{"id":218,"date":"2013-05-16T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T21:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/05\/16\/better-late-than-never"},"modified":"2013-05-16T21:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T21:01:00","slug":"better-late-than-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Better late than never"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Have you ever done something and then \u2013 after you\u2019ve done it \u2013 started kicking yourself without mercy, all the time saying \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do this long before now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course you have. We\u2019ve all done it. Today brought one of those moments to me \u2026 once again.<\/p>\n

I went to the Thomas E. Creek Veterans Medical Center in Amarillo this afternoon and enrolled in the veterans health care program. That\u2019s it. I\u2019m enrolled fully in a program that\u2019s been waiting for me for, oh, about 43 years.<\/p>\n

Since I don\u2019t have a full-time job and am paying through the nose for health insurance, I decided to take the plunge. I\u2019ve known for a long time that the Creek medical center is a good one. All the veterans I know sing its praises. <\/p>\n

Today, I got a glimpse of what they\u2019ve been telling me.<\/p>\n

I rolled into the Veterans Administration hospital parking lot today around 1:25 p.m. I walked into the lobby, asked someone there for the business office. He told me to step to my right and sign the book. I did. When I did, a woman asked me if I needed help. I told her I was there to enroll for VA benefits. She said, \u201cGreat, have a seat. Looks like you\u2019ll be the next name called \u2026 and thank you for your service to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat down, grabbed something to read and about 90 second later, heard my named called. <\/p>\n

I met a service officer named Jose. He took me to his office. We sat down and in less than one hour I was enrolled fully in a program for which I\u2019ve been eligible since Aug. 20, 1970, the day I separated from the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fully insured. The only expense is for a co-pay is for prescription medications. I am scheduled to meet a VA doctor in a couple of weeks. The doc will look me over, declare (I hope) that I\u2019m healthy and I\u2019m in the system.<\/p>\n

I sat in Jose\u2019s office for a moment after it was done. \u201cI cannot believe I waited until I\u2019m an old man to do this,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

He smiled, extended his hand and said, \u201cWelcome aboard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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Have you ever done something and then \u2013 after you\u2019ve done it \u2013 started kicking yourself without mercy, all the time saying \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do this long before now?\u201d Of course you have. We\u2019ve all done it. Today brought one of those moments to me \u2026 once again. I went to the Thomas E. … Continue reading Better late than never<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}