Urgent Care

One guy wearing a Xenon Cafe T-shirt had sliced his finger instead of lettuce; a hairdresser had an ice pack on top of her head; an elderly gentleman claiming to have no blood pressure had had a seizure in the parking lot got wheeled in by a Good Smaritan, a young man with severely short hair on the sides and a long wisp on top of his head, dressed in Gothware -- he didn't know the man --he was helping out; a huge guy in his twenties in a football jersey and baggy jeans just moved to Eugene and needed a prescription for his meds; a father sat with his two boys, one whom had taken a spill.

The cafe guy waited four hours to get called in. The football jersey guy did, too. The guy with the seizure got right in. I never saw the hairdresser get called. After three hours of the most patience I've ever seen in two little boys, the father and his boys went in.

I waited three and a half hours.

Snug bit my hand today. His paws were bandaged after having foxtails removed yesterday and while I removed the bandages from his front paw, he cried a little. I continued, being as careful as I know how, when I must have done something that really hurt him and he chomped on my right hand. (It's not stopping me from blogging.)

I decided I'd better get a tetanus shot.

I hadn't been to Peace Health's Urgent Care Center before. I've heard that McDonald's and other fast food restaurants make their restaurants unappealing to sit in so that people will move along, not stay long.

I thought the same strategy was at work in the Urgent Care Center.

How do they do it? I didn't see green filters in front of the lights. The walls weren't painted green. The chairs were all rust colored.

But the dim lighting combined with the patients holding their arms, keeping children quiet, bent over in wheelchairs, and suffering from chest pains gave the cramped lobby a green sheen.

I got called in. The doctor was nice. The nurse was nice. I got my shot. The nurse cleaned my wounds. She put band aids on them.

I came home.

Oh! When I realized my wait would be long I strolled to a local book store. I bought Bleak House. I tried to read. I had trouble concentrating. My wait was long enough though.

With a clear head, I might have finished it.