which is our general phrase for things when they are actually going to hell in a hand basket. For one thing, a doctor's office called me today and wanted to issue me a refund, which was great, but when I gave them my account number, the clerk put it in as a debit rather than a credit, and that didn't change before the end of the work day. So I was on hold with the bank for quite some time to see if I might overdraw my account. A very nice and chatty customer service representative explained that either it would fall off at midnight if the office managed to void it, or if not, and it does overdraw the account, we can dispute both it and the attached fee. Fortunately I am also getting paid tonight or tomorrow morning, so I should be okay if I have to dispute. So while I was freaking out some, I feel a little better.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine was going to go to an appointment tonight and I was going to try to take him, but he cancelled it. On the one hand, that's good, because I could go straight home, as my gas light came on and I only had to drive about a mile or so to get safely home. On the other hand, I was planning to ask to 'borrow' (more like beg) for a roll of toilet paper since mine ran out this morning. Since I didn't go over there, I didn't get it. So I'm like, okay, I have some tissues, I can use them, and just not flush them down the toilet. So imagine my surprise when I did go and yet, despite nothing going down the bowl but a little urine, the thing floods the whole bathroom, and it took me several minutes to plunge it so the water would go down. So now my rug is soaked, I had to mop all that water up, and my evening just isn't going very well. Hence the mantra above.
Ah, First World problems. I really shouldn't whinge about my day when there are so many worse things out there. But writing helps, what can I say? So now I've taken care of everything (and I ate the last of the spaghetti while on hold). I'm going to try to salvage the rest of my time this evening, and hope that tomorrow is a brighter and better day. :)
PS Speaking of worse things, why on earth, if you had treated an Ebola patient and were within the incubation period, would you get on a jetliner? And if I'm reading the timing right, that was from Cleveland to Dallas, after treatment of the man who died in Dallas, so presumably there was a trip from Dallas to Cleveland as well. But the plane trip was the day before the newest diagnosed patient presented with a fever. I just don't get it. If I have a bad cold or the flu, I stay home from the hospital I work in and don't expose my friends.
Why would anyone who had dealt with Ebola go flying to another state during the potential incubation time? Aren't these people supposed to be being monitored? I'm sorry to say, but it looks like the hospital had its head up its arse, given the things the nurses are saying and the fact that two people have caught the disease from the initial patient there. And while I realise that only
four hospitals in the country have the ultra-isolation rooms and intensive training that are good for Ebola, this was still in a major metropolitan area. What happens when people go to the local hospital in smaller places? I have not been in panic mode at all over Ebola like some (
there was a great editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee I saw where the fat guy with the big gulp drink and cigarette and beer is screaming in panic about Ebola when the deaths from obesity, smoking, and drinking are so high), but I am getting concerned, I must admit.