes to spare, just enough time to finish the chapter I'm reading in Tess Gerritsen's new book, "The Last to Die."

The restaurant was Namaste, a Nepalese place with a nice luncheon buffet for about $10 per person.

There were two tables like this with a large assortment of choices.   Surprisingly good was the bin of "fried chicken skin," which I had to try and which was delicious (I love crispy skin anyway!).  We had a lovely lunch and an even better visit and I got caught up on juicy gossip, which I had not heard in a very long time.  Such fun.

When I said goodbye to Lisa and returned to my car, I discovered that though we were both parked legally within the lines, the car next to me was so close I didn't think there was anyway I could get into the front seat on that side.

It's times like this that I hate being fat.  But this was an area where it was likely that the owners of the car were at lunch and would return in a short time.  I got in on the passenger's side and listened to an audio book for awhile until I got tired of waiting, then I decided to see if maybe I could squeeze in.   Miraculously, it was a very tight squeeze, but I did manage to slip inside the car, though I was afraid for a moment that I might have to leave one of my Birkinstocks behind.

On the ride home, I stopped to take some photos of some of the glorious color that you can find on the streets right now, before the wind tears all the leaves off the trees.  I do love the fall colors, even though we don't get what you see back east.  It's still pretty, for one brief fleeting moment.