Jazz is the kind of music we keep thinking will turn into a tune.

The day officially started at 7:20 at the dentist’s office. Our dentist uses specialists for pulling teeth and for root canals. I’ve spent time with both and I’m pretty sure the guy who pulls teeth started his career as a coach at Texas Tech. But the first part of this morning’s appointment was with the root canal specialist, a compassionate guy who doesn’t hesitate to give me more anesthetic if needed.

You really don’t want to hear “Oh, wow!” when he looks at the digital x-rays before even beginning work. Two hours, lots of drilling and several more “Wow’s” later I got out of his chair and went across the hall for another 30 minutes so the dentist could prepare me for the temporary crown.

This is the tooth that had the abscess 6 weeks ago. I now know more than I ever wanted about how a molar can self-destruct from the inside out. For example, the antibiotic can only deal with infection where there’s blood supply (makes sense), so the infection inside the tooth itself remains. I was a “ticking time bomb” and he was a bit surprised that it hadn’t moved from the inside of my tooth back into the bone. Did you know you can have puss inside a tooth? Oh, and I have 24mm long roots, apparently something fairly noteworthy.

The dentist gave me 600 mg of Ibuprofen before I left “to get a head start on the pain you’re going to have” from all the digging and grinding. I’m coming up on time for more. Yikes!

I decided to make hay while the anesthetic was still working and make progress on the cabinet doors. If I can get the two doors I had to re-make ready for painting I’ll be done filling the garage with sawdust that’s been tracked into the house for the last two weeks. That means routing the soft edge on the outside and the dado on the backside - the groove that receives the bead board panel. The first part of that went well. But 30 seconds into routing the dado the bit disintegrated, ruining the door frame in the process. GRRRRR! So now I’ll have to buy more wood, go back to the shop and start the whole thing over again, never mind another trip into town to buy another expensive bit.

Ever have one of those days where it’s like there’s a conspiracy in place and you’re the target? A Mel Gibson, “Conspiracy Theory” kind of day?

I heard a guy interviewed on NPR today who’s name I missed, but he’s the one who invented the Segway, the micro insulin pump and several other pretty amazing things. He said “old” is characterized by looking back at what was, whereas “young” looks forward, setting goals and thinking about what can still be done. He said no matter his age, he doesn’t want to get old.
Yeah. Me too.

Beautiful weather here. While the east is way below normal temps we’re in the low 70’s, about six degrees above normal. Lots of sun. Very nice.

You gotta love all the fitness commercials flooding the airwaves this time of year. My favorite is the one playing on the radio here that begins with a sexy-voiced gal saying, “What’s keeping you from the incredible body you want?” Every time I hear her say that I mentally answer, “Sweetie, you haven’t got time for the list of things keeping me from that body.”

Did you know that the Lions, one of the oldest franchises in the NFL, have never been to a Super Bowl?

ESPN in 3-D this summer. They are premiering this technological leap forward with coverage of World Cup Soccer.
Why?

What show or event would you most like to see in 3-D?

Only 45% of American workers are satisfied in their jobs, the lowest level since they started keeping this stat 22 years ago. At a time when over 10% of Americans don’t have jobs you’d expect that number to be higher. Shouldn’t they be happy just to have a job?

Why aren’t they happy with their job? I wonder if it has nothing to do with their job, but instead with the general zeitgeist of our time. I don’t know how you’d measure it, but I suspect if we could, we’d find that most Americans think there should be more fulfillment in all areas of life. Madison Avenue has done such a great job of convincing us that more, bigger and better will make us happy that the only reasonable outcome is a general unhappiness when faced with reality. And when the pursuit of bigger leads to buying a home beyond one’s means, what’s the effect on the perceived quality of life when that home is lost to foreclosure?

Confession is good for the soul. While doing some paperwork tasks this afternoon I pumped Pandora through the stereo at volume levels not normal for Sun City.
Disco.
“Get down on it, get down on it”