Odds and Sods

One wonders what goes through people's minds before they make a trek into the clinic.
Little Old Lady: I don't feel well, I've been sick all day, since early this morning.
Me: Why didn't you come in sooner?
LOL: I didn't want to bother you.
Time: 1:15 AM.
Some folks are quite up front, they see the condition of the waiting room (packed) during the day, so defer the visit until evening when there would be only 1 or 2 nurses seeing a room full of patients, instead of 7 or 8 nurses. At least they've had dinner, hit the store, watched t.v.....
The other ones that get me, and whom I won't take as seriously, are the ones who come in complaining of this horrible stomach pain (usually from too much alcohol or fatty food.). Then they ignore me while they are texting or listening to iPods. You've just earned yourself 2 Tylenol plains with a Maalox chaser. Next!
I flew out last Monday to come home. Ordinarily, I don't find the puddle jumpers are plagued with the same problems as the big airliners, things like over booking and such. Except for the odd plane crash, they have been almost a pleasure to take, save for my fear of flying of course. So Monday, we were told we would have to make an unscheduled stop at Island Lake, about a 1/2 hour toot away. Apparently, their last flight had way too many confirmed passengers, and not enough seats. Their last flight is a Dash 8, it carries around 40 passengers. So another airline practicing overbooking. We arrived, had to refuel , and then this crowd of frozen onions clambered onto the plane. And then it hit our pilot and co-pilot. We didn't have enough seats. Fourteen people, twelve seats. Count again. Fourteen people, twelve seats. Another count, and the numbers miraculously did not change. And they are looking at their sheets, "But it says we have 14 seats!" I don't know about you, but most airline pilots I have gotten to know, know their aircraft inside and out, so needless to say, it did not inspire confidence in me when they still counted a 4th time. And no, the ratio of passengers to seats had not changed. Um, maybe the pilot and co-pilot's seats were in on that number? I asked one of the seatless passengers if she knew how to fly the plane. The pilot was not amused. One passenger volunteered to leave the next morning, then our perplexed pilot had to go back to the sardine tin to figure out that another passenger was on stand by. He got the boot as well, we were on our way, and were over 2 hours late to our destination. Only Air Canada, you say? Bureaucracy and ineptitude know no bounds. But at least they could fly the plane. This time.
Cheers!