ain't no stoppin' us now!!!

When the Two First Posts Planning Committee met on Wednesday, the sight in the ballroom was amazing!

Our Building Manager for 5511 Montgomery Street, Eric Bolden, had set up all the event tables and chairs for this coming Saturday.

That will be the 80th anniversary of the American Legion Post 500 of Georgia, brothers with Post 36 in this venture.

Doesn't it look fabulous???

Eric has been there every day, as far as I know.

He's had to put together more than 100 of those Lifetime banquet chairs and twenty of the Lifetime banquet tables over the past two months.

He's had to open and close the building as the new wall was built.

He's been there to open and close for the two new entrance doors to be installed for the building to comply with code.

 

At that meeting, the doors were in place and finished!

That was good as the Fire Marshal was due at 11 AM on Friday.

Well, that inspection went swimmingly!!! 

The Fire Marshal has marked us good to go!!!

Hallelujah!!!

We finally have the Certificates of Occupancy for both the event ballroom and the canteen areas!

On Monday, June 15, the inspection will take place for the Health Permit.

Mike and Kat were at the meeting on Wednesday and they know exactly what is involved for that, so I expect Whiskey Tango Foxtrot BBQ to pass with flying colors... whatever those hues may be!

We are all so excited that an opening is nigh!

By 'we', I mean Doug Anderson, John Parker, me, Kat Hancock, Mike Kajik, Larry Jackson (by phone), Eric Bolden, and Brenda Pough.

Thanks to Brenda, we'll have own own colors!!!

She's quite creative and just look at the sign she has designed!!!

All four branches of the US military are represented, as well as a family group there in the lower right corner!

Doug was so thrilled!!!

I like that penultimate line: "It's Your Turn To Get Served!"

How about that!!!

She has also designed a logo for our business cards and stationery!

I'm so excited about all of this!

Mike and Kat had a couple of changes to make for the contract, but that should be ready to be signed at next Wednesday's meeting.

And we are all going to try to be at the City Council meeting on the first Wednesday of July, looking sharp and wearing our American Legion insignia.

That meeting will concern our liquor license, so it's very important!!!

Now, I wonder where my American Legion pin is?

(smile!) 

 

today, i was 1 of 5

I was invited to this forum about three weeks ago.

The Ralph Johnson Hospital in Charleston wanted to hear from veterans about their care with the Savannah VA Center.

Even though the time would be 9:45 AM, I agreed to take part.

Even though that meant I would have to rise by 7:30 AM, so I would have time to take my Synthroid, have breakfast, and drive southside.

Why did I make the choice to be there?

I believe that if I want the right to complain, then I must accept the responsibility to give praise.

So, I went.

Including me, there was a total of five veterans who chose to be there; 2 Navy, 2 Army, and 1 Air Force.

I'm not sure just how many were there from Charleston - perhaps 8? - as well as three from our VA center.

Jonathon Isaman, the Veteran Experience Assistant Chief, was in charge of the forum, taking names and asking questions.  

There were three, and each of us were asked them individually, making sure each of us had a voice.

That was nice.

 

The first question: "What was going right with our care?"

We liked the MyHealtheVet website (me) and app (the others) as it allowed us to contact our care team at our convenience, with a written record of our needs being addressed.

 

The second question: "What was going wrong with our care?"

By and large, it was the time lag involved with getting community care.

I told them about having to cancel my appointment with Dr. Cobb two days ago because the Community Care in Charleston had not responded to the RFS (Request For Service) from my cardiologist's office. 

The fax of the RFS form had been acknowledged as received by Charleston, both 4 weeks ago when it was initially sent, as well as Tuesday of last week, but nothing else had happened and the original Community Care Authorization had not yet been renewed.

I didn't understand why that CCA had to be renewed in the first place, as it was for continued care of my Atrial fibrillation, a condition which will require care by a cardiologist for the rest of my life.

I also told them that this was not the first time that the CCA for Dr. Cobb had been allowed by the VA to lapse in the years that I've been in his care since February of 2022.

Kirsten Danforth, the Chief of Community Care in Charleston, was there and was able to respond directly to my complaint.

I told her the name of the representative who was the liaison for Dr. Cobb's office and that seemed to be an issue, as she did not know that person.

Another person from Charleston spoke up, about them finding there were phone numbers that went to inactive mailboxes, as those people were no longer there, so they were trying to rectify that, with an end date of June to rectify the problem.

They would also make sure that anyone who was already approved for use as Community Care would receive updated contact lists.

Meanwhile, I asked, why couldn't an alert be sent to the veteran and their community care supplier when a CCA was due to expire, so the need could be addressed and a new CCA issued in a timely manner?

Oh, they all liked that idea!!!

In fact, Ms. Danforth said they would be instigating that right away!

Well, alrighty then!

(smile!)

 

The third question: "What improvement would we like to see?"

Mine was to make sure prescriptions were sent when I would be home.

I told them that when I ordered refills, I could make sure to be home, to prevent porch pirates from stealing them.

However, some of my prescriptions seemed to be on auto-refill and I would not know they were on their way until I received a text message.

That meant I had to try to shuffle my schedule at the last minute, which was not always possible.

Dr. Slappy, the Head of the Ralph Johnson Hospital, told me to let the pharmacy know that I wanted to "park" those prescriptions; that meant they would be held until I requested them.

Very good to know! 

The others hadn't known of that option, either.

 

In an hour, we were done.

I felt like we'd accomplished a lot, and I think some of the others did, too.

I know there was a fellow from Charleston who took notes the entire time.

I'd talked to him beforehand, explaining that I wanted to be on record for having been there so early in my day.

9 o'clock is usually when I wake up, not when I leave home and drive.

I even told him about watching Bugs Bunny on Saturday mornings!

He replied that he watched Westerns.

"Oh," I said, "like 'The Wild, Wild West' on ME TV? I sometimes watch that, too, after the cartoons are done."

Yes, he did watch that old show, too.

Nice to have made that connection with him.

I'm glad I was there today... even though it's still a 'Saturday' for me.

As Frank told me so many years ago, in retirement, every day is Saturday.

But I know today is Wednesday for everyone else, so I stopped by Publix on the way home for the $5 sushi specials on this hump day.

Instead, I found chirashi with both tuna and salmon! 

A special treat!

(smile!) 

 

squeeeEEEAAaaak

Last evening, I logged into the VA Health website and left the following message to the Community Care representative in Charleston.

I also copied the message and sent it to my new PCP here.

 

"More than two months ago, I was issued a Community Care Referral (VAxxxxx) to Memorial Hospital in Savannah to have surgery to repair an inguinal hernia.
To date, I have not yet received a call from them to schedule the surgery.
When I called them last Thursday, I was not called back.
When I called them today, they had no record of the CC Referral.
I gave them the Referral number but they did not have it and I was told they would call Ralph Johnson VA Hospital to request it be resent to them.
The phone number for Memorial Health Surgical & Bariatric Center is 912-350-3438.
They suggested that Community Care in Charleston may have an incorrect fax number for their clinic.
Please contact them. 

I need to have this surgery that I've waited for so long.
Thank you."

 

Amazingly, I had a call from that clinic at Memorial early this afternoon!

I now have an appointment for a surgical consult on March 3rd!!!

That's definite progress after frustrating months of sitting idle.

 

And look at this: I won a 10-dollar gift card for Macy's on AARP!

Once a day, I can play for a gift card for 50 of my AARP Reward Points.

This time, I was fortunate enough to win!

I think I'll take another chance and sign up for some volunteer gigs downtown.

The Savannah Music Festival opened the portal moments ago for us to choose which concerts we'd like to usher.

I've chosen four, to start.

3/26: NOON30: Alicia Olatuja & Christian Sands - Shift 11:30-2pm
3/28: Sarod Trio w/ Maestro Amjad Ali Khan - Shift 1:30-4:45pm
4/3: Noon30: Darrell Scott & Rob Ickes - Shift 11:30-2pm
4/4: NOON30: Le Vent du Nord - Shift 11:30-2pm

Those are all nnon30s except one in early afternoon.

I'm hoping for close parking spaces, so I won't have far to hobble.

What a relief to have progress!

Now, I'm going to settle in and watch "The Notebook".

Comcast gave it to me as a reward for Valentine's Day.

Watching Ryan Gosling and James Garner seems like the right thing to do to celebrate these welcome changes!

(smile!) 

letters homeward bound

Many years ago, when I subscribed for delivery of the Savannah Morning News, there were certain sections I particularly enjoyed.

Those were the ones with the Jumble, the crossword puzzle, the comics, and that with the two sisters, Dear Abby and Dear Ann Landers.

So, when Andrew Carroll mentioned today that he'd written to them and had them post his letter, I remembered reading that.

The year was 1998.

He had started the Legacy Project, looking to collect and preserve correspondence written by American military during years of battle.

The bulk of those thousands of pieces of mail are now safely stored at Chapman University, in the Leatherby Libraries.

I say "the bulk" because he had a few letters with him for his talk at The Learning Center of the Senior Citizens, Inc., building.

This was my first time attending anything there.

I've had several people talk enthusiastically about their lectures, but the cost ($20 to $30 per hour of the talk) was a bit too much for me.

I could become a member and have those lectures for half the cost, but membership was $75 annually, which meant I'd have to commit to at least five to offset that investment.

My entertainment budget is devoted to musicals, plays, and movies.

And, yet, I found myself attending "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence From American Wars", even cutting short my luncheon.

That's because the fee was being waived for veterans!!!

I saw that notation posted on fb yesterday, so I'd tried to register online, calling the center when that proved futile.

The director of the center, Roger Smith, called me back to assure me that I would be on the list - hooray!

And how did I like the lecture about letters?

As a letter-writer for most of my life, even now, I absolutely loved it!

He had letters from the American Revolutionary War, from the American Civil War, from Korea and Vietnam.

My favorite of all was this one, written by Bill Kaiser.

I know there doesn't seem to be anything but mostly empty space between his hands, but look closely.

Those are the edges of a piece of paper that he's holding.

That's because the soldier had redacted the letter himself rather than let the censors have all the fun!

Isn't that just the neatest thing??? 

This one is he called "history in his hands", a big hit with high school students.

They always want to get a selfie with that one!

What's the big deal?

It's from Adolph Hitler's private stationery, taken from his desk by American troops when they raided his bunker.

Wow.

Those two items alone made the whole lecture worthwhile to me.

I had looked forward to sharing my tale with my American Legion mates, too.

Post 36 was meeting at Two First Posts tonight and I was looking forward to this first regular meeting in almost a year.

However, that didn't happen.

I stayed there, in my car, for almost 15 minutes, but no one else came.

I was so aggravated, I even texted our Commander to find out where they were.

As it turned out, I had the time wrong.

They - meaning Doug and Billy - met at the correct time - meaning 1800 - and stayed, by themselves, for 44 minutes before they left.

I arrived at what I thought was the designated time: 1845.

I'd missed them by one minute, because I read the email incorrectly.

I'll just have to remember to mention this talk of war letters when we next meet, hopefully next month. 

That's when I'll be going to another lecture at The Learning Center, too.

Titled "Who's Reading Banned Books... And Why?", it's free.

I'm guessing I'll see Teresa Winterhaven there again.

She was at this lecture and seems to be a regular.

She also hasn't changed a bit from when I knew her at Armstrong in 2012, when both of us were on the same committee.

She was in the same department as Richard Nordquist, though I don't recall seeing her at that ceremony.

I wonder if she has retired yet? 

pre-vening with veterans

It's been a few months since Post 36 of the American Legion has met. 

Even though the construction crew had promised to make Two First Posts of Georgia a priority...

they couldn't control the city's schedule for inspections during the busy spring and summer...

nor could they control the delivery schedules for all the furniture... 

nor that of all the kitchen equipment.

So when Doug Anderson invited us yesterday to meet, I made it a priority to be there.

He and I and Carl were the only ones to come.

Better three than none!

As the Post 36 Historian, I made sure to take plenty of photos to document the changes.

Kudos to Post 500 for assembling the chairs and stools and tables - excellent work, y'all!

Now, time to hire a staff to operate the bar and kitchen before a hopeful opening on 13 December.

The Certificate Of Occupancy is for 60 patrons and Doug told us there are already people waiting at Hunter Army Air Station for the doors to open.

This has been such a long road!

stella and tina time, Veterans Day

"I'm actually a little surprised that you didn't say 'Tina Tuesday' instead."

You know that didn't even pop into my head. First and foremost was the thought of how to get some of those free meals I look forward to as a veteran on this special day.

"Ah. But you were still hanging out with the dog, so FOMO was upon you."

Fear of missing out was not "upon me", dearie. Most important was making sure that Dawn and Chris would actually be arriving back in Savannah, and not suffering through the airport delays that have plagued so many during this Trump-inspired government shutdown. So many air traffic controllers have become so disillusioned that they are retiring at the rate of hundreds per day. Yes, they're still showing up, even though they haven't been paid for weeks, but they have taken steps to make sure they won't be caught like that again. Good for them, though it sure is going to interfere with holiday travel later on.

"And their flight proceeded as planned?"

It did, much to the delight of Stella and myself! Bless her heart, she knew something was up this morning, but she didn't know just what. "Change" was coming, she knew that much. I tried to reassure her, but she wasn't having it. I let her have some fun in the sun, but I stayed inside where it was warm. That meant she wasn't out long, but at least she had some of her normal routine.

"And what did you do?"

I wrote in their guest book!!! That's a thing they have everyone do when they stay overnight. How sweet, right? I wrote about sleeping in the "Death Room" with the fossils! I wrote about breakfast on the porch one day, and feeding the fish with Susan and Terry! I wrote about having the reverse of AA and AAA time with the ghouls! I made sure they knew I'd had a little vacation while I was dog-sitting their Stella!

"Oh, that sounds very nice! I know Dawn will love that!"

I do hope so. I also washed my clothes that Coco had slobbered on. Then I took a shower and washed me. Lastly, I washed the dishes I'd used. Then I put my bag of recyclables into my car, as well as the last of the groceries I'd bought. And, as soon as Dawn texted that they were in the car and headed for home from the airport, I loaded up the rest of my stuff and went home, giving Stella one last pet and a few more treats. (smile!) 

"You didn't wait for them to get home??"

Listen, it was already after 5:30 PM, and darkness was well on its way. I knew my house would be freezing, and it was. So I turned on the heat, offloaded the car, and headed out to Cici's Pizza for my free dinner. Hallelujah for Veterans Day!

"Good for you! How long were you there? Where did you go next?"

I was there for almost an hour and a half. I'd have a few slices, then sit a while, enjoying the music of my youth. Then I'd have a couple of slices and repeat. It really was a relaxing time for me, and I got to have so many different types of pizza! My favorite is their pan pizza style - very good!

"And then you went..."

Then I went home. I thought about going to Chili's or Chicken Salad Chick, but, honestly, I was satiated and ready to be at my own house. It had warmed up to 62 by the time I got home.

"Only 62? How cold had it been???"

Oh, it was 53 when I first walked in the door. That was why I was in no hurry to get back, so I stayed a little longer with hot pizza and cool music.  I've already turned on the heated mattress pad, as I know that will take a while to get going. It'll be okay by the time I go to bed. At least Comcast has given me STARZ to watch for free this week! I've already found a 2001 Steve Martin movie to watch. It's called "Novocaine", though it has naught to do with the movie of the same name that Jack Quaid was in this year.

"Wow! A Steve Martin movie! Laura Dern and Helena Bonham Carter, too! That looks like it will be great fun!"

I concur! But here's a little tidbit that makes it even juicier: he plays a dentist!!! LOL! I wonder if he'll be a bad-ass like he was in the 1986 musical I so love? I guess I'll see! Right now, I have the movie cued up and ready to go, so, you know what that means...

"Later!!! Enjoy!"

tina tuesday on tax day!

 

I'm not saying April 15th was that deadline for me - 

my taxes were filed in February!

This was simply my first Tina Tuesday post-travel to Tallahassee - 

such a glorious day!

High in the mid-80's, y'all, and not a drop of rain in sight!

Of course, one does have to watch out for the dead fronds of oak leaves swirling through the air like some demented type of snow, but at least that means the season of oak sperm coloring the horizon a smudgy yellow is finally drawing to a close.

As I drove to Tallahassee last Thursday along the Wire Grass Corridor, I could see what looked like big-city smog hanging over the open road... ugh!

No wonder my eyes were burning!

My eyes are still telling me there's pollen in the air here, but at least the signs are forecasting the end to that is drawing nigh.

 

Meanwhile, I took a break from yard work to see movies.

Yes, that's plural!

Comcast allowed me to choose between a movie about baseball, a movie about football, or a movie about basketball.

My choice was for "Major League", naturally, for some zany teammates that still play regulation baseball - hooray!

My cousin, Bobby, reminded me that Columbia has a Single-A team that I need to come and watch with him, so I do believe that I'll do that very thing this summer!

In the meantime, I watched the movie with Charlie Sheen as a "Wild Thing" pitcher!

That was great with breakfast!

Then I bounced out for some Big-D action at the AMC with Rami Malek - good call!

He was a man on a mission to kill the terrorist that slew his wife, as well as any of that guy's three associates that got in the way.

So much action for "The Amateur"!!!

 

I thought about staying for another flick, but I was hungry.

Actually, knowing that I had the Veterans Day coupon from Texas Roadhouse burning a hole in my pocket convinced me that I was hungry...

even though I had the cameo popcorn special with Rami...

so off to dine I went!

The Pork chop Dinner - Single, not Double - was just perfect, especially as I paired it with the house salad and a baked sweet potato. 

That's veggies and dessert, right there!

I also brought along a $5 gift card, free from AARP, to defray the cost of Tater Skins.

 

That means my dinner and appetizer, including tip, ran less than $9.

I brought home half the pork chop, half the sweet potato, six of the eight Tater Skins, and three of the hour dinner rolls.

More meals I don't have to cook or prep!

Hallelujah!

Yes, this has been a lovely, low-key, Tina Tuesday! 

(smile!)