Gonna be some smash-mouth football on TV this weekend. And we now have a DVR!
And can the Seahawks pull out another miracle?
Gerta is running so well I'm hesitant to do the valve adjust and oil change she should have in the next month. Like most women she's sensitive, and even well intentioned efforts can backfire.
Tuesday I went to our bank's small branch office in the grocery store up the street to make a deposit. It took all of three minutes. Two hours later I got a call from the bank. After introducing herself as calling from my bank she said "You were in to make a deposit earlier today."
[I don't like phone calls that start that way. I expect them to go downhill quickly.]
She went on to ask me how everything went, was I pleased with the service I received and did I have any suggestions on how they could improve. When I said everything was fine she said they wanted to keep me as a loyal customer.
Let's hear it for the free market system and competition in the marketplace!!
Today I went back to the lab (see Monday's post) to have an additional test done as a result of my dr. appointment on Tuesday. This time I went mid-afternoon, hoping to avoid the crowd and ridiculously slow service of Monday's early visit. The good news: there were only five other people in the waiting area. The bad news: I walked out without getting my blood drawn.
The routine there is that you enter, go to the counter and sign the clipboard and then they take your paperwork - your dr.'s order, your insurance card and your co-pay. After they've processed, photocopied and taken your money you sit and wait to be called back. Except that this afternoon two employees were having an argument about who should process that paperwork, and in a battle of wills neither would. "I'm NOT doing processing!" I was told to sign the clipboard and have a seat. The gal who sits at the end of the counter working on a computer and answering the phone wasn't going to get involved; she didn't even acknowledge my presence.
The way that place is set up I could see back into the open area behind the counter. They have four or five rooms where they draw blood, and I could see only one tech was working. I'd been sitting there for 20 minutes, still without processed paperwork, when I watched that tech take off her white lab coat and go into an "employees only" room. Break time.
That's when I got up, scratched my name off the clipboard and came home.
On the drive home I thought about the contrast between my bank and the lab. The difference? The bank knows I could easily go across the street to their competitor. The lab knows that my insurance company requires I either use Sonora Quest or pay for the tests myself. No competition.
I'm going to find another Sonora Quest location, hopefully one better staffed both quantitatively and qualitatively. If it means driving another 10-15 miles I'll do it. A small sacrifice to make for my mental health.
Competition is a good thing. Unless you're a Diamondback's fan. Then it's just depressing.
While I was gone to the lab Jack decided he was going to take up knitting, using the yarn Pam had in her knitting bag on the floor next to her chair. He's got some work to do on his skill level. So far all he can do is unwind yarn and string it all over the living room.
1 comment:
Don't worry about the lab, Obamacare will soon fix it!
Mike H.
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