>While watching swimming:

Me: Who’s that?
La Petite: Michael Phelps.
Me: I didn’t recognize him. He looks like an ordinary guy.
La Petite: I recognized his torso.
Me: chokes on coffee

Amigo: It’s road racing now. I think it’s motorcycles.
Me: It’s actually bicycles.
(Remember, he’s visuallly impaired, can’t see the tv well)
Amigo: It sure sounds like a motorcycle.
Me: Oh, now they’re showing a different angle. The camera following the bikes is on a motorcycle. That’s the motorcycle you’re hearing.
Amigo: Okay, I knew there was a motorcycle.

>I just got back from the dentist’s office. At my routine cleaning a few weeks ago, we spotted an abscess at the root of one tooth. Dr. DDS was on vacation, so the support staff set aside the notes and records for him. Now that Dr. DDS is back in the office, he reviewed the X-Rays and photos and called me for a consultation.

Next step: endodontist. The tooth that has an abscess has already been treated – root canal, crown. There are two possibilities: either there is another root that needs to be sealed, or there is a fracture somewhere in the tooth or root structure. If it’s the first, they’ll seal it. If it’s the second, they’ll pull the tooth.
If the tooth has to be pulled, there will be two options: implant or bridge.
So at this point, I’ll wait for the appointment with the endodontist.

The strangest thing about the situation is this: I feel mild discomfort, but no major pain. Here’s the history, perhaps. I called our family doc in late April for treatment of my Annual Spring Sinus Infection. The pain was worse than usual, and it took two rounds with antibiotics to get it treated. The antibiotics probably also took care of any infection in the tooth. Who knows? The tooth may have been the reason for the additional pain in the same area as the sinus infection.

In the meantime, I’m thinking these crazy thoughts that teachers think at this time of year. How soon will I know which problem is the problem? Can I get the treatment done now? I don’t want to wait until the end of August when I’m setting up my classroom and getting ready for the new year to start. And if it needs to be pulled, what next? Do I need antibiotics now, or wait until it’s sealed/pulled?

Too many questions without answers. I think I’ll make coffee. And wonder what the going rate is for a grown-up’s fractured, root-canal treated tooth on the Tooth Fairy market.

>Funny can take on many different meanings. It’s all in the context, and in my life, there’s a great variety in context.

It was frustrating (not funny) that I couldn’t get online while visiting my brother. He uses a dial-up or a neighbor’s wi-fi, and I couldn’t get either one to work well enough to get anything done. Perhaps there is humor in the level of my Internet addiction. My solution was to visit a Starbucks and Panera down the road, knowing that odds were good I could get wifi in one or the other, or perhaps even both. La Petite and I bought smoothies at Starbucks, and I asked if I needed a password or log-on to get online. The barista told me that it was easier to simply log onto the Panera network, since it came through the walls to both stores. Ironic (but not funny); I couldn’t hijack on my own brother’s hijack, but I could hijack on Panera’s at Starbucks.

It was silly (not funny, just lame) that instead of using a map to get there, I jotted down the highway numbers on a sticky note. La Petite stuck it to the dashboard and called it our GPS.

It’s ironic (and certainly not funny) that my brother’s accident happened on his first day of real summer break. He’s done with his professional commitments and was taking a ride to relax a bit. Now he’s spending the next month or more recuperating from a broken leg and wrist instead of relaxing. Well, he says it himself, it could be worse. To which I add (you guessed it) — could be raining!

It’s amazing (not funny) that even at an outlet store, prices can shock me. Costs of living in the Midwest average significantly fewer $$$ than on the coasts and in the big cities. Daughter and I walked into the Coach factory store, loved the bags, but couldn’t afford them even with the markdown. We had better luck at Fossil, and of course, Converse.

It’s typical (not funny) that we found reason to be sarcastic even in road signs. “Bridge may be icy.” “Okay, I’ll be careful.” “Mom, watch for blowing snow, too.” Give us a break, we’d been on the road for hours and it seemed like days. Ah, road trips. They bring out the best and the worst in us. Sometimes, they bring out our sense of humor. While brother was coming home from his surgery and we were going the opposite direction on I-90, he called La Petite (in his post-anesthesia stupor) to see if we could wave to each other on the highway.
Now that’s funny.