Never Fuck Around With A Brooklyn Boy

My Dad was from Brooklyn, He told me, when I was a lad, “Never fuck around with a Brooklyn Boy!”

That is sound advice.

I used to work with a guy who, one time, when his wife was ill, and he was the only income in their two income household, fell behind on some bills. He is an ex street medic, himself, and, well, not in the “shit” business: he did not talk shit, he would not take shit.

So TINS, this one tine he received a call from one creditor, who, once my friend had explained that he, the creditor, would not be receiving money in the near future, and would indeed be paid, once the finances in the household were approaching stabilty, responded (the creditor), “Oh, so you do not think that I can find you?”

My friend paused, and counseled this asshole. “Well, no, I do not think about that issue, one way or the other. But, now that you have brought it up, it is my opinion that, should your luck be exceedingly poor, you just might, indeed, find me. Have a nice day!”

My friend never saw that jackwagon, ever.

Years and years ago, I fell behind on my mortgage. (something about unemployment…) I was in touch with my lender, thinking that absence of surprise would be to my advantage.

Wrong.

I asked about any sort of program for an unemployed soul, whereby I could make partial payments, and have the arrearage added to later payments.

Nope.

Could I miss a couple of payments, and have them added to the tail end of my mortgage? I would continue to pay interest.

Nope.

Well, after buying groceries, and sucklike, gotta tell you that there simply was NOT the money to pay the house payment.

So, one day, a month or two into this niceness, I received a phone call from the mortgage company. The mortgage company asshole on the other end of the line advised me, “We are going to come out to inspect the house.”

“Why are you telling me this? You can drive by any time that you like.”

“Uh, no. We will come in and inspect the house.”

(my response)”Uh, no, you are not. You might make an appointment to come out, when I am home, and it is possible that I might escort one of your personnel to view selected portions of my house, but you are not simply going to ‘come in and inspect the house’. Not going to happen.”

(Mortgage Asshole) “You think you can stop us?”

(me) “Interesting that you should ask that question. Yeah, I know that I can stop you. If you do, indeed, plan to simply waltz in here without my permission, send orphaned bachelors, because whoever you send to walk on in, will be carried out.”

“Is that a threat?”

(me) “Nope, that is a prediction. Let’s consider this: you have just now threatened to have stranger or strangers break into my occupied home, and I have told you that that sort of activity will end poorly, for everyone. You threatened me with a B and E, I told you what my response will be. Your move.”

Oddly, nobody came over to “inspect” the house. What a surprise.

Advertisement

Dressing For Success

One time, my family gathered at a restaurant in Greektown, celebrating one occasion or another. This was in Downtown Da City, and, at this time, there had developed the phenomenon of flash mobs, wherein high spirited youths would apparently spontaneously congregate at one location or another, and in the course of the festivities, civilians, otherwise uninvolved with the group, would be assaulted and robbed.

TDW-Mark II and I spoke of such an event, and the potential for same to develop when our children, and grandchildren were at hand, and decided that this Would Be A Very Bad Thing. We selected our wardrobes accordingly.

It turns out that my son in law, my daughter, and my brother, all feel similarly about this sort of thing, for, when I counseled my sister in law, a very nice (and very naive) soul that, “If a group of folks all enter this restaurant all at once, I will tell you to take the children into the kitchen of the restaurant, and keep them there. Under no circumstances are you, or any of the children, to re enter the dining room, unless one of us physically arrives to escort you out!”

She protested, “But, we aren’t allowed into the kitchen!”

I showed her my wolf grin. “If I tell you to do so, I guarantee that nobody will say a word about you and the children being in the kitchen. The noise will be way, way too loud for you to hear them, if they were to do so!”

She looked puzzled. My son in law explained. “Mary, if Brenda grabs the kids and beelines to the kitchen, two things: do not be left behind, and do NOT get between her and the kitchen door!”

“Why is that?”

“If you are between Brenda and the kitchen door, and one of the ‘celebrants’ starts into the kitchen, he will be shot. Do not be in the way.”

Mary turned back to me. “Why would they try to go into the kitchen?”

I wolf grinned her way, again. “Because I had failed to kill them.”

My son in law chimed in, “I will have missed them, too!”

TDW-Mark II joined in. “Me, most likely I will have run out of ammunition. I do not plan to miss!”

My brother observed, “And, I will police up the stragglers, if any!”

Looking aghast, Mary declaimed, “You cannot believe that anybody would try to hurt somebody at random! I just do not believe such a thing could happen!”

TDW responded, “You just keep on believing that. In the meantime, if The Stretcher Ape tells you to get into the kitchen with the kids, do so right fucking now, pretty please?”

Small Town Policing

So, once upon a time, my bad example led TDW-Mark II (The Darling Wife-Mark Two) to obtain her own concealed pistol license. She spent some time at the range with me, and eventually decided that she would carry a Springfield Armory XD pistol in 9 millimeter.

As these stories of mine develop, she was driving about our little town, and one observant police officer noted that she had a brake light out. He pulled her over to explain to her his observation.

Being a good doobie, she announced as part of her opening conversational gambit, “I am a CPL holder, and I have it here in my purse on the floor of the passenger side of the car!”

He acknowledged this tidbit, and invited her to carefully produce her license, registration, and CPL license itself.

She did so, and the officer walked back to his vehicle to run her plates and license.

He returned, and returned her cards to her. “So,” he asked, “What made you select the XD for your carry gun? My wife just took her CPL class, and is considering her own choice of pistol.”

TDW recounted her experience with my array of pistols, finding them overly large for her hands (Glock, Browning High Power), or not enough ammunition in the magazine for her preference (Revolver, Colt Government Model). “When I picked up the XD in the gunshop, it felt just right in my hand, and when I shot it, I did pretty good with it!”

They soon concluded their conversation, and she returned home, excited about her contact. “We simply had a nice conversation about concealed carry, and women’s choices in pistols, and why this or that pistol might be more or less suitable. It was kind of nice!”

Entry number 4,385 in my Catalog Of Why I Love Small Towns.

SNIPPETS V

STORY THE FIRST

So, TINS, TIWFDASL, just a couple of weeks ago, and, as I entered the room, I was greeted by the younger of the two women seated in the exam room. “There he is! You saved my mother’s life!”

While that certainly was a welcome greeting, I admitted that I was confused. The younger woman, evidently the daughter, filled in the missing pieces. Several weeks previously, she (the narrator) had accompanied her mother (the other soul in the room while we conversed) to a visit to our clinic. She (the mother) had been having a cough of some sort, and I had felt that something in the experience did not sound right. After some assessment in clinic, I had sent the mother to ED, and those worthies had identified a 100% occlusion of one of mom’s coronary arteries (the arteries feeding the heart). Mother had received a stent, and been sent home, and was still among us. Indeed, she was here, today, due to another cough.

Thankfully, today’s cough appeared uncomplicated, and I recommended my usual measures to ameliorate the post nasal drip that seemed to be the source of the cough.

Sometimes I get to think that I really do, from time to time, positively impact people’s lives. That’s nice to think.

STORY, THE SECOND.

Just the other day, I was shopping. Such is the life of a life saving, disease fighting, internet blogging champion (of sorts). As it develops, I am middling tall: 5-7 or so. It turns out that the pasta I was hunting for was on the top shelf, and several other people had purchased some, before me. THAT meant that I could just barely not reach the boxes. I had just realized that I, a tool using animal, could open my knife and extend my reach, tipping over the needed number of boxes, and add same to my cart. That is, I had just realized it, when a gentleman, taller than I, reached up, grabbed a box, and handed it to me, asking me if I needed more.

I requested two more, and thanked him, moving forward with my shopping.

A few aisles over I observed a woman attempting to retrieve an item from a shelf beyond her reach. Before I could respond, another (taller) gentleman stepped up, retrieved the sought item, and handed it to her.

Everyday, plain folks, acts of civility and kindness.

STORY, THE THIRD

We visited my wife’s sister, and her husband, recently. They live in rural Kentucky, and it is rather a change from their previous neighborhood in Metropolis. Indeed, it is a considerable change from my table-flat neighborhood of Un-Named Flyover State.

We arrived, following the directions provided, and noted that the terrain was, well, “hilly” does not really do it justice. As a consequence of that terrain, roadways tend to meander, circling around this hill, or weaving their way up to, over, and down that ridge.

We had spent something like 45 minutes meandering , as the road took us up in elevation, when I noted a sign ahead, announcing “Curves Ahead!”.

I turned to TDW-Mark II, and exclaimed, “Wait, what? THAT was the STRAIGHT part?”

STORY, THE FOURTH: OOPS!

So, TINS, TIWFDASL, and, well, things had come to a slow down. I was working with a physician, on this day at this clinic, and she had never handled an adrenalin autoinjector. We had one handy, and I handed it to her so she could examine it.

I was not quite quick enough, to admonish her to not remove the guard, nor to handle the trigger, on the one end of the device. Therefore, she did, successfully, remove the cap, and then trigger it, sending the needle into one of her fingers, along with some of the adrenalin therein.

The Good News was that, since she was youthful, she promptly withdrew her hand, and therefore only received a fractional dose. The bad news is that adrenalin is a very, very powerful vasoconstrictor, and therefore her affected finger became very, very white, and also burned. Oh, yes, it burned. I cast about, wondering if we had any phentolamine. (an alpha blocker: used to reverse the effects of, among others, adrenalin, when injected into an end capillary bed, Like you would find in your fingers.) Since ours was not an ICU, nor an ED, we did not have phentolamine, nor anything that would serve.

The good news, such as it was, is that due to her youthful age, good health habits (spelled n-o-t s-m-o-k-i-n-g) and the fractional dose of adrenalin she had received, well, after around 20 minutes, her finger regained it’s color, the burning pain faded, and she returned to normal, simply just a bit more shaky than previously.

Subsequently, I obtained, and CONSPICUOUSLY labeled a trainer, specifically intended to harmlessly teach folks how to handle and operate an adrenalin autoinjector. This one has no needle, and no drug.

STORY, THE FIFTH

So, TINS, TIWFDASL….well, okay. I was NOT FDASL, rather, I was off, and, having accomplished all my chores (or, such fraction of “all my chores” as I was going to accomplish that day), my step son (son of TDW-Mark II) called. I had spoken to him about a range day, and he was off work that day, I was off work that day, and it was off to the range we went.

I took my Garand, my .380 pistol, and my 9 mm pistol. Of course, I grabbed the ammo can labeled 30-06 (for the Garand), .380 (surprisingly enough, for the pistol in caliber .380), and the ammo can labeled “9 mm” for, no doubt surprising, the 9 mm pistol.

Now, recall that I have been an RN for, lo, these many yeas. That I have passed uncounted thousands upon thousands of doses of medications, and double checked myself each time, so as to accomplish the “5 rights” of med pass: right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, and at the proper time. This was effected by reading the order, the med container, comparing each with the other, and then, DOING SO AGAIN.

So, we arrived at the range, uncased the Garand, and set up targets. Several dozen rounds later, we placed the rifle in the case, put the ammunition away, and took out the .380 pistol. Fun times.

When it came time to take out, and shoot, the 9 mm pistol, well, I went to the “9 mm” ammo can, opened it, and beheld something like 200 rounds of RIFLE AMMUNITION.

For those in the studio audience who are unfamiliar with Things Firearm, well, 9 mm is a pistol round, and rifle rounds are (a) the wrong size overall, (b) with the wrong projectile (bullet), propelled by (c) an entirely wrong charge of powder, leading to (d) entirely way, way more pressure once the cartridge is set off, for any common pistol to contain, meaning (e) should, somehow, a rifle cartridge be forced into the pistol that I had before me, anyone firing it, should they survive the resulting explosion, would forever after be known as “Lefty”.

Not mentioning the emotional distress I would experience should this pistol, one of my favorites, be reduced to shrapnel.

Sigh. It appears that I had horribly failed the ammunition labeling process, leading to jovial kidding from my step son. Other than that, a good day at the range.

And, the ammunition got re-(and correctly)-labeled.

SNIPPETS

So, TINS, TIWFDASL, and one of the registrars walked back, and informed us, “They say that there is a man out there with a gun!”

My response was to ask, “Is there any reason that you are NOT telling the police this, rather than telling me?”

“Oh, should I call the police?”

“Ah-yep! Right freaking now would be very nice!”

@@@

If you have COPD (emphysema), it is likely not so very helpful to smoke marijuana.

@@@

Me: “So, you’re here for your cough. When is your cough worse?”

Them: “When I cough.”

@@@

Please, after I have explained my plan of care for your cough, which is caused by the irritation caused to your throat by the mucus in your throat, mucus originating in your sinuses, Please do not correct me with the observation that “My mucus is in my throat”.

It is very likely that, when I illuminated and inspected your throat, I DID notice, and, indeed, did comment upon, the tsunami of snot therein. Further, it is likely that every child of Ghawd that I have seen today has, also, snot streams running down their posterior pharynx: their throat.

So, when I explained to you that that mucus is irritating to your throat, since your throat is not well designed to tolerate that event, and that irritation manifests as a sore throat, or a tickle and a cough, or both, did you consider the possibility that the mucus originated, oh, gosh, I don’t know, IN YOUR SINUSES, AS I, INDEED, MENTIONED IN MY DETAILED EXPLANATION OF YOUR MALADY AND MY PLAN TO MANAGE SAME?

So, the nasal steroid that I recommended to you, over the counter, will suppress the inflammation (that I mentioned was the root cause of your woe), and thereby suppress the outpouring of snot which is the proximate cause of your cough, and, therefore, end (or really, really suppress) your cough, which was the ostensible purpose of your visit in the first place.

THE WISDOM ASSOCIATED WITH HINDSIGHT!

So, the other day, My Best Man and I went to the range together. He had recently acquired a Garand that he had not yet shot, so, by way of introduction, I brought mine, along with some other guns that merited airing out. A good time was had by all, as range time = good times. “Group therapy”, so to speak.

My friend is a bit of a raconteur, so the stories never end. He told several tales regarding the CEO of his employer, and these stories revealed a soul steeped in the tradition of leading from the front, and taking care of your people = taking care of business, which equals, in our line of work, taking care of patients. Well. Taking care of them, well.

From him, with our history, these were tales of high, high praise, indeed. (He is the originator of the observation that “Little Mary Sunshine is *NOT* a force multiplier!”)

Eventually, we had shot everything that we had brought along to shoot, and noted that it had clouded up, with occasional rumbles of thunder to draw our attention. Therefore, we safed the weapons, packed up the ammunition, cased the firearms, and paraded to our vehicles.

Once everything was settled into our vehicles, well, the skies opened. We were at my conservation club range, and so I got the opportunity to exit my vehicle, unlock the gate, open the gate, exit the gate, and relock the gate. This, of course, required that I exit my nice, warm, dry truck, wade through the slough that our driveway had become (soaking my feet in the process. I *HATE* cold, wet feet!), fiddle with the lock, fiddle some more with it as I fail to correctly recall the combination, fiddle with the damned thing YET AGAIN, finally opening it. In the downpour.

As my partner exited the gate, I ran to my own truck, entered it, and realized that I had a poncho therein. I donned the poncho, and attempted to close my door.

As it developed, my truck will *NOT* exit park, and move, until the driver’s door is secured. That required me to remove the poncho from the door, and attempt, several times, to close the damned thing. Finally succeeding, I moved my truck through the gate, and re entered the cataract in order to re lock the gate.

It occurred to me, right about then, that donning my poncho (as well as, oh, I dunno, FREAKING BRINGING MY FREAKING FIRE BOOTS) might have gone a long way towards allowing me to open the gate, close the gate, lock the gate, and then return to my vehicle, without being, you might say, soaked to my damned skin.

Ah, the wisdom associated with hindsight!

Small Town Clinics

TINS©, TIWFDASL© in Da Nawth. I was working my weekends off in a rural hospital’s walk in clinic, and, surprisingly, saw folks who walked (and limped!) in to obtain care for their particular maladies. One snowy weekend, a gentleman limped in, with a complaint of bruising and knee pain after rolling his snowmobile.

Once the nurse had finished her interview of our friend, I entered for my share of the proceedings. I introduced myself, and asked him to tell me what happened.

“Well, Doc,” (No, I’m not a doctor, yet folks persist in addressing me as a physician, notwithstanding the fact that every single time I begin an interview, I introduce myself as ‘Hello, I’m Reltney McFee, a Nurse Practitioner. What can I do for you?’), he began, “Yesterday I rolled my snowmobile down an embankment, and it wound up on my leg, pinning me to the road. I rolled it right in front of a DNR officer, and he and one of my buddies rolled it off me. My knee feels pretty sore, even though I can walk on it. I have another bruise, here on my side, I guess from my Sig 365, that I had in my pocket.”

For those in our studio audience who are not “gun guys”, a Sig 365 is a striker fired semi auto 9 mm handgun, with a 10 round detachable box magazine. It is relatively small sized, being just under 6 inches from muzzle to the back of the slide.

I asked him where his pistol was presently, and he responded, “Well, this is in the hospital, so I left it in my car. That’s what the regs regarding my CPL (concealed pistol license) call for.”

I performed my exam, and we chatted about firearms while I did so. I contributed, “My wife is looking at getting another concealed carry pistol, and she has considered the Sig. What do you think about that?”

“Well, I really like my Sig. It carries well, and I am pretty accurate with it. You read about firing pin drag on the primer, and some guys say that the firing pin may break because of that. I haven’t had any problems myself. Just in case, I carry it with the hammer down on an empty chamber.”

TDW bought a Springfield Armory Hellcat. And loves it!

Another, tangentially related, small town story. Several weeks ago TDW-Mark II and I went on vacation. We set our camper up, and decided that this night was a good choice for pizza. We went to the local pizza place, placed our order, and settled in to wait. It was getting on towards dusk, and I noticed that, as I turned on the lights, there did not appear to be any illumination from the passenger side tail light. Since I did not feel any particular desire to explain to Officer Friendly how this light might have failed, nor my plans to remedy this failure (let alone the conversation that begins, “Well, officer, you see, I have my CPL, and my sidearm is on my right hip. How would you like to proceed?” I have had a couple of friendly roadside conversations about carry sidearm choice, but, wouldn’t it be nice to not encounter Officer Friendly as the traffic stop just after he received a soliloquy regarding his mother’s poor life choices?)

So, the next day, TDW and I set off on our day, and detoured to the Rural Town Truck Dealership. I explained my need to the service advisor, and he said that one of the mechanics could set me right, once the present job was complete.

Cool by me.

I settled in for a spell of a wait, and soon met the mechanic, who identified my bulb type, and led me to the parts counter, there to pay for my bulb.

I typically wear a ball cap, and this one is from Freedom Munitions (no payola, simply a satisfied customer). The parts guy asked me if I worked there, and a conversation about The Ammo Drought ensued. We chatted about caliber, about carry choices, and about setting ammunition by for a “rainy day”.

At the end of the chat, my taillight was repaired, I was NOT charged for the mechanic’s time (despite the fact that I asked what I owed for his time!)

The moral of the story is that, as Commander Zero (http://www.commanderzero.com/)often notes, there are Like Minded Individuals all over the place, if you look carefully.

Self Defense Cost Benefit Analysis

TINS, TIWFDASL, I had caught the detail, and the happy go lucky soul with whom I was working that particular night on Da City’s EMS, decided it was time to ask me about my ballistic vest. Now, it was not any sort of secret among members of the department that I wore a kevlar vest. After all, in Those Days, Da City was known as “The Murder City”, and not without some justification. We chatted about the threat profile we confronted (although, the chat went along the lines of “What? Do you expect to be shot?” My response was “Nope. I wear this for those scenes on which I do NOT anticipate being shot. On those on which I anticipate being shot, I will simply refuse the run until the police have secured the scene!”)

This guy, no doubt thinking himself clever, pronounced, “Well, if the scene goes to shit, I’ll run out, and you follow me! That way, your vest will protect both of us!”

My rejoinder was, “In that case, you had best be certain that you do not slow down, lest you have my bootprints all up your back, as I run you over!”

Later, my partner and I discussed the vest and EMS. He asked, non-snarkily, how I had come to the conclusion that the vest was the way to go.

I noted that the vest cost me about as much as a Colt Government Model in .45 acp.

It was not a felony to wear the vest concealed, in contrast to the Colt.

It was not a black letter violation of department regulations, in contrast to the Colt (or any other firearm).

The vest would not inadvertently discharge, in contrast to the Colt, where that was a potential problem.

The vest was not going to drop out of my pocket, on the floor of the ED, in front of Ghawd and Everybody, in contrast to a handgun which another of our peers had won the opportunity to explain.

I would not in any circumstance hesitate to use the vest, in contrast to the Colt.

Finally, I was interested in meeting the soul who could relieve me of the vest, and hurt me with it, again, in contrast to the Colt.

So, I wore a vest. Others, or so I was told, elected to wear a firearm.

Retail Pharmacy, So To Speak

A long, long time ago, in an ER very far away, I was a night shift ER nurse.

Surprise!

So, TINS, TIWFDASL, well, uh, not so much. I and the other nurses were capitalizing upon a slow moment and gabbing away at the nursing station, when one of our security officers ran in (literally!) and announced that “We got a shooting in the driveway!”

Having heard no loud noises, I was puzzled, but, these officers were not prone to overstatement, so I asked a couple of the other nurses to grab a cart, I grabbed some gloves, and off we went to the ambulance entrance.

Now, by way of background, this was in the early days of the crack cocaine epidemic (although, how one contracted “crack cocaine” from another person without active, willful action on one’s own part is unclear to me). A couple of blocks away was what might be considered to be an open air drug market. Folks (commonly suburbanites) would drive up, engage a soul in conversation and arrange a transaction, another confederate would be summoned and the exchange would take place, money from the buyer, drugs from the vendor.

We were told that in this particular transaction, the named patient, seated in the back seat of this two door vehicle, appeared to believe that he was the designated quality control inspector. Indeed, the tale appeared to paint this fellow as believing that he ought to remonstrate with the vendor regarding the unsatisfactory nature of the product that had been delivered.

As the History Of Present Illness unraveled, the vendor did not seem to have fully committed to a “Zero Product Defect”, nor a “Every Customer Fully Satisfied, Every-time” merchandising philosophy, as, when the shootee indicated that he, the shootee, intended to enforce his product quality complaint by with holding payment, he, the vendor, is reported to have produced a handgun, and shot the shootee.

Bad times ensued. The driver, unsurprisingly, panicked, and sped away. A few blocks later, he, the driver, noticed our bright “Emergency” sign, and pulled in, bellowing an incomprehensible narrative.

So, security cleared the car of the terrorized goslings, and I (and security, and my nursing partners) tried to extricate Mr. Beenshot’s inert form out of the rear seat of a coupe, indeed, a compact coupe.

It only closely resembled a cluster fuck. For a while.

We maneuvered Mr. Beenshot into our code room, and commenced to resuscitating. Before things had progressed very far, our doc had determined that this guy had a “STAT!” transfer in his very near future, and so the nursing supervisor, who had come at a run upon our paging a Code Blue overhead, peeled off to arrange with our transfer ambulance service that they produce a crew and truck RFQ (Right F*%king Quick), and then phoned TBTCIDC to provide them a heads up.

We eventually got him stabilized (kind of, sort of), and the physician had a detailed chat with TBTCIDC senior physician. Off Mr. Beenshot went, and we sought out the entourage, intending to elicit more history, more circumstances leading up to the shooting, more pretty nearly anything, so we could provide that information to TBTCIDC, as well as, well, notify next of kin.

Alas, the posse had unassed our waiting room sometime while we were distracted, trying to save the life of their friend, I mean, co conspirator.

“Doc, am I gonna die?”

 

So, TINS©, TIWFDASL©, and we caught a run for a shooting. Being full of excitement, because, gosh, THIS was an opportunity to, ya know, SAVE A LIFE!, we coded our happy way to the scene, there to meet the police. They pointed out the named patient, who, to our surprise, was NOT hovering at death’s door. Rather, he had sustained a small caliber gsw to his lower leg, had intact pulses downstream of his injury, and no evident bony injury. We walked him to the rig, buckled everybody in, and set out for TSBTCIDC.

We had dressed and bandaged his wound, and I was busily documenting same, along with the vitals we had obtained, when he asked me a question.

“Doc, am I gonna die?”

I looked at him, and shook my head no.

“Doc, really, am I gonna die?”

Sighing, I tucked my pen away, and addressed him. “No, you are not gonna die from this wound. You may not even be admitted to the hospital overnight.”

Hearing no further inquiry, I turned, again, to my charting. But, it was not to be.

“Doc, really, I can handle it. Am I gonna die?”

Some people, and one track minds. “Sir, you are not gonna die today, and not from that wound. Really, I’ve seen hundreds of shootings, and your injury is in no way life threatening. Okay?”

He nodded, as if in understanding. I (attempted to) return to my charting.

Shortly, he spake again. “Doc, really, I can handle it. Tell it to me straight, Doc. Am I gonna die?”

I was about over the “Doc” idiocy. “Sir, I’m not a physician, I’m a medic. And, do you really think you can handle the truth?”

“Yeah, I can handle it! Give it to me straight?”

“You sure you can handle the hard, icy, no bullshit truth? Because, if you are really, really sure, I’ll tell it to you straight! No punches pulled, no bullshit, no evasions. Is that really what you are looking for?”

“Yeah, Doc! Tell me the real deal!”

(Ah, well, it appeared that ‘listening to and following directions” was not at the very forefront of my friend’s skill set.) I rubbed my forehead, as if confronting some weighty ethical dilemma. I looked skyward, as if seeking Divine Guidance. I gazed at him, and delivered my response.

“Ok, if you’re sure you can handle it, here’s the real deal! You are not going to die! Do you know why, you are not going to die?”

“No, Doc, why?”

“Because you are not going to live that long!”

The rest of the trip was in blessed silence, as he endeavored to make sense of my revelation.