Today hubby and I went to the doctor. Kerri is fully recovered from her bronchitis, but I am still sick and hubby started to have symptoms, so we had him checked out too. When we arrived, we took off our snow boots and left them on the mat. As I checked us in, we noticed a four year old boy pull the fire alarm. His mother was not paying attention to him. It happened so fast that the 20+ people in the waiting room did not have time to stop him either.
All of a sudden, a piercing alarm started going off. But we did not evacuate, since we knew it was a false alarm. What we did not know was how to turn it off, or that it also set off every single fire alarm in the entire mall complex, including a major grocery store, a major pharmacy, and many, many other businesses. Everyone in those locales thought it was the real thing, and the entire complex was evacuated outside into the cold, snowy day.
Within minutes, a huge firetruck came by and three firemen came in. The mother explained what happened, and the biggest fireman told the boy they were going to have to take him now. I think that poor boy will never pull a fire alarm again. What the firemen could not do was turn the alarm off. No one knew where in the entire complex the main switch was. So for the next 30 minutes or so, we had to put up with a very loud and ear shattering alarm.
In the meantime, another little boy came in with his nanny. Again, the nanny was not paying attention to him, and we watched him purposely start messing with everyone's boots. When I saw him kick my husband's boots over and start jumping on my new snow boots, I had enough. In my meanest "Mommy" voice, I asked him to "please stop jumping on my boots". The nanny finally paid attention and dragged him to a chair. He just got up and walked away and went back to my boots. I raised an eyebrow at the nanny and cleared my throat. She grabbed him again and told him she was putting him on time out and tying him to the chair with string. He said, "Oh yeah? With what string?". I was ready to volunteer to go buy some! Just kidding. OK, maybe not.
By the time we got inside, we were deaf from the alarm. You would think we were upset, but not us...our sense of humor lets us have fun with situations. Hubby got put on antibiotics. I got new prescriptions. Our doctor, who always jokes around with us, told me it was too much work to write a prescription for me. So I told him that "considering I had to listen to an annoying alarm for half an hour...", and before I could finish the sentence he was writing away on his tablet and laughing. We have a great rapport with him, and when we find a doctor we like, we stick with him or her. As a matter of fact, he hugs Kerri every time she comes in to visit (and I know he does not have this same rapport with his other patients, I have seen him in action and he is pretty serious and professional). But Kerri won him over with her personality, and oh yeah, she once tried to pay him for his services with a penny. They became best friends after that.
After that adventure, it was time to go to the pharmacy next door. They apologized that they were running behind because they had to evacuate due to a fire alarm. Hubby and I just looked at each other and laughed.
Life with Kerri is on the road to recovery.