Monday, March 02, 2009

Feels So Strange.

I'm talking about dental work that my tongue's been ruminating over for the past 2.5 hours. I suppose at 62 I should consider myself lucky to have my own teeth, even though they look like they're 50 years old. I'm not proud of my smile these days. My front teeth (EVEN!) have been repaired many times after developing cracks, chips, cavities, and (yesterday) another chip from biting into the bone of a porkchop.

So, I called Richard's office to see when they could fit me in this week and there was an opening at 11am today. I asked how much it would cost to fix a chipped tooth and they couldn't say because the chip might be so big as to require a crown. I've never had a crown ... or a root canal, although it seems like most people have had either or both. So, it was recommended that I come in for an exam of that one tooth ($45.00 to look at one tooth) and I suggested that it was time for my 6-month checkup ANYWAY, right ... and when they checked my file they learned that I was PASTDUE on my 6-month checkup and why didn't they send me the reminder card I'd been awaiting?

So, we decided to pay $125.00 to check ALL my teeth, X-ray them, and clean them. Over an hour later, I walked out $373.00 poorer, but my teeth were checked, cleaned, x-rayed, and my chipped No. 9 was not just corrected, but corrected with a little screw so the chip wouldn't easily break off again, and a cavity in No. 20 filled.

Can you see the screw in No. 9?
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I can't.
In other news, took some time this past week to start some old seeds to see if they're still viable. Pay attention, Diane, as I'm testing seeds you sent me in 2005, including tomatoes:
1. Black Krim
2. Cherokee Chocolate
3. Creole
4. Costaluto Genovese
5. Aunt Ruby's Green
6. Super Sioux
7. Wisconsin 55
8. Riesentraube
9. Fox Cherry
10. Yellow Perfection,
and peppers, etc.
1. Chiltepin
2. Sweet Italian Pepper
3. Peter Pepper
4. Jalapeno
5. Poblano
6. Garden Salsa
7. Hot Salsa
8. Hungarian Wax
9. Long Green Hatch
10. Red Bull
11. Gypsy Bell
12. Yellow Bell
13. Orange Bell
14. Black Beauty Eggplant.
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Washed used plastic bags and set them about to dry:
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Cleaned my home office (and have since moved on to some Spring cleaning of other areas of the house.
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On one of the chairs was the juicer to send to No. 2. Did you receive it, No. 2?

Currently in a box in my office waiting for Ken to till and amend the soil in the areas we discussed are:
25 Chandler Strawberry plants
5 Apache Blackberry bushes
5 Austin Dewberry bushes
3 Victoria Rhubarb
3 Horseradish
10 Asparagus
2 Ozark Blue Blueberries
5 Heritage Red Raspberries
5 Cumberland Black Raspberries

They arrived last Thursday. I hope they don't wither waiting.

We used faxzero to send our information to Gexa last week, and got confirmation in the mail which I had to confirm by phone today. Electric companies here go out of their way to ensure no slamming or cramming charges.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

:me poet waves:

Any time you leave the dentist with a bill under $4-500 you're doing good.

I've been really lucky with my teeth, too (knock on wood). Still cavity-free and munching on ice cubes at 48. If only my back was is such shape, lol.

SpeedKin said...

*snaps to attention as ordered*

Still no more progress on the greenhouse so I've not been able to do any testing of germination rates here. I'll live through you for now.

Still need to hit the dentist myself but who wants to spend that kind of money right now (or ever)? Or maybe I'll just take whatever excuse is handy to further postpone the remaining root canals...

I owe you an email. Did I mention one-handed typing sucks?

Oldnovice said...

"Cavity-free, munching on ice cubes." Hmm. I started getting cavities as a child and didn't stop until I was 25 or so and then I went 30 years with no cavities and then I started getting cavities like a child again. My back's in pretty good shape, though. I planted everything today except for the strawberries, using the garden kneeler (which is the most wonderful thing in my world this week). I could bounce up and down from one place to the next with that thing.

We had to modify the plan because ... drumroll ... Ken cut the cable line with the rototiller yesterday. Em's not thrilled with Ken right now. Not only can he not watch whatever ball games are on this time of year, but we need to be here tomorrow for the cable people and we usually casino hop on Wednesdays.

Not knowing exactly where the cable line was cut, but knowing that it was on the East side of the house, we did the holes for the fruit bushes starting 4' away from the East fence, cut (shouldn't say CUT right now) reduced the distance between bushes from 3' to 2.5', put the blueberry bushes next to the rhubarb along the West fence and the Dewberries at the Northeast corner where we'd thought to plant the rhubarb. The horseradish took one of the circles previously intended for sweetpotatoes.

So, strawberries will get planted tomorrow AFTER the cable people tromp all over the rototilled fenceline remaining and fix the cut line.

Diane, I thought you were DONE with the dentist forever and ever having gotten your teeth to movie star perfection.

We stopped at Walgreens yesterday after my dentist appointment and our favorite clerk was outside in the parking lot finishing her lunch break with her husband at his truck. She introduced us and I had to do the Joan Rivers "Am I smiling?"

Sprayed the planted beds (and the rototilled new rectangular beds) ... with agricultural molasses and the planted beds with miracle grow. Tomorrow after I plant the strawberries, I'll give them the same treatment and toss some acidic water on the blueberries. Haven't decided yet whether I'll get the buckets of water acidic through urine or vinegar.

I try not to do the tit-for-tat Email thing, Diane, but it is always fun to hear from you. I watered those seeds again today and didn't see ONE sprout, so I don't think they're viable at this point in time. Planted them on Feb 27th, so it's not quite a week yet.

Struggling with how to work around the bushes. This year, I can certainly plant all along the back fence, but if I do that I can't lay newspaper to kill the grasses that were rototilled and/or the weed seeds that will inevitably fall. Ken dug up a bunch of bricks that once lined the back fence area maybe a foot from the fence, so I guess I'll put out the newspapers and poke holes in it to plant seeds, placing a brick on each side of the poke to keep the paper down.

Strange concept, but just might work.

Oldnovice said...

Just because I (yesterday) suggested that the seeds didn't look viable, I notice today that 2, 5, 8, and 10 are sprouting in the tomato department.

Rounding out the frustration department, the cable guy came today to splice the line, except he couldn't FIND the line, so told Em that if he finds the line he'll be back to splice it. It took Em 5 minutes to find the line and 2 hours for the guy to come back...

Meanwhile, I planted strawberries along the fence that I couldn't plant by the day before for fear that the cable guy would stomp all over everything (a fear realized, BTW) because I knew the line was cut in the corner of the yard. Except ... they'll be back next week to bury the spliced line that's like 30' long. [sigh]

We're taking tomorrow off to casino hop. Enough of this reality!

Anonymous said...

wow ma the computer room looks great! No 1