Obviously I have too much time on my hands, waiting for Hurricane Karen to appear...well, it is now Tropical Storm Karen, she never got to Hurricane force, but she is scheduled to go right over the top of us, according to our various sources.
A girl has to do something with here time, and I had temporarily finished making rope Chafe Guards to protect the ropes that cross, (springs) against chafing when the storms hits and moves the boat around a lot.
There is a light wind, and the sun has come out for about the 20th time today, and it is just 2.45pm.
it obviously rained a lot in the night, but the tide wasnt high...usually about 8 inches, we are told, and that would be consistent with what we noticed.
Ray, the Harbor Master came down again yesterday afternoon and we paid him for two extra nights at the Dock. $25 a night is reasonable on a short term basis, and we are happy to have safe harbour, although it would be useless in an actual Hurricane as the Posts we are tied to are not more than 4 feet hight, and if there is a storm surge as there was within Katrin, or Ike, then we would anticipate a tide of probably in excess of 12 feet. There is nowhere here that is high enough for us to tie to...and we are NOT that far from the coast, if you get hold of Google Earth and take a look for Houma, Louisiana.
I know you are dying to know what happened to Waz to make a trip to the emergency room...
We were fitting the last of the rope chafe guards, and he was pulling the stern rope down the post on the dock and a long slither of wood went under his fingernail on the 4th finger, right hand. OUCH!
First we tried to extract it with needle nosed pliers, and then needle nosed tweezers, but the wood came away in little pieces.
As luck would have it we are parked directly opposite the Terrebone (Parish) General Medical Center
Boat....Medical Center on the left...as below
We are directly opposite the parking lot, so we figgered we were within easy walking distance of the main entry...and perhaps even the Emergency Dept.
Now, I really need to urge you to always go with your FIRST instinct...in our case, it was finding the arrow pointing to the Emergency Entry.
However...we know how ER's go, and spying, directly opposite, a Family Doctor, we thought to go in there first and inquire if perhaps he or she could help us. We were told in no uncertain terms that they couldnt, and we should find the Medical Atrium on the other side of the hospital, where they take walk-in people with no insurance (we have travel Med. Ins. but from NZ). They were really kind and gave us the address, and told us how to get there.
By the time we got outside, it was raining cats and dogs. We waited,...and waited, but decided to act, so with the brolly up, we tore across the road and into the Emergency Entry, turned left, then followed instructions to an Exit which took us to the street where the clinic was described...but we were too far down the road...out again into the now torrential rain...brolly up, no rain coats, or I wouldnt have been wet through and through...and found that the clinic in question was actually part of the hosptital! DUH!!!!!!!!!! why didnt the woman TELL us it was...we wouldnt have had to get wet!
Anyway...after finding the clinic, filling out the forms etc, we waited...it was airconditioned, so I was getting chilled to the bone in my wet clothes, not to mention making their furniture wet in the process.
Waz was seen by the Dr, who promptly spat him out and sent him to ER..sheesh!
We had paid $30 in advance for the DR, and now they refunded that money before sending us on our way:)
I like getting my money back!...but wait, there is more!
We made our way about 6 miles (so it seemed) in airconditioned comfort (yeh right!), passed the cafeteria, so we now know where to go for cheap food! yes, really!! it is written up in our cruising guide that the hospital food is great! and cheap!
where was I?
...and eventually turned ourselves in at the very door that we had started the journey, and had now done a 360 within the hospital itself.
We waited...it was a code green, which meant we would be seen immediately. Well, it was ALMOST immediately, if you call 1/2 an hour that?
WE were ushered into the first nurses station where she did all the necessary blood pressure, temps. et al, and finally asked what the problem was. She went away, came back and rejected us! again!
Nobody wants this problem!
As she said.."It is JUST a splinter!" but it wasnt JUST a splinter, obviously!!!
We were sent back out to wait...again...then were ushered into a room containing a Physicians Assistant (pseudo nurse/Dr person), they assessed us, asked questions, and we told them lots more than they wanted to know:)
We could have also told them how to get it out, and perhaps should have, but they had to futs around first and take their time.
Oh, I have to tell you...we entered the Hospital at 1.15pm....It was now 3.15pm
Waz insistes that I say, at this stage, that MON is a WUSS and didnt want to go in to watch the gore!!
First guy PA, got all the 'stuff' out to do HIS kind of job. He couldnt make it happen...all the instruments were too thick to fit down under the nail, and didnt grab the splinter, which we estimated was longer than the nail was. Warren is no wuss, so this was more an exercise in how to fool the medics, than anything else. We watched with interest, and noted that none of the three who tried, REALLY thought about how to approach it or what needed doing. They were REACTIVE, more than anything.
By now the PA was stumped, and so was the nurse, and so was the other nurse, and so was the other PA who appeared(he had the idea to get a scalpel).They tried but didnt succeed in cutting through the nail...they gave up! They called in the big guns...the Doctor...who was a chatty Jewish fellow who has apparently been in ER 'forever':) He used a pair of scissors and cut the nail on both sides, neatly down the nail, and then got the splinter out ...well, one piece, and because he is the doctor, and should have all the brains, he went in again for the second piece which you couldnt see, after slitting the cuticle, and removed that. In all, about 5/8 inch long splinter:) Phew!
The Doc irrigated the wound, then went, left instructions, and the nurse did the rest.
They gave Waz one dose of Antibiotics and painkiller then and there...reminds me...I didnt tell you about how they numbed his finger, did I?
Needle...fine and long and it went into his finger at the base (hand end) about 5 times. He didnt squeal of course, but I had to look away finally.
They were so nice, and called in a prescription to be picked up at the local CVS Pharmacy. Because we dont have a car or other form of transport, and it was raining again, or had the potential to downpour again, we decided to get a cab from the entry of the ER. It didnt appear within half an hour and it was now 4.45pm...rush hour on friday!
We told the ER person we would walk back to the boat, and to tell the cab we didnt need them.
We stopped at the boat to get Warren's photo ID which he would need as he was prescribed Narcotics, and had a cuppa and some other fortification and decided to wait for the traffic to calm down before getting a cab and getting the meds.
Eventually we got our cab. I had asked the ER lady to write down the number for me, which she gladly did.
It was THE most decrepit Taxi we have ever ridden in. I sat in front with the driver. The seatbelt was barely functioning. The fellow driving was obese and he didnt stop talking. I was left to make conversation when I could. He said he would wait at the pharmacy and take us back.
The pharmacy didnt have the script ready for us beause they didnt have any information about us on file which would mean they could complete the necessaries.
I released the driver, and we spent a half hour in CVS (which sells more than drugs...see Halloween candy! et groceries et al)..and magazines...where I got stuck and ended up buying a Southern Living Recipe Mag...with LOTS of Southern Cooking in it:)
We also bought some paper plaster (3M) and some finger pretectors (Rubber finger cots). The drugs were relatively cheap at $34 for the Painkillers and the Antibiotics.
But I forgot to tell you about the hospital costs, now that I am reminded...
Well, it seems that there are two prices for things at hospitals!
One is if the insurance company is paying, and the other is if you are paying cash in person.
The charge for several hours of our time and the equipment they didnt need if they had really thought about the problem FIRST, turned out to be $378. Now that number would have made a dent in the budget, but, we said we would be paying cash (Cr. Cd) and she (being the discharge person they escort you to visit) went back to the computer and printed us up an invoice for ...wait for it...
$278!!!
WOW!! $100 off for paying cash! can you believe that? And they wonder why the health care system is in bad shape!
I am not going to sit and argue with them, but it should have been US charging THEM for the waste of time and materials not to mention brain power they didnt use to deal with the problem.
How was Waz during and after all this?? Just fine.:) You will never hear him complain, that is for sure.
Where was I? taxis!
I was really glad to dismiss this fella who talked all the time. He left, after I paid him $11 plus a $2 tip. Told me to call and get him at #8, when we wanted a return trip. Fortunately we didnt get him on the return! What we did get, in yet another rust bucket of a vehicle...where DO they get these cars for a taxi service?? the NZTA wouldnt have allowed it on the road, let alone as a form of public transport!.
Anyway, this morbidly obese lady was chatty, but interesting. She said she had 17 kids! WOW! who has 17 kids...and then I asked if they were foster kids...yes, she said...3 of her own biological kids and the rest Foster kids. She has 34 grandkids from all these kids. Must be hard remembering all their birthdays (just joking!)
So, she was envious of our retirement (boating) and told us she had travelled a lot in her distant past, as she was a surfer (my brain was working overtime at this vision of loveliness in a swimsuit!) and yes, she had been to Hawaii..so we had some common place to start...or finish...but we were not at our destination, yet. I could feel Waz's brain working in the back seat:)
So, she told us her big dream (coz we said you have to have a dream, dont you?) was to open up a childrens hospital in the near future, then she would work in it for a year, and then give it to her daughter to operate. Sounds good to us!! she loves kids, that is obvious.
THEN she told us that the state requires the owner of this kind of place to have the appropriate kinds of training. This required that she have the right degrees. She said she is at school full time, and taxi driving 12 hrs a day, getting about 2 hrs sleep a night! OK! (she says in disbelief)
So, what kind of degree (S) did she have or was she working on?? and when would she be finished??
She said she has four bachelors degrees...one in Business, one in Sociology, and one nursing and one other which I cannot remember, and she is going for her masters in Sociology...and she would be finished in December next year.
WOW! Who woulda thunk??
Good luck to her, I say!
Well, by this time were were pulling into the Marina parking lot, and it was time to pay ($8 plus tip of $2..did the first guy rip us off or what?? same distance and same traffic!) and say au revoir! and...NEVER FORGET THE DREAM!! baby:)
As we had pulled up we saw that we had company on the dock. A lovely 48ft sail boat was parked in front of us, and closer to the ICW. He had to park there as that is the only other electric box on the dock.
We walked over and said hello to the new arrivals, a fellow called Beale and his Dad Jim. Beale had just bought the boat in Alabama and sailed her here ahead of the storm. He was describing sailing this new boat in 35mph winds out in the Gulf, and then coming into the ICW for the night. They had parked out in the Gulf for the previous night but the anchor had dragged for half a mile before they could stop it. They also couldnt get the engine started...single engine boats give me the creeps..nothing to fall back on if it fails.
Well, in the end, they read the manual (Why do guys do that last, I wonder???:) ) and found that they should have pressed TWO buttons at the same time, not just the one. So they did eventually get her going and safely in marina here in front of us.
As we spoke, Ray came down to turn their electricity on and we all had a good jawbone about things before turning in for the night. They said they would be off bright and early in the morning, and they were gone when we got up at 7.30am. They were motoring back to New Iberia.
We were exhausted when we finally stepped foot onto the boat.
Dinner followed...another short walk (we had had two already today) and bed.
So, that was the day that waz...:)
more antics tomorrow...
a few photos for you, now you have so patiently read this blog with no photos other than food...almost!
Remember I told you about the bolster opposite us that had been crunked by a tow at some stage...because this passage under the two bridges is VERY tight...barely 20 ft on either side, I would say...and 20 ft above some of the tugs too, to the top of the underside of the bridge...which is supposed to be 72ft high (I asked Ray).
This bolster is on our side of the ICW, with a towless tug about to go through.
at the apex where the dock and the ICW meet, is this concrete statue of an Indian with a fish in his hand. Some idiot has broken the fish tail off it! 
This is looking east down the ICW, taken from the apex. The scuplture is on my left inside the fenced area. This couple are fishing!
Here is all you need to know about the Marina:)
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