PHILLY: A medical morning

It felt very odd backing out of my garage into complete darkness, but when you have a 6:30 a.m. appointment at Jefferson Hospital in Center City Philadelphia, you have to get a very early start. The sun was up by the time we hit the Schuylkill Expressway, which was already crowded with people on their way to work. We took the Vine Street Expressway to Tenth Street, drove under the elaborate Chinatown Arch and parked in a garage next to the hospital building.
The Jefferson employees were universally helpful, polite, professional, and friendly, even at that early hour. One fellow in the waiting room seemed tickled when the nurse noticed that his blue eyeglasses matched both his shorts and his walker.
There was a big-screen monitor in the waiting room so patients could keep track of their loved one's progress (to comply with privacy regulations, each patient is assigned a number). I watched Dearest Partner's status move from "getting registered" to "waiting for surgery" to "surgery in progress" (right on time, 7:30 a.m.) and, after 90 minutes, to "recovery." 
It was then we got the surprising news that the offending tissue that brought us into Philadelphia had actually disappeared on its own! The surgeon, Dr. Alex Schlacterman, assured us that he had done his best to locate it (D.P. fervently wished he had gone into less detail about that process) but it simply wasn't there anymore. He showed us photos. Well, he showed me photos.
We validated our parking pass, retrieved our car, paid $26 with the Jefferson discount, and exited.
As we tried to get back on the Vine Street Expressway, I quickly realized that my knowledge of Center City traffic patterns had deteriorated considerably since I lived there in the early 1980s. The bright side of our detour is that we got to drive past the William J. Green Federal Building, Independence Hall, a multi-story Target, the former Philadelphia Inquirer building (surrounded by scaffolding) and lots of old warehouses being converted to trendy apartments. The city looks really good.
We were considerably more lighthearted, if weary, on the drive home.