A Pencil---For Your Thoughts.

   In order to cover all bases in getting a clean bill of health, I needed a  dermatology check, since I'd had a small but potentially seious lesion several years ago. My dermatologist had recently retired, and except for  one  follow-up visit with another best described as draconian, I needed to find a new dermatologist.  I googled and found a local doctor who was accepting new patients, and made an appointment to have the iffy spot examined.  That dermatologist  is what I would term a society doctor, though that might be a  little extreme. However, he does appear on TV with his son  in TV commercials to advertise their  practice, and his office is rather glitzy; there is a spa associated with it, and all types of skin care and beauty options. He was courteous and professional, took a biopsy which he advised was most likely a minor ketosis, which he later confirmed.   No problem.
     But one thing struck me as odd for  an office so well appointed, with a clientele of upscale parents having the latest treatments for their teenagers' acne.   When I went to the sign-in desk to fill out the paperwork, I was handed the usual clipboard, but with it a yellow pencil.  Of all the forms I've ever filled out, at a plethora of medical and hospital desks, I have never before been handed a pencil.  Now I usually try to remember to use my own pen to fill out the forms (germs, you know), but this time I thought maybe they preferred pencil for some reason.  So I started with the pencil but soon gave up and reverted to my ballpoint.  Pencil is hard to read, and the paper didn't take well to pencil scratches anyway.  I returned the clipboard to the window and saw the receptacle for the return of the pencils,  a cup containing a number of the yellow pencils, reminiscent of what is  used by street performers to avoid being classified as beggars.  And----a notice above the container of pencils advising patients, or clients, to please return the pencils to the designated container.  Cutting costs where you can may be the way to do business------but pencils!