Winter in Northern Illinois is predictable but also variable. The temperatures have been relatively mild for the past few weeks, hovering in the thirties. Then, we experienced a sudden temperature change upward into the sixties, and this week, we enjoyed three days in the seventies. Today, we are back into the twenties to low thirties, and not liking it one bit. Suddenly the winter coats are feeling too light. Why is it that after acclimating to winter temps which then flare into the seventies that we lose our winter hardened bodies and immediately hate the cold? It never ceases to amaze me at how these rapid temperature changes make me despise cold weather, and yearn for life in a southern state.
On a different topic but on the same theme my lovely wife, whom I often call Lovely, whipped me into driving her to the drug store to pick up a prescription that her doctor ordered for her this morning during a phone call. She couldn’t nor wouldn’t understand my argument the the pills are not available yet because I hadn’t gotten a text message telling me to pick the prescription up. I’ve learned over the years that arguments of this kind are not worth the effort, and drove her to the drug store immediately. The druggist had no record or notification of a new prescription. We came home and went for a walk in the cold chilly 29 degree day with a 16-20 mph wind. It was brisk to say the least.
I recall the time not too many years ago when getting a drug from a doctor required a visit to his office and sometimes waiting for hours to get a handwritten scrip, then having to carry that scrip to a druggist and wait in line for him to accept it and tell you what day he would have it ready for you. How quickly we forgot those days! Now, we are setting a new bar for speed by calling doctors instead of making visits, who then enters the order for the drug online and directs it to the pharmacy of your choice. Lovely actually expected the pills to be waiting for her by the time we got there. It was only twenty minutes from the time she spoke to the doctor to the time we showed up at the Pharmacy. The next step will be tele-transportation of the pills from the druggist to our home.
We don’t realize it but speed is slowly creeping into every aspect of our lives and making us dependent. The one factor that we can’t always count on is the human element that remaiins in the process. Data moves at the speed of light once it is input and sent, but the human element of data entry, quality control checks, etcetera are all human controlled and we move more like the speed of snails and not like the speed of electrons. How quickly we forget what the processes of life were like as compared to what they are today.
This whole speed thing makes me wonder how men are evolving and adapting. How are our brains and bodies changing to keep up with the need for speed?
Filed under: Biography, family, health care | Tagged: Prescriptions | 2 Comments »
