A Smile To Cure All Ills

My previous check-up with Dr. Larry Katz was shortly before he'd moved into his new digs with Dr. Chen. As usual he chewed me out about my smoking, then we got into a discussion about the fact that I was older than he was, I still had my hair, my pulse and blood pressure were fine, my lungs clear, all that good stuff. I guess for lack of something sensible to say to that he asked "Where's the monkey?"

My next visit was at his new office at Chen Medical Clinic and I found all new staff. None of them had ever seen me before, nor had they met Monkette. This young lady led me too an examination room, weighed me, took my pulse and blood pressure, and finally got up enough nerve to ask "What's with the toy monkey?"

"Doctor's orders!" I replied, and then gave her a brief history of Monkey and Monkette, while snapping pictures the entire time. I gave her a card with the blog address and told her to keep checking it. She seemed happy enough, but turned down my offer for Saturday night dinner. Some lame excuse like I was too old for her. Then Larry came in, picked up my chart, asked me how I was feeling, and started talking about Monkette. The young lady headed out to get the next patient into an examination room, shaking her head in utter amazement that two grown men would actually be having a seemingly serious conversation about toy monkeys.