It was still dark as we began breakfast activities yesterday. Grant noticed movement on the porch and thought His Nibbs had come to join us, so he threw open the door startling a skunk.
Fortunately it fled without comment.
That could have been a bad start.
Dentist’s visits are not high on my list of favoured activities but these days it usually only entails a small repair, as was the case yesterday.
A filling and the replacement of another.
Did I want novocaine?
.
When it comes to dental work I am a total coward. Memories of a long ago drill touching an exposed nerve….yes, yes I did want it please.
In future, I may decline, however.
At lunch, even though I was being very careful I bit my still numb lip which promptly stopped being numb.
.
What bothered me more than the novocaine though, was what I believe is called “etchant”. That liquid dentists squirt onto your tooth before adding the filling.
Apparently, it bonds.
It tastes bitter. In the past, I have found this noticeable but certainly not problematic, and I wouldn’t say it was a problem yesterday.
.
But I have a high gag reflex. Usually the assistant hovers with her little tube that hoovers up water from the drill and the excess etchant. But there had been difficulties with a piece of equipment and the young lady was preoccupied with it. Keen on proving she hadn’t broken it.
So the etchant dripped to the back of my mouth seeking to go down my throat. I wasn’t sure if I would choke or if a hole was being burned into my gums. Or both.
.
Neither of the above obviously, but it seems to have taken a layer of skin off the roof of my mouth.
The defective piece of equipment was discussed between the dentist and her assistant over the top of my supine head and I couldn’t help thinking this was a little unprofessional.
.
Did I need to know that the dentist was “just going to manage without “?
It’s probably that I am old-fashioned in believing that customers should be respected. I’d settle for noticed.
One needs to be laid back.
Yesterday morning I could hardly have been more so.
.
Later, with a whole afternoon ahead, I sat at the computer and found myself fighting to stay awake.
My head felt stuffed with cotton wool, so I abandoned the idea of trying to write, lying on my bed to read instead.
But Patches came along to sit on me, so I gave up on that as well.
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The greyness that had lingered over the weekend finally moved out giving way to a paintbrush sky.
So I went and looked at that.
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Long shadows of a Fall afternoon.
There is a hush late in the day that I want to cling to, a slight chill in the breeze, a hint of Winter to come.
.
My hummingbird feeder is still up for birds that are migrating from further north.
Each time I think I’ve seen the last one, another turns up. It seems late but everything is changing.
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The Fall foliage which had begun so early appears to have stalled. A few trees are already bare, one or two here and there have colour. Otherwise, there is little evidence of the season.
Some say it is a result of all the rain.
But all of this can change overnight.
.
As we began to lose the light
a fox in the driveway drew my attention.
.
I’ve always liked this colour combination.
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I kept watching…
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And suddenly,
“Oh! Hello!”
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“It’s been some time since I saw you!”
.
Not a bad way to end the day.
.
I’d like to mention that my dentist is quite nice and perfectly competent and the staff are very pleasant too.
Are you worried that the dentist will read this and sue you? 🙂
I am feeding my neighbours’ cat (he is black and white, and called Alfie. I choose to call him Alfredo Cat instead) while they are away on holiday, and it occured to me how much easier it is to have a cat than a dog. No walks, no poo-bags, no craving attention. But I wouldn’t change Ollie for a cat of course.
Best wishes, Pete.
Well no. She is actually nice. After reading up about etchant, I’m surprised they are allowed to use it. From what I read, when they apply that stuff it has to be washed off using lots of water and the super suction tube is to be in use the whole time. In my case, the acid was allowed to pool and sit. Me being afraid to make a fuss didn’t, even though I could feel it burning. Next time I think I’ll discuss it before we start! I’m sure I swallowed some of it too which is also not good.
Ha, ha, I like your end sentence about the dentist. I’m not sure anyone likes going to the dentist, do they?
My partner hates going and hasn’t been for 6-plus years. When we got to England this year, he had 2 weeks of hell with an extraction, 4 fillings, returning as a little bit of tooth wasn’t extracted properly, then one of the fillings had to be redone, but to top it off, he had a scale and clean – he was shattered! So many injections that knocked him out each time for a couple of hours. The ironic part is that his sister and niece are in the dental profession!
I just get it over and done with as I don’t want false teeth so look after my teeth (or try).
In my early life I had some very unpleasant experiences so when I came here and found a nice dentist I decided to go regularly and avoid drama if I could. Mostly I’ve been lucky. Apparently, English people have notoriously bad teeth. Or did .
Glad you got over the phobia.
Really, I hadn’t heard that about English people, although I don’t think they had fluoride in the water there for a long time. Maybe there is something in adding this to water…who knows.
It’s so beautiful to see how the season slowly changes in your photos. The hummingbird photo is beautiful and your sky pictures always make me look twice! It’s great that you have a good dentist (most of the time) … I always joke that any visit to a dentist where you walk out alive must have been a good visit 😉.
I agree with you about dental staff talking over the top of you. It can be very off putting!