Timothy Birdnow

I went in for a checkup to my doctor yesterday.

It was an interesting experience. First, to get into the building I had to have my temperature taken. They handed me a slip of paper with the number 927 on it and told me it was my TEMPERATURE and I was to give it to the people upstairs. ??? Criminy; I never knew I had a fever! I must have been asleep on Venus to be that warm! Even if that were in Kelvin it would be over a eleven hundred  degrees F.

 There were some new people working there, and they weren't overly friendly. Not unfriendly, mind you, but I tried joking around with them in my usual fashion and stone face!  My usual joke about stripping naked before being weighed fell as flat as, well, the look the nurse gave me made me worry she was thinking about calling for security. I guess she's been overly busy.

Anyway, I went into the little room and immediately something set off my allergies. I think it was the nurse, but I can't be certain. At any rate, I fell into a horrible fit of coughing, really hacking away. What made it worse was the mask I was wearing; I couldn't get the offending bodily fluid out, and I couldn't get enough air. Naturally the nurse was looking at me as if I had sprouted a second head; a guy coughing up a lung is no small worry these days. She did her job and made a hasty retreat, after which my coughing subsided. I must have scared her half to death.

At any rate, my doctor was his usual affable self. I really like that guy; he is always up for joking around. Fortunately I stopped coughing or they would have schlepped me over to St. Marys hospital (my doctor's office is in the medical building there.) 

Anyway, I was sure glad to toss that mask when I got to the car! I always feel like a Mexican bandito robbing a train...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:39 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 927? Maybe it's shorthand for 92.7 and you're just too cool for school. Or they've just invented some new scale, or code. Like when they stopped talking about "relative humidity," which everyone in the world understands, and started talking about "dew point," which nobody does. Or at least I don't.

It's nice to know that Nurse Ratched still has a job, though it's too bad you had to run afoul of her. Maybe she had some kind of perfume on that set off an allergy and you reacted to it even though your mask kept you from picking up on the fragrance. But aren't nurses supposed to refrain from wearing that kind of stuff on duty? Tell me: was her name Karen?


And you've put your finger on it: there seems to be a shortage of humor when it comes to strangers these days -- I've noticed it too.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at July 24, 2020 09:11 AM (DJw/m)

2 Yeah; it must be a new fangled way of determining temperature. I imagine NASA has started using it and found, to their amazement, the planet was MUCH WARMER than they thought!

She wasn't very pleasant, which is a shame. I imagine she was wearing SOMETHING that set off an allergic reaction. I do have allergies.

Agreed Dana; people are less friendly these days. Goes with masking and social distancing, I fear. America's character has always been one of openness and friendliness; this may change us into another stoic European style peoples. But then, that would suit the Intelligentsia just fine.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at July 24, 2020 09:30 AM (0CCNP)

3 I should have been more specific. Many people with whom one has to "interface" in an official capacity are becoming more standoffish. But the average American is, on the other hand, going out of his way to be more friendly, I think, probably as a way of compensating for not being able to smile at you. I've had people from the apartment complexes across the street wave at me, who never did before, when I'm out with my dog. Of course, they could be just waving at him. . .

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at July 24, 2020 01:25 PM (DJw/m)

4 Somebody said, a couple of months ago, that he never expected to go into a bank wearing a bandana over his face, ask the teller for money, and get away with it. How times have changed!

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at July 24, 2020 01:34 PM (DJw/m)

5 I came across an article about the psychology of masking and posted about it above, Dana. It includes what you said, that some would be standoffish and others more friendly.

Yeah; I feel like a Mexican bandito.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at July 25, 2020 07:06 AM (iBt4g)

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