Where can we live but days?

Animals this week:

• two red-tailed hawks in Deering Oaks
• many of the little brown ones at my bird feeders
• ditto a few starlings
• a corgi named Gordon
• a beautiful black cat with a plume of white fur on its chest, sitting on my fence

I don't think I've mentioned my dental coronation here, during which my new beloved dentist filed a crumbly old tooth down to a nubbin and fitted a brand new fake tooth onto it like a Lego piece (plus magic glue). My tongue can't stop admiring the wonderful new tooth, it's so smooth.*

Also in medical miscellany, at my routine mammogram this week I saw a sign that said "Avoid handshakes — try an elbow bump instead," with that last part inexpertly covered with masking tape. Elbow bumps are so 2020.

This morning we encountered the usual mob of middle-schoolers, but with an extra Lord of the Flies vibe. One kid with huge headphones was scrawling graffiti in black marker on the bridge railing, another walked with a portable speaker at his chest blaring Kendrick Lamar, a pack of boys behind him. Several were headed in the wrong direction, away from the school. We realized next week is winter break.

We're giving The Last of Us a shot, despite all the...zombies. I spent most of the first two episodes moaning, "Oh no, I hate zombies." Also, not a fan of these particular fungi. But episode 3 has inspired me to continue, it was sweet and touching and sad.

Absolutely NOT 10 miles west of Boston.

*It should feel amazing, it cost as much as a brand new sofa or a transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2

Rabbit rabbit!

 

The chomper report: could be worse!

One row above, one row beneath

There is something in the back yard that is so disturbing. It's a thing that Gus found back there and Mark let him play with a little, tossing it around happily, and then they came in and just left it there. It's a thing with teeth, and the only reason I haven't had a nightmare about it yet is that I only just saw it with my own eyes this afternoon. Yep, it's got teeth, I thought to myself.

In dream news, I have been remember boring bits, like in one dream I was at a lecture but I couldn't keep my eyes open (I am often exhausted beyond belief in my dreams), and then I was applying some lip balm in a bathroom but squirted it all over myself. It was clear and smelled like peppermint, and I was wiping it off my coat with a damp paper towel.

But the dream of the thing with teeth is coming.

Oh, in the category of disturbing things with teeth, there's this horrific item.

Side Effects

(A particularly shallow haiku review.)


Jude Law's teeth were straight!
Funny, after Contagion--
he was snaggle-toothed.

Sprung

Apparently, it's spring. We've had days lately that felt like July, i.e. windows open at night. This is bizarre (and possibly terrifying), of course, but also very pleasant. Our current forecast includes plenty of temperatures in the 40s, and today's weather predicts a high of (only) 50, so it looks like we'll be somewhat back to normal for a spell.

Hey, Zoë got her wisdom teeth out ten days ago and they're still giving her trouble. "Healing up nicely" was a bit premature, as it turns out. She spent all day yesterday getting herself taken care of and getting antibiotics, being diagnosed by a nice Indian dental resident (?) at the NYU emergency dental clinic. Unfortunately, her mouth still hurt like hell at bedtime last night. I really really hope that she starts to feel better today.

As for me, there is work and open windows, one day a homemade Vietnamese iced coffee, coffee out with friends, an Extra Dog, good books to make up for that other one, watching the Sopranos at night with Mark and Isaac, talking to dentists on the phone, adding rows everyday to my endless blanket, and yesterday even a little digging in the cool, dark dirt in my flower garden.

Bonus

Although overall Zoë is healing up nicely after Wednesday's wisdom tooth removal, her mouth aches so badly at night that she's not sleeping well. She decided to stay at home an extra day before heading back to school on the bus, so we got a bonus day with her.

It was bright and warm, and we drank the very first iced coffee of the year. A snack on the pier, a walk on the beach. We met a many-toed cat and Zoë fell in love with it (it was mutual).

I hope she feels like she got a little bit of spring break this week, despite the fact that most of it was spent watching Hindi movies, eating soup, rinsing with salt water, knitting socks. It sure was nice to have her here. I thought, guiltily, more than once that I was glad she had to have oral surgery, so we could keep her captive! If she hadn't needed to do that this week, she might have gone off on some adventure instead...

holding on comes easily

today i'm loving the evidence my girl leaves around this house, proof that she's here: pretty dresses; teacups; books; used tissues; sheets of notebook paper covered in hindi and urdu text; the smell of indian food in the kitchen; her little shoes; the sound of her laughter. tomorrow, i am sorry to say, she will have her wisdom teeth removed. i don't know which of us is dreading it more.




"We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.” -- Rainer Maria Rilke

the stars are his teeth

i have been to the pediatric dentist three times this week. the second time, i took this boy (seen below reading a berenstain bears book in the waiting room).

to get his braces snipped off!

unfortunately, the process also involves a semi-permanent retainer on his bottom teeth (zoë still has hers; it's to prevent the bottom teeth from going all crookedy as they are wont to do), and a temporary clear top retainer (also known as an ubby gubby, and i have my fingers crossed that minnow doesn't eat this one). next month he'll get the longer term real retainer, which he is pretty annoyed about.

i tried to get him to smile for some pictures, but he grabbed my phone and did some self portraits instead.

teeth

(awesome tooth poster available here.)


thank you, everyone, for all your encouraging tooth-related comments! i am amazed how many of us grind our teeth and require an expensive plastic doohickey at night. i will report on my drugstore night guard for sure - it looks like you boil it and bite into it, then kind of mold it onto your teeth, and then dip it in cold water to set. not unlike your idea, holly! in fact, it's probably basically the same thing.

also, while i needed some serious gum work when i returned to the dentist after a ten+ year absence, i am now ready to get my cleanings at the une dental clinic. but i did pay the big bucks for my planing and scaling, melissa, at the very same dentist-to-the-stars, where they hand out free movie passes if they make you wait more than five minutes and apply a lavender-scented neck wrap when you climb into the dentist chair.

tooth

which reminds me that back in our casco bay books days, bean and boo had an ongoing business/design project that for some reason they called "casco bay tooth." i keep thinking of my molar as the casco bay tooth.

here's what i was afraid of: that i'd go to the dentist and be told that i needed a crown (or worse, a root canal and a crown), which my research tells me can cost in the thousands of dollars. i would then burst into tears in the dentist chair, and my dentist would casually walk out of the room (which is his tendency when i bring up the subject of money). not having thousands of dollars, i'd then go to the low-cost dental clinic, where they'd happily pull my tooth for me, for cheap.*

so the very happy ending to my tooth story is that it was fixable through filling, replacing my hideous old evil mercury filling with a shiny new white-ish one. i was sent off with a bill of only $300 and a warning that many of my other teeth are in danger of crumbling to pieces because of how ferociously i apparently grind my teeth at night, and that i should probably get a custom-made mouth guard thing for a mere $400. before i left, the hygienist told me that i could buy a temporary "dental protector" at the drugstore for like $15, which would be much better than nothing. the hygienists at my dentist are so much more sensitive to the money issue than the dentist himself.


*maine care takes great care of children's teeth, but not so much for adults. they will cover the pulling of teeth, but not root canals or preventative care. i so much prefer to keep my teeth in my mouth.

retainer + dog = disaster

i think we may have set some kind of record, with the retainer lasting just four days before minnow got his nasty little teeth on it... today i take bean back to the dentist, where we're bound to get quite a lecture, as well as a new temporary retainer.




in other news: we got about a foot of snow yesterday. after shoveling the driveway, m and i took minnow (out of the proverbial doghouse) for a walk in the snowy streets.

toothsome

guess what bean did yesterday? here's a hint:


























yep, you guessed it! dr. mills went and yanked the braces right off of her teeth! we went in knowing that it might happen, but in his matter-of-fact style, he just snipped those babies off without a word, and there she was with absolutely gorgeous, perfect teeth.




















next stop: the land of the mysterious retainer...