Posted by Mark David Manders
Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:10:00 GMT
She said, “Someone call the doctor, I think I’m gonna crash”
He said, “Doctor says he’s coming, but you gotta pay in cash.”
I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon for a sore throat and congestion. Now I don’t normally go to the doctor unless I’m feeling puny. I have several friends who are doctors and most of the time I can talk to them and they’ll call in a prescription for me. But yesterday was different; my throat felt like razor blades and every time I coughed I doubled over in pain.
You know, it’s funny; men are a proud breed. As head of the family they carry with them an aura of invincibility, a false belief that they are indestructible. (In my line of work I call that believing a little too much in your own press kit.) But as soon as a man gets sick, what does he do? He goes running to his wife like a lost child, looking for sympathy and advice.
Now I’m not saying I went crying to Kathryn yesterday, I mean not exactly, but I did inform her of my condition in passing over the phone. After the third or forth time I mentioned my sore throat she finally said, “Alright, I’ll check with our insurance and find a doctor in the area.” I don’t know why, but a husband always leaves it up to the wife to schedule a doctor’s appointment. He’ll never do it himself; it’s as taboo as asking for directions. And no matter where or what time he has to be there he’ll find a way to bitch about it.
My appointment was set for four o’clock and I was told to be there fifteen minutes early to fill out the necessary paperwork. The kids got home from school a little after three. Jessica went over to a friend’s house, so I loaded up the boys and drove to the doctor’s office over by the Plano Medical Center. Of course, along the way I had to call Kathryn and complain about how long of a drive it was.
Once inside the doctor’s office I filled out the paperwork. I wrote my name down twelve different times, my date of birth ten, my social security number eight, and my home phone a whopping fifteen times. It wasn’t until page four that I began to write “same” in every line. I wish I would have thought of that earlier; it would have saved a lot of time.
At 4:30 my name was called and a middle-aged nurse led the boys and I back to a private waiting room. I would equate this to someone in a holding tank in county jail being given his own cell- you might be gaining a little privacy, but you’re still not going anywhere until you se the judge.
At 5:00 the nurse came in and took my vital signs. At 5:15 James said he had to go to the bathroom. When he returned Justin said he had to go. At 5:20 I decided I had to go. At 5:25 I finally walked down to the nurses’ station and asked how much longer we had to wait. She replied in a distinctive East- Texas drawl, “Well, honey, the doctor is running a little late.” I informed her that the boys had baseball practice at 6:00 and I didn’t know when my daughter was going to be dropped off at the house and that I really needed to get going. She nodded her head and mumbled something. I took it as an East Texas brush off (cedar, of course).
At 5:30 Doctor Chen entered the room. He examined me for about five minutes and then began to write prescriptions. I had a script for congestion, a script for my sore throat, and even a script for Chantix to help me quit smoking. He then gave a few samples of a cough suppressant tablet and a prescription for more if I needed them later on. I asked him if he could just give me a quick shot of penicillin. He replied that he could but then he’d have to keep me for another twenty minutes to make sure that I didn’t have an allergic reaction. I opted instead for the “Mega Z-Pac One-time Liquid Suspension” dose available at Walgreens.
After waiting an hour and forty-five minutes to see the “judge”, my fine was assessed in less than five minutes. All I had to do now was see the county clerk and pay court costs and then off to Walgreens to pay the fine itself. My court costs came to forty-seven bucks and change. That was my portion of the 33 % co-pay; insurance picked up the rest. I gave her forty-eight in cash. She didn’t have change; I didn’t care. My fine- $156.71 at Walgreens. Blue Cross and Blueshield covered everything except the Chantix to help me quit smoking. Guess they wanted to try and keep me as a customer for years to come.
The boys and I arrived home just as Jessica’s friend’s mother was dropping her off. The boys had missed their ride to baseball practice, so I sent them into the house for their gloves and off we went to Frisco. I ran by the McDonalds on my way and grabbed the kids whatever they wanted off the dollar menu so they wouldn’t get hungry.
When I got back home I crawled into bed and tried to take a little nap. Kathryn showed up shortly thereafter. She asked if there was anything I needed and I said, “Sleep”.
I did, on and off until now. It’s 5:00 and I just got up. I went and got Kathryn from James’s bed and brought her back to our room. She said my snoring had kept her up last night. In another hour the alarm clock will ring and she’ll get up for work. I’ll probably try to get in another nap before we leave for College Station this afternoon. She won’t have that luxury, but she never complains.
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Posted by Mark David Manders
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:15:00 GMT
Well, it happened again. I got too busy and missed another week of “News from the Road”. Sometimes there’s just not enough time in the day to sit back and reflect on the events of the previous weekend. To be honest with you, if I didn’t have my trusty digital camera I would have a hard time remembering what we did each week.
So here’s what I can remember from the road trip before this last weekend. We played Love in War in Texas on a cold Friday, the Wolf Mardi Gras on an even colder Saturday evening, and Gilley’s later that same night. After returning from a chilly New Orleans the day before, last thing I wanted to do was see more cold weather when I got home. Anyway, we survived, well everyone except for Russ who had a few balance issues after the Gilley’s gig. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.
OK, on to this last weekend. We left Thursday afternoon for San Angelo and the weather was finally warm. Mike Boyd, guitar player from Vince Vance and the Valliants, joined us on the three-day run to give us that twin guitar sound. I’m not sure if he knew exactly what he was getting into, but he had played Blaine’s Pub before and I think he had an idea of what to expect.
We arrived in Angelo around five o’clock for sound check. At seven, BJ, a Pike from ASU, picked Lafon and I up and took us over to campus where we played a memorial service for two fraternity members who had been killed in a car wreck back in January. It was a somber experience, but I was impressed by the fact that every fraternity and sorority on campus was represented. We played for about an hour and then BJ took us back to the hotel to get ready for the show that night.
The rodeo was going on in Angelo last weekend, so we knew that at least one night we’d get the rowdy crowd. Thursday was actually not too bad. In fact, it was a little slow compared to a normal night at Blaine’s. I guess everyone was worn out from the rodeo because I heard that most of the bars in town were dead. For the first time in years I could actually make it from the stage to the bathroom during our break without getting lost in a sea of people.
Friday was a busy day. Kathryn and I got up around ten and went down to the YMCA and worked out. Afterwards we stopped by Armento’s for lunch. Then I was off to Ashley’s Barber Shop for my haircut appointment with Mary Anne. I took Mike with me and we met up with Barry and Dee at the barber shop around two. My buddy, Mike Minton, showed up a little later and we had a few shots with Mary Anne before her next appointment.
After my haircut I headed back to the HoJo to see if anyone wanted to go by the Pi Kappa Alpha lodge with me for a beer. Russ and Kathryn agreed and we loaded up into Barry and Dee’s urban assault vehicle, leaving the suburban for the rest of the band to go get something to eat.
Russ and I hadn’t been back to the Pike lodge since we had played there back in ’94, but it still looked the same. (Well, they did patch the holes in the sheetrock in the bathroom since the last time we were there.) We met with all the actives as well as a few pledges who were freshly pinned the week before. I had a little fun with them teaching them all the words I could remember to the song, “Fifty Naked Thetas” and they in turn taught me a few new songs. Of course, none of the lyrics to any of the songs can be repeated here.
After a few beers we took off for the rodeo where we met up with Fred, Ruben, and all the volunteers working the hospitality area. They treated us to catfish and hush puppies, as well as a few interesting drinks. I knew it was getting late, so we said goodbye and returned to the hotel so I could squeeze in a little nap before the show that evening.
You know, you would think that when a band has two shows in the same town they would have a considerable amount of down-time to relax, but such is not the case in San Angelo. I think playing the actual show is much easier than trying to get around and see all our friends. Needless to say, I had no problem falling asleep once we returned to the Howard Johnson’s. I think I managed to get in a solid hour of shut-eye before the band woke me up.
Blaine’s was packed on Friday night; it was one-in, one-out by ten o’clock and didn’t let up until the bar closed. There were people dancing on the tables and a line out the door that stretched down the street. Everyone got along and to my knowledge no fights broke out.
We got back to the hotel late that night and I had planned on sleeping late the next morning before our drive to Haskell. However, around nine-thirty Mike Minton showed up with Tammy and got Kathryn and I up for breakfast. We ate down at the hotel restaurant where the normally mean waitress was actually fairly cordial that day. I had the rib eye and eggs special and it was unbelievable.
After breakfast we walked outside to say goodbye to Mike and Tammy and noticed that a dust storm was coming in. Tammy said, “Oh great, it looks like Midland is blowing into town!” Now I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced a West Texas dust storm, but they can be brutal.
Kathryn and I had problems getting the band up Saturday morning so we decided to go to Blaine’s for a drink while they shook out the cobwebs. Barry and Dee met us there and pretty soon the regulars came in. Kathryn took the trailer back to the hotel around one and picked up the band and they joined us for a few drinks before we left for Haskell.
We decided to take a little detour to Lowake (pronounced Low-way-kee) to have a steak at the famous Lowake Steakhouse. The drive was difficult, forty mile-an-hour winds with gusts up to sixty and almost no visibility. We made it to the steakhouse around three-thirty and enjoyed an incredible dinner before heading north to Haskell. Barry later told me that along the way there were times when the suburban actually vanished from view ahead of him into a haze of dust.
We made it to Haskell a little after seven Saturday evening. We were scheduled to begin the show at eight, but Cary Epley, who booked us for the party, said to take our time loading in.
The party was held at the Haskell Civic Center and we played on the auditorium stage to a crowd of locals, many of whom we had met last year when we played Judfest. The get-together was actually a thirtieth birthday party for twin girls and before the night was over they joined us on stage. They attempted to play my guitar and Bret’s drums. It was pretty, but it was very entertaining.
We had planned on playing until midnight Saturday, but the party kept going. Six and a half hours after we began, we finally called it a night. We spent the next hour trying to find the cabins they had put us up in and finally, around four, we succeeded in locating our accommodations.
Sunday morning came early. I knew we had to check out before noon and, believe it or not, we actually did get on the road around twelve-thirty. We followed Barry and Dee east down Highway 380 toward Denton and stopped in Newcastle for lunch at a place called the Hole in the Wall.
I knew we were in for a treat as we walked across the parking lot. The roof of the restaurant had a single exhaust vent coming out the top and both sides were stained with grease. There was actually a gutter below the grease flow that directed the oily substance into a downspout and which emptied into a plastic bucket on the ground beside the building.
The Hole in the Wall was crowded when we entered. On the wall were hundreds of photos of dead animals- deer, hogs, turkey, etc. I ran into a friend from San Angelo who had just come from hog hunting the night before and he suggested trying the “Hog Burger”, so I decided to take his advice. Lafon and Barry did the same.
I have never seen a burger that big in my life! It had two half-pound hamburger patties with a slab of ham in between and bacon on top. It was all I could do to eat half of it. Even the regular hamburgers were so large that no one finished their meal. Not only was the food great, the owner and wait staff were friendly and the meal was affordable, very affordable. After lunch we hit the road for Dallas, vowing that we would return to the Hole in the Wall any time we were in the area.
It was about a three-hour trip from Newcastle to the metroplex. Somewhere west of Denton I hit a brick wall (not literally). My eyes grew heavy and I realized that it was going to take all I had to make it home without falling asleep. We made it home, but man, was I exhausted. I’ve got tonight off, but tomorrow Mark and I leave for College Station for an acoustic show. No rest for the weary!
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