I'M OFFICIALLY ON THE HIP REPLACEMENT LIST FOR MAYBE SOMETIME IN THE SPRING

 I LIKED THE WARM COMFORTING COLORS OF DOCTOR GAMACHE'S OUTER WAITING ROOM

I took Pheebs out for a quick country road Jeep ride around the block this morning before we all switched vehicles a short time later and headed off for Sarnia.  It was a nice sunny morning with temps already reaching for the 60F mark.

 WE SAW FARMER'S OUT WORKING IN THEIR CORNFIELDS EARLIER TODAY

It was 9:52 when all three of us piled into the Subaru and slipped out of the driveway.  At the Park's entrance, I made my first mistake of the day and I turned right.  We were about a quarter mile down the road when Kelly says, "are we going in the right direction"??  The instant she said that I knew I had mistakenly plugged our London Hospital route into my brain instead of the Sarnia Hospital route.  I quickly turned around and got myself back on track and headed south through Bayfield on the Bluewater Highway.  We hadn't gone far when mistake number 2 crept into my head via my ears when Kelly casually commented,  "I wonder if the Doctor's office is close to downtown Sarnia somewhere"??  'WHAT'......I thought we were supposed to meet the doctor in a waiting room at the Sarnia Hospital.  Kelly asked, is the Hospital at 110 Water Street?  NO, the hospital is NOT on Water Street, I answered.  After thinking for the past 3 months this appointment was going to be at the hospital I was now instantly flummoxed and confused.  Now all of a sudden I didn't have a clue how to get to where we were supposed to get to once we reached Sarnia.  And, we had an appointment time deadline!!  It's at this point that my stomach flipped up on end, my stress level takes off like a rocket and I am instantly about 3 feet in the air going in fifteen different directions at once.  Luckily, and as always, Kelly stays calm, pulls out her phone, and soon has directions for 110 Water Street Sarnia on the screen.  But, the Gremlins weren't through with me quite yet.  In Sarnia, her smartphone's GPS gave us a few wrong turns and right away the argument was on between me and the GPS.  Fortunately, I usually have a reasonably good sense of direction and knew when the GPS called for a right-hand turn that it should actually be a left-hand turn.  This bickering went on for half a dozen blocks until, with a combination of shakey directions from me as well as the fumbling GPS we finally somehow amazingly found 110 Water Street.  And, it wasn't anywhere near the hospital!!  But, it sure had put me in a sour mood which luckily I was soon able to shake off instead of carrying it around with me for the next 6 weeks.  A short while later, sitting in the doctor's waiting room Kelly and I reminded each other of all the times we got lost in our RV days trying to make our way through some of America's biggest cities.  Chicago, (twice) St. Louis, Oklahoma, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis, (3 times) El Paso, Houston, and another half dozen cities I've thankfully forgotten about. 

 PHEEBS HOLDS DOWN THE FORT WHILE KELLY AND I SLIP INTO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE

We were early for the appointment so I took Pheebs for a short walk around the parking lot.  The appointment was for 12 o'clock and we finally met Dr Anil Gamache about 12:20.  He talked to us for a bit, wrote some things down, then had me get up on a bed/table thingy where he gently moved my right leg around a bit without causing me any screeching pain.  He then exited the room to have a look at the hip X-ray we had brought which was done in Goderich back in April.  A few minutes later he was back in the room and said "yes, you have severe arthritis in that hip and I recommend we do a hip replacement".  He then explained things about the surgery and wondered if we had any questions.  Of course, Kelly is always full of questions so she put him through the ringer and he sort of answered all of her questions satisfactorily.  Well, at least we think he did.  He had an accent and with his soft voice speaking through a facemask I think between Kelly and I we were able to decipher maybe only half of what he said.  I didn't hear him use the words 'chain saw' so I take that as a good sign.  So, that was it and he handed us off to his office lady who had the itinerary and paperwork for the surgery.  And here's where we ran into a slight glitch.  A speedbump you might say.  A couple of weeks ago we saw on the news that a cyber ransom attack had been launched on a number of southwestern Ontario hospitals and wouldn't you know it.....Sarnia's Bluewater Hospital was one of them. (Cyber Attack Update)  Because of the whole medical health system being compromised, the office lady couldn't give us an exact date for the surgery.  However, she does keep paper backup files, and judging from the backlog she ballparked my surgery for maybe sometime in late March or April.  She also said she hopes the appointment and filing system will soon be back online and she will get back to us with a firm date sometime in the latter part of December.  So, there it is, I am officially on the hip transplant list with a possible surgery date sometime in the Spring.  And, that is quite alright with me. I would not have liked to have this done in the freezing cold winter months of January or February.  Spring is good for me both mentally and physically:))

 I LOVE EMPTY WAITING ROOMS

 WAITING FOR THE DOC

 I WAS HOPING I WOULDN'T END UP ON THAT TABLE THING BUT I DID...HEY, AT LEAST THE DOCTOR DIDN'T ASK ME TO WRAP MY LEGS AROUND THE BACK OF MY HEAD

Leaving the Doctor's office and without using GPS we had no problem finding the short distance back to the 4-lane 402 highway heading east.  Once we were on that highway we were on very familiar pavement and knew our way home.  This is the route we always took in our RVing days coming and going back and forth across the border.  Of course, this route always took us through a little Ontario town called Forest and it was at a Tim Hortons coffee shop here that we always picked up coffee and donuts to go before driving the final 50 miles home.  And, it was this same Tim Hortons today that we picked up coffee and sandwiches to go as well.  I think it was sometime around 2:30 when we finally rolled into our driveway on this mighty fine mid-November day:))    

 WE COULDN'T BELIEVE THE MILES OF TRUCKS LINED UP WAITING TO GET ACROSS THE BORDER INTO THE STATES

Al's Music Box:)) Welcome To My World was performed by country music singer Jim Reeves, who styled the song in his favored Nashville Sound. Reeves' version was included on his 1962 album A Touch of Velvet and was released as a single in the United States in early 1964.  The song became one of Reeves' last major hits in the U.S. during his lifetime before he was killed in a plane crash on July 31, 1964.

 I HAVE TAKEN MANY PHOTOS OVER THE YEARS OF KELLY EXITING THIS TIM HORTONS WITH COFFEE AND SNACKS IN HAND

GROANER'S CORNER:(("I'm sorry, Bill," said the doctor, "there's simply nothing I can do for you. Your condition is hereditary."  "Oh," replied Bill, "in that case just send the bill to my parents."

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Hear about the new restaurant called ‘Karma’?
There’s no menu, you only get what you deserve.

I’ve found a job helping a one-armed typist do capital letters.  It’s shift work.

Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?  He needed a little space.

What did the pirate say when he turned 80 years old?  “Aye matey.”

How do you keep an idiot in suspense?

Have you heard about those new corduroy pillows?  They’re making headlines.

I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather.  Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.

Why did the chicken go to the séance?  To get to the other side.

Where are average things manufactured?
The satisfactory.

My granddad has the heart of a lion and
a lifetime ban from London Zoo.

I went on a once in a lifetime holiday.  Never again.

What sits at the bottom of the sea and twitches?
A nervous wreck.

Why can’t you explain puns to kleptomaniacs?
They always take things literally.

Last night me and my girlfriend watched three DVDs back to back.  Luckily I was the one facing the telly.

A man tells his doctor, “Help me. I’m addicted to Twitter!”  The doctor replies, “Sorry, I’m not following you.”

Exaggerations went up by a million percent last year.

What kind of exercise do lazy people do?  Diddly-squats.

They all laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian.  Well, they’re not laughing now.

What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards?  A receding hare-line.

I used to be addicted to soap, but  I’m clean now.

What does Charles Dickens keep in his spice rack?  The best of thymes, the worst of thymes.

Due to my isolation, I finished three books yesterday.  And believe me, that’s a lot of coloring.

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