Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
I don’t know about you, but I get mighty tired of being reminded of appointments and then evaluations of everything in my life. If I use a service by making an appointment, let’s say haircutting or fingernail fixing, I receive numerous recorded reminders several weeks before the appointment, “Don’t forget your appointment in two months, then one month, then two weeks, then one week, and several on the day before the appointment. After the service has been completed, because they are so happy to see me and want me to return, I get a new recorded message: “How did we do?” They invade every part of our lives: banking, insurance, car maintenance, fingernails, hair, and medical and I, for one, am sick of them.
One time I received, by actual count, 18 reminders of a dentist’s appointment, including one while I was sitting in the dentist’s office waiting for a tooth cleaning. I was tempted to throw my phone at the oh-so-happy receptionist, but she was on the phone, most likely reminding people of their upcoming appointments.
But today, was the corker. We have been on a ship. Reservations made months ago as they often reminded me, in their coy ways. “Don’t forget…order this or order that, none of which happens, because somehow in my 80 years, I have learned to live without having my toenails repainted more than once every few months. And then there’s Cowboy…OMG, the mere mention of a toenail clipping or foot massage, sends him off the deep end, jumping ship, I call it. It’s a Cowboy thing, I think. However, if I told him the clipper was a 20-something wanna-be glam-girl, he might change his mind.
This morning I woke up to five new emails, two from the ship (different departments requiring different evaluations and comments). They wanted to know “How did we do?” I wanted to say, “Which time? The time I ordered steak and got liver? Or the time the toilet flooded and Cowboy’s boots became waders?” Neither of those is true, but what will some clerk in some office in Seattle know?
The medical ones were more interesting. When we went into the office, a student doc, younger than my youngest grandchild said, “What brings you in today?” I sez…a cold and a cough. He nodded, “What are you doing for it?” I sez… drinking water, using OTC cough drops and resting. He fiddled and faddled and asked more questions, finally testing for Covid, which came back negative. When we left the office, he sez… you have a cold and a cough. Drink some water, buy some OTC cough drops, and rest. Smart doc.
This morning, I received three more emails: from the student doc, the real doc, and the clinic. “How you doin’?” the notes sez. Good grief. I think I’ll jump ship.
