aaaand GO!

 today began with mr smear limping out of his bedroom with a very sore ankle. that resulted in me leaving the office around noon* to take him to the clinic, but our clinic was closed already at 1.30pm and the closest one available (fortunately pretty close) was only opening at 3pm. so i got a little work done in the interrim.

* on the way to the office i went to the clinic to submit a form for gd, but only she could submit it. i had to talk her through the process, and i'm still impressed at both of us for getting through it. the office experience itself was a mess**.

** i was nervous about how things would be with my boss, but things seemed fine. then we had a big meeting (all four of us devs and him) and it was really frustrating because nobody would let anybody else speak, but by the end i felt like some semblance of sanity had finally been restored. now i'm pissed off about code reviews and forming a theory about how and why PRs need to be prioritized.

the clinic we went to is in a building that's under massive construction, and mr smear was hobbling along using one of gd's walking sticks. it was a long hobble from the taxi to the elevator, and then we had to navigate stairs down to the reception, and then go see a doctor, and then go all the way back to the elevator to get x-rays done.

mr smear let a couple of deadly ones go in the waiting room, i was mortified. and one of them was exceptionally loud, too. everyone else was being very polite, while i died a little inside.

the x-rays were quick, and we then headed back down to the doctor, who informed us that it doesn't look like there's a break but that there's something worrying he wants a specialist to take a look at. he then sent us to the nurses' offices to get mr smear's foot bound.

a couple of us waited for half an hour (mr smear and i had a nice chat with another ex-saffer) before being told that we needed to take a number. we then had to wait another half an hour until they called our two numbers in quick succession, and by the time mr smear managed to get to the door they refused to open it.

i - was - fuming.

when they finally called the next number, five minutes later, i had to put on a mask of patience so as not to interfere with mr smear's treatment, and that was hard.

anyway.

on the way out i ordered a taxi, and while we waited i pitifully tried to be helpful to some old ladies who were trying to hail a cab. the weather was pretty unpleasant, and it's simply not possible to hail a cab without an app these days; that's really unfair for older people... i'm now trying to get in touch with the app's product team to convince them to make it possible to order a cab for someone else when you've already got one on its way to take you.

i got mr smear into the apartment, then almost immediately turned around to walk to the pharmacy to pick up some emergency supplies.

the first thing that irritated me was trying to dispose of used medical containers: i was directed to the pharmacists, and the pharmacist i spoke to insisted that they don't handle that and that i should just throw it away, which is ridiculous and clearly wrong. then, after gathering the stuff i needed, i found myself standing in a long queue, with only one cashier and two out of the three self-service kiosks out of order.

i don't know if i waited in the queue for five minutes, or ten, but as i got to second-in-line a random woman with a coughing kid signed to me that she was next :/

whatever. i just wanted to get out of there.

just then, the second cashier arrived (she'd been putting prices on things), and hurriedly scanned my items. i was a bit taken aback by how expensive it was, but by then i just wanted to go and i tried to make sense of the numbers... but while packing, we realized she'd mistook something someone else had left on the counter for mine and scanned it. so then i had to wait another three minutes while she reversed the charge...

the final candle lighting for chanukah was mostly smooth - mr smear was pushing my buttons a little, but he'd been otherwise really well-behaved for most of the day - and dinner was delicious, showertime was complicated (mr smear can't get his foot wet), we finished re-reading the magic pudding and, as i said good night to him, we agreed that it's a brilliant book highly deserving of a modern reboot.

today was a Very Long Day, and my brain hurts. god knows what tomorrow will bring, but we're finally meeting with gd's dentist in the afternoon so here's wishing us luck 🤞