So this isn’t a “Sunday Story” – though it is Sunday, and this is kind of a story. This essay is more like the “my life and times” essays of the “Out My Window” series – so here you have it – Outside My Window.
Medicare
Earlier this summer I wrote an essay about my adventures in signing up for Medicare (Medicare and Me). This week I had my “final” phone meeting with the Social Security/Medicare folks, and got everything figured out. I am now a proud member of Medicare Part B, just waiting for my Red, White and Blue card, the sign of ultimate senior-hood. And better yet, in several years I too can become a member of Medicare Part A, compliments of my wife’s eligibility. This time everyone had the correct information, and the phone call was efficient and friendly.
Fence Dentistry
I’m not sure what did it, but somehow in the same week I signed up for Medicare, the hottest week of the summer; was when I decided to replace several fence posts on our picket fence. Last spring a sixty mile-an-hour straight line wind came whipping past our neighbor’s house to the west, and managed to “bend” the fence to the east. It wasn’t falling down, but the posts holding up the pickets were definitely bowing towards the rising sun. I’ve tried, but there’s no good way to straighten them out (picket fence orthodontics) so out they came, cement and all. Each post hole was enlarged, and a new post cemented into place. Instead of braces, think teeth implants.
It can only be done one post at a time, otherwise the whole fence falls down. So I was out proving something to nobody: digging holes, pulling posts and mixing cement. Sixty-five (almost)? Ninety-two degrees? Stop Working? Oh Hell No, though Jenn and the neighbors appeared to be waiting for my “imminent” collapse.
The fence is up, and straight, and I proved — Ahh well, I don’t think I proved anything. Time to seal the deck next!!
Call to Duty
Why such a hurry? Well starting tomorrow the week is set aside for Jury Duty. The Common Pleas Court of Licking County made their call last May, but were flexible enough to move the date out of track season. Now it’s time to fulfill my civic duty, and the next five days are the property of the Court.
I’ve been on Jury Duty before. The last time it was a short stint, I lasted less than a day. My roles at the local high school put me in contact with too many of the faces in the courtroom. I knew the prosecutor, the bailiff, and several of the other jurors. Once they asked if I knew anyone in the Court, and I got through my list — the Judge thanked me for coming and excused me from further duty. That five day stint didn’t last past lunchtime.
But I’m definitely ready to be on the jury, if need be. I’ve cleared all five days for Judge Branstool, and I’m getting prepared. Now to watch Twelve Angry Men (the 1957 version with Henry Fonda) and Runaway Jury (Gene Hackman, John Cusack), two of my favorites to get prepped.
Courthouse Rules
Licking County does not allow electronic devices in the Courthouse. Not only can I not take my computer in the building (no writing essays as I wait) but I can’t even take my cell phone. That’s a cultural throwback, even if I have an impending Medicare card I’m still addicted to the constant flow of information from the box in my pocket. So it’ll be locked in the “vault” in the Jeep, and I’ll have to depend on a five hundred and seventy-one year-old information transmission device: I’ll read a book. I’ve already started I Alone Can Fix It by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, about the final year of the Trump Administration (is anyone surprised by that?).
The only other issue here in Licking County is the growing question of our “Covid-19 Delta Variant” era: to mask or not. I got the “shot” last March, but I’m literally going into a room of complete strangers in a county where the vaccination rate is only 47%. Like most of the country, the rates of infection are up here. The County Health Department consistently avoids mandating restrictions – but repeats the CDC guidelines for mask use. It’s the easy out for them.
So I’ll leave my phone, grab my book and mask, and head over to Newark, the county seat, to report for duty by 8:45 tomorrow morning. It’s going to rain anyway, the deck will have to wait for the next heat wave.
The Out My Window Series
- Crisis in a Small Town – (3/16/20)
- St Patrick’s Day – (3/17/20)
- Plagues and Floods – (3/21/20)
- Stories from Lockdown – (4/1/20)
- Out My Front Window – Part One (4/21/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Two (4/23/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Three (4/26/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Four (5/13/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Five (6/3/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Six (7/3/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Seven (7/31/20)
- Outside My Window – Inshallah (8/13/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Eight (9/15/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Nine (9/25/20)
- Outside My Window – Part Ten (10/9/20)
- Outside My Window – Part 11 (11/29/20)
- Outside My Window – Post-Truth World (12/16/20)
- Waiting for the Shot (3/11/21)
- Outside My Window – Part 12 (8/14/21)
