Doctors and Mechanics
I've long thought about how doctors (and particularly surgeons) are like mechanics. When you go to a doctor, he (or she) checks you out, and then tells you "Your gallbladder's no good. We're going to have to take that out." You really have no idea whether he's right or not, you just have to trust him. It's the exact same thing with the mechanic. He (or she) tells you "Your fuel injector's no good. We're going to have to replace that." You really have no idea whether he has any idea of what he's talking about.
I took my car into the mechanic today, and I noticed another similarity. People always call their doctor "my doctor". I always thought that little form of ownership was weird. It's not your doctor, it's a doctor, who happens to see you. Just like he sees 1000 other patients. Well today, I realized I was going to my mechanic. Not just a mechanic who looks at my car, but my mechanic. (I think it's because I trust him - see first paragraph - that makes me confer on him this special title.)
One more thing I noticed today. As a doctor, when a patient tells me their problem I try to get as much information from them as possible. When did the pain start, where exactly is it, what does it feel like, etc. When I told the mechanic my "check engine" light was on, he wasn't interested in any other information. I wanted to tell him how I was rocking the car back and forth, trying to get it out of the snow, when the light came on. He just said "it takes two seconds to hook it up to the machine, and then I'll tell you why the light is on!" It made me think of my job. Imagine the patient trying to tell me about his belly pain. "Doc, it started a few hours after I ate this spicy food." I'd just cut him off and say "Let's get a CT scan and I'll tell you why it hurts!"
In the end, there was nothing really wrong with my car. The computer said there was a "motion sensor" problem, and that's why the light was on. Because I had forced him to listen to my background information, he was able to figure out why the light was on. That way he knew there was no real problem, and could just reset it. (I wonder what would have happened if I would have just left the car there. Would he have taken my car apart trying to found out why there's a "motion sensor" probem?)
Anyway, as you can see the light's now off. One pain is that I need my car to be inspected before next Monday. The computer won't let him give me the inspection sticker if he just reset the light. According to the rules I have to drive 60 or 70 miles before I can get it inspected. So now I have to drive to all-you-can-eat tonight. I have no choice!
I do plan on getting in a quick swim first, though. It's 6:45 now, and the pool opens at 7. Right after blogging I'm heading out to the gym/pool.
In other news I installed a new hard drive today. I must say, I'm very proud of myself.
Right now, I just have it as an extra drive. My plan is to get Norton Ghost, or something like that, and then use it to copy my old drive onto my new drive. Then I'll use the program to make regularly scheduled backups of my new drive onto my old drive. I've never had a good backup system, so I'm trying to get this all organized before I get busy working again.
Before I go, here's a few more snow pictures:
on the way to the wedding. see how empty this "parkway" was!
cleaning my roommates car. my glove is there to give you an idea how high the snow was!
And now, my all time favorite:
WTH?? I know people like to use the treadmill when the weather's bad. But seriously, outdoors??!?
Off to the gym...
I took my car into the mechanic today, and I noticed another similarity. People always call their doctor "my doctor". I always thought that little form of ownership was weird. It's not your doctor, it's a doctor, who happens to see you. Just like he sees 1000 other patients. Well today, I realized I was going to my mechanic. Not just a mechanic who looks at my car, but my mechanic. (I think it's because I trust him - see first paragraph - that makes me confer on him this special title.)
One more thing I noticed today. As a doctor, when a patient tells me their problem I try to get as much information from them as possible. When did the pain start, where exactly is it, what does it feel like, etc. When I told the mechanic my "check engine" light was on, he wasn't interested in any other information. I wanted to tell him how I was rocking the car back and forth, trying to get it out of the snow, when the light came on. He just said "it takes two seconds to hook it up to the machine, and then I'll tell you why the light is on!" It made me think of my job. Imagine the patient trying to tell me about his belly pain. "Doc, it started a few hours after I ate this spicy food." I'd just cut him off and say "Let's get a CT scan and I'll tell you why it hurts!"
In the end, there was nothing really wrong with my car. The computer said there was a "motion sensor" problem, and that's why the light was on. Because I had forced him to listen to my background information, he was able to figure out why the light was on. That way he knew there was no real problem, and could just reset it. (I wonder what would have happened if I would have just left the car there. Would he have taken my car apart trying to found out why there's a "motion sensor" probem?)
Anyway, as you can see the light's now off. One pain is that I need my car to be inspected before next Monday. The computer won't let him give me the inspection sticker if he just reset the light. According to the rules I have to drive 60 or 70 miles before I can get it inspected. So now I have to drive to all-you-can-eat tonight. I have no choice!
I do plan on getting in a quick swim first, though. It's 6:45 now, and the pool opens at 7. Right after blogging I'm heading out to the gym/pool.
In other news I installed a new hard drive today. I must say, I'm very proud of myself.
Right now, I just have it as an extra drive. My plan is to get Norton Ghost, or something like that, and then use it to copy my old drive onto my new drive. Then I'll use the program to make regularly scheduled backups of my new drive onto my old drive. I've never had a good backup system, so I'm trying to get this all organized before I get busy working again.
Before I go, here's a few more snow pictures:
on the way to the wedding. see how empty this "parkway" was!
cleaning my roommates car. my glove is there to give you an idea how high the snow was!
And now, my all time favorite:
WTH?? I know people like to use the treadmill when the weather's bad. But seriously, outdoors??!?
Off to the gym...
posted by Danny on Monday, February 13, 2006
6 Comments:
my dad has the same theory about doctors and mechanics!
That's MY kind of treadmill running!! Glad there was nothing seriously wrong or expensive to be fixed on the car!
When hubby and I were going on a road trip my dad wanted me to take the car to "his" mechanic because he trusted him and so on. I agree that this guy is real good, but way out of the way from our apartment...but we went there and they did a fine job.
Still no snow here in the midwest but looking forward to high teen temps this weekend. I'm glad it's holding off till I have to run a bit farther. :-(
wow. glad your car got "fixed" looks like you got blasted with the snow. It is nice that you still got out and about despite it!
Glad your car wasn't too jacked up. It sucks that you didn't even get to take it out and do donuts first.
I love getting new harddrives! Everytime I get a new one I immediately fill it up with more junk.
I hate treadmills. I think maybe someone felt the same way as me and threw it out into the snow...lol.
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