"Emergency - please respond now..."
I like fixing computers for colleagues at work. I say ‘fixing’ – it’s usually something really simple that requires little actual tech skills, but I usually score a bottle of wine or some scratch cards as a thank you so it’s all good.

One day whilst transporting an extremely sick person in my ambulance (this will become relevant soon) I received a radio message from communications to "urgently contact Officer XYZ – repeat: urgent".
I had an elderly and very sick relative living with me at the time and felt that the other officer must have some bad, perhaps even tragic, news for me given that they were also rostered on that day.
After all, such messages over an emergency channel are almost unheard of.

I checked on my patient and decided they would be okay for a minute and, hands trembling, I phoned the other officer’s mobile with great apprehension. The following conversation ensued:

"Hi XYZ, you needed me to call you urgently. What’s wrong?"

"Hi emadex. You remember that PC you reformatted for me recently?"

"…umm, yeah."

"Well you accidentally deleted my modem. I need it fixed."

"Was this the reason that I call you urgently?"

"Yeah!"

"I’m on a case right now. Did you not realise that?"

"Well of course I did! Why else would I get you called on the emergency channel?!"
(She knows I don’t answer my personal mobile phone when I’m on a case).

"As I said, I’m with a patient now. Good bye XYZ."


The same officer is the first to whinge about time wasters and hoax callers, but could see nothing wrong with her actions because, as she later told me, her computer problem was an "emergency" because she had an assignment to finish and needed internet access.
You’d think an emergency paramedic would have more sense…

By the way, her modem wasn’t "deleted" (as if!) – she’d forgotten to recharge her pre-pay dial up account.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sat 23 Sep 2006, 1:11, Reply)