TheBanyanTree: As Rosanne RosannaDanna used to say...

[Laura]

Today was dog grooming day.  Not my favorite of all the animal things 
that have to be done, but not the worst either.  The worst part of it is 
that I have to stand the whole time, and it takes a good 3 - 4 hours, 
depending on the humidity.  This does not make my knees and ankles happy, 
but it has to be done.  

Today was not humid at all, and all 4 of the dogs dried out quickly 
enough. Then came the brushing.  Ariel and Shilo have to be raked out 
(it's a specialized comb that looks like a metal garden rake in miniature 
- thus the name), and it takes for-bloody-ever.  Not to mention the dog 
hair up your nose and in your eyes and up your shirt and down your 
trousers... well, you get my drift, right?  

So there I was torturing Shilo for the second time.  She decided that she 
had had ENUFF-thankyouverymuch, and jumped off the table.  I decided that 
she was right, enough is enough.  Just then, Matt came banging thru the 
screen door with the phone on his ear.  He said, "Here's my Mom - Mom, 
it's Georgetown!"  Now, this is sort of like saying, Hey, it's New York 
calling.  Confused, and picking dog hair out of my mouth, I said, 
"Hello?"  

"Laura?"  a male voice inquired.

"Yes?"  I said.

"Hey, it's Mike... Mike A_... I work with Larry at Toyota?"

"Yeah hi, Mike.  What's up?"

"Don't worry," he said, "it's nothing life threatening... but Larry's 
here at the Georgetown Hospital."

"Ok. What happened?" I said, envisioning things like fingers mushed in 
car doors, or foot smushed by a faulty hydraulic, something like that.  

"Well, he was driving at the track and started feeling dizzy.  When he 
got back to the plant he was nauseated, and had to go to the restroom to 
throw up.  Then, when he came back out, he was so dizzy that he fell 
down, and couldn't walk at all.  So I called the ambulance and they 
brought him here.  Their preliminary diagnosis is some kind of inner ear 
thing. He wanted me to call you.  He wants you to come be with him."  

"Ok, Mike. Thanks a lot!  Tell him I have to clean up and get the kids
together, so it will be probably 45 minutes before I get there."

So, I took a shower to get the worst of the dog hair off, hollered for 
the kids to get dressed and find things to do for in the waiting room, 
and off we went to Georgetown.  

We got to the hospital about 3:15pm.  One time... ONE TIME... while I was
there, did a nurse come in.  Never did the doctor come in until it was
time for Larry to be discharged.  We didn't leave until 7:00pm.

Final diagnosis?  Inner ear inflamation.  No driving until he's been
symptom free for at least a week.  Could take a week to go away, could
take three months.  No driving means no work.  No work means short term
medical leave.  Short term medical leave means 65% of regular pay.

And guess who's washing machine died this week?  We were gonna go pick 
out a new one this weekend. <sigh>  

It's allus sumfin.

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at insightbb.com
http://home.insightbb.com/~wolfljsh/index.html