So, I said to myself just last week, I have got this old age stuff whipped. Pushing 86 my next birthday I quietly made plans to just go ahead and live to be 106. I mean, why not? It’s just will power. Sounded easy enough then. But along came Thursday. I had a 9:00 a.m. appointment up at the VA in Oklahoma City. It was my first appointment with my new doctor, a younger and somewhat good looking female. I had a picture of her, and I was anxious to meet her. An earlier appointment with her had been cancelled for unknown reasons but that was then.

This was now. On Wednesday I went down and had Louis give me a haircut. A man wants to make a good impression on his new doctor. And Thursday morning Pat and I got up early. I did not eat since I had to go to “lab” up there and I was fasting. Pat double checked me to make sure I had all my necessary papers, my ID and driver’s license. She sort of takes over on “doctor days” and gets bossy.

We made it to the car. “Got us some cold water?” Of course, she did not so I got out and latched onto four bottles. I started backing out again. “Going to go to Sam’s today?” We yes, she said, waving a small list. “Are you getting any cold stuff?” “I might, she replied to me. I stepped back out of the idling car again. Picked up an ice chest and laid it in the back. I said, “look, we must roll. I do not want to be late or anything.”

Pretty soon I was setting my cruise control and advancing on Atwood. “Oh my gosh,” Pat gasped. “I forgot my phone.” “No way,” I retorted. I carried it out myself. But even then, I was applying my brakes and I turned around. “I have to have my phone today,” she said. In just a few moments we were back in the outskirts of Allen. I pulled over and said, “I’m going to call your phone.” Another trick I have learned in my extended days. Her phone rang. I heard it. But we could not find it. The clock is ticking but we both keep listening and looking. You know where I found it? In my pocket. I started having doubts about my memory again.

Soon we were underway again. This time at a faster pace. We were both frazzled by now and had not even cleared Atwood. Pat was making calculations about whether we could make it on time or not as we whizzed across the dam at Holdenville Lake at a somewhat unsafe speed. Then my phone rang. I even had trouble finding my own phone and as soon as I cleared the dam, I stopped at the driveway down to the boat ramp. As the dust swirled around the car, I found my phone. It was the VA. A man’s voice calmly told me that my new doctor wouldn’t be in today and he was rescheduling me. “When?” I yelled. “Oh, let us see. I’ll try to get you in perhaps in September.”

I turned my car around and took my first swig of cold water. I gave some thought to my new goal of living to be 106 and with the magic of an old aging brain, scratched that thought out and now I will just try to make it to September. Might need another haircut.

And I hope all my readers are doing OK during this Corona Pandemic. We have some cases here in Allen, so I urge everyone to be careful. The medics say if we would but wear our masks, wash our hands as prescribed and practice social distancing, we can whip this. I am not too optimistic though. I have yet to see people getting all dedicated to washing their hands in the public toilets.

Be sure and go to church Sunday if you can. And let me hear from you.

Wayne Bullard, PhD

waynebullard@gmail.com