Today started early! That alarm at 6:30am was not welcome at all. For a day crammed with dentist, wiring, and a pitbull, I would have preferred more sleep. I’m firmly of the opinion that the world shouldn’t exist at that time. Alas…
Dentist
The reason for the early morning was Joshua’s 8am dentist appointment for a temporary crown. This was compounded by the fact that the dentist is in Riverton, a 30 or so minute drive from Pleasant Grove.
Leaving the rest of the family home, Julie, Joshua, and I left at 7am for my parents place in Bluffdale. There Julie and Joshua jumped into my parents car and headed to the appointment. This was fine with my parents as they sleep late into the day (we often wake them up well after 10am to start working.)
Josh received his temporary crown and has an appointment for the permanent one in a few weeks. The temp one though was given with instructions to not eat any apples… poor kid might starve!
Errands
I left as soon as I dropped them off in Bluffdale and headed toward SLC. I must have been ahead of the worst of traffic because I made it with a lot of time to spare before my group session. So I ran quite a few errands.
First stop was Home Depot to get the supplies that we needed to complete a handful of tasks. This included the can lights so we can finish the wiring, and a few odd plumbing pieces.
Next was the bank. Their drive up window says it is open at 8:30 and I pulled in at precisely that time. A woman was there who explained she got stuck in traffic and would need a 10 minutes or so to get up and running. I took the time to fill up on gas across the street. After cashing few checks I was off to the VA.
Dental Issues Again
With still 90 minutes until my session I was off to enrollment. I had a few days prior called to schedule an appointment with VA Dental clinic but they declined to make me an appointment, saying I wasn’t eligible. This was surprising to me because I was receiving dental care in Little Rock.
So I needed to visit enrollment to clarify my eligibility. The guy at enrollment was awesome. As soon as I explained what I needed he looked me up and sighed. “Yes, you are clearly eligible. Who did you talk to over there? Man or woman” I told him a guy. “*sigh That’d be the guy you just moved from here over to that office. I’ll get it straightened out.” So he made a phone call (rather than making me do it) and politely corrected the person who answered that, yes, I did qualify for dental coverage, and made the appointment for me next week.
Good service from the VA? I’m amazed! Kudos to Jacob at the SLC VA Enrollment office! You were great!!
With those miscellaneous errands done I was off to my group session.
Wiring
Because I was able to complete all of my errands before group, I had about 2.5 hours to kill before my CWAC meeting. So I cruised back down to Bluffdale and helped Julie and Joshua who were expertly handling the wiring in the bedrooms.
They had it handled, but it moved faster with me there. I have this magic ability to save time be being able to reach things in high places without moving around ladders or chairs. Go me! I also dropped of the cans that I had picked up earlier. After I left with Josh to go to CWAC Julie was able to get some of those installed and wired as well.
If we get this house done by our “deadline” it will be entirely thanks to Julie’s hard work and skill.
Canines With A Cause
Today was my first CWAC meeting with dogs present. Because I don’t have one of my own I was handling one of their dogs in training. Today I was paired with Piper, a female black Pitbull who was a great joy to work with.
At this stage the meetings are NOT about training the dogs nearly as much as they are about training US, the handlers, how to deal with them. We used clickers and chunks of hot dogs as treats to learn how to shape the animals behavior.
Just being around the dog helped my feel better. It filled the void of losing Chief, my Great Pyrenees we had in MO. I’ll be working with a different dog next week, but I don’t mind. I’m just happy to be around one at all. My mother in law absolutely won’t allow me to have one here at her house, so I can’t get one until we’ve moved anyway. So I’ll gladly take what I can get now and anxiously look forward to moving and getting a dog of my own.
When that was done Josh and I jumped back into the van, picked up Julie, and headed home. It was a hot and tiring day, with far too many miles, but it was productive. Josh saw a dentist. My meetings went well. I have an appointment with a dentist. Julie got a lot of wiring done. Dad was able to get a lot of the plumbing done. The sheet rocker visited and got us in his schedule. Hopefully we can string a lot of these type days together … minus the heat!