Indianapolis

I am sufficiently calmed down today and able to write this little story, well possibly longer than little. So if you don't take time to read it, that is fine. I will feel better just putting it all down in black and white.

If you have ever been a patient at Indiana Dental School at Indiana University in Indy, you wouldn't need to know this part of the story. But for those of you who aren't familiar with the Dental School... Patients at the Dental School are able to get their dental care at half the cost of a private Dentist. There is one drawback of being a patient there. It takes a looooooooong time for each visit. I guess that is the benefit of not paying full price - a dental student, under the watchful eye of a Staff Dentist, does your care and they are slower for obvious reasons - they are learning - and I suppose they figure if they do it slowly enough, the staff won't notice any mistakes. That probably isn't completely accurate, but it makes for good reading, don't you think?

Lee had an appointment at the Dental School on Tuesday of this week. I had arranged with Kirstin to take her to work at 6PM. I was to pick her up at 5:45PM. I thought no problem - Lee's appointment is at 1:30 and it takes 45 minutes to travel from the IUPUI campus to Greenfield - no problem. Yeah, right! The only problem was Taite Anderson wasn't aware of my time constraints.

The other background of this story is the Super 70 project, they are doing major work on I-70 through town and many exits are closed, it is down to 2 lanes (sometimes 3 lanes if you are lucky) and is a major headache for anyone who works in Indy, or travels I-70 during this time. And traveling I-70 during rush hour with Super 70, is definitely not a good thing.

We arrived at the clinic at 1:15pm, Taite Anderson, Lee's student, took him back at 1:30! 2:30, 3:20, 4:00, 4:10 and 4:30 were all times I looked at my watch. I was getting a little worried, but I stayed patient until 4:55 when I got my things together and walked over to look down the hall. Like looking down the hall would make Lee and Taite appear any sooner. No!! No Lee, No Taite. At 5:00 they finally came out, I went to the cashier to pay and finally at 5:05PM we started for the car. At 5:15 we were behind traffic at West & 10 Sts. I saw ahead that the traffic for I-70 East was sitting perfectly still on the interstate.

I wasn't where I could turn and avoid the interstate, so I switched lanes and went north on I-65 up to Methodist, got off and started back downtown where I had just left. By this time I am really panicking because with the Super 70 project I knew I couldn't get on the interstate until the Eastside of Indy. So I started asking Lee, "where should I get off New York St to get on the interstate". We all know Lee is getting older and he thinks and speaks and reacts slower. By the time he would answer, we would be past a road I thought would work. I would ask again. Finally he came up with "go north on Emerson, to 16th St and east to Post Rd. to the Interstate". This came in time for me to actually do that.











Lee was telling me which way to go in the left picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I got the right picture when I didn't respond as quickly as he thought I should. But thanks for your all your help, Lee!


I finally got on the interstate at 5:30pm. I knew Kert would be calling by 5:45pm to see where I was, so I handed Lee the phone and said, "You are in charge of answering the phone, I can't drive faster than the speed limit, keep an eye out for the cops, watch the traffic and-oh yeah, answer the phone when it rings". We made record time, from Post Rd. to the Greenfield exit by 5:41PM. All the time I am saying stuff like, "I can't believe I am driving this fast", "Why do they have to have interstate repairs when I need to move along", "Why doesn't she get over if she is going to drive that slow", "He should get off the road, if he thinks that is the way to drive", "I sure am glad I don't have to drive this every day" and on and on (a different side of Bette, huh?). Lee patiently held the phone and quietly sat in his seat.

The phone rang at 5:44 when we were almost to the Marsh-CVS light on State St. Greenfield, When Kirstin asked for me (I guess that's what she said), Lee grew humorous and said "She is flapping her wings, trying to get the van to go faster", then when he hung up after talking to her, he told me, I should have told her you finally figured out how to flap fast, so we could make it.

Well I picked Kirstin up, took her to McDonald's and was home cooking our dinner by 6:05PM. What an afternoon. Glad it isn't like that every day!!!

PS...I found out this morning that they were changing the west bound traffic lanes yesterday afternoon and it took longer than they anticipated. Plus, there was an accident that slowed everyone down. What I saw was stopped - not slowed down! I guess all is well than ends well!