My husband has been having back pains for about ten days. Night before last he was having trouble getting up out of bed and had to pee about once an hour. So I called in and made an appointment with our doctor's office on Monday.

Usually on Thursday nights he plays games with his friends and he called to let them know he would not be coming in. One of them has had kidney stones more than one in the past and he convinced my husband that it could be that. His advice was to not wait but to call a urologist immediately.

So I called the urologist's office that took out my left kidney four years ago, waited on hold for a long time, explained everything to the scheduler who transferred us to their triage nurse. The nurse recommended that we go to the ER so into town to the ER we go.

They have a very efficient system - a small check in set up at the door and with basic stats taken, then you wait for a triage nurse - which was very fast. That nurse took more information and sent us back to an ER room - yes, they had actual rooms for patients. A PA came in to check over my husband and thought it was more likely a pulled back muscle since the pain radiated down his leg rather than around the abdomen, but they still took samples - urine, blood - and sent him for a CT Scan.

Then we got to wait, and while we were waiting, there were patients coming in on ambulance gurneys, at least two of whom were accompanied by police officers. After a while, a Code Yellow was called and things got a little strange. Other than nurses on obvious missions, nurses disappeared. and it got pretty quiet. Eventually a doctor came in and verified it was a back problem, prescribed over the counter Ibuprofen, and gave a referral to a back clinic.

When the nurse came with the paperwork and to take out the IV, we asked about the Code Yellow. It turns out one of the patients brought in had been a gun shot victim and their procedure is to do a lockdown so that if the shooter came to finish the victim off, they cannot get in. We were let out by a security guard and as we left I heard one incoming patient complain since they recommended that he sit outside - they have a long covered entrance with chairs outside, so it was not a hardship to sit there.

My husband feels better with the pain relief. He hates taking stuff so although he'd been hurting he had not taken any OTC medications. Monday he will keep his appointment at our doctor's office and follow up with an appointment with the back clinic in town.

I'm so relieved it is not kidney stones!

The day before Christmas Eve as part of finishing up our new driveway, the contractor was transplanting some crape myrtles. Since we'd lost track of where the old drive had been (changing from a straight drive to a nice "S" curved one) we also lost track of where the phone line had been run many, many years ago. I was on the phone with a business call when suddenly it went dead, my computer lost connection, and the program I was streaming stopped. Yep, cut the DSL phone line.

After three hours of trying to contract the phone company and ending up on chat (thanks to my smartphone) they scheduled a tech to come out today. Oh yeah - without wifi my cell does not get a signal inside my house and I only get a signal if I drive to the top of the hill. At least the weather was nice - last time this happened, it was in the 30s and raining.

So I had a really quiet Christmas. No calls, no internet, no streaming. Good thing I still have lots of DVDs! I watched all the Harry Potter movies, two Pirate of the Caribbean movies, and various old sci fi movies (need to get some more of those).

The tech ran a temporary line - it takes 14 business days minimum to get someone out the bury a permanent line. Last time this happened, it only took two days to have that done. Centurylink will get feedback on how bad their customer service is. The tech told me his department is cut to the minimum so response is slow all the time now.

Or a variation of it? This is from yesterday morning on CNN with John Berman.



I counted 6 times, with several mentions of "conspirators" and "conspiracy" thrown in.

And from a couple of years ago - 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS