Month: May 2006

Gone

The Neon is gone. I left it at the body shop and drove home in the freshly fixed up Miata. It still smells a little like paint on the interior. They did a nice enough job and they also took out the two small dings on the right rear quarter panel that I have put there over the years. As a side effect of the paint blending process, a couple of scratches disappeared as well. Spent a hour or so once I got it home putting all the junk back in the trunk (and glove box and center console…) While the Neon wasn’t a bad ride for a while, it sure is nice to get the car back.

The Nuepogen is gone. Donna had gotten one shot of it on Monday at the doctor’s office, the company nurse give her the next two on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday she went back for a blood test and the results showed that after Monday’s low White Blood Cell count of 2.5, the WBC was back in range at 4.5, but her platelets only rose from 1.0 to 1.8 and still remained a couple ticks below range. So she got neupogen dose #4. We had another oncology appointment this morning, with another blood test. The WBC was now over the top (10 is the upper limit of the range) at 11.4 and her platelets were up in the normal range too. She figured she was home free, nope, the doctor wanted her to get one more. The good news about that was, he then didn’t need to see her again until next Friday when she is scheduled for chemo treatment #2.

The hair is gone. Started to come out last night and there was lots more hair in the sink this morning. Tonight after supper we went out onto the back deck and I used my beard trimmer to cut Donna’s hair down to an 1/8 inch high. We then came back inside where I shaved her head. It may have been falling out, but it was still very thick. I used 4 Gillette Sensor3 razor blades. Now all she has is a five o’clock shadow. I didn’t want to try and make it baby bottom smooth because her scalp had taken enough of a beating getting to where I got it.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 126

Neon Diaries Continued

Called the body shop at 2:00 PM to make sure the Miata was ready. They were putting it back together, so they could get it washed up. The fellow said it should be ready by 5:30 (coincidentally their closing time.)

Tonight was the May meeting on the MMC and we needed to be in Augusta by 6:30. A 5:30 pick-up time would be cutting it close. About 4:00 PM we decided it wasn’t going to work out, so I called the body shop to let them know I’d just get the car tomorrow. The receptionist passed me through, but I spent the next 2 minutes on hold. I just hung up. Tried again at 4:30 with the exact same results. When I tried at 5:30, still no one picked up the phone in the body shop. Probably all frantically trying to get my car ready. To bad, I wasn’t coming.

I’ll call again tomorrow at lunch and see if anyone will answer the phone then…

Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0

Good Thing I Called

Good Thing I CalledAnother photo from this past Saturday’s car show. Early 50’s Ford?

Broke down and called the body shop today. They said that they have been a little backed up in the paint booth recently, but the Miata will be ready tomorrow. Kind of reminds me of that old joke about the shoe repair ticket…

They’ll Be Ready Tomorrow

Arnold and his wife were cleaning out the attic one day when he came across a ticket from the local shoe repair shop. The date stamped on the ticket showed that it was over eleven years old. They both laughed and tried to remember which of them might have forgotten to pick up a pair of shoes over a decade ago.

“Do you think the shoes will still be in the shop?” Arnold asked.

“Not very likely,” his wife said.

“It’s worth a try,” Arnold said, pocketing the ticket. He went downstairs, hopped into the car, and drove to the store.

With a straight face, he handed the ticket to the man behind the counter. The man said, “Just a minute. I’ll have to look for these.” He disappeared into the back of the shop.

Two minutes later, the man called out, “Here they are!”

“No kidding?” Arnold called back. “That’s terrific!”

The man came back to the counter, empty-handed and said, “They’ll be ready tomorrow.”

GET YOUR UNI:VERSITY DIPLOM^A

My at-work spam count, that which is caught by the filters, has been hovering in the mid fifties, but in the last couple of days a half dozen or so of them have slipped by the filter and made it to my inbox. Various titles, from various internal spoofed email addresses and all with the same internal content.

It is of course riddled with extra characters in key words that the spam filters would catch. My favorite line is:

Receive the benefits and admiration that comes with a D:iploma!

Just how is a D:iploma different from a diploma, because I have a diploma and I don’t seem to get many benefits nor any admiration from having it.

But what worries me most, is there are probably hundreds of people out there that actually call the phone number at the bottom of the email…

Neon Diaries 3

Neon Diaries 3Here is (I think) a 1960 Chevy Impala from the little car show we stopped at on Saturday with my new favorite filter “cartoon” applied.

When I dropped off the Miata at the body shop last Monday they said they were allowed 5 days to fix the car (I’m guessing that is the insurance company telling them that) and they would call me Friday (4 days later) to tell me how they were doing. Friday came and went with no phone call. Monday was business day #5 with no call saying the car is ready. Today was day number six without a peep from Satcher Ford Motors’ body shop. I have been holding off calling them, but I guess tomorrow I should check in, if only to just let them know I’m still interested in getting the car back.

Filled up the Neon with gas today. Two hundred ninety five miles and it took 9.5 gallons of regular fuel, netting 31.5 MPG. Not bad.

Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0

Kensington Mansion & Nupogen

Kensington Mansion & NupogenWe went back to the doctor’s office and they sucked more blood out of Donna’s arm. The white blood count was down some more, to 3.5 thousand cells/mcl. This is both good and bad. Good because that means the chemo is doing its job of killing fast growing cells, but bad because the white blood cells protect you from infection. Also her total blood count was down as well.

Before we left the office Donna was given a shot of Nupogen to start bringing up the white blood cells. We also got a couple of syringes of the stuff so that our plant nurse can give her a shot on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Thursday we return to the doctor’s office or another blood test to see how the stuff is working.

Today’s wait was about 25 minutes which is not to bad in the scheme of things. While the doctor was talking about white blood counts he said something to the effect, “That is why I want to see someone one week after the first chemo session.” So whose miscommunication caused last Friday’s snafu? His to his staff? The staff to us? You can bet we are going to ask more questions when they set up the next set of appointments after chemo session #2.