Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Not a Great Day, Winco and Jim's Dad

Today has not been such a good day.  We were up at 8:00 to prepare to leave for the doctor's appointment we booked a month ago.  Apparently, although there are many hospitals in Spokane, there are very few family doctors.  Our first attempt required two months before we could get a new patient appointment, two days before we were supposed to go, they informed us that the doctor was moving into one of the high rise buildings in a very crowded part of town with limited parking.  We cancelled.  Anyway, today was scheduled with a Physician's Assistant in a small practice.  I went into the office to turn on the agave's grow lights and nothing happened.  Many, but not all, lights were out in the house.  Worse, the garage was dark.  Since the garage door had been locked last night, we could not raise it manually.  So we called and cancelled our 10:00 appointment, and they rescheduled for two weeks out.  At 10:00 exactly, the power that had been out, came back on.  I'm feeling a little defeated by all of this.  We need a primary care doc to write prescriptions, it we don't find one we're going to end up driving to Tucson to see our doctor there in May.  I would really prefer not to do that.

We got our second booster yesterday, and this one has really whooped me.  My arm hurts into my wrist, over to my collar bone and into my shoulder.  I also have sore throat and a headache.  Hopefully this will be gone by tomorrow.  This has been my first bad reaction to the Pfizer vaccine.  I think my malaise is not helping my disappointment with not getting in to see the PA and two more weeks of not knowing if we'll have a local doctor.

Yesterday we went to Winco again.  It's a pretty cool store.  They don't take credit cards, and you have to bag your own groceries.  Generally the lines move fairly quickly.  We got behind two elderly ladies who were making a career out of emptying their cart, and then bagging.  We switched lines, as we left the store they still were not done.  Anyway, Napa cabbage is $2.50 a pound at Safeway, it's $1.00 a pound at Winco.  The shredded cheese we bought at Safeway was $5.30, it's $1.99 at Winco.  Some prices are not as astounding, but nothing is any higher.  We don't like their meat counter so much, so I guess we'll be going to the Yoke's we recently discovered.  It's so much better than the one near the house. 


Asparagus $1 a pound.  $4 to $5 at Safeway.


Here is our Napa cabbage.  It did require washing, the beets above it had dripped onto it, depositing some sand.  I washed it, and then rolled it up in my lovely towels hand woven by Joanne and let it dry in the refrigerator.  I was feeling very domestic.  It's the first time I've cooked it, they're very heavy so I would not buy it at Safeway prices.

They have a huge bulk food section.  You can buy bulk cornstarch, Red Mill flour, sugar and etc.  There are also bulk Moon Pies.  When I was a kid, the snack of choice was a Moon Pie and an RC cola.  Southern, very southern.


We also picked up this photo of Jim's Dad from the framing lady.  It turned out really well.  We carried the photo around in the bus for about eleven years, so it was nice for him to see the light of day.  It was taken after Pierce returned from Europe after WWII, at a wedding he attended.


In news of Ukraine, it appears that the mobile crematoriums the russians brought with them were never for their dead.  They were brought to cover up evidence of their planned genocide.  These people are horrible.

Thanks to Hans for telling us to try Winco. 

10 comments:

  1. Finding a new doctor is so hard. My medical clinic was bought out by Everett Clinic and there is now a mass exodus of doctors and PAs from there. I'm worried that I'll soon be doc-shopping. I've never been to Winco although there is one in my town--just not very close to me.

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  2. Glad you liked the Winco! When Lisa I needed a quick one time prescription renewal, we used our Teledoc service that was included in our previous years health plan. We were both able to get 90 day prescriptions of our Statin Medication to hold us over until we could see our new primary care doctors for the annual prescription renewal.

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  3. I didn't know about the mobile crematoriums. OMG. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does.

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  4. I've never heard of a Winco. Is that just a Washington thing? I hope you get the doctor ironed out. Third time's the charm, right?

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  5. "Employee-owned 24/7 supermarket chain with discounted groceries & bulk foods, plus a deli & bakery." The winco here is not worth my time but their parking lot is always full! Groceries are cheaper for sure.
    I got my jab yesterday and though it ws no where near what you experienced I did sleep a long time. I mixed it up- have received Phizer all the other times , had moderna this time.
    Finding a doctor is a challenge! Mine retired so had to find one , found an adequate one but really , she is not great. No curiosity , just goes by rote.Good luck with that! Traveling all the way to AZ doea not sound like an option at all!

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  6. I certainly hope the power stays on, and that you're feeling better soon.

    It appears finding a family doctor is difficult pretty much everywhere. I've been with my current doctor for several years but he wasn't my first or second choice. However finding someone else is near to impossible so I just attend his office as infrequently as possible. Now with telephone appointments, he's quite happy to diagnose and prescribe over the phone.

    Yikes, I had not heard of the mobile crematoriums either. I fear nothing will stop the Russians short of another world war.

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  7. Were scheduled for our second booster Saturday...finger's crossed it goes as easily as the others..... Finding a doc is a real pain. We both loved our previous one in New York. The woman we picked here (not many choices!) in Wickenburg is very matter of fact. She keeps her eyes on the computer screen in front of her as she talks to us, not very comforting. I've finally found their patient portal and she seems to use it regularly so....we'll probably switch to someone else in the valley when we get back in the fall but it's a long drive! love the photo!

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  8. There are so many ways to screw up doctor appointments! I had to cancel so many over the winter because of snow, and now they are jammed up on me. Glad the towels were doing their job of soaking up water.

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  9. WinCo is a nice Store but I Suck at bagging my own Groceries, I'd be like those Old Ladies holding the Line up. *Smiles*

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  10. Trying to find a new DR in a new town is a pain in the patootie! Good luck with a 3rd appointment!

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