Thomas W.P. Slatin

My father was released from the hospital today.  Apparently, he had spent the past eight days there.  The good news is that he’s out of danger and will be just fine, so long as he takes his prescribed antibiotics for the next 12 days.  Here’s what happened today.

• 7:00 AM - Wake Up
• 9:00 AM - Left Hotel (Got Taxi Cab)
  • The taxi cab driver who took me to the hospital was new on the job.  He used a GPS to get directions and he told me he had no idea how to get to the hospital where my dad was.  He did, however, look like the rap star Xzibit, except for the fact that the cab driver had a mustache and longer dreadlocks.  He was a really nice guy with absolutely no sense of direction.  I got footage of the 30 minute cab ride and this will likely be in the mini-documentary at high speed, because nobody wants to watch 30 minutes looking out the windshield of a vehicle.
• 9:45 AM - Arrived At Hospital
  • The cab ride cost me $50!  $50 to travel in a cab for 30 minutes???  Add an additional $1 surcharge for fuel…?  I thought that with $50 you could probably fill the tank.  WTF?
  • The cab driver dropped me off at the front of the hospital.  The hospital is so massive, they have folks driving around on golf carts to take people where they need to go.  Crazy! 
• 10:00 AM - Met With My Father
  • Hospital policy prohibits audio or video recording on the premises.  :(  Most likely, it’s a patient privacy issue.  Snapped a photo instead.  For the purposes of this article, the name of the hospital will not be released.
• 12:00 AM - Checked Out My Father & Left Hospital
  • Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.  So many things need to be noted, signed, and talked about in gory detail.
• 12:30 PM - Returned To Hotel
• 1:00 PM - Lunch
  • There’s nothing quite like staying inside an airport terminal.  Everything is 24 hours and there is just about every chain restaurant here, as are a couple of places I’ve never heard of before.  If you can accept the price increase, you can find at least a few personal favorite places to eat.
• 1:01 PM to 4:59 PM - Did absolutely nothing but stare out the floor-to-ceiling windows (that don’t fucking open) and keep an eye on my father who took a nap in the wheelchair borrowed from the hotel.
• 5:00 PM - Reviewed what video footage I had from my trip so far.  Not too much footage to use, if any.  Airports, hospitals, and everywhere else you go prohibit folks from recording video.  This didn’t stop me from recording video in a low-key fashion, but posting video taken while waiting for a flight at an airport on the Internet probably isn’t such a great idea.  Besides, it was mind-numbingly boring footage at best.  Instead, I’m creating a 10-minute time-lapse video of planes taking off and landing at Tampa International Airport.
• 6:00 PM - Dad and I went to dinner.  Same as last night, of all the places to go and eat dinner here at the airport, we decided on sushi and caviar at the rotating restaurant atop the hotel.  I had the same dinner as last time (yes, it was that good).
  • There was a jazz singer playing a piano and singing old songs from an earlier era.  Classic music that for whatever reason is under-appreciated in today’s society.  On a side note, the arts in general are under-appreciated, especially things like fine photography and writing (hint!  hint!).
  • One of the best songs the musician sang at the piano was What a Wonderful World.  I happen to love this song, and it’s lyrics have stood the test of time and are just as real now as they were when they were first written.  However, the musician (or piano man, should I say) made a very feeble attempt to sing the song the way that Louis Armstrong sang it back in 1967.  Needless to say, he failed miserably and everyone knew that he was doing everything he could to sound like Louis Armstrong, so people rudely started talking to each other.
• 8:30 PM - Returned to hotel room.  Old folks go to bed way too early!!!
  • I had a Mountain Dew.  It cost $5 for a Mountain Dew!!!  Thankfully, refills were free.  I had 4 refills; I feel like I got my moneys worth because that’s a more reasonable $1 per soda.
• 9:30 PM - Dad went to bed after watching an hour of crappy CNN coverage of the presidential election.
• 10:00 PM - Okay, okay, okay!  I’ll go to bed too, dad!  I know it’s past my bed time for a Saturday.
  • Although it’s nice and warm here in Florida, I can’t ethically leave my father alone and go self-tour the airport’s 24-hour shops, now I can’t wait to get back home where I can stay up past 10:00!
    • Yes, that’s right.  Back home.  I bought the place fair-and-square with cash money, and I’ll do what I want with it.  By the way, that’s the line I gave to the township when they had an issue with me doing my own electrical overhaul on my house.
    • I’m really going overboard with all of these points.  Perhaps I will go to bed.