Report from Boston, the mostly good and the bad

Dr. Alyea took one look at me on my visit Monday and said, "You're getting a lot of sun."

This was not a compliment as in the old days of, "You have such a great tan."

He said I will keep my dermatologists busy if I don't protect my skin better and suggested that if I play tennis outside I cover up from head to toe and wear the highest possible level of sunscreen.

So yesterday at George's clinic at the Canoe Club I wore a sun protection long-sleeved shirt and exercise pants to below my knees plus my usual baseball cap. I got so sweaty that I created my own little sauna. If I had wanted to lose weight, this would have done the trick. Also I went later than usual, and I probably should have left early, but the end is where we finally get to play after all of our drills and it is difficult to leave then.

Otherwise my visit was good. Dr. Alyea said that since my skin has improved I can reduce my ECP from twice a week to once a week...for 12 more weeks!

The Ride continues to be a problem. I filed a complaint yesterday, but I don't know if that will help.
I use two services, Veterans to Diane's in Newton and National Express to Margaret's in Needham.

It would take too long to go through the whole fiasco, but I will just say that the right service, National Express, came to Margaret's – where I was staying – at 6 a.m., the wrong time for a ride that I had canceled because the physician's assistant told me there would be no benefit in coming the second day. I had rebooked for 11 a.m.

The wrong service, Veteran's, went to Diane's at the right time, 11 a.m., to get me back to Dana-Farber for my noon ride home, and they don't go to Needham, so I was stuck.

Extremely frustrated and frankly near tears, I called a dispatcher who said she saw no record of the later ride that I had requested and she would look into it. But she never called back. For all they cared, I could still be sitting there, as could a truly disabled person who uses the service.

Luckily Margaret's husband Nick was there to drove me in.

I felt bad about inconveniencing him, but we had a nice chat on the way to Dana-Farber, and the driver taking me back to South Hadley was on time, and we had an interesting talk about his stage of life, which is that of a young person like many of the others doing the driving to make some money while they figure out what to do. We talked about the pros and cons of various trades, such as electrician. The time passed, and I took a little nap.

The driver last week was a hoot. He asked what he could do on his own in the area after dropping me off, and I suggested Northampton and told him how to get there.

Minutes later the face of a young woman appeared on his cell phone.

"Get off Tinder," I said from the back seat.

"How do you know about Tinder?" he asked.

I told him that even though I am old(er), I still know a thing or two.