Groundhogs & Bad Teeth...

The little beastie saw his shadow again, so here comes another six weeks of wintery hell.  This little animal shouldn't get to do the weather report even if it is only on February the second.  To add to the drama, I had to go to the dentist.  This meant a 30+ drive on the ice.  Wouldn't have done it but somehow I cracked a tooth.  Never felt a thing until I noticed a sharp place on my tooth.  It had happened yesterday, but no one was in my dentist's office so I had to wait until today.


I got up earlier than normal to get cleaned up just in case the dentist will be in this morning.  I hate morning showers.  My early morning zombie stare self goes into pissed off cat mode for getting wet that damn early in the morning.  Finally they call & say I can make the treacherous drive over to his office in Fort Smith, AR.


I warm up the car & get the roommate in their as well, mind you she went willingly, but sat white knuckled & silent the entire way.  The drive was tedious, it took nearly an hour and a half to make a just over thirty mile drive. The roads were either ice slicks or worse, they were rutted from the semis driving over them.  We only badly fishtailed once, maybe twice, but we made it there.


I had just been in the dentist office in December to have my teeth cleaned & annual looksy/X-ray.  Then they saw nothing, but apparently somehow my tooth had been decaying from the inside, yuck.  I was convinced he was going to say, "You need a root canal," but he didn't.  He just drilled & hacked away at the tooth.  Then the bondo experience began.  He'd do a layer, then wait, do another then stop.  All I could think was that, this is how they plaster walls. Finally he was done.  Actually it took almost no time, it just felt like it was an all morning job.


The dentist told me that somehow the X-ray had missed the internal issue with tooth & that it was a good call to get into him so soon.  There very well might've have been a dreaded root canal in future if I hadn't have gotten in when I did.  


It's not that I fear the root canal because of pain, my dentist is good at dealing with pain issues of dentistry.  No I hate the root canal, because they're expensive.  First a few hundred $$ for that procedure & the several more hundred $$ for the crown that would be needed to cover the root canal.  In my best Mr. Mackey from South Park voice, " Root Canals, they're bad."


The real problem here is that I am +. HIV is hell on teeth, HIV meds can be hell on teeth & in turn not taking care of your teeth can be hell on your HIV.  I'd give a link, but you'd be better just to google HIV dental issues & get the most up to date info, the results are fairly immense.  HIV can lead to numerous dental complications & these complications can lead to infections that can impact your overall health.


I'm home now, tooth fixed, roommate sedating herself with facebook & cats & I am thankful.  I'm grateful my tooth wasn't in worse shape, that we survived the drive & that my roommate (who is terrified of ice) went with me to my appointment.  I am also very thankful for my dentist & his office.  I found a good one, Dr. J, Stephen Wilson At Dental Solutions.

To all those out there in the cold, keep warm & safe.  I hope your teeth are doing well, if not I hope you have a good dentist like mine.

First Snow

It snowed for the first time this season.  Driving on snow and ice tells you a lot about how people view life.  Some people are so afraid of the white stuff they absolutely refuse to even go out the door.  Other's race through it like maniacs speeding to their deaths.  While some of us calmly get in our cars and cautiously proceed wherever we need to go.  Icy roads like many things in life demand respect.  If you're halfway smart and respectful of your situation you can get through it.  If not you should just stay home.

It's January, so according to Lucy it's perfect snow flake catching time.  She was always my favorite Peanuts character.  Followed closely by Linus, but he needed props, so it goes to his sister.  The Van Pelt family was my fav family of the comic.  Rerun had his soliloquies of near death on his mother's bike and his deftness with handling Lucy.  Linus had his orations, philosophies & unshakable beliefs.  But Lucy, she was just Lucy; an angry, manipulative, romantic, cunning ball of fury.   She was smart but fallible.  She was the obstacle that Charlie Brown had to overcome.  Lucy Van Pelt was the Peanut's version of Coyote.   Snoopy was her nemesis like Coyote's Duck.

I know the easy character to like is Snoopy, he is funny, but he's easy.  You're supposed to like the beagle, he's Charlie Brown's funny man.  I never really care for the accepted center of any ensemble cast as much as I do for some of it's side members.  I prefer Lucy to Charlie, Niles to Fraiser, Chloe to Clark Kent, etc...

How did I go from driving on snow to second tier characters from comics and television?  Easy, how you drive in the snow, who you like in a show, what you eat first on a plate, these may all be little things but they speak volumes about you and what type of person you are at heart.  Keep that in mind, you never know what your giving away to someone actually pays attention to these things.