Another circle of the sun
Thank all of you who wished me a happy birthday! I do very much appreciate it.
I won’t lie, I spent most of yesterday depressed. I hate both political parties here in the US. And, I have never been a big fan of anyone in the Clinton family.
But, I can not say just how deeply I feel Trump should not be president. Nothing to do with his party and everything to do with him.
And, I understand a lot of folks are not happy with the direction the country is taking. While I seem less upset about it than many people, I agree that things could be better.
And, I agree that some degree of shaking up is needed.
But, don’t shake things up with explosives. That’s a bad idea and what it feels like to me happened.
I had tried to go to bed at my normal time on election night, but kept waking up and checking things. So, I spent my birthday tired too.
The tooth that took me all summer long to get fixed has also decided to be a problem again. The last several days it has been as painful as it was when I went to the dentist in July and said “you got to do something about it”.
Root canals, posts, crowns and several fittings later I was out of pocket more than $2000 and it still hurts.
Not good.
So, I went to see him last night. He’s got a very small office. It’s just him, no assistants or anything. There is the inner office where he works, a small waiting room and a bathroom.
It’s small enough that he usually leaves the door open between rooms.
When I walked in last night I could see he was working on someone, so sat down and began to read.
He shut the door between rooms. It’s a thin door in a small space. It does very little to block sound.
“There’s someone out there!” the woman he was working on said.
“That’s why I shut the door,” he said.
“My coat is out there!”
“He may look shady, but he’s actually a pretty straight shooter,” the dentist told her.
“The door is closed! Who knows what he’s doing?”
“Do you want me to go get your coat?”
“Yes!”
He opened the door, took her coat and went back into his room.
When they were finished she marched out without even looking at me. Hard to do in such a small space.
“Sorry I called you shady,” he said as he ushered me in.
“I’m a big guy,” I said. “Shade just happens.”
He looked over my tooth and took some X-Rays.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “The X-Rays say my work is perfect!”
“I’m not disputing your work, just saying it hurts.”
He did grind down the cap some and took another look.
“You’re allergic to a lot of things, right?”
“Yeah, pretty much everything.”
“This may be an allergic reaction to the glue used.”
So, he took his ultrasonic cleaner and went around the base of the tooth making sure he got every remaining bit of glue off.
“Hopefully that will feel better. If not, then we’ll have to remove the tooth. If that happens, I’ll give you a credit of half of what you paid for this towards what we do with that.”
“Really? Half back?”
“Hey, that’s a good deal!” he said. “Most places wouldn’t give you any credit!”
“I know! That’s why I’m making sure I heard you right!”
The tooth has felt better since. So, I’m hoping that was it. I don’t want to have it yanked if I can help it.
Afterwards my wife and I went for pizza at a place we like near there and headed home.
I tried to watch the new episodes of Red Dwarf I just got, but was too tired and fell asleep.
If I’m too tired for Red Dwarf, then you know I’m really tired!
So, an election I’m unhappy with, tooth problems and lack of sleep made it less than a totally happy birthday.
But, being home with my wife at the end made it better.
Certainly better than 1995 when I spent my birthday alone in Wichita…