I have a blizzard-related story from about 40 years ago: [View all]

I was practicing in center city Philadelphia and was already having a bad day. The storm was supposed to start in earnest at about 11:00 AM and all my patients cancelled except this one aggressive asshole who was coming to see me from the far Northeast part of the city. I personally spoke to him and assured him that the procedure wasn’t critical and it could certainly wait for even four months or more. But NOOOOO!…. He in no uncertain angry terms told me that he was leaving at that moment and that we had best better wait for him. Of course we did and an hour later he walked in for what was a five minute appointment.

I told him, angry myself, that I had to now drive in horrendously slippery roads to my home in the far northwest, up curvy hills which were treacherous in good weather. He mumbled some nonsense and I just stormed out of the room and was out the door before he was.

So on the way home, I had to stop for some food because I literally had a near-empty refrigerator and I expected to be snowed in for three or four days. The lines in the supermarket were long of course. In front of me was a middle-aged black couple who looked exhausted. She was dressed in scrubs and he in overalls and they both looked as though they’d just gotten off shift. Meanwhile, I noticed that to our right, there as a tall, older white guy whose basket was on the floor and he was surreptitiously he thought, kicking the basket to cut in line in front of the couple in front of me.

Less than a minute later, the husband looked up and said to the guy, “Hey, don’t you cut in front of us.” The white guy said, “I was already here in front of you.” I saw the eyes widen on the husband and in the instant before he could say anything I piped up, “ The hell you were- I saw what you were doing now I don’t care where you go but it ain’t gonna be in front of us.” The guy picked up his basket and went to another line. The husband turned around and said, “Thanks, man.” I nodded and said, “for your sake and his sake I wasn’t going to just stand there and watch this happen.” He replied, “you get it…I see that.” And I nodded.

There is no question in my mind that I would not have reacted quickly like that except that I was in a horrible mood from that interaction with that asshole patient. Funny how the world works.

Stay safe everyone: I am dealing with possibly 18” and moderate to severe flooding. My cars are parked in a casino garage and I have flex tape at the ready.