Mundane and not so mundane

So it's been a week and a half since I last posted, a failing I apologize for. I hope you forgive me, though I don't suspect you actually have much say in the matter; whether I'm forgiven or not will not guarantee posts on a regular schedule any more than it will guarantee posts of worthy content. But for what it's worth, thank you for forgiving me.

Let's see, what has happened since my last update?

A plane crashed and everyone survived
President Bush indirectly endorsed the teaching of intelligent design
Peter Jennings died
The shuttle landed safely
The President of Niger denied there was a food crisis in his country
I paid a quarter of my semester tuition
and I utterly failed to get a meningitis shot.

Some of these things are bad, a couple are good, one is even a little of both, but the last was the only one I really had any sway over, and I promise you that I haven't failed through any lack of trying.

My (mis)adventure started over a week ago, when I called the Catoosa Country Health Department that is hardly a mile down the road from my house and said I needed the vaccination.

"How old are you?" the lady asked.

"Twenty," I responded.

"Hold on please." So I waited for a few minutes, doodling on a spare piece of paper until she came back. "Sorry, you wanted a-"

"Meningitis-"

"Right, meningitis shot. And you said you were twenty?"

"Yes, m'am."

"Well alright then, it's thirty-five dollars and you can just walk in."

So I brightly thanked her and hung up the phone. The next day I headed down to the health department with my sister, walked in and approached the desk. I politely told the lady at the desk I was there to get my meningitis shot. She asked if I was under eighteen, and when I said no, she told me, "I'm sorry, we don't give that vaccination to adults."

Hang on. Turn back. "But the lady I talked to yesterday told me it was okay."

"We're only allowed to give the meningitis vaccination to those under the age of eighteen. You'll have to ask your doctor."

Great, thought I.

I went on home without the barest hint of meningitis immunogen in my bloodstream. I called Dr. Greg, and he said they don't keep it in stock, they usually send people to the health department. So, circle completed in my county.

But luckily I live in a tiny county in a decently populated area, and so I proceeded to make the rounds. I called the Hamilton County Health Department in Chattanooga, but they couldn't get me in before August 22nd. I called the Whitfield County Health Department in Dalton but I would have had to go talk to a nurse about insurance qualification. A friend of the family suggested a certain doctor's practice (as they had the vaccine), but since I wasn't a patient there I'd need to first get a doctors visit, another fifty to a hundred dollars on top of the hundred twenty-three dollar vaccine. So at that point I was about ready to give up and just go get the vaccine on campus for a hundred and twenty five. But my sister's boyfriend's mom told me the Walker County Health Department in LaFayette gave adult immunizations, and so I gave them a call, hoping beyond hope...

"We don't have the vaccine in stock, but if you pay up front we can order it and it should be in in three or four days. The meningitis is a hundred dollars."

Hallelujah

So today on the way back from Berry I stopped over at the health department off of highway 27, with Kevin in tow. "Do you see it?" I asked, "Which building is it?"

He pointed. "I hope it's not the one with all the firetrucks in front of it."

"WHAT?"

So we turned around and came back past and sure enough
...firetrucks, lights flashing, people milling around, firemen standing about... That's right. You guessed it.

The building was on fire.