• Tag Archives root canal
  • Root Canal. The Sequel.

    Beltane                   Waxing Flower Moon

    Root canal sequel.  My one month check-up today.

    Got in the car and drove 50 minutes south to Bloomington, exited on Pennsylvania and took it to the Penncrest Professional Building.  I got in about 10:10 for a 10 a.m. appointment.  Not bad.

    The dental assistant came in, masked and wearing floral pattern scrubs that looked like a designer of motel interiors had found another outlet.  She stuck a plastic gadget in my mouth, had me clamp down.  A whir and a click later I spit out the plastic piece and saw the image pop-up directly on the lap-top screen to my right.  Pretty damned slick.  No film.  No wait.

    Dr. Erickson followed her.  With a practiced flick of his wrist he moved the long dangling light over my face, gave it a twist to turn it on and began snapping on a pair of rubber gloves.  How is it?  Good.  Hmmm.  Looks good.  You’re ok.  If there’s any problem, I’m sure your dentist will call me.

    That was it.  I had driven almost an hour for less than 5 minutes of surveillance. Worth it, of course, because nothing beats a professional eye and hand, but 2 hours + on the road.  Geez.

    On the way there and back I listened to a recorded book.  This time a Clive Cussler thriller titled Plague Ship.  Entertaining.


  • Two Colorful People Together

    Spring                  Full Seed Moon

    Yes, we need no appraisal, we need no appraisal today.  Our bank, Wells Fargo, decided we do not need an appraisal to refinance our loan.  Something about our loan balance, equity and that it would be a roll-over instead of a brand new loan.  OK.  That means we can refinance sometime next week.  A good thing.

    The last week and a half, since the root canal, has had dealing with the infected jaw, then one organ after another taking up my mornings.  All important to my long term health, but it has left me tired and with a sense of little accomplished.

    This need to accomplish, to achieve continues as a backdrop.  Kate says when she retires she’s ready to rest on her laurels, sit back and reflect on her life.  “We can just be two colorful people together,” she said.  I’m not sure I can give up the hope of something over the horizon, a realization, a book, a political action a defining event for this stage of my life.  If not, I may find the last two decades or so of life a struggle. Or, I suppose, they might be very productive.

    Drifting right now.  The melancholy at bay, but not too far away, ready to bring a tear or a heaviness to my now.  Feels empty.


  • A Good Lesson In Humility

    Spring           Waxing Seed Moon

    I’ve been working with the Sierra Club for a while now and I’m constantly amazed at how much more these folks know about politics than I do.  I’ve begun to realize that I never shepherded legislation though the legislative process or worked on the ground in a modern political campaign.  I’m a rabble rouser, an agitator, a motivator and an organizer, but political process has never been my strength.  And all along I thought it was.

    So the uphill curve has found me panting along behind, running hard to keep up.  At times, like tonight, I’ve felt out of my depth, just not up to the task.  In fact I’ve taken the risk, jumped in and tried to stay afloat.  I’ve not got the total package going on as yet, but I can get there.  A good lesson in humility.

    Tonight will be the last night of meds, the penicillin will run out Friday at noon and I believe the infection will be on its last legs, even if they could take awhile to go down.  Yeah.

    Lunch tomorrow with Bill Schmidt, talking nuclear power.


  • 80%

    Spring        Waxing Seed Moon

    Whoa.  I’m 80% back to normal, which feels like double speed ahead compared to the slowed down, body working hard lethargy of the last four days.  To think I did that to myself intentionally.

    When an illness or disease process begins to lift, the world becomes clearer and more hospitable, as if a dark mist you didn’t even notice has finally disappeared.

    Tomorrow I get my glaucoma survelliance.  At least I’ll be able to stay awake.


  • They’ll Need a Resurrection. But, They Won’t Get One.

    Spring         Waxing Seed Moon

    For the first time since last Thursday, I feel like working out.  When I tried before, each step on the treadmill transmitted up to and resonated in my jaw.  I no longer look like a chipmunk although I can tell the infection is still there, though now it is like a folded section of cloth about 8 inches long as opposed to the walnuts in the cheek look of before.

    The pain has throttled way back, too.  I hadn’t popped any Alleve today at all until about a half an hour ago, but I decided that before I went back on the treadmill I wanted a little cushion.

    All this is because we went after the infection in the first place so this was the hard part of getting to a healthier state.  I look forward to that moment, though I’ve appreciated the intimacy with my bodies defenses that I’ve had over the last four days.   When my body and the penicillin worked hard on the infected bone, it took my attention away from the outer world.  I got sleepy and in fact slept a lot.  My energy level was low so I laid around, not exerting myself much.  It’s good to know my bodies still enough punch to fight back hard.  Even if it means some discomfort.

    My thinking has been a little fuzzy too so if there’s anything strange in the last few posts chalk up to distraction by infection.

    The legislature will go away on Easter break and will come back needing a resurrection.  They won’t get one.  The budget deficit will not go away and all the federal stimulus dollars don’t patch the holes in our revenue stream versus our expenses.  Something has to be done and the legislature and the governor are the ones we elected to do it.

    The outlook for significant environmental legislation has gotten mushed up in all this fiscal dithering, but I think we’ll still see some important bills:  green jobs, sensible communities, maybe something on clean cars and atv’s.  It ain’t over till its over and that date is in May, not April.


  • Grandma Told Me So

    Spring            Waxing Seed Moon

    Kate is home.  As is our habit, I met her at the Loon Cafe after she took the LRT into downtown.  To park I went in a ramp, promptly scored the first parking spot, which allowed me later to just pull around a concrete pylon, turn left and give my money to the cashier.  Very cool.

    The other amazing part was the rat in the maze experience.  Getting out of the ramp I exited onto a skyway, walked until I found Butler Square, went into Butler Square, wound through a few hallways, found the entrance, exited, then turned left and went one block to the Loon Cafe.  The truly amazing part was that after Kate and I had supper I reversed field and followed the path back to the truck without a misstep.

    I’m glad to have her back.  This tooth business has been a hassle and I wanted to complain to somebody about it, but she wasn’t here and who else would listen?  I complained for about a minute over supper and that was enough.

    Ruth is a prodigy, capable of astounding feats of linguistic and muscular agility.  I know this because Grandma told me so.

    Gabe is the cutest, friendliest baby ever.  I know this because Grandma told me so.

    Grandma loves being a grandma.  ditto.


  • Wonky Politics

    Spring              Waxing Seed Moon

    Kate left home to visit a snow storm.  4-6 inches falls in Denver right now.  Tomorrow will be a good day for a ski oriented family to have a birthday.

    Though the southern part of the state has blizzard warnings, we look mild here.  Saturday does not look quite as good as I thought it would for outdoor work.

    I popped two alleve and the throbbing went down toward manageable levels.  A vicodin will get me to sleep.  Bearable now.

    A week plus of little commitments stretches out ahead of me, so I plan to school myself on Sierra Club issues, especially safe mining and building sensible communities.  Environmental politics has a wonky aspect once you get past tree-spiking and waving signs.  A lot of science and complex theory behind much of the work makes even entry level understanding a challenge.

    How have I continued to work without a detailed knowledge of the issues?  Well, two things.  One, I have a good, broad grasp of the issues, just not a detailed one.  Second, the politics have been what interested me initially and politics I understand.   The Sierra Club folks understand the legislative process much better than I do, but in politics I’m a quick study and I was not as far behind in understanding as I was on the issues.


  • “It’s a Blessing If You Need It.”

    Spring  Waxing Seed Moon

    Uh-oh.  On my way back from the Institute this morning I felt my left cheek.  Swollen.  Beginning to ache.  I have a funny feeling this may not be a pleasant couple of days.  I called Jeff Erickson, the root canaler.  His office has closed for the weekend.  Not to worry.  He gave me his cell.  Hmmm.  Had to leave a message.  He’ll call back, I’m sure, but hasn’t yet.

    Tours this morning were good.  Very different.  The first, from excell academy in Brooklyn Park, had all 4th grade boys, some African and some African-American.

    He just called back.  The anti-biotics I have will be enough to see if this goes down.  The pressure has begun to build.  He said if I still had trouble early next week he might go in and lance it.  I said, “That crossed my mind.  Unpleasantly.”  “Oh, no,” he said, “it’s a blessing if you need it.”   I’ll take his word for it.

    Koran and Mohammed were two of the boys.  These were inquisitive, interested kids who’d never been to a museum before.  They wanted to look at everything.  They asked me we had anything by Leonardo Da Vinci.  No.  How about the Blue Boy?  No.  How about Georgia O’Keefe?  Yes.  We made a game out of figuring out which was O’Keefe’s painting.

    It’s a cityscape at night, very different from what the boys had seen.  They loved the African masks.  One boy had been to Cameroon and seen his father dance a mask that we had.  They also asked to see illuminated manuscripts.  4th graders.  So we went into the Islamic gallery.  We ended with Chinese calligraphy.  A big hit.  They’d studied Chinese calligraphy and some of their work was in the school hall back at the academy.

    Second tour, an Asmat tour, was a couple from Coon Rapids with their 9 or 10 year old daughter.  She had just had a birthday and asked to come to the MIA.  She showed her parents the Chihully in the lobby.  “We studied him in the first grade,” she said.  “Yeah,” her mother said, “she’s culturing us.”

    We had a good tour of the Asmat show.  They asked questions, interacted and learned.  It was a fun, intimate family experience.