Over two weeks again--good grief! Let's just say I was very busy (sewing mostly), was stressed over the dentist appointment, had a family visit from Minneapolis, and more or less collapsed for a few days--LOL! But here I am. Sadly, was so shot that I forgot to take pictures of the family visit...but you know I have a few pics to share after two weeks. ;)
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I have not made it down for the CCCgroup on Thursdays for three weeks (sewing and then dentist) but I did make it down for library day a couple weeks ago. (Rented an audio book I could listen to while I sewed.) Back then the goose with the bad foot was still here and being fed and given water down at the other building. She had been almost healed the week before but then she was limping badly again. I haven't seen her for almost two weeks OR found evidence left behind from visits for water. When family was here we drove past the culverts a couple blocks away and the hundreds of geese were down to maybe 20-25--so maybe she took off with the rest of them? I will probably find out more when I can finally make it down to library and possibly CCC this week (if it is still going).
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All the birds and critters were thrilled that the goose wasn't spending all that time down here anymore.
Don't they look happy?
I even caught a picture of Annie watching a ground squirrel, the baby bunny, and a sparrow all there at the same time.
Way back--three Saturdays ago--right after I posted last time--Annie jumped up and laid on the footrest of the big comfy chair right between my legs! Shock! She didn't stay but a few minutes and was quite ill at ease--but she did it once, so who knows?!! I was shocked and delighted. And I am patient. ;)
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I've been away so long--these are the dangle doodling books I ordered the beginning of the month. Haven't had a chance to try them yet, but hopefully pretty soon. :)
I was mostly sewing...
...and sewing.
Was determined to get all of Leah's pads and pantyliners finished before my dentist appointment on the 17th. And I did--whoohoo!! :) :)
Leah got all the snaps on them and took them home. All 36 of them!!
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I think I'll wait a while before I work on mine. In the meantime, I have a few to try to see what size and fabrics I like the best. Have one more to put together, actually, before I can put the sewing machine away for a while.
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We've had some beautiful days...many cloudy, rainless days...some dribble days...a couple of steady rain days...days needing the AC on because it was so hot...days I relented and put the AC on when it wasn't that hot but the 90% humidity got to me...and gorgeously perfect days. Can't complain.
The big exciting thing I ordered this month--thanks to Dagan and Leah letting me skip a monthly payment (I'm always paying them back for things they pick up for me)--that really took my mind off the dentist stress...an A5 cover from ChicSparrow.com!!
Even engraved with "soulcomfort" on the front down in the bottom right hand corner.
My bullet fits inside...
...and there's room for three inserts, too.
I didn't like white elastic (gets dirty so fast) so I ordered some black from them. Had to string the elastic through the back of the bullet (Leuchtturm1917) anyways. I am loving the new weekly spread...
...and I LOVE the new cover!!!
It's a Mr. Darcy classic (no pockets) in Titanic color (turquoise).
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I was surprised that she sent along some little goodies, too. This sticker with the flowers and bird (stuck in the front of the bullet--will probably write name and number inside).
Not a surprise--sticker with company name on, but also one with a beautifully drawn feather. Stuck these on the back side of the bullet and dated so I'll remember when the cover came.
And she even sent a leather coaster!
This was a big purchase for me, but I figured that I have been using the bullet system for over 2 1/2 years now and love it more all the time so I will get years and years of use out of this. And I wanted one because I can make inserts I can keep inside with my bullet (there are four elastic strands inside and I'm only using one for the bullet)...to keep more permanent lists, more transient lists, scribble notes, brain dumping, or even put in a drawing or watercolor insert if I wanted. I can make inserts that have pockets, too, if I want to.
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It would be nice to have my list of baby steps for making pads permanently in an insert, for example. I have had to re-write it already from bullet to bullet. So for anything like that...now I will have inserts! I know--love to be organized--LOL! ;)
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Saturday the 12th my mom, brother Blaine and his wife Kathy drove up for their annual visit. We had such a nice time. Mom wanted to see my flowers--and approved. (She's a flower lover from way back.) We drove over to McFamily's, had pizza, looked at pictures of Blaine and Kathy's travels, and old photos from the 1930s Mom brought with she borrowed from her cousin Carol. Ian wanted Gramma to read him books and somehow an hour flew by before his bedtime. Ian even wanted me to come up while he got ready for bed and to say goodnight, which he's never asked before. We hadn't seen each other for quite a while. So, got to see all kinds of family that day. Sweet!
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But did I remember to take any pictures? Nope. Darn it!
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Back to sewing...
I got all the red ones finished...
...and really pushed it to get all the brown and red ones done, too, to surprise Leah when she came over for a craft night last Tuesday.
Three different sizes.
Leah got all the snaps on that night so she could take them home.
Leah, Ian and I went to PetSmart late on that same Tuesday afternoon--after Caroline was here to clean and Ian got up from his nap. Ian was enthralled by all the fish, rodents, and birds. We picked out a betta (mostly Gramma did because Ian was glued to the long row of fish tanks bubbling away).
By the time we got done it was time for Dagan to get off work so he met us at my place and we picked up Hardee's for dinner. We ate while the betta floated for 15 minutes. Ian was happy he got to help dump "Bubbles the 18th" into the bowl. (I believe that is what number we are up to--LOL!)
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Then Dagan took Ian home and Leah stayed for craft night. I wanted to know if it was possible to print vertical lines--you know, the long way on a piece of paper? (Leah is familiar with the alien world of Excel.) Yes!!!!
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So we printed off sheets of paper printed on both sides...
...that I can fold to use to make lined inserts!!!
I was thrilled!! We even made them with colored lines! Blue, turquoise, brown, gray...so cool!!
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The next day--this was this last Wednesday--I totally collapsed. Hadn't been sleeping very well...thinking about the dentist pulling the make-shift tooth out. But the new bullet cover and all the sewing kept me very busy, thank goodness.
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Thursday.
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Dentist day.
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So many years ago that I can't remember (in the 80s I think) the tooth next to my front tooth had root canal work done and was capped. Let's just say that I have had quite a few horrible experiences with dentists. I do like the dentist I have had these past years--Dr. Coffey. He's very nice, knows what he's doing, has a beautifully furnished waiting room, knows how to administer Novocaine properly and isn't reluctant to use it. ;)
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But when I first moved up here from Minneapolis in 1999 to Moorhead, Minnesota across the river there was only one older dentist listed in the area who would take Medicaid...and he was HORRIBLE!! He was the roughest, rudest, meanest dentist--well, person, for that matter--I have ever dealt with. His wife was the only other person in the office. She was the receptionist, dental assistant, and his all-around additional whipping boy. (I would say scapegoat, but that's way to mild a description.) I say "additional" because he treated all humans with equal disdain. He appeared to treat no one but people on Medicaid (no surprise) and likely the only person who would work for him was his silent, defeated, hangdog wife.
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His tiny waiting room was dirty with worn plastic chairs, a dusty half destroyed plastic plant in the corner, and three bent wire hangers on a dented pole. No one hung up anything. People clung to their coats and purses. I have never been in a waiting room where people scooted out in a panic before their names were called just listening to the dentist shout and berate...and people whose names were called volunteered to let anyone else go first. I am not joking. It freaked me out before I even met him. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Like a bad movie!
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The dentist complained the entire time you were in his chair...about the fact he was required by law to wear gloves now, the gloves made it hard for him to work properly, which was the fault of those people with aides and diseases...no one else will even work on you people, you should be glad you are even here, I'm not wasting any more Novocaine on you, they don't pay me enough to work on you people, open wider, I said open wider, I swear you people are so stupid you can't follow simple instructions, be glad I will deal with you at all, don't move, stop shaking, you people moving cause mistakes to happen, it's your own fault, quit drooling (he hated saliva but he hated his wife sucking it out of your mouth more and getting in his way so he stuck those cotton rolls up under your lips--thinking it absorbed saliva and--added bonus--made it harder for us to talk...not that anyone wanted to). I don't know why I do this at all, you people don't appreciate anything...all the while barking orders and complaints at his wife. He was rough--really rough. Physically and verbally.
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After one time in his chair I understood why people chickened out before they were called. I felt it down to my bones why people tried to trade away their time slot because they needed more time to get up their nerve to walk back there...and why this wasn't an unusual occurrence for his wife-receptionist who didn't bat an eye at the sudden appointment trades.
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I had a couple of cavities and he made it very clear that he would only spend 15 minutes on each client (victim)--so I had to come back to get the second one filled. (I'm sure he could collect more money that way.)
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Second visit--he was filling that other cavity, pushing, bumping, banging against my teeth, as he had the time before...when he suddenly stopped talking. (Let's be honest--it wasn't talking, it was bitching and verbal degradation.) Anyways, the sudden silence made his wife lift her head...and that was also unusual. He muttered something to her instead of barking it at full volume. He drilled and messed with the cavity--grunting and sighing, but he was too quiet. Next thing he was pushing up against my front teeth? Complaining I had taken too long, I was rushed out of the room (nothing unusual there). I'm thinking--with great relief--that I am done for now. Cavities filled and had no intentions of going back for...years!
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I get home and notice this thin gray line kind of oozing out from the gum on that next to the front capped tooth. What the heck?!
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In a matter of hours the tooth fell out!! You could tell it had broken off at the gum line and he'd tried to cement it back on. I knew he had been rough and it hurt, but it had the time before, too. This tooth had no nerve, so it hurt when he broke it off, but not like a good tooth would, you know?
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I had to call his office back...he made me wait a week without a front tooth. (I bought Polygrip and was very quiet that week at college--LOL!). He tried to blame it on me for jerking my head around! I calmly informed him that I had not moved...at all. Asked him why he didn't tell me he'd broken the tooth off and had tried to hide it? He grumbled and muttered, but never answered me. (Might be the only reason he tried to do anything with it at all?)
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He took the capped tooth, drilled out the center of it as best he could (complaining the whole time how hard it was to do with gloves on), put cement inside the tooth, cut a post (didn't want to waste much wire on me because other dentists told me it was too short of a post), stuck the post inside the broken off tooth, impatiently waited for it to set (hated to wait for Novocaine to work, either, and started too soon), and then pushed the tooth up in there...and rushed me out. All the while telling me how grateful I should be that he was even doing this at all because the state wouldn't pay for a tooth to be replaced and he could have left me toothless.
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It fell out--can't remember how long it took--a couple weeks?
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He was really angry that I was back. Kind of pounded it back in, reminded me how grateful I should be that he bothered with me at all, told me not to use that tooth, and not to come back if it did fall out because he wasn't going to deal with it again.
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I thought I had been babying it, but now I did even more so. By the time it fell out again they had opened a new family clinic that took Medicaid in Fargo that had rotating dentists. Hallelujah!! I got a nice young dentist who did a much better job of pounding it back in (probably because he gave me Novocaine). He seemed worried it would just fall right out again and said I probably couldn't get a tooth if it wouldn't stay in. Let's just say he didn't seem confident I would have the tooth for long. I think this was somewhere around 2001-2002?
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I have obviously been babying it for many years. Dr. Coffey thought I must have hit it or done something to cause it to come loose after all this time when I haven't done anything different, you know? Truth is, Ian bonked me right in the teeth when I was picking him up one day sitting in the kitchen chair here and I think that might have been what knocked it loose. I couldn't think of anything at the time, but later I remembered the hard tooth bang from Ian a couple weeks before I felt it was really loose. Not his fault, regardless. It was amazing that tooth has stayed in all these years.
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So, Thursday was T-Day.
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It didn't take much to pull it right out. He couldn't drill the tooth/cap out to replace the short peg wire. Not sure if the root has a fracture or not--couldn't tell by the x-ray. So what he did was drill around the peg to make the surface rough, cleaned up around the gum line, roughed up the root around the gum , and used a tooth bonding material to attach the make-shift tooth back up on to the root and cleaned it all up afterwards. Dr. Coffey didn't seem any more confident afterwards than the other nice rotating dentist did. Told me--"Remember, this is for show not go...baby it...baby it". I told him I have been babying it for about fifteen years, so I am used to doing that. Hopefully it will last a long, long time.
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So, I have my make-shift tooth back.
After the dentist Leah treated us to Dairy Queen ice cream (me and Ian). I was on soft food, no chewing, and warm salt water rinses for a few days. We went out in the garage to re-pot Baby Phil and Ivy.
Ivy is temporarily over on Ian's toy shelves.
Baby Phil had lost so many leaves he was 3/4 just stems and he needed some fertilizer, too. Normally I would have chopped him up but Leah said we could wrap all the stems around and around and bury them under the dirt.
I'd never done that before, so she helped me with that. He's looking pretty good!
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So, that's the last couple weeks.
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I have a tooth--for however long. Done with Leah's sewing and got the plants re-potted. All the "time sensitive" projects are done!! Was super sore--therefore not sleeping well and super tired--but some R&R days are beginning to work their magic. It feels so good that I don't have anything that has to be done--tada! Not that I don't have a ton of plans, of course, for when I am feeling my oats again...but it is just the usual daily stuff and R&R for now. I'm glad I have finally blogged!! I've had to take breaks and it is now almost 5pm--but I am done and you are all caught up.
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Leah is due one week from today!!!!
The new baby sibling has dropped. Locked and loaded. Any time now. I will let you know when the baby decides it is time to join McFamily. Oh, and this time Leah is going to the hospital right off because she has a midwife who also delivers--best of both worlds. :)
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And Miss Annie...I think she likes it here. She doesn't run as far away when I stand up. She seems to miss me when I am gone (although that could be wishful thinking--LOL!). One day I had to laugh...Annie will sit right by the open patio screen door and isn't bothered at all by a big goose, the riding lawn mower, people walking dogs--big or small...but one day she heard little kids laughing and squealing...and she was under the bed in a flash--ROFL!! So I know she'll be happier here with me. ;)
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I hope none of you have horrible dentist stories (that was only one of mine). I wouldn't wish them on anyone. And I am sooooo grateful that Dr. Coffey still takes Medicaid because since Trump got into office I was told by my worker that "North Dakota lost a whole bunch of dentists who decided not to take Medicaid anymore". Thank you, Dr. Coffey!!
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Have a wonderful week!
Count your blessings!!
Big smile!!!!
Much love from Fargo. :) :)
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"When you do things from your soul, the river itself moves through you. Freshness and a deep joy are signs of the current."
Rumi
