Yesterday

Yesterday morning I decided I had to get away from the house for a
while. My car was covered with bugs when I drove back to Beaumont for
the final time after closing. The Frisco water restrictions prohibit
people from washing their cars. I searched the Frisco Online forums
and found a favorable recommendation for a car wash named AquaZoom on
Preston in Plano. I drove down there and found the car wash without
difficulty. It turned out to be the kind where you have to drive your
car through yourself. I told the attendant that it was my first time
there and was a little frightened about driving into the car wash. I
think I was the first customer of the day. He walked over and worked
with the man who does the pre-cleaning. They did a fairly decent job
of removing the bugs. I am rather pleased with the way the car looks.
I think I will go back there. I found AquaZoom's website and signed up
for them to email special offers to me.

Since I was on the south side of SH 121 I decided to go ahead and go
in Wal-Mart on Ohio Dr. I bought some more coffee pods for my Senseo
coffee machine. They carry the flavored varieties and the cappuccino
pods too. The Beaumont store only handled the regular pods. Home Depot
is across Ohio Dr. from Wal-Mart. I went over there and bought the 3M
Filtrete filters for the HAC. As was the case in Beaumont, the 24 X 24
filters are not one of the more popular sizes. They had them hidden.
When I found them, I had to asked for help in removing them from the
shelf. They were jammed in. I was lucky because the filters were on
sale. I am going back to Sam's and Wal-Mart tomorrow and think I will
buy some more filters.

I then crossed SH 121 on Preston back into Frisco. The traffic was
fairly light, and I got through the construction without difficulty. I
would always run my shopping errands early in the morning around 7:30
to 8 in Beaumont. I have been afraid that I would get into rush hour
traffic at that time in this area. It appears that waiting until a
little after 8 works well.

I got to Circuit City about ten minutes before the store opened. I sat
in the car and waited. The weather remains beautiful. I know it is
much cooler than it was last year at this time when I was in the
Dallas area during the evacuation. As soon as Circuit City opened the
doors, I went to the customer service counter and told the clerk how
my Uniden phone receiver had acted and how the packaging was not in
tact and the battery was already installed when I opened the box. I
said I wanted an exchange. He told me to go pick up another one and
return. Fortunately they had five or six more of the same model on the
shelf. I opened the top of the box to make sure that all the original
packing was in place. When I got back to the counter a manager was
there. He told me I should charge the unit before using it. I told him
I had done that, and that I had bought five of the receivers and only
one had caused problems. I told him they needed to send the defective
one back to the factory rather than selling it again.

I then headed home. Earlier in the morning I had seen that Kroger had
added information to their website regarding their flu shot program. I
pass by a Kroger Signature store at Legacy and Lebanon on the way
home. I decided to stop in to find out when I could get a flu shot
rather than calling. The pharmacist told me if I came back after 11 AM
when her assistant was there, she could give me the shot. I was
surprised. The Beaumont store required that you make an appointment.
She gave me the forms that had to be filled out. I went home and ate
lunch, filled out the forms and went back. I checked my records and
found that I had a pneumonia shot in 1999. I have seen conflicting
information about how frequently you should have these shots. When I
got back to the pharmacy, I asked about the shots. The pharmacist said
when you reach 65 you should have a shot and get another one every five
years. I decided to get the pneumonia shot, too. This is my first year
to have Medicare pay for the shots. All I had to do was show my card.
It has been such a hassle to get my insurance company to reimburse me
for the shots. It is so much easier to get the shot at Kroger or
Walgreens than to go to the doctor's office and wait, but my insurance
company has balked at my using Kroger because they are not in their
network.

Last year I made an appointment to get the shot at the Beaumont Kroger
Signature store right after I returned from the evacuation. It was a
good thing that I got in early. I was 64 years old. A couple of weeks
later it was impossible to get shots as they were restricted to
those who were 65 or older or had special medical needs. I remember
last year how sad I felt as I looked at the water damage in the
Beaumont Kroger store caused by Hurricane Rita. The Beaumont store is
fairly new and is a really nice one.

When I got home, I noticed that Pulte had sent someone out to chip the
hardened mortar off the sidewalk in front of the house. I am giving
Pulte credit for attempting to correct the things I have found wrong
with the house. When you buy a new house and the builder ignores the
problems is when things really get bad. At this point I would give
Pulte a B+ on the condition of the house. It isn't bad, but they have
room for improvement.

The pharmacist had warned me that the pneumonia shot might make my arm
very sore. She put the flu shot in my right arm and the pneumonia shot
in my left arm. Her prediction proved to be true. By bedtime my left
arm was very painful. In addition there is a spot on the bicep that
itches--really itches. I took a couple of Tylenol and went to bed. The
arm is better this morning but still hurts quite a bit.

I was really surprised to have someone from CNN comment on my blog. I
called the phone number she put in her email and left a message with
my phone number. I have not heard back from her.

I noticed when I checked my credit card that Mayflower has given me a $55 credit. I have no idea why they did this. $55 is a very small refund when you consider I paid $6400 for their miserable service. Mayflower is one of the sponsors for the block party tomorrow night. I am rather disgusted with Pulte for bringing in all of these corporate vultures to sponsor the events. The homeowners are paying $100/month community association fees and have to bring the food for the block party. Why do they have to bring in sponsors?