WTF? Is it Merc Retro, or something?
Nov. 3rd, 2006 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniOkay. So today started with a somewhat panicky email from my cousin Toni.
She was sending the email because she had gotten a panicked call from the Radiation department of the hospital, saying Father had not shown up for his treatments. She told them to check with his social worker, and then she tried to get ahold of his nurse, but only got put through to the voice mail thingie.
This, of course, gets my heart racing, but I reply to Toni's email saying that if he had died, they would have told us, because someone needs to pay the bill. And then I spend the next hour or so in A State. Then, I decide to call the nursing home, myself (he's been moved out of the hospital, as of a couple of days ago, because they needed his bed for someone else), to see what's up, and I'm told the nurse has gone to lunch (one more sign that Dad is still breathing-- no code blue, yet).
So I call back in an hour.
The nurse told me he's fine, but just that Dad hadn't been delivered to the radiation department on time because the radiologists had been given one schedule, and the nurse had been given another.
...
...
...
*headdesk*
Wouldn't it have made a cubic buttload more sense for the radiation department to call the nursing home to find out where my father is, instead of my cousin (who, by this time, is back home in another state)?
Then, just now, the phone rang. But stopped, just as I was about to pick up the receiver. Okay, so it was probably just a telemarketer, or political campaign call, or something, so shrug and start to leave. Then, I'm not 5 feet away from the phone when it rings again. I pick up on the third ring, and say: "Hello?" no one's there -- just a bunch of mechanical clicks, and then the line on the other end hangs up, and I get a dial tone. I press *69 to find out the number of the person making the call. It's this area code, and a local exchange. I don't recognize it off the top of my head, but it might be one of my neighbors, so I call back. Now, remember: it's been less than a minute since this exchange dialed my number. I let the phone ring about a dozen times. No one picks up.
WTF? have all the phones come alive, and are now calling each other, without any human intervention?
Needless to say, I've not yet reached my personal goal for wordcounts in NaNoWriMo, today. But it's not yet midnight, so... I think I'll make dinner (I'm thinking a pasta soup with Garbonzo beans and lots of garlic).
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sleepwaves, if you're reading this, I could sure use one of those communication gnomes....
[ETA: and the first time I saved this, it was in "private" mode, instead of "public," like I wanted]
She was sending the email because she had gotten a panicked call from the Radiation department of the hospital, saying Father had not shown up for his treatments. She told them to check with his social worker, and then she tried to get ahold of his nurse, but only got put through to the voice mail thingie.
This, of course, gets my heart racing, but I reply to Toni's email saying that if he had died, they would have told us, because someone needs to pay the bill. And then I spend the next hour or so in A State. Then, I decide to call the nursing home, myself (he's been moved out of the hospital, as of a couple of days ago, because they needed his bed for someone else), to see what's up, and I'm told the nurse has gone to lunch (one more sign that Dad is still breathing-- no code blue, yet).
So I call back in an hour.
The nurse told me he's fine, but just that Dad hadn't been delivered to the radiation department on time because the radiologists had been given one schedule, and the nurse had been given another.
...
...
*headdesk*
Wouldn't it have made a cubic buttload more sense for the radiation department to call the nursing home to find out where my father is, instead of my cousin (who, by this time, is back home in another state)?
Then, just now, the phone rang. But stopped, just as I was about to pick up the receiver. Okay, so it was probably just a telemarketer, or political campaign call, or something, so shrug and start to leave. Then, I'm not 5 feet away from the phone when it rings again. I pick up on the third ring, and say: "Hello?" no one's there -- just a bunch of mechanical clicks, and then the line on the other end hangs up, and I get a dial tone. I press *69 to find out the number of the person making the call. It's this area code, and a local exchange. I don't recognize it off the top of my head, but it might be one of my neighbors, so I call back. Now, remember: it's been less than a minute since this exchange dialed my number. I let the phone ring about a dozen times. No one picks up.
WTF? have all the phones come alive, and are now calling each other, without any human intervention?
Needless to say, I've not yet reached my personal goal for wordcounts in NaNoWriMo, today. But it's not yet midnight, so... I think I'll make dinner (I'm thinking a pasta soup with Garbonzo beans and lots of garlic).
sleepwaves, if you're reading this, I could sure use one of those communication gnomes....[ETA: and the first time I saved this, it was in "private" mode, instead of "public," like I wanted]
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 11:51 pm (UTC)Exactly the circumstances for when the communication gnomes would be entirely good. I wish we could breed them somehow. Or make tehm out of magic. They are my favourite things.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-04 12:04 am (UTC)I truly trust that they are very good at being "rad tech" people and nurse people and doctor people. But they are not very good at being phone call people.
Maybe I'll put a Communication Gnome in Claus's workshop*, when I get the story in that place, finally.
*Calling him "Santa" is like calling him "Mista" -- it's his title, not his name...
no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 03:24 am (UTC)(I know it's not quite what you meant, but you try telling my mind that!)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 06:45 am (UTC)So now that I know I can tell you flat out: this will definitely not have the "Heart of Darkness" ending.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-04 12:07 am (UTC)