For so long, I just thought old folks sat around doing nothing and trying to come up with something else to complain about.

I was talking with a friend of mine earlier today.  She mistakenly asked what I had been up to lately.  Very wrong question to ask me because I can get very long-winded in explanations.

I told her I used to think that old folks griped about stuff since they had nothing to do but just sit around in their rocking chairs and think of something to constantly complain about.

Since nearing that age group, my being age 77 now, I realize that Jimmy and I stay constantly busy trying to take care of business, and those in business are dealing with employee absences from work because of the virus, the covid pandemic, and the many ships and barges stranded in the ocean, the ones held up and not able to distribute parts and supplies to the companies in the United States. Even the ships that do make it to shore face a shortage of truck drivers to transport their loads.

One of our sons was visiting this morning.  He needed a skill saw, and the stores in Longview did not have any.  Another son was looking for a chainsaw in Mt Pleasant, and there were none.

Jimmy’s breathing machine, bi-pap, has quit working.  They will no longer work on the machines, and the home-health medical supply store cannot find any more bi-pap machines to sell.  We might be able to get the trilogy machine if Jimmy qualified.

It has now been six weeks since his machine stopped working.  Jimmy is using oxygen, but he is up and down all night, and I’m awake most of the night checking on him to make sure he is still breathing.

We went back to the medical supply store a week ago, and the man told us we needed a prescription from the doctor.  I explained that we had given him one about five weeks ago.  He said something was wrong with the document and we needed another one.  The young man said he would take information about the situation to Jim’s doctor that afternoon.

Since we had not heard from the young man, we stopped by his office.  He looked rather confused and said he still needed to get another prescription from the doctor. He promised to do it promptly. Unfortunately, something had come up, and he had not made it to the doctor’s office.

I asked him what I should do?  Who did I need to contact?  I asked if he could print out the form and let me take it to the doctor’s office. He printed it and I immediately carried it to Jim’s doctor for a signature.  The office clerk said she would make sure the medical supply store received a signed copy.

The next day, I phoned the doctor’s office to find out the status of the prescription form. The clerk verified the signed prescription had been sent to the medical store, and I was told the insurance company had been contacted for approval.

Hopefully, all will be cleared by the insurance company and the trilogy machine would still be available for Jimmy.

Today, we made a second trip to Longview. We needed a service call for our home clothes dryer that was still under its five-year extended warranty.  The repairman told us he would come to our home on Wednesday morning.

Recently, a rock hit the back window of my Jeep.  The serviceman came and replaced the heated glass.

The next day, when I was pulling out of the driveway, the alarm sounded that the back tailgate was ajar.  The back door was tight.  I tried the back windshield wiper, and it did not work, nor did the heater in the glass.

I spent most of the day making phone calls to the glass repair company and the insurance company.

For so long, I just thought old folks sat around doing nothing and trying to come up with something else to complain about.

Who has time to sit around? And, wait a minute, was that me I just heard complaining?

As I wuz just thinking.