16 September 2021: A Bump or Three on the Road of Life (original) (raw)

My life is generally just dandy: I have enough income to cover my daily expenses, I have enough savings for an occasional splurge, I love my family and I think they return the sentiment, and I have the support of dear friends although I do wish we could get together more often. But even the best of lives has its little bumps, and I just encountered two unexpected bumps and one expected one.

The worst of three was a visit to my dentist on Tuesday.

I last saw Dr. Backiel in February 2020 when she inserted an implant in my top left jaw. I was supposed to come back in May 2020 when she would attach a crown...basically, an artificial tooth...to the implant. Coronavirus screwed that up. By May of 2020 I was going nowhere and only seeing people, even my near-and-dear, by Zoom. I got the second dose of the Moderna vaccine in March of this year, but I've still been cautious about mingling, content to continue to hibernate in my lovely apartment. It wasn't until sometime in July that I booked an appointment with Backiel for Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

I've tried to stay motivated to walk every day and have had moderate success: see HERE and HERE. Mapquest told me that Dr. Backiel's office is 9/10ths of a mile from my front door, so I decided to walk, figuring I'd take a Lyft home. I knew, intellectually, that the temperature was in the mid-80s, but I hadn't actually taken Step #1 away from my air-conditioned building. Even though I knew the walk would be uncomfortable, my pedometer told me that if I didn't walk, I'd be lucky to clock 300 steps for the whole day. Off I went.

The walk was uncomfortable. It was not only warm, it was humid. Furthermore, I ended up walking a full mile, rather than the 9/10ths of one. I walked south to Market Street when I should have turned east a block earlier at JFK Blvd. That added two more long-ish blocks to my walk, one in the wrong direction, the other retracing my steps. Grrr.

City streets are not the coolest places to walk.

Finally, the promised land:

Backiel's office is on the third floor of 2 Penn Center which should have made it a lead pipe cinch to find: I worked on the 16th floor of 2 Penn Center for several years in the early 70's (1971, 1972, somewhere around there).

At any rate, by the time I got to Backiel's office I was sweaty. Of course I hadn't brought a bottle of water with me, so I was also thirsty. While I waited for Backiel to see me...and I was ten minutes late for my appointment...I asked if I could have some water. The receptionist gave me a tiny bottle...maybe four ounces...which I sipped as slowly as possible while I waited. I barely made it last until I was called back to a patient room. A technician put my x-rays up on a screen, and Backiel joined us.

As you can see, I have had a lot of work done on my mouth since my permanent teeth came in. On my upper left jaw, the first molar...the one next to the eye tooth...is an implant. The next molar was pulled long ago and never replaced; the bone there has deteriorated and will no longer support an implant. The third space for a molar is where the implant...the one to be capped...is in place. Finally, the last remaining molar is a big ole guy, capped I don't remember when, and as solid as the Rock of Gibralter.

When Dr. Backiel joined us, she explained that she had a whole new plan for my jaw...a $4,000 plan...to pull the cap on the molar next to the eye tooth, give me two new caps -- one on that molar, the other on the new implant...and hang a bridge over the gap that won't sustain an implant. I really like that plan and am willing to spend the money to make it happen, but why did I have to schlep into the office to discuss it? That was a telephone conversation or an e-mail, Dr. Backiel!

Now I'm waiting for my next appointment, which had better be more productive than this one.

Yesterday...Wednesday, 15 September...Samantha's bestie, Julie, came over just to visit, and we decided to walk to my local Whole Foods. I can see the Whole Foods and a Target from my apartment, but the Benjamin Franklin Parkway lies between me and those two stores. I have promised John that I won't cross the Parkway, which should be called the Benjamin Franklin Speedway, by myself. John does not want me to end up as a hood ornament on a car. Julie suggested we go to Whole Foods and get a fancy-schmany coffee, and I jumped on the idea. I asked if she'd mind if I did a little shopping, and how could she say no? She didn't. So besides having an iced coffee with whipped cream, I picked up some vegetables and some frozen meals, like...

Mandarin Orange Chicken

For dinner that night, I got myself corn on the cob...

and sushi:

I knew the corn on the cob wouldn't taste like the corn on the cob I usually buy at a farm stand, but I would eat one and freeze the kernels of the other for a winter soup. Whole Foods makes good sushi...not great, but good...so I was looking forward to my dinner of cucumber-and-avocado sushi with my ear of corn.

The corn was as expected, and I have a nice little bag of kernels in the freezer, but the sushi? I wonder how long it had been sitting in that display case before I picked it up. It was well past its prime. Fortunately I had a fudgcicle in the freezer, so that cheered me up.

Bonus: Smoke surveys his kingdom. FanSee