I feel lousy. I called the doctor (he's been my doctor for 20 years) and said, "Help." The assistant took down my symptoms (though she had trouble hearing me because my voice has gone south for the winter, leaving me with laryngitis). She said that she'd call back.

Five and a half hours (yes, 5 1/2) she called to say that the doctor was prescribing an antibiotic for pneumonia. I gave her the pharmacy's phone number. I called the pharmacy an hour later and they said, "Huh? What prescription?"

So I called the doctor's office again (it was close now to the magic quitting time of 5 p.m.) and they said they'd call the pharmacy and straighten it out.

At 5:15 the pharmacy called and said yes, they had the prescription, yes it was covered by my insurance, but so sorry we're out of that medication right now.

They will have it tomorrow at noon-ish (26 hours after my original call to the doctor). If I survive the night. Gloom. Doom. Yes, I'm being melodramatic. I'll survive quite nicely, coughing my lungs out and ripping my vocal cords to shreds. Thankyouverymuch.

Which makes me think about you on the mountain top and other places inaccessible in winter. What do you do if you get sick? Tough it out, I guess. Or do you have an emergency supply of antibiotics on hand just in case, the way we did in the Peace Corps in our medical kits?

If I stop breathing (it tends to get one's attention), I can call 911. But what do you do? Here's hoping it never happens.