The other day I was scanning, as I often do, the schedule at work. I do this frequently. Sometimes out of boredom when I don\u2019t have anything else immediate to do, sometimes out of a sense of anticipation. This does backfire occasionally since one of the best ways I know to get my blood pressure elevated and get my weasels in a snit is to scan the books and realize that I\u2019ve got a vicious dog or an irritating client coming in the next day\/week\/whatever.
\nBut on Monday I was scanning Tuesday\u2019s appointments and I saw a familiar last name, S, on my book for the middle of the afternoon. Now S is a fairly common last name, but I clicked the appointment open anyway just to see if the S that was coming in was the S that I hoped it was. To my great pleasure, the appointment notes read \u201cM & G S. New clients with two dogs. Exam for dental.\u201d
\nThey followed me. Two of my very favorite-est clients from Five Corners, who also just happen to live in Renton, called around to practices in Renton to find where I had moved so they could keep bringing their dogs to me. I\u2019m honored! I\u2019m thrilled!
\nI\u2019m just a wee bit anxious too, since while I love these people to death, I\u2019m just skirting the outside boundary of the noncompete clause in my contract with VCA and if someone in VCA management chose to get really snitty about it\u2026\u2026 Well they\u2019d have no legal recourse, I am practicing outside the boundaries of my noncompete clause, but I\u2019m only just outside the boundary and VCA could make my life pretty miserable if they chose while it gets fought out that I\u2019m really not violating my contract. And there are some people, most notably the regional manager for western Washington who can be a pissant little bitch when he feels like it, who might chose to contest it. Mr. and Mrs. S are superb clients (and they went to a lot of effort to find me! \ud83d\ude42 \ud83d\ude42 \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n
And last week I was sitting at my desk writing charts or something such when my cell phone went off with a sound like the trump of doom. Here comments will probably be made, especially by my loving husband, about my habit of keeping my phone\u2019s ringer volume so high that it can be heard in the next county. I usually counter with the fact that if the ringer is turned down I can\u2019t hear it when I\u2019m in an area with a lot of background noise so I\u2019m willing to put up with being scared half to death and dropping things when the phone rings and I\u2019m not in an area with a lot of background noise.
\nAnyway, once my heart rate dropped into a more normal range I picked up the phone. On the line was the manager at Five Corners. She was calling on behalf of one of my clients over there, a couple I\u2019d been dealing with for the entire time I\u2019d been at Five Corners. Turns out the missus, Mrs. V, had died recently and her husband had come in to let everyone know when the funeral was. Mr. H had asked the manager specifically to get in contact with me to let me know when and where the funeral was to be held so I could come. It would mean a lot to him, he said, if I showed up.
\nI was in a bit of a quandary over this one. Mrs. V had had a diabetic cat and an elderly dachshund that I had treated for several years and when Heidi and Romeo died she and Mr. H got a pair of, as they have turned out to be, remarkably well tempered but extremely overweight long haired dachshunds. These dogs are more spoiled than any child I ever hope to see. The male had a little fleece lined leather bomber jacket with his name embroidered on one of the lapels and \u201cHARLEY DAVIDSON\u201d across the back. The female had little pink frilly (frink, pilly?) bonnets and her own leather jacket. These dogs had their own room, lavish birthday parties, they were with the owners ALL the time and when situations dictated that they couldn\u2019t be with the dogs, they\u2019d bring them in for boarding (even if it was just for a trip to the grocery store).
\nIn short, Mrs. V and Mr. H were good clients, seriously on the eccentric side, but absolutely dedicated to their pets and they ADORED me.
\nIt would mean a lot if I would show up to the funeral.
\nErg.
\nI mean, first of all, I don\u2019t do funerals. Especially Catholic funerals where open caskets are likely and much pontificating about the merciful nature of the three-fold God is likely to happen. Give me a nice quiet memorial service, or a racous wake. I\u2019ll help celebrate the life of the departed, but don\u2019t trot me by a corpse and expect me to be enthusiastic about it.
\nBut this was a request from a little old man who had just lost the love of his life and had little to hold him at this point besides his dogs. And while I really don\u2019t do funerals and Catholic funerals besides, I really did feel like I should try to make an appearance.<\/p>\n
As it turned out I wasn\u2019t able to get there anyway. Other considerations in my schedule kept me from going, but I did send appropriate condolences.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s weird to be in a position where people are seeking me out this aggressively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other day I was scanning, as I often do, the schedule at work. I do this frequently. Sometimes out of boredom when I don\u2019t have anything else immediate to do, sometimes out of a sense of anticipation. This does backfire occasionally since one of the best ways I know to get my blood pressure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-margarets-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}