It is thanksgiving in the U.S., and so there the usual news items regarding how many things we have to give thanks for abound. I’m Canadian, so our thanksgiving was a few weeks ago…but our friendly neighbors to the south generate the majority of our news, so we sort of get the benefits of two holidays through a sort of osmosis. Unfortunately, I’m feeling under the weather today, and any time I have a cold or flu I end up feeling a bit sorry for myself- I wasn’t feeling any particular “thankful” vibe today.
I am sitting here in the gathering dark as our short winter day comes to an end. We had a serious wind storm here during the night and into the morning, and around 9:30 am or so our power failed. It is a bit past 4:00 pm now.
November 11, 1918: the signing of Armistice, the end of the War to End All Wars…only it wasn’t. Millions have died in wars since, and millions will undoubtedly die in future conflicts.
Remembrance Day is the the time we take each year to contemplate the men and women who went to war and still do today so that you and I can live in prosperity. Those who came back broken in body and spirit, those who came home changed in ways I can only begin to imagine, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Once in a very long while I’ll do something that isn’t really “me”. Today, I went to an NHL pre-season hockey game at GM Place.
It is worth while to note that I am not a sports person. There isn’t a single sport that I watch: not football, not baseball, not hockey, not basketball…none of them interest me. I don’t play them either. Basically, I never really figured out the appeal. The only sports that I ever got involved in even to a minor extent were things like track and field: sports without teams. I think a significant part of it was that I hated being yelled at or teased as a kid, and team sports is all about being yelled at and teased. When I ran the 100 yard dash and came in 13th out of 19 competitors, no one yelled at me. I just had myself to blame, and that was okay.
I have a stainless steel coffee mug that Irene bought me a while back that I really like. I use it several times a day. It is an extremely well made Oxo mug, highly polished inside, so it took a long time to build up a stain. But eventually, even a really good coffee mug needs more than just plain soap and water to make it sparkle.
My visit to the endodontist yesterday (Tuesday) could be described as a success. He confirmed based on my description of the pain and a neat diagnostic trick involving a piece of ice that a root canal was in order. And the endodontist was able to immediately proceed…so long as I paid the deposit and signed my life away.
I went back to my dentist today for a follow up regarding the pain I’m experiencing with the tooth that was prepped for a crown. I’ve now been booked in to see a specialist on Tuesday: an endodontist. I find it curious that an endodontist is a specialist (according to the Wikipedia link) in the “inside [of] the tooth”. So, all that drilling, grinding and scraping a normal dentist does, that’s on the outside? News to me: seems odd that it hurts like it does. Apparently, endodontists are the guys who do root canals- I was really sort of hoping to avoid that, but the pain trumps my desire to minimize time in the dentists chair, I guess.
I mentioned previously that I had some long-overdue dental work done last week on Thursday. Post-dentist, it was relatively pain free. Until Monday afternoon, that is, when it was as if some hitherto somnolent nerve suddenly awakened from its deep slumber.
