On Friday, I noticed in my Palm that I had a Tuesday appointment for my yearly checkup with my pulmonologist, thanks to Atlanta's ass-tastic air that gives me the gift of asthma.  Since I just started my new job this month, the last thing I wanted to do is take extra time off before I feel comfortable that my boss is comfortable with me taking time off.  Anyway, I didn't remember to postpone the appointment until Friday afternoon.  By that time the office had already closed and it redirected me to an answering service.  Of course, with these answering services, they only want you to leave a message if it's an emergency.

A lot of doctors and dentists will charge you for a full visit if you don't give 24 hours notice.  So here I am on a Friday before a 3-day holiday weekend and I have no way to leave a simple voice message with the office to give my notice.  Thankfully the receptionist I talked to yesterday was fine with me postponing my appoinment and I wasn't charged.  See, this is what happens when things go well for me - it makes for a boring blog entry.  Here I was all ready to blast the new answering systems that don't allow you to leave a non-emergency message for a specific doctor's office, potentially costing you money if you get charged for that visit.  Damn that receptionist for being so customer-oriented. 

But there was one amusing note to this all.  They had failed to inform me that they moved their office literally 40 miles away!!!  For those in Atlanta, the office moved from Lawrenceville (Gwinnett Medical Center) to Exit 14 off 400 in Cumming.  That's about a 50 mile drive for me so it looks like I'll be finding a new lung doctor.  In addition, they had me down for an appointment the following day (today), not Tuesday.  It's too bad the doctor moved so far away because I liked him but I'm not travelling that far unless I'm escaping an atomic cloud that mushroomed in Atlanta.