So it would seem that the phone number which I have had for years is very close to that of a doctor's office. I know this because once in a while we get a phone call from someone looking for said doctor's office.
Of all the phone numbers be close to, I think a doctor's office is pretty bad, but not as bad as it could be. I have a friend whose number was one digit away from that of Walmart, and he was constantly harassed by both curious and disgruntled Walmart shoppers. Although Eric did once tell me that he occasionally would fuck with the odd caller who was especially adamant that they had the correct number, so it wasn't all bad.
I too have considered messing with the people who call my house because to be honest they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. I'm not being mean here...think about it,if you called a doctor's office in the middle of the day and an answering machine picked up...would you be suspicious that you had the wrong number? Furthermore if you called, got the machine and the message was something akin to "...hi you've reached Leif and Jen, leave a message" as opposed to "...thank you for calling Dr. Smiths office..." you would have to be a blithering fool to still think you have reached the doctor's office. But despite my occasional deviant desires to play games with these people, at the end of the day I am human, and do realize that these people are most likely sick and looking for help.
Occasionally it can be damn frightening to share a phone number with a Doctor. Once Jen and I came home to a series of messages which ended something like "...the bleeding won't stop...why won't you return my calls?". The machine indicated that the message had been left in the early morning and it was now late evening, so I figured for better or worse the problem had eventually worked itself out.
Currently we have a woman who will not be convinced that she has the wrong number. I often come home these days to messages which are confirming appointments, or letting us know that this woman will be missing an appointment. I have tried calling her back to explain that I am not the doctor's office, and have even had whole conversations with her on the rare occasion that I have been home when she called, however she refuses to be convinced. Short of becoming a messaging service, and relaying her calls to he doctors office I have run out of ideas.
So now you know my pain.
