1/22/05--Dad visits a "doctor"

So I'm up here in Orlando, visiting Mare & Lair--ya know, America's couple.  So last night we're eating a fairly mediocre Mexican dinner when Mom asks me if I watched the GW's innuagral address to the country (as if).  She proceeds to tell me that dad didn't get to watch it, because he had...ahem...an appointment.
Well, at this point I turned my head to dad for his version of the story and it goes.....
apparently he had an appointment with his podiatrist.  Now, my father has a condition called naropathy, which affects the nerve endings in his feet.  So he's at the doctors office, for his scheduled visit.  Now mind you, dad is a died in the wool republican, and I know he had to be timing this visit down to the last second so that he could get home and watch the speech.  So natually the doctor has him sitting in the waiting room (no pun intended here) cooling his heels.  Finally he gets called in to the examination room and is looked at "by an assistant".  He then proceeds to sit for awhile longer, trying to decide if he's going to report the guy to the AMA or the FBI.
Finally the doctor walks into the room, unaware that he's about to be hit by one profoundly upset republican, who by this time had to realize that he had missed the speech.  Then, to compound his error, the doctor asks my dad how his day is going.
Big mistake.  Dad says, not word for word, but essentially:

"How's my day?  I'll tell you.  The president of the United States and the chief justice of the supreme court--who by the way is battling thyroid cancer--had an appointment today with the entire country, and they managed to make it on time, but I was the only appointment you had at this time today---and you were late."

Well, after a whole lot of stammering, the doctor assures my father that nothing of this sort will never, ever happen again.  Once more, a mistake.  Dad replies:

"Well, I've decided that I'm going to help you on my next visit.  You see, I'm going to make an appointment, and then not show up.  That way, you'll be able to make up any time that you may have lost on another patient--so you'll be on time for the rest of your patients."

Touche' dad.  Fight the power baby.

Later,
Jeff