I Don’t Plan On Getting Out Of Bed Tomorrow

You know, there are some days when it would be better to have just pulled the covers back up over your head and gone back into what ever dream you had been having before the alarm woke you. Unfortunately I had to get up so that I could be at the dentist for an eight o’clock AM appointment. Her office is across the city and normally I don’t mind going there, but today I would have to travel in rush hour. For all of my adult life I have never had to travel in rush hour, so, now instead of embracing the experience as I should, I quail and quiver like a little girl.

I have always told my kids that I would always be there to help them whenever they needed it and for the most part I have been. A couple of years ago, Arwen needed me to pick her up from work as her car was in the shop. I can remember the conversation like it was yesterday, “Hi Dad. I was wondering if you could pick me up from work on Tuesday afternoon because the car is getting a new set of brakes/lube/carburetor/exhaust/columbanterdoinger (I remember the gist of the conversation) and it won’t be ready until Wednesday?”

There was a longish pause from my end, “Uhhhh, are you still at the insurance company? Did they move? When do you need the ride?”

Arwen said “yes...no...Tuesday afternoon. Why, are you busy?”

“Well... no... not really. So the company is still downtown and you work till 4:30?” I asked.

“Forget it, I will take the LRT!” Arwen said. I recognized that tone as the same one that my wife would use, and it means anything but “forget it”.

“No, I should have no trouble picking you up.” I replied, knowing that I was in for no end of trouble. It turned out pretty much as I expected, a long, hot, and unpleasant drive that at one point had me circling a block about ten times. This is why you shouldn’t love anyone.

The drive to the dentist (yes, I am back on topic) wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated and I arrived about a half hour early. I brought a book and sat in the car reading for about twenty minutes. I could have gone in early, but they might have taken me in early and I might have gotten out twenty minutes early and had to drive in rush hour again. I’m sure you see my point.

The good news is that if we act quickly we can save the nerve and not have to do a root canal. We can put a crown on that bad boy. Oh....yea!!! You know, I don’t know why I should give a shit about the nerve; all it has ever done is to give me pain. If I could, I would have pulled it out long ago with my bare hands. I told Dr. Julie this and she said “Well, how else would you know if your tooth is bad?”

Oh, I don’t know...perhaps when my tongue feels a huge crater or when I suck air and there is a whistling sound. The black spots and spaces would be a dead give away. Probably the easiest way is for the dentist to look in my mouth every six months when I come to the office.

This all happened by nine o’clock and was the highlight of the day, so you can imagine that I am looking forward to sleep and don’t plan to get out of bed tomorrow.