From AAA Appliance to Z-Pack

In addition to getting a bunch of work done today along with my mothering duties, I had two mandatory things on my to-do list:
A) Find a belt for the washer.
B) Convince a doctor to write me a prescription.

You may have read about the black smoke that came out of the washer on Tuesday morning.  If I had just called the appliance repair guy before I called Ben, I wouldn't be sniffing through the dirty laundry looking for clothes that smell less bad than the rest, but hindsight is 20/20.  Mr. Fix-It is still insisting that we can replace the washing machine belt ourselves.  I'm pretty sure he originally said, "myself", but now it's apparently a team effort.

I called the appliance parts store yesterday but both of their locations were out of the belt.  I called Belcher's and they were incredibly helpful, but they were out of them too.  Either everyone's Maytag SAV205DAWW has a broken belt, or we're the only ones who bought that model.  The guy at Belcher's told me to try AAA Appliance Parts on 135, but they close at 2 on Wednesdays.  I called them this morning and they had one in stock!  The guy told me that they're located "inside of Larry's Home and Garden," so while we were there Norah kept asking me, "Is that guy Larry?  How about THAT guy...is he Larry?"

No offense to Larry, but Larry's Home and Garden really should be called "Larry's Appliance Graveyard." From the looks of the store and the outbuildings, Larry has been hoarding used appliances for quite some time. I never thought about it but I guess there's a market for them. We made it out of Larry's / AAA with our belt, so now we just have to figure out how to put the thing on.  Ben found some instructions online - 18 steps including removing the pump and motor.  WTF? 

Now to numero dos on my list...drugs.  I don't take a lot of medications, but at least once a year I get a cold which eventually turns into something really nasty like bronchitis, walking pneumonia, a sinus infection, etc.  When Dr. Quack had his practice on Route 9 across from Whole Foods, I could go in there and get a prescription just by sneezing a couple of times.  I know the dangers of taking too many antibiotics, but I also know that when I'm sick for this long, it's not going away on it's own.

Since Dr. Quack is no longer on Route 9, I decided to try out the CVS Minute Clinic in Natick (the photo is not of the Natick location).  I wasn't sure if it was Minute as in "minn-it" or "my-newt"...I'm thinking the latter because it took about an hour and the "clinic" was a very small room squeezed in next to the photo developing desk.

There were two nurse practitioners working there, and when I filled out my information on the touch screen, I was patient #1 in line.  I went into the my-newt room, described my problem, and forty minutes later I had gotten a flu shot and headed back to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions for a Z-Pack (Zithromax) and an inhaler.  I think a bunch of people heard the news about the seasonal flu vaccine shortage, because when I came out of the clinic, there were about 10 people in line waiting to see the other nurse to get their flu shot. 

The first woman I dealt with a the pharmacy wasn't very nice and since I didn't have my prescription card (I don't usually use CVS) she basically told me to come back when I had my ID number.  After trying to call Caremark to get it, I went back to the counter and while I was waiting, a guy asked if he could help.  When I told him that I couldn't get my number, he offered to call Walgreens and get it for me!  How great is that??

All in all, both experiences were good, so if you need a used dishwasher or an inhaler, you know where to go.

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