disappointment and good news

We got up at 7, and Evelyn went to exercise. She couldn’t take too long because she had an appointment with the oncologist at 8:45. We rode out bicycles, and I stopped at Dr. McDougal’s office to get a referral to Dr. Badiga, the gastroenterologist Tom Jones recommended for out colonoscopy. McDougal referred us to a different one. Surprisingly, I got the referral without incident. I joined Evelyn at the oncologist who gave her a good report. She has completed three years of remission and has only two to go to get to the point where it is unlikely for the cancer to return. We thank God for those years. We left there happy and decided to go on to Dr. Badiga’s to make the arrangements for the colonoscopy. It took more than an hour to fill out papers and get instructions. We wanted to stick with this doctor because he provides transportation to and from the hospital. We will go to McAllen rather than Knapp, the local hospital. The transportation takes us door to door if we go to McAllen, but we would have to drive to Knapp. It is less than a mile, but we have had one of these before and were not in any shape to drive anywhere, no matter how close. We came home and had a sandwich for lunch. I found an appropriate box for the Kahlua I wanted to send to Shirley, packed it with bubble pack and peanuts, and drove to Progreso to mail it. When we found the post office in a trailer (the brand new one built last year had burned down during the summer), I tried to mail the box but couldn’t: the Postal Service does not allow liquor to be mailed. I had told Shirley I was going to mail it but didn’t count on the clerk asking what was inside. I guess she will have to pick up the bottles when they come to visit in January. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for our guests for dinner. They have been married only three years, and we met them at one of the dances in our park. They are very friendly. After dinner, we went downtown for the “Festival of Lights” parade. What a bummer. There were very few brightly lighted floats and they were spaced too far apart, making the parade about half an hour longer than it should have been. To make it even worse, we sat at the very end of the parade route. This is the worst location to view a parade: all the bands have finished playing and any performances have been completed far back up the parade route. We came home and watched Mr. Deeds, a pretty good but silly movie. Oh yes, Evelyn’s brother called and told that Mom’s doctor plans to move her back to Swiss Village, her nursing home, next Monday. What a tough old gal! What a gracious God!