I'm on call this week, which is why there was no Friday Night drinking thread last night.

[Aristus]

I'll just have to plow through as best I can. Hope to see you all next Friday for a collegial drink and talk session.

I love you all...

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Something to look forward to!

🍸🍸😎

[Aristus]

3. As long as you're there, Madame...

[True Dough]

2. Listen, bud, you get one more chance

and then we'll find a replacement Friday night drinker to keep us entertained!




Dont' work too hard, Aristus!

[Aristus]

4. I will not blow that chance.

I'll be there, cocktail shaker in hand...

[cilla4progress]

5. We missed ya!

[Aristus]

6. Missed you , too!

I had two calls last night. As usual, both of them involved issues that could have been dealt with during clinic hours. I guess there are people out there who say to themselves: "Let's see whose Friday night I can screw up!"

At least there were no middle-of-the-night calls. Those really blow...

[Deuxcents]

7. You were missed..I kept checking to see if you were just late..

[Aristus]

8. Aw, that's sweet!

Didn't mean to disappoint you. I'll be back behind the bar next Friday.

[Sneederbunk]

9. And in your honor, many of us did last call.

[Aristus]

10. Was that the 'Favorite Martini' thread?

I added my own favorite.

[highplainsdem]

11. I was a bit worried, but I told myself you and your wife were probably just enjoying

a nice evening out.

[Aristus]

13. A night in, actually; as usual.

Tea and "The Durrells In Corfu."

[highplainsdem]

16. I've never watched that. Will have to check it out. Just discovered it is on Prime Video,

which I have.

[Aristus]

18. The Durrell children are insufferable, all but the youngest boy.

We almost stopped watching the show after the first couple of episodes, they were so awful. Stick with it; the show gets much, much better.

[highplainsdem]

23. Thanks for the warning, and the advice to keep watching. The reviews I saw were good.

I have to admit I watch very little TV. Almost everything I watch on TV these days is news or YouTube videos. And I'm paying for three streaming services besides Prime Video: Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock Premium which I pay for to watch Yellowstone, though after months I still haven't gotten past episode 1 of season 2...and I'm a huge Kevin Costner fan, or used to be. Don't have Netflix any more since I almost never watched anything on it (I did watch the first Bridgerton series, was curious about it since I'd liked Georgette Heyer's Regency novels when I was a kid, but I didn't bother with the second series). And I dropped cable years ago (I get about 50 channels OTA) since I wasn't watching much besides news, even with hundreds of channels to choose from, and when I got the premium channels I didn't watch those either. My siblings and their spouses all binge-watch TV.

EDIT: I have Roku, too, so lots of free streaming, but I just don't watch that either, usually, except for an occasional movie or documentary.

[Callalily]

12. I'll just have to hoist one in your honor!

[Aristus]

14. Looks yummy!

What do you have there?

[Callalily]

26. A nice glass of pinot noir. YUM!

[Aristus]

27. Definitely.

My favorite Pinots noir have plummy and woody notes.

[3catwoman3]

15. Years ago, in my first private practice job after getting out of...

...the Air Force, I once had a mom call the answering service at 3 AM. The reason for the call - she wanted to know if she could make an appointment for her child!

As politely as I could, I told her I was speaking to her from my kitchen at home and did not have access to the appointment schedule at home. She was going to have to wait until the office opened.

I do believe some people think being on call means we stay at the office all night just waiting to hear from them.

In the days before cell phones, being on call was a real pain in the ass. If I wanted to go somewhere, I would have to haul around a bag of quarters to use in pay phones, find a pay phone, use one quarter to call the service to get the message, and then use another to call the family.

It was easier just to stay home.

[Aristus]

17. That's exactly my perception, as well.

We really need someone who can do that: nurse triage. Some experienced, battle-hardened RN to sit at a desk during the off-hours, and just read, surf the net, whatever, and then take calls from people who wait until 3am to want to make an appointment, or who just "have some questions."

Because no matter how often I tell the 3am-ers that the call line is for emergencies only, I still get those calls when I'm trying to rest up for another day of clinic: "Yeah, can you fill my medication for me?" - "The pharmacies are closed. You won't be able to get it until office hours, anyway." - "But I'm out of my meds!" - "How long have you been out?" - "Oh...about three weeks..."

[In_The_Wind]

19. I have been at war with my wireless connection.

See ya around.

[Aristus]

21. Looks like you won the latest battle, thank goodness.

I was starting to worry about you. I missed you...

[In_The_Wind]

24. I didn't know how much I was depending on it.

I missed you too.

[Aristus]

25. Here's to fighting the good fight.

And winning the war...

[debm55]

20. Go to see you are okay, Aristus.

[Aristus]

22. Oh, that's nice, thank you.

Just fine. None the worse for wear.

Yesterday was a strange day in clinic. Nearly every patient scheduled for the morning session no-showed. But there was a rush of people walking in hoping for a stand-by appointment. So I was kept pretty busy. Then, in the afternoon, more no-shows from the scheduled patients, but almost no stand-bys to take their places.

It was like:

Friday morning - "Got to get to the clinic before they close for the weekend!..."

Friday afternoon - "Eh, I'm blowing off my appointment and starting the weekend early!..."

[malthaussen]

28. Oh, good. Well, bad, but some of us wondered where you were... n/t