Taking a Friend to Kaiser in Honolulu for a Colonoscopy

It’s not often a person asks me if I will go with them to Kaiser in Honolulu for a colonoscopy. In fact, never. But how can you say no to that kind of request? At first blush it seems innocent enough and, after all, what are friends for, right, but to impose upon with odd requests. Because a stranger off the street probably wouldn’t do it. And further, it’s one of the reasons we are on this planet, you know, to help one another.

This person happens to be a friend, too. She could have asked any other number of people to accompany her, but she asked me. So, I guess it is an honor along with a privilege to do this. I also happen to be quite the colonoscopy preparation expert. Having done it twice, and all. By now I have it down to a science and have eliminated most of the nasty aspects of it.

Now, you might not realize, but to get to Kaiser in Honolulu for a colonoscopy, we had to hop a plane. Surprisingly, Kaiser paid for it. My friend’s insurance paid for her round-trip ticket on Hawaiian and Kaiser picked up my fare, too. The first thing I noticed on the plane was, hey, I’ve never sat in coach on an island hopper.

Those are really tiny seats. Three across in a space meant for two. No free newspaper. A tiny tray was available on the back of the seat but it didn’t have any lip edges. That means a drink could go sliding off into oblivion. Not only that, but if we had to make a crash landing, I would break my face on the hard seat back in front of me. But, hey, I got free miles and my Pualani status got us into the Premier Club lounge.

Not only did my friend’s insurance pay for our transportation, but it included vouchers for a cab. Kaiser found a cheaper cab than Charleys. Because I had planned to book on Charleys, which was $20 flat fare. Eco Cab was $16. When we got off the plane, we found the cab but the driver was not in the cab.

Hey, it was my responsibility to accompany my friend to Kaiser in Honolulu for a colonoscopy, and I take that responsibility seriously. First thing I did was discover the cab door unlocked, so we helped ourselves to a seat. Then I called the cab company to see if they could track down our driver.

Our driver finally showed up. No excuse for the delay. Then he held us up by saying he had another passenger. No wonder they are so cheap. They double book. Why should we share a cab with somebody else? He tracked down the guy’s friends who said he wasn’t coming. I pondered if the cab driver deserved a tip. On one hand, he has a crummy job, barely a step up from Uber. But on the other hand, not my cab, not my trip and he irritated me.

All in all, though, it doesn’t take that much longer to go to Honolulu for a colonoscopy than it does to drive up to Waimea. While I sat in the waiting room, I worked on two new listings. Obtained one listing and sent it off for our office assistants to input into MLS. It’s not like I didn’t have anything to do.