Practicing retirement

Hello all y’all.

I’m back in Georgia for about 5 more months. My time of being retired except for the 2 weeks in LaGrange, Georgia is over for now. I’m being “inprocessed” at Warner Robins Air Force base to work at the Family Medicine clinic. It’s an interesting process of coping with bureaucracy.

The main delay is in obtaining a CAC card. The acronym means Common Access Card. Wikipedia jokingly describes CAC card as an example of RAS syndrome. This means Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome. Another example is PIN Number. This stands for Personal Identification Number Number. I cannot see patients until I have my CAC card and an extensive background search. It could be 2 months!

So I will shadow other practitioners and read. One Captain suggested bringing lots of reading material. I have to report in at 7:30 and stay until 4:30 except for a 1 hour lunch. I will do other odds and ends to try to help out but I will have no EHR record (Electronic Health Record record) access and can not provide patient care during this “newcomer” period.

The staff is friendly and courteous. I have met many Airmen, Sergeants, Captains, and 2 Colonels. I’m learning ranks and grades. It’s my first time of exposure to military life. “Hurry up and wait” certainly applies. Many of the staff are civilians, many on government service. So many folks are not wearing khaki clothing and boots. My wife and I have a nice apartment 10 minutes away. It’s on Leisure Lake Drive. That doesn’t sound like a habitat for someone who can’t stay retired.

We had a nice visit to Longview over the holidays. Olin and his fiancee Rachel and Emily and baby Robert were there part of the time. Joe is deployed in his Army Ranger work.

Best wishes for a blessed 2015.

Cordon