How is it one appointment messes up the entire day?

It’s probably some character flaw on my part,  but I found that the time this morning flew by, and suddenly it was time to head off to pick up Travelling Companion and go to our dentist’s appointments.  I think I just dilly-dallied,  and suddenly I had to make tracks!

We were both scheduled for the same time, and I’m not sure whom she had for her teeth cleaning,  but I had the same Dental Hygienist who has been cleaning my teeth for a number of years.

Now that I think of it,  it’s probably more than a decade,  since she mentioned that she was approaching 40 (doesn’t look it) and so I would imagine she has been working in that practise ever since getting her diploma?  How long that would be is anyone’s guess. The only time she wasn’t there to clean teeth was when she took time off time to pop out a couple kids,  and her oldest started his first day of Kindergarten today.

As an aside, I don’t know how they do it.  Putting your hands into someone’s mouth, that is.  She said her worst patient is her Mother, but that’s a whole other story.

 

Used to be you’d get a new toothbrush,  but now they hand out a whole bag full of swag. 
Hey,  I’ll take it.

 

Dental care has certainly come a long way in the last several decades,  and Travelling Companion and I have compared notes on who did what when.  My first trip to the dentist was when my age was in the single digits (don’t recall really,  might have been eight?) and it was to have a couple teeth pulled,  and T.C.’s first trip was when she was 20,  for the same reason, pulling teeth.

Definite proof that she has better teeth.

So there was no “preventative maintenance” like there is today.

Put it this way,  by the time my Dad was my age,  he had had all his teeth pulled. That’s how bad they were.  Nowadays, companies that make dentures are going out of business.  The market is drying up.  This was a little snippet of info that we gleaned from our visit.  There’s always a certain amount of banter.  I mean, I’m not about to go out to the net and try and back up that claim with some facts and figures,  but on the surface it does seem plausible.  Old folks are keeping their own teeth.

 

Anyway,  enough about dentistry.  I *know* going to the dentist is good for me,  and my mouth does feel better when it’s over with,  but it’s still not a lot of fun getting it over with.  Let’s not speak of this any more….

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It’s been five years now that I haven’t had to pull it all together in the last week of August in anticipation of being overrun by kids on the first day of school. 

Can’t say I miss it.

 

There are certain social aspects of not working in a school anymore that I do miss,  but if it comes down to it, I can go and yak with most of the people I used to yak with before I left my previous employer.

(There’s a segue coming,  wait for it.)

And that brings me to a tradition that was started many, many years ago by a now retired teacher, with whom I’ve been known to go to such things as drag races and such,  who once upon a time lived close enough to the pub I mentioned last week,  that it became a regular, or at least weekly hangout.  OK, it might have been more often than “weekly”,  but I’d have to verify that.

It’s an unnamed event that is held on the eve of the First Day of School,  where one gets together to commiserate about the thought of going back to work on the morrow.

We didn’t convene until nine p.m.

 

Lousy picture. I should have taken the Nikon, but I didn’t want to be overly conspicuous. I’m sure nobody wants to be easily identifiable anyway.

Possibly operator error, ‘cause I think I had the flash gismo turned off…

 

Here we are on the patio,  and you’ll notice that it’s not overly warm out.  It’s the first time in many moons that I’ve had to put on long trousers. 

Can’t say I liked it.  Felt weird.

So,  the theory is,  you’re not going to sleep all that well anyway,  so when you drag your ass in to work the next morning,  at least you have a good excuse. 

Something like that.

But here’s the thing,  as time marches on,  there are fewer individuals in this group who are now faced with the prospect of going to work in the morning.  I’m out of that group only by happy coincidence, but most of the others have retired!

Seems to me,  out of the 10 or so who showed up,  there were only four who had to face the kiddies in the a.m.    We’ll either need some new blood to commiserate with, or it’ll just be a bunch of old geezers getting together on the Labour Day Monday.  But I suppose that’s not a bad thing.

 

An no,  I didn’t ride the bike with T.C. on the back.  I doubt that we could have even done that in our youth,  and even in the Netherlands I only saw kids willing to do that.  So that did mean I had a “large cola” planked down in front of me.  Still had to visit the toilet.  Sucks to have a bladder the size of a walnut.

We got in waaay past our bedtime at something like 11:30.  I know!  AND, we got up at our regular time. 

In spite of that,  the weather has somewhat turned,  and the air is fresh and a heckova sight dryer than it’s been in the last little while, so in spite of the slight nagging discomfort from having my mouth open for the Dental Hygienist,  I’m in good spirits.  I always get a slight headache for some reason….

 

I’m going to sound like a bit of a broken record,  but I also came away from last night’s gathering with a book to read.

I haven’t actually sat and read a book in a while I’m ashamed to admit,  but I think this one may hold my interest.

I will get this out of my system (this whole McNamara thing) at some point,  I’m sure.

I’ll try not to bore you too much.  I blame it on the whole Syria conundrum.  That’s my excuse.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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