Category Archives: tooth

tooth, weather, wind

The Century Mark

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This is the 100th post on this blog. (Go ahead and count, I’ll wait … see I told you!) Yea me. Poor you.

The faux “yea me” is how I feel about the weather today. The winds came and the winds went, but mostly they stayed with the cold to make it feel downright nip out there. Wind chills were in the negative numbers all day and not a skiff of snow to show for it. There was snow to the west of us, but none out here in the valley. A good day to just curl up and do something indoors.

My temporary cap on my broken tooth from this post and this post finally disintegrated into a lot of shiny pieces of metal in my mouth this evening. It wouldn’t be too bad, but the ground away part of the tooth is now exposed to the air and to temperature variations. Thank heavens the permanent cap is ready to be put on Monday morning bright and early. Chewing and hot and cold is right out the window for the next 24 hours. I figure if it really starts to hurt, I’ll go drag my dentist out into the wind. Serve him right taking so long to get the permanent cap in place. One advantage of a small town is that I know where he lives, so it is hard for him to hide.

Tonight the wind has been swirling enough to bother Molly. So she has been going from window to window doing the whimper-woof thing that dogs do so well. I figure she is telling the bushes to hold it down out there. It must have tuckered her out because she is now sleeping at my feet as type this in. She looks a lot like a dead piece of road kill all splayed on her side. If you don’t watch for the bellow of her sides, you might think she was dead. I’ve never been able to figure out how dogs and kids can be going 90 mph, running full tilt and then suddenly curl up and be out like a light bulb. I vaguely remember being able to do that many years ago, but the older I get the more things hurt and the harder it is to just drop off to sleep. How about you? This is Molly as I type. The black blob in the lower left corner is a piece of my leg

As a parting gift, here is the view by my keyboard. Note the piece of the broken cap circled in red (and a couple of old ring boxes from a bunch of stuff I am sorting through). I should have made it a mystery photo and asked people to identify what each item was. I might have had a poser given the poor quality of the picture and the oddity of the subject. Oh well, next time.

dentist, meeting, tooth, veteran's day

YAVD

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Given that I am a science wonk and computer nerd, I couldn’t resist using an acronym for my title. Just in case you wonder, Yet Another Veteran’s Day (YAVD). It was a bit strange to see city employees out and about as I went to the store this morning. The city takes Veteran’s Day as a holiday, but there aren’t a lot of other businesses that do so.

I was out and about today for my delayed dental appointment . Looks like I will be getting a crown put on the broken tooth. Not too surprising given that the tooth had a filling so old that the tooth enamel was eroding around it. One of the hazards of getting older. Unfortunately, over the next few years there are several other teeth that will probably reach the same state.

In line with being a computer nerd, I find the technology of dentistry amusing. First there were the computers in every examining room and electronic practice management tools, then there were digital x-rays shown on the computer and filed electronically with the patients records, and finally the fiber optic “in the mouth” camera to show what is going on and the problem areas. It gives the dentist a chance to see things from a different angle and the patient a chance to understand what the dentist is talking about. How long before they have one attached to all the instruments? How long after that before robots akin to the surgical robots now coming into use start doing the actual dentistry? Enough about the foibles of dentistry and teeth.

There is a city council meeting tonight in spite of it being a city holiday. The scheduling question came before the council several weeks ago as we could move the meeting forward or back a day, but the decision was made to hold the meeting on Tuesday as normal. We made the decision in an interesting manner – we asked the veteran’s on the council their desire and they were unanimously in favor of holding the meeting as regularly scheduled. There was a general feeling that democratic government was one of the reasons veterans had served. So we will honor their wishes on the day that we honor them.

Off to the meeting I go …

dentist, funeral, tooth

Return of the Tooth and Other Oddities

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Today was supposed to be the day I went to the dentist about my broken tooth as described here and here . Unfortunately, it was not to be since I had to attend a funeral instead. So now the dental visit is set for next week. One nice thing about a small community – they understand when you have to re-schedule for such events.

Attending funerals is not one of my favorite activities. I understand on an intellectual level how important the rite is for the grieving and recovery process. But that doesn’t mean I like it on an emotional level. In preference to most formal funerals, I would much rather see a moment of silent remembrance of the times we shared. When I die, I want my funeral to be a celebration, a party in honor of the good times we have shared together. No matter what your belief system, you can glory in the shared remembrances of good times past. So when I daydream and think about such things and plan my  prototype for a good last rite,  I have the following criteria:

  • Length – Keep it short, no more than 20 minutes of formal ceremony.
  • Music – Play the music I loved and we shared.
  • Remembrances – Remember the good times that we shared.
  • Afterwards – Have a party with food and conversation and music. Share the support and comradeship of those who were part of my journey.

With those things in mind,  I want the service music to be Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and the Grateful Dead’s Truckin. I like love those songs and think they are a mighty fine send off. Besides, I once had a minister and golf partner (hello T.L.) who threatened to return just to make me listen to him play Stairway to Heaven on acoustic guitar. He temporarily dropped the threat when the rest of the foursome threatened to attend church and  sit in the front pew holding golf clubs just to see how long he could keep a straight face in the pulpit.

I know it won’t make one heck of a difference what I want. As my minister friend explained, funerals are for the living, not the dead. They are a rite designed to accelerate the grieving process and begin the healing process. A party in that circumstance looks a bit like avoidance. So call me an avoiding fool coward.
This post will probably be a test of your age. If you are below a certain 20/30 something age, you probably haven’t even thought about any of this.  If you are beyond a a certain 70/80 something age, you probably already have it planned down to the minute. And then there are the rest of us. Where do you sit/stand?
fall, lawn, tooth

Still OK

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Just to let those who are concerned know, the tooth still doesn’t hurt. (Hooray!)
Last night I had a training class for the tools involved in teaching an eCollege course. I can remember when the online education tools were primitive and the course content less than appealing. Now the online and in seat experiences are getting closer and closer.  I suspect that with time the differences may be entirely in the feedback mechanisms between student and teacher and the preferred learning method of the student. It will be interesting!
Today was what I hope was the last lawn mowing of the season. There may yet be one more mowing to go through. It hasn’t yet frozen really hard and the parts of the lawn that haven’t frozen are still exhibiting some growth. The leaves are turning and falling, the nights are crisp. It is the glorious season of fall. Time to go enjoy the sunset.
dentist, fear of pain, tooth

Fear and Loathing

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I broke a tooth this morning and am now in that state of fear and loathing when you just know it is going start to hurt. (So far it hasn’t!) Logically, you know that if it hasn’t hurt so far, it probably isn’t going to hurt for a while. Whats logic got to do with it????
Since there is no pain, I can’t justify calling the emergency number for my dentist (his office hours are Monday thru Thursday). That means I get to spend the weekend in that slightly edgy state where you are sure that at some point major pain is going to arrive. Logically you know that you are not thinking straight, but emotionally you are certain that pain is a possibility. Oh well.
This is the second time in my life I have broken a tooth. The first was many years ago. I was one of those people *blessed* with two sets of wisdom teeth that erupted in full glory in in my early twenties. When they grew in, I could no longer close my jaw fully. Thus they were scheduled for removal at a convenient time in the near future. But that was several weeks away and I had to journey to Iowa to give a symposium at Iowa State. It was winter and the weather was turning bad as the plane left Chicago for Ames. About midway through the flight, one of the wisdom teeth broke.  Once again no pain, but deep fear and loathing. As we landed in Ames, they closed the airport because of the blizzard now going on around us. We can’t even see the terminal out the plane windows as we parked because there was so much blowing snow. Now if you haven’t been to the Ames Iowa airport, it is important to note that it is many miles from town. And as we enter the terminal, they announce that the only road exiting the airport is closed. We are trapped in the airport until further notice.  Now my fear really kicked up a notch. Nothing like being stranded in an airport terminal, nothing to do but worry,  no possibility of relief, to make you appreciate the fun if it does start to hurt.
To make a long story short, I was really happy to return home and visit my dentist all those years ago.  I suspect that by Monday I will have similar feelings now. At least here I know where my dentist lives and can go knock on his door. Another great thing about living in a small town.