Making It Up As I Go Along #669

December 22nd really doesn’t feel very Christmasy when you live alone and are about to start four days of work tomorrow… also alone.  I do have frozen turkey dinner from mom’s Thanksgiving visit that can get me through supper at work on Christmas Day.  But it truly is not the same.

Hopefully the weather holds for my flights on the 27th.  And mom and dad will enjoy two Christmas’s this year.

Speaking of Christmases, it recently struck me that I’ll likely not have another St. John’s family Christmas.  If all goes well, mom and dad’s condo will be ready here for next year and, although it hasn’t been seriously discussed, it’s likely they’ll be here for Christmas going forward.  I must say, it never dawned on me last year that that may be the last time I wake in the Wedgewood Park house on Christmas Day.

I also had forgotten how early I was home last Christmas.  Facebook reminded me with that whole memories to look back on feature.  I was home by mid December, giving lots of lead up for the holidays where I could shop downtown and get the family Christmas movie viewing in well before Christmas Day.  I think this year will have some post Christmas shopping… and some gifts have already been done.  It’s an odd Christmas to be sure.

But yes, starting next year, I should have parents nearby me again for up to half of the year.  Mom and dad have a condo going up that’s little more than a five minute walk away from me.  Summers here are hotter than mom likes, and the house back home isn’t going anywhere, so it’s likely that I’ll get more home cooked meals, games of cards, and company on walks in the late fall, most of winter and spring.

Saw Rogue One yesterday.  Really well done and I enjoyed it.  The one thing I did miss was the John Williams score through the movie.  Some of the music in this one sort of sounded like his music… but in a let’s-change-it-just-enough-not-to-get-in-legal-trouble type of way.  There were scenes where they used the classic Star Wars music, but the big orchestral sound was lacking through the majority of the movie, and I was wishing it was there.

That said, I enjoyed it about on the same level as last years Star Wars movie which would put both of them comfortably in the upper ranks for me… behind only A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.

Speaking of the movies, yesterday also marked my finding out the perfect combo of food, through the day, to bring on the worst heartburn I’ve had in quite some time.  Buttered movie popcorn for lunch… a tuna fish sandwich with celery, pickles and mayo for supper… and by midnight, not even Tums can help.  Once 3:00 AM hit, I can only lay on my back, propped up with pillows.  Anything flat or on either side and it felt like acid all through my stomach.

Anyway, with that bit of cheeriness over, digestion took care of all that… and I’m fine now.  But it wasn’t a wonderful night of sleep.  Perhaps it was as simple as the Force not being with that movie cinema butter topping.

And speaking of food… and Christmas travel… I’m right in that in between time where I’m not sure what to do about groceries.  I think I’m going to try to shoot throw to Tuesday now.  Maybe break down for a small container of orange juice.  But I hate to have a bunch of stuff in the fridge for ten days while I’m away.  It all sounds like I’m leading up to a good feed of Chinese food either tonight or tomorrow.  And give me enough leftovers to shoot me through to my departure.  

Donald Trump wants to up the American’s nuclear power.  Oh yes, nothing to worry about there.  When it comes to military power, there is nobody more insecure in this world than the Americans.  This is a nation that has a military more or less equal to the next 25 to 30 countries put together… yet still you see politicians talking about needing to make their military strong again.  In Star Wars terms, America is the only country in the world that owns a Death Star… and yet there are American politicians claiming they need a second one.

I live next to Homer Simpson.  Now… it’s almost a literal thing.  There is a Simpson’s episode where Homer’s neighbour is trying to sell her house.  She goes to Homer and asks him to throw away his old Halloween Jack-o-Laterns from years gone by (there are like five or six of them sitting on his front step, one looking more mummy like and rotten than the next).

Well my neighbour has begun the tradition.  I can’t see it now due to the snow, but underneath the wintery blanket, on his front step, you can see a mound.  That mound is Jack-o-Latern number one in what promises to be a long line of Jack-o-Laterns.

Truth be told, it was already looking pretty rotten by the time Halloween even came about.  I think he had it out on his step by Thanksgiving.  And there it remains, surrounded by a few loose boards, his daughter’s bicycle, and an old coleman camping cooler that, as best as I can tell, has called that front step home for the past three years.

My goodness, this means I’m Ned Flanders!  The guy even once borrowed something from me (a can of wasp killer) and never did give it back.  Dude also once borrowed my driveway, of all things.  He never asked to, mind you.  He just happened to see me leaving for a trip home one summer and asked how long I’ll be gone.  Three weeks must have felt like a goldmine for him… so much so that he lost track of time.

I got home one night around supper time and didn’t go to leave the house again until the next morning.  But when that morning came, I looked out to see his car sitting in the middle of my driveway, blocking my vehicle in the garage.  He didn’t even seem all that embarrassed by it when I knocked on his door to come move the thing.  Instead I think he just questioned me about my travel times… “It hasn’t been three weeks already has it?”

Anyway, that’s about it for this ramble.  Four days of work and then it’s home for eleven.  So this may be my last writing of 2016.  And despite the missing out on the actual holidays, I’m expecting a good time home with family and friends.  So it won’t be all bad to be sure.

Making It Up As I Go Along #668

I’m thinking, more and more, that America… and the rest of us… may really be in trouble with Trump.  I mean there’s been lots of alarmist talk for a while now.  And people are so regularly using alarmist jargon in much of life that you become desensitized to it.  But this may be legit.

The people Trump has selected to work with… his lack of accountability to… the conflict of interest in his businesses and holding the office of President.  Talking about not needing daily security briefings because he’s smart.  Either Mike Pence is going to be the unofficial president (meaning Americans give the presidency to a man who was never officially on the ballot to become president) or Trump is about to run a gong show.  But at least he has time for Kanye West… and at least the news media feel a Kanye/Trump photo op is real news (breaking away from other items to let us see them in the lobby of Trump Tower).  It’s a real mess.

Christmas came early.  I came home from work one day last week and there’s a package at my door.  No labels on it, other than my name, so I decide to open the box… and inside… the Atari Flashback 7 I spoke of last blog entry.  Since it wasn’t wrapped I figured I may as well go for it now.  Thanks Sissy… I’m a kid again.


Dentist Horrors

When I was a kid, I didn’t mind going to the dentist.  There was the rubber brush that spun around and tickled your teeth.  I had an impression  of my teeth done that I thought was the neatest thing.  Bubble gum tasting fluoride.  All no problem.

Even when I went to get my wisdom teeth pulled from my jaw… where they had to slice open my gums to find them down there… I wasn’t all that worried about it.

Then I went years with no dentist at all.  When my parents insurance never covered me and my work had no dental plans included, I went about a decade in a dentist free world.  And nothing went wrong.  Not a toothache.  Not a red gum.  Not even a scrap of food stuck between my teeth.

With the move to Ottawa came a new job with dental coverage included.  I figured “I may as well.” And I’ve been a regular dentist goer for almost fourteen years now.

And within those fourteen years, I’ve developed a fear.  An irrational, but very real fear… of the dentist!

The first time wasn’t a problem.  The dentist was actually shocked I’d gone so long without seeing anyone.  My teeth were great.  Even the cleaning didn’t find too much plaque buildup.  It was easy.

But as time has gone on, things have slowly crept into the land of the uncomfortable.  First there was a filling or two.  No big deal.  And they went without a hitch.

But suddenly, food was fighting back.  Twice I’ve chipped teeth while eating.  Once it was just biting into a fig bar.  Then the freezing agent used for my fillings became less effective for me.  Two fillings ago, it took almost an hour to get the job done.  He’d start work and, within five to ten minutes, the freeze would wear off.

This is where the fear began.  To have a dentist in your mouth, drilling into the hardest bones of your body… and suddenly you begin to feel it!

It got to a point where I’d be expecting pain.  Tensed for it… my body a wooden plank stretched out straight across the gentle caress of the dentist chair.  Only my head and feet touching chair… all the rest of me being stiff and raised several feet off of the cushioned faux leather.

Even a squirt of water into the freshly drilled cavernous hole would cause my arms to tense… my shoulders being able to plug my ears… while my fingers dug deep into the arm rests.

My last cavity, they gave me the heavy duty stuff.  The freeze that’s meant for root canals… that’s what it takes to fill a little cavity for me now.  And even with half my jaw being frozen for the rest of the day, I remain tensed in the chair… ready for every touch to be that one that breaks through the freeze… causing the pain to fire through my body.  As with any good horror movie… it’s the anticipation that’s the worst part.

Today, the sun is shining.  The snow in the woods across the street glimmers brightly… giving the world a wintery glow.  And yet dread lurks.  I have a dentist appointment.

It’s just a cleaning.  No drills should find my mouth today.  But even the cleanings have become torturous.  Diamond lined floss slices open my gums… sawing deep into the crevices of my teeth… down into the jawbone until it finds the empty spaces… where once my wisdom teeth lived.

At least that’s how my mind plays out the experience.  Long gone is the bubble gum fluoride.  Mocking is the ticklish rubber brush.  It just laughs at me in the knowledge of what is soon to come.  The picks and axes and spears all lined up to probe my gum line.  And the potential for a cavity to be found.  Bringing the anticipation of another appointment of dread.  Booked by pleasant, friendly smiles at the reception desk, as she wishes me a Merry Christmas while penciling me in for another appointment… with the dreaded drill of doom.  Merry Christmas indeed.