The Squamidian Report – Feb. 11 / 17
Issue #768
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Have you ever had the pleasure of sitting in a Dentist's chair for an
hour and a half while they tried to remove a tooth that needed removing
but didn't want to be removed? Its not all that much fun. This is
getting a bit more personal than I'd normally get but I need something
to write about and so you get what you get. I've been enduring pain
issues on the left side of my head since last summer. At times it would
seem to be my jaw, or certain teeth, or jaw joint. Other times it would
be up into my eye and ear. Neither my doctor nor dentist could pin it
down. Then a couple of weeks ago a rather scary lump developed way at
the back on the outside of my jaw. That scared the heck out of me and I
had my doctor take a look. He suggested it was an abscess and sent me
back to my dentist. She checked it and took some X-rays. Sure enough,
thats what it was. The furthest back tooth seemed to be just fine
visually and even when prodded and tested but there appeared to be a
problem way down at the bottom where it sat in the bone material.
Dental advice was that due to the location and abscess issues, a root
canal would require a specialist but that may not actually deal with
the problem and the tooth would end up having to come out so the bone
could be properly cleaned up. Or, skip step one and go straight to the
inevitable extraction. I preferred that option and an appointment was
made. They also put me on their call list incase someone cancelled.
That way it could be done sooner than the end of the month, the soonest
opening they could schedule for a 'non-emergency' appointment.
So, a week ago Thursday afternoon they called to see if I would be
available on that Friday morning. I had to decline as I was playing up
at the gondola on Sunday afternoon and would therefore need the use of
my mouth. I thanked them for the offer and said I'd be available the
next time. They called Monday afternoon to see if I could make it in on
Tuesday morning. Yes, it needed to be done so I'd be there. I didn't
have anything booked for this week that required my mouth, besides
eating, so lets get it done. They had thought an hour would take care
of it because the tooth should come out fairly easily and then they'd
just have to clean up the area where it had been. The tooth had
different ideas. The outer side freed up easily but the inner side was
welded firmly to the jaw bone. She had to poke and pry and use her
dentist drill to carve away at the bone until it let go. Thank goodness
for dental freezing. Thank goodness for the wedge they put between the
teeth on the other side to help hold and stabilize my jaw as they
pushed and pulled. Once the tooth was out she then scraped the
contaminated section of bone below the tooth until it was cleaned up
and then stitched the area back together. I was pretty well beat by
then and so was the dentist. She looked like she had been through the
preverbal mill.
That tooth had a gold crown and I had asked the assistant what they did
with any gold they mined from the mouths of their patients. She said
they sterilize it and then put it in a box. When they get enough they
send it away to one of those places that buy gold and get back a few
bucks for their effort. She told me I could have mine if I wanted it
but at the time of that conversation which was just as we were getting
started, I didn't really want a creepy old tooth. However, during the
struggle to get said creepy old tooth out, the gold crown had popped
off. So, she cleaned it up and put it in an envelope for me to take
home. It sort of looks like a small nugget so thats cool. Don't know
what I'll do with it but if ever we are in need of a conversation piece
I can always drag it out, creepy as that would be. I'm stuck with
eating soft food for a short while but already that left side of my
head seems to feel a lot better. Thats a good thing.
*
And now, back to that Canadian of Canadian topics, the
weather.... The West Coast is in shock. Its been hit hard, time after
time this winter. The first winter storm of several (in the latest line
of storms) hit last Friday and again paralyzed the city with a LOT of
snow. Out in the Fraser Valley the snow accumulations were in the area
of from 50 to 80 cm over the weekend. Thats a lot of snow. What didn't
get mentioned was that up here in the sticks also got hit hard. My
unofficial totals for last weekend based on what I blew from my
driveway put us in the 70 to 80 cm range. By the time it was over I had
pretty well run out of room to blow the snow. Our street was looking
like a tunnel. Partly because of the jerks that park on the street
rather than clean out their own driveways and partly because the roads
department here hasn't a clew as to how to plow a road. There are no
enforced laws against street parking so no one seems to give a damn.
After a few nice sunny days that included high winds and cold, enough
cold to re-freeze Shannon Falls again, the next wave of storms hit on
Wednesday night. They brought heavy snow, freezing rain, sleet and so
on. Major highways were closed due to ice and snow, and, avalanches in
most of the mountain passes. We woke up to another foot, 30 cm for you
younger readers, on Thursday morning. Up here that eventually turned to
sleet and then rain. Down in the Valley below us it turned to freezing
rain first. What a mess.
I had been shoveling our back steps, the ones that lead down into the
back yard from the deck so that Willow could find them as well as
shoveling a path for her to follow to do her business. I'd had to
shovel those steps several times. They were getting so buried that I
had to feel for them with the shovel. The need to help her find the
steps has become urgent because Willow has become very old over the
last few months and now she has lost most if not all of her eyesight
over the last couple of weeks. She is having to feel for the steps and
if she gets off the path I've cleared she can't find her way back and
gets lost in the back yard. Its very hard and heart breaking to watch.
I had to rescue her on Thursday morning as she got off the path and
somehow ended up in the lower back yard. We've got some hard decisions
ahead of us.
I mentioned that I played up at the gondola last Sunday. Most of you
have no idea just how mentally and physically exhausting that is. When
I play up there during the week its a 2-hr gig. When I or anyone else
plays on Sunday afternoons its a 3-hr gig. After loading up my
equipment, getting it there, getting it into a lift cabin and then
getting set up and ready at the top, then playing several sets, then
packing everything up and getting it home and unloaded, well, I don't
have much left. If I didn't enjoy the playing part I certainly wouldn't
be doing it. Heck, I can't really think of a better location to play to
the world. Acoustics up there are the pits but the location is hard to
beat.
doug
****
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, Groundhog Day has come and gone and according to Willie we are
supposed to have an early spring. He’s entitled to his opinion but just
how accurate his prediction will be is anybody’s guess. I’m not too
sure if he’s been on the money in the past or what his percentage of
accuracy has been but let’s hope his prediction for this year is
accurate!
The temperatures have been so up and down this
year it’s hard to say from one day to the next what to expect. Even our
weather girl from CTV hasn’t hit the mark very often this winter. By
the look of our roads in and around Kitchener, our winter is easing up
already but I bet we’re in for more snow soon. The Lake Huron shoreline
has been hit with lake affect snow quite a bit this winter and I hear
they are in for another bash of it over the next few days. I’m sure
Uncle Russ could attest to how much they’ve got on the ground so far!
Oh well, at the worst we’ll have only another five or so weeks of
winter and spring will have sprung!
*
I’m afraid this week is one
of those that have been uneventful. Other than the strike by outside
workers in Cambridge there hasn’t even been much in the news around our
region. They managed to settle their dispute within the first 5 days of
the strike and from what I heard they were treated fairly by the
Cambridge city council. They had been without a raise for three years
and were something like 16% behind the other city workers doing the
same jobs in Kitchener and Waterloo. I’d agree it was only right that
they be caught up this year!
I’ve often wondered if our snow plow workers
in Kitchener would be on the “Sunshine List” with all the overtime
plowing of the bare asphalt they do every winter! It seems they spend
more time on the bare roads than they do actually moving snow. In fact,
our streets have been bare for about a week now other than a little
freezing rain a couple of nights ago and just last night or should I
say early this morning (4am) we were awakened by the noise of one of
those sidewalk “Jiggers” roaring and beeping outside our house and
there certainly wasn’t any snow to be moved out there! In fact it was
about 5 days ago that I had taken the TORO and cleared the snow off
that sidewalk for them so I know darned well it wasn’t necessary that
they were out there last night! No wonder our taxes are so high! Might
be time to move out of the Region! On the other hand, who says it’s any
better in another part of Southern Ontario?
Guess that’s about it for this week!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
He who laughs last thinks slowest!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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