I don’t deserve it, I guess, but I take it. I get special status, special service now and then. Well, mostly whenever I ask for it actually. And I do ask but I limit the requests as much as possible.

As you know, we live remote. We live at least four hours from Campbell River (total elapsed time) and use a small boat, a 4×4 and a ferry to get there. No one knows that, of course, unless I tell them. So sometimes I do.

“I need a piece of glass cut, please. 33 inches by 36.5 inches, single pane, normal thickness.”

“No problem, sir. Pick it up Thursday.”

“OK. But I can’t get back in on Thursday. I live remote and only get in every two weeks or so. Could you hold it for two weeks?”

“Oh, hell. Come back in an hour. I’ll cut it myself at lunch instead of putting it in the system. How’s that?”

And that kind of consideration shows up a lot. If the service thinks you live in town, you are put at the end of a slow line. But, if they know that it is a long trek you made, most people try to make it work for you. This is small-town living at it’s best.

But it is not limited, really, to small towns. Even medium-sized Nanaimo companies will alter their ‘usual ways’ if they know that you are ‘up-island’ and just passing through. They know the logistics and try to accommodate the whole of the North Island and the smaller islands most of the time.

Not so Vancouver. Not so Victoria. And, especially not so the health care system. They couldn’t care less. No pretense even.

I am not complaining. Not really. OK, maybe a smidge. But I chose to be here. I can live with some of the inconveniences that brings. And I usually do so without complaining but that is because usually careful planning makes it all work and, when it doesn’t we seem to receive the kindness of strangers most of the time. I write about the complaints of being de-personalized in the big cities and health care only because it is so.

The smaller the town, the more considerate the people are as a general rule. The health care system – even the local one – is a glaring exception. Our doctors/hospitals/clinics don’t even think of changing their routine even if it is easier or works better for them. They don’t want us to get spoiled into thinking they care, I guess.

Or, maybe, they just refuse to think.

A month ago I had to see the doctor. “I am sorry but on that day the doctor does walk-ins only. No appointments. Come in and wait.”

“Well, I can do that for a couple of hours but I live remote and, if he is late, I have to go home in the dark in a small boat in the winter. If I come in early, will I get in before say, 3:00?”

“Sorry. Walk-in is walk-in. No appointments means no appointments.” The conversation was over. So, I didn’t go.

Last week we were in town on the same day of the week and so I went in to the walk-in. I got there about noon and thought I had a good chance to see this God before three. “Sorry, this is walk-in day and your doctor is on appointments only. Dr. Smith is doing the walk-in today. Wanna see Dr. Smith?”

“Well, you denied me last time because it was walk-in and now you are denying me again because it is a different doctor. Do you have a rule book or something? Or is it just a crap-shoot for health care you have going on here?”

That didn’t sit well with her so she put her head down and then dialed a number on the phone. Security, perhaps. Since I needed to talk with my own God, I chose to leave again.

Is it just me or does the expression, ‘HEALTH CARE SYSTEM’ irritate? Shouldn’t it be called the ‘PHARMACEUTICAL DRIVE-THROUGH’ or ‘THE MEDICINE MONOPOLY’?

We are very fortunate. We enjoy special status amongst most of the local and nearby service providers. And decent human-being status just about everywhere else. We are very thankful. Really. I guess it is the exception that proves the rule and, for that, we have to hand the exceptionally poor service award to the health care system in general and my doctor in particular.