“Don’t worry, Dougy…I’m coming back before kitty food time!” He marked me just in case some other kitty tried to take me in the meantime…!
Not to fret! There are kitties at the end! In the meantime, this is an ambitious look at a typical trip to the dialysis unit, featuring local landmarks, a view of the streets of Alliance, what I do when I go into the dialysis unit, and a trip home past two of the places the kitties go in their only outdoor times. Oh yes, the kitties! You get to see what I see every time I come home!
Home! Gotta leave you now, but I’ll be back!
Woo hoo! Hope the police aren’t around because Black Beauty and I love, love, love, to zip around this intersection of Third and Flack!
Have to mail some letters, so I’m taking the Third Street route to dialysis.
Third and Box Butte Avenue. Turn right here to get to the post office…
Fourth and Box Butte Avenue. Turn right and the drop boxes for mail are right on the left. (Hee! Hee!)
I’ve posted a ton of paper into these over the years. Now I mostly e-mail. The building is the Alliance Times-Herald building. I get the paper by Internet now…. Can it still be called a “paper”? Danged if I know!
Fourth and Niobrara Avenue. I turn north here to head to 10th Street. Lots of streets in Alliance are named after rivers. I started life on Missouri, spent most of my life on Mississippi.
Tenth and Niobrara. There’s the iconic fountain in the Alliance Central Park. The display is more elaborate than what you see in the photo, and after dark it has colored lights. Neat!
Tenth and Box Butte Avenue. There aren’t too many stop lights in Alliance, but I hit all but two following this route, and three stop signs. There isn’t that much traffic in town most of the day…! There’s the hospital sign!
“Nebraska is flat.” But Alliance is hilly. The north end of Box Butte Avenue is a long, steep hill. That’s Laing Park on the left.
There’s Box Butte General Hospital! This is the new part that’s just recently been opened. Very nice! I turn right again here.
Black Beauty will wait patiently in this stall reserved for dialysis patients. I’ll be back BB!
I go in this door. Since the area was torn up for construction, the grass hasn’t been dealt with yet, but it will be very nice once they replace the grass. Don’t think those benches aren’t appreciated!
Fear not! Angels in smocks await thee! Never mind. I still have to weigh myself and tell them the result. Ick!
Patients weigh themselves, then take their temperatures with that gizmo on the right edge of the photo.
Sooey! I seem to have put on some weight since the last time…. (“It’s fluid weight,” I tell myself. Probably is! yeah, sure! Yep! Fluid weight! Righto!)
R2D2 awaits me, all freshened up and blood free for me! (I joke about the blood. Or do I??? Mwawhahahhaha!)
Behind the curtain, I am transformed into…
Moi, the dialysis patient! Yet another four hours to go. I have the television or can sleep, read a book, or mess around with my smart phone, taking selfies. Life is grand! (Like the shirt? I have three more just as wild.)
Four hours passed fast. The slowest time is those ten minutes you apply pressure to your vampire pricks to staunch the flow of blood. Come on! Those ten minutes never end!
That was fast! Didn’t whine (much), cry, or fuss, and the session went rather fast, I thought! Black Beauty awaits.
Black Beauty and I like to drive past the main entrance to the new part of the hospital because there is a curvy island to drive around. Zip! (At a slow speed, of course! >wink wink< )
So I take the highway home since it becomes Flack Avenue at the town limits. Flack takes me almost all the way home.
Hey, there’s the Alliance Animal Clinic. Andy and Dougy’s veterinarian works there. Hi, Dr. Y!
And there’s Murphy’s Grooming Boutique! Every other month, the kitty brothers get a day at this spa. Hi, everyone!
Ugh! One more light and there’s a slew of vehicles to wait to pass before I can make my left turn onto East Sixth Street, then home.
East Sixth Street. The houses are on my lane, Lane Two. Almost home.
Be it ever so humble, here’s good old Lane 2! My place is in that white stucco building way down past the lady.
Woo hoo! Back home and parked. Wonder what’s behind the front door….?
“Come on, Dougy! You know he expects us to greet him at the door!”
Here they come! My little furbuddies never disappoint! Dougy beats Andy to me. He’ll want to mark me fast!
Whew! You made it! I promise not to post anything this long again since it must have taken an hour to upload onto your PC or whatever. I decided to try this extravaganza post today as a test to see if a huge number of photos would upload onto my WordPress.
Obviously, they all did. I had to wait some time to do the deed. In fact, I went grocery shopping, put things away, and went out for breakfast at a local restaurant since I didn’t feel like making it for myself. When I came back, the upload was done. It finished sometime while I was gone.
Virtual Alliance … I enjoyed the trip. It loaded instantly to my iPad. Felt like I was riding shotgun with you narrating. Good fun.
Hey, I get to have loads of fun on dialysis day, Chris! Glad you enjoyed the ride! (Today, I get to go in early for an ultrasound on my dialysis fistula to determine how well it has matured. Right now, one line goes into the lower part of the fistula, and the other into the port, which I hope to be rid of sometime soon after a delay….!)
Also enjoyed going on the drive and seeing your day. The dialysis unit looks comfortable, and at the end the kitties were waiting for you back home. 🙂
It is very comfortable! In fact, it is more comfortable than any other I’ve experienced (of five total), and I, as a citizen of the town that put it together in the local hospital, am very proud that it exists, beyond being very lucky that it does, too!
KittNoir – I accidentally hit something and it called your comment “spam”, which of course it was not. Before I could “unspam” it, the prompt went away. I haven’t been able to figure out how to bring it back, but it was something about managing to get through my dialysis day. As best I can remember, then, this is the response I had to that: The hardest part of getting through dialysis day is having to follow a schedule since I am retired! Ha!
Do they tease you when you come home?
Not immediately, but they do tease me when I try to pet them as they walk by, for example.
Thanks for the armchair tour. Such an uplifting message, too. I looked up Wegener’s granulomatosis — another condition I’ve never heard about. Thanks for the education, too. 🙂
” Life is a lot easier with a positive attitude.” Dear WeggiBoy, your positive touches amazing and your lovely cats too 🙂 Thank you for sharing with us, Blessing and Happiness to you all, Love, nia
I enjoyed taking a drive with you. I liked the shirt, good adventure shirt. Best of all, at the end of the adventure, kitties!!
Glad you enjoyed it all! Of course, the best part for me is to come home to the kitties, too!
The way you described wanting to take those corners, I bet it would be more fun in person. Wouldn’t mind meeting the boys in person either!!!
It is! The VW Golf Sportwagen lives up to the characterization “sport car”. Gas, brake, and steering all require tiny inputs. After driving a very nice Chevrolet Impala for seven years, I was used to a powerful engine, but everything else was less responsive than the in the Golf. I have to watch myself…!
That was an interesting trip with you, thanks. There was absolutely no problem with your photos/text, so sock it to us!
So, next day and uploading one photo is taking forever…!
Grrrr.
It is frustrating, but the main thing is I can upload photos if I am patient. Before I realized that, I feared I’d have to give up blogging or being satisfied posting text only or old photos already in the media file.
It didn’t take long to upload. Thank you for the tour. I am sure you are happy to see Dougy and Andy waiting for you when you get home. It is good you don’t have to travel far for the dialysis and that you can bring yourself. I admire your positive attitude about everything.
Thanks! Life is a lot easier with a positive attitude. Moaning about terrible fate doesn’t change a thing, and it obscures that silver lining behind the cloud. I have a metal sign, I guess you’d call it, on my wall that says: “Count Your Blessings”. I do! I do, and they are many! Juast being able to drib=ve myself to dialysis is one. Many of the rest of the people there have to have someone bring them in. Most have diabetes; I don’t. (Of course, my disease, Wegener’s granulomatosis, which is in remission, is pretty grim in itself, but I’ve already lived many years past the “two years and you’re dead” prognosis! prognosis, and am doing well! I was diagnosed in December 2003, but probably had an active case from late March 2003.)
Thank you for sharing your trip for dialysis. We hope it’s effective for you and we know coming home to the kitties is always a positive experience.
I can feel the difference (positive!) after dialysis. Thanks!
Great post.! I always love a glimpse into someone’s life. It looks like a beautiful little town. Kitties at the end were great too! 😉
It is a pleasant, quiet place of about 8500 people. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks fr this “day in the Life” view ! Didn’t take long for the pictures to load in the email or in the actual blog, so glad you have that issue resolved . Blessings to you and the boys!
Thanks, Mary! It’s good to know it loaded in a reasonable time. I know I oftentimes won’t wait for a blog to open if it takes a long time, so, as a blogger, it’s good to know this one still opens up in a reasonable length of time.
A very enjoyable ride beside you on your way to dialysis. Your streets are very quiet. Is it early in the morning? Thank you for a glimpse into your life.
Jean
Actually, it was around 10:30-10:45 AM! The streets are very quiet except around shift changes for the major employers (railroad, a hose plant), start of school, noon, and end of school. On weekends or days of sporting or theatre events at the stadium or the auditorium attached to the high school, there will be crowded streets, too, but one learns when not to be around the schools or trying to make a left turn on Third and Flack, and so on!
Que bom te encontrar! Um abraço!
Abraços de volta para você! I encontrar o seu blog muito inspirador, bem escrito. Embora eu gosto de rir, é importante passar algum tempo em meditação ou pensamento sobre as coisas importantes ou pouco – não há diferença. Seu blog ajuda a estimular esse pensamento.
Obrigada! 😄
Agora me diga! De onde vc é???
Olha só, a distância entre as pessoas não faz diferença quando um quer o bem do outro. Todo ser humano poderia pensar assim!
Só me ocorreu agora saber de onde você é. ☺️
https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Alliance%2C_Nebraska¶ms=42_6_5_N_102_52_13_W_type:city(8491)_region:US-NE
Que lindo você é… Faz o seu caminho e aproveita para fotografar sem lamentos! Parabéns!
Obrigado! Espero Google Translate faz um trabalho melhor traduzir Inglês para o Português do que a tradução japonesa para o Inglês!
De qualquer forma, eu tento ter uma atitude positiva, porque a vida é muito mais fácil dessa maneira. Pessoas com más atitudes perder muito bom tempo na auto-piedade. Eu não tenho tempo para isso!
Você é especial! Um exemplo!
Estou feliz pelo tradutor do Google me dar a oportunidade de trocar palavras com alguém que quer o bem para si e transmite positividade para o mundo.
Estou no Brasil, tão longe, mas a sua mensagem me tocou. Obrigada!
Obrigado! Geralmente sou uma pessoa muito positiva. É muito menos estressante do que sentir pena de mim mesmo, que eu não sei. Espero que, através deste blog, eu espalhar um pouco de felicidade em todo o mundo – este blog tem seguidores em todos os continentes, mas Antarctica, que é muito huimbling, especialmente desde que eu sei que a maioria das pessoas segui-lo para ver o que Andy e Dougy estão fazendo! Ha! Ha!
That’s done, and well done – do have an quiet and happy return to the kittes home 🙂 🙂 – God bless all of you 🙂
Toke great care – my friend 🙂
Thank you! The kitties were delighted to have me back home because they knew it was time for their kitty food. That always gets them excited!
Not only for kitties food – their hearts is plenty of you. Sleep well, all of you.
For sure! As you know, kitties sleep well most of the time. Ha! Ha!
soory – their hearts are full with you – they think of you, they love you with their little kind kitties hearts 🙂 🙂
That is so true!
Wow what a day. You’re right the place does look good and the boyz could have used just a little treat before kitty meal time to assure them you’d come back. I make “HE” do it often when we leave for errands early. We give ’em a full meal at 4:30 instead of 6:30 and then when we get back around 8pm; you’d think we never fed them. Sometimes I make “HE” do it again because with so many you never know of some of them actually missed the first round. Also, I’m a sucker!
Interesting post. ~~dru~~
LOL! I think I fed the kitties twice as much as they usually get this morning because I thought Dougy didn’t get his share the first time. Of course, Dougfy’s not telling….!