Skipping today’s writing prompt because it’s not very interesting…

Today turned out to be an exercise in patience.

With my recent experiences with my state’s health insurance exchange—whether online or on the phone—being one exercise in frustration after another, when it came to talking with my current insurer about the premium for the new policy they’re moving me to come January, I decided it would be better to go to their local office and speak with someone in person.

Imagine my frustration when I showed up around 10:20 this morning to find their doors locked. People were there—I could see their conference room was full—but the doors were locked, and no one was on duty at the front desk. WTF? They didn’t even bother to put some kind of a sign on the door!

Fortunately, when I got back to my car and called their toll-free number, the wait to talk to someone was very short, and I was quickly able to get an answer to my question.

Meanwhile, I had hoped that my regular swim would help relieve the sore back muscle that has been giving me problems on and off for the last few days. It did not.

Fortunately, I was able to schedule a massage after my swim. Not exactly at the time I was hoping for, but I had enough time to stop at the public library to pick up a couple of books.

After the massage, I was thinking about going back to the pool to spend a few minutes in the hot tub, in hopes of further loosening up my knotty back. Then I saw that it was closing in on 3 p.m.; not wanting to get home too late, I decided to skip the hot tub and head straight home.

Unfortunately, a traffic accident on I-90 was blocking the two left lanes. I was now stuck in traffic, waiting to get on the bridge.

The drive through the tunnel just before the bridge was a slog. Normally, it takes maybe a minute. But, with those two lanes blocked, traffic backed up, and more people entering the freeway from the start of the tunnel, that one-minute pass through the tunnel took one hour. I was able to listen to 15 of the 19 songs (I’d already listened to a couple, and I skipped a couple) on The Best of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, and start on Maxwell’s Embrya during that time.

The important thing was that I managed to keep my cool. Normally, having to wait in traffic is very frustrating, especially when my occasional claustrophobia starts to kick in.

By the time I got close to home, it was already 4:45 p.m. I had originally planned to start on tomorrow’s roast beef when I got home, but since I was already getting home much later than I’d originally planned, I opted to go to the store and get a rotisserie chicken from the deli. The roast could wait for tomorrow.

The time when I got home? 4:58 p.m.—two hours and eleven minutes from when I left the massage therapist’s office. The trip normally takes about 45 minutes.

With all that time spent sitting in my car, I could use another massage. I’ll have to settle for a hot shower instead.

(5 November 2013)