Oh, my Bob.

So yeah.

So I got up this morning. Drove my mom over to the hospital to be with my dad because I needed a functional car (long story but: I like to still get my annual gyn checkup from the doctor who's seen me for close-on to 30 years now*)

(*and given the cluster that this break has been, I was expecting her to deliver the news of "I'm retiring, hopefully you can find a new doctor down where you live" but then again: however old she is, she looks quite young. I'd GUESS she was MAYBE 60, but she might be older than that. Anyway, she seems to enjoy being a doctor - she gave up delivering babies some years ago because of the schedule and the added insurance cost to her, but she still does checkups and I think well-baby visits).

But it was early when I dropped my mom at the hospital, so I ran back here to check my e-mail and Twitter fist.

And, womp womp, there was an Amtrak Alert. Not sent to me; it was on Twitter where I saw it (I still haven't received an e-mail about it, I think).

Yeah. The flooding cancelled my train. Cancelled things through the 7th, with the ominous "no alternate transportation provided."

I was not happy, but the first order of business was making my checkup. (Everything was fine. She seemed happy to hear of the OTHER test I was having done later this summer)

So, back home, and I decided to try calling Amtrak from my cell phone, because my mom needed to call me to get her for a while this afternoon (and then she takes the car back).

Long, long wait-times but that's to be expected. First call dropped, I thought maybe I bumped the "end call" button. Second call got through to the phone ringing....and then dropped.

I don't swear often - I AM a lady - but I will admit to using a choice word or two just then. So I sighed, decided the cell connection was unreliable, needed to use the landline. But what if I was still on when my mother - who knew nothing of any of this - tried calling?

So I tried looking up the hospital in the phone book to call them. (I am old and tend to think "phone book" first when I need a number). THEY WEREN'T IN THE PHONE BOOK, at least where I looked.

So I tried online. Their phone tree is one of the less-heinous ones - would have been more direct had I remembered my dad's room number, but the operator put me through (I was prepared to be very insistent that I AM HIS DAUGHTER (well, the surname I gave is the same as his) but I guess my knowing he was in the hospital was enough).

Explained to my mom, then called Amtrak.

It took 30 minutes all told, but about 23 of that was waiting for an agent. I was fortunate in that the guy I got ("Conrad," if that's his actual given name) was knowledgeable. After some discussion, I remade my reservations for a week and a day later - he felt pretty confident the trains would be running again then, and I got a roomette. And he was even able to use loyalty points to pay, so I'm out no money.

I already have the ticket in my e-mail inbox. However.....my dad's printer is out of ink so either I'll have to go out and buy more, or else call down to their church on Monday and see if the friendly financial secretary (who is a good friend of my parents) would let me drive down and print the ticket from the machine there. (I expect my dad will be home by Monday).

Of course, the next order of business was to call my dentist and the GI doc and move my appointments - both are now late July. I'm not sure if this helps the colonoscopy dread or makes it worse, but at least it's now more of an issue for Future Me.

I also should call a couple places where I pay paper bills and see if I can arrange to pay bills that might be late via credit card....to avoid late fees and the ding to my credit rating. (Ugh, and better call the local-to-me water department and see if I can pay my bill over the phone, they get really draconian about "we'll cut you off!" if you're even a day late)

And really, this is where it maybe pays me to be a little bit compulsive and worried; driving back from the gynecologist I already had a bulleted list in my head of what I needed to get taken care of given the travel disruption. (I will also need to e-mail the church and my department....though apparently they are all out right now as a sinkhole opened up near the building that has to be fixed before power can be restored...) I've already e-mailed my piano teacher....

At least clothing won't be an issue; I have access to a washer and dryer. And I brought more projects than I possibly could have finished in the two weeks I was here, so I've got a small shawl and a couple pairs of socks un-started, and I have the sleeves of Harvest to work on.