flemmings | (no subject)

How interesting. I go up to my doctor's ($75 in cab fare there and back and no, she is not 'just round the corner' from her old place.) Ask her to ascertain if the Baker's cyst behind the knee is in fact a Baker's cyst and not, say, a blood clot. It's not a blood clot but equally it's not a Baker's cyst either. She could find nothing behind my knee to cause the stiffness and swelling and *extremely painful* shenanigans in the calf. (Physio worked on those a bit yesterday, just pushing gently at the calf while I tried not to scream in agony, then said 'It's much looser than it was last week.') So off I go for xrays and ultrasounds tomorrow. Mh.

And I am done with Beck cabs and their automated voice messaging dispatcher. State my address clearly 'Five forty three Blahblah St, Toronto.' Chirpy computer voice: 'If this is five-oh-five Blahblah St, press one. If not, press nine and try again.' 'Five hundred and forty-three Blahblah St, Toronto.' 'If this is 543 Someother St., press one. If not press nine and try again.' 'Five. Four. Three. Blahblah. Street. Toronto.' 'If crackle fi-crackle crackle Stree-crackle' Hang up and call Diamond and get, oh frabjous day, an actual human being. Diamond it is from now on, especially since both drivers took devious side streets whenever the traffic on Yonge or Bayview or Eglinton started to turn into a parking lot. Which it did on all three, at one o'clock on a Thursday. Construction, I must assume.

And of course, no sooner had I put my call in than a garbage truck rounded the corner and started picking up the garden waste. Thursdays are not the day to take cabs. But luckily there were three empty spaces right in front of my house and the thoughtful truck driver pulled into them so cars could get past, one of which was my cab. This is why I called for a cab ninety minutes before my appointment. And in the event I was in and out by the time my appointment was due to start.

Also I am not yet diabetic, which was a relief. Pre-, of course, but given my sugar addiction not a surprise.

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I share your dislike for the automated Beck interface. I've had to summon a lot of Beck cabs recently, and I can confirm that selecting O will let me bypass the automated robo-voice and speak to human dispatchers. The humans see my address on the screen and ask whether I am me. When I assure them that I am, they usually get a cab to my building within five minutes or so, even during rush hours. (Service has seemed better recently than it's been in years--probably thanks to Uber and Lyft keeping Beck somewhat on its corporate toes.)

Sympathies on the long trip to and from the doctor's. Traffic in this city is consistently hellish.

I did wonder what would happen if I pressed 0 but was too chicken to try. I took Beck all the time when I was having my knee replaced, to the point that drivers began to recognize me, and liked them because they had plexiglass shields, which other companies didn't. Including Diamond. But that may have changed too, now that covid is ha-ha over?

The plexiglass shield seems to be optional now--some Beck cabs have one, some don't. Now that cases are spiking again, maybe they'll be reinstalled.

Do give the "0" option a try if you decide to go back to Beck. (Sorry I mistyped "O" for "0" in the earlier reply.) It's worked well for me so far--I hope I haven't jinxed it for you by writing about it!

I definitely will. I remember trying to call Beck, Coop, and Diamond one time abd getting robots on all three, so was pleased Diamond had a person this time. But if Beck has accessible humans, even better, because the dispatchers knew me as well.

Hope the scans go smoothly and efficiently.

Thank you.