Author Book Sign... huh?

I knew there was a reason this sign was in the back hallway of the hotel, and not out on the main floor.

Plop!

Sorry to be the bearer of such gross tidings, but here's an amazing splotch of bird poop on the hood of my co-worker's car.

Apperently, there's some sort of exotic bird which has, somehow, found its way to Houston. It doesn't belong here, but due some sort of migratory mix-up, here it is. According to my co-worker, it's been in the paper, on the news and everything. Unfortunatly for him, it's decided to perch in the tree directly above his parking spot. He said this is light compared to some days when the pile of bird poo can be inches high! Not pictured are the white streaks all along the sides of his vehicle. I just think it's amazing that one bird can poop this much.

Since this picture was taken, he said it's gotten even worse than this now that there's a whole family of birds with young hatchlings which are pooping, too!!

Ouch.

I just returned home from a visit to the dentist's office. It was the second visit over the course of a single week, and there are two more visits to look forward to in the next three weeks or so. I had neglected my teeth for far too long and I'm paying for it now in the form of fillings, gum-pocket cleansings, root canal and crowns.

How long has it been since I've been to the dentist? Well, before getting a single wisdom tooth pulled almost exactly two years ago in May of 2004, It's been a while. I had to get a filling replaced way back in 20th century. My friend Alan may or may not remember this, but one night while he and I were watching a movie in my Mom's basement at my old house in Highland, I had a filling pop out while mindlessly chewing on approximately twelve Sour Patch Kids at once. Since I still had insurance at the time, I went to the dentist the following day to get it replaced.

That was in 1997.

Fast forward about nine years, and here I sat with multiple missing fillings, about a dozen areas of decay, an aching, broken molar in need of a root canal and two more wisdom teeth that need to go, including an impacted one barely even showing above the gums which needs to be extracted by means of oral surgery since part of my jaw bone needs to be removed along with it.

This all started last month when I decided to purchase medical and dental insurance from my employer. Both a blessing and a curse, in my opinion. I made an appointment at an office close to my apartment called "Smile Store." The group is made up of several dentist and oral hygienists on the feeder ramp of Houston's busiest highway. When I arrived to have the aforementioned broken molar examined (which had been broken for 4-5 years and was now subject to the off-and-on throbbing toothache), I was first directed to the x-ray chair so they could get a full set of pictures of my teeth. After scanning the x-ray shots into a computer and creating digital images of them to be displayed before me on an LCD monitor in the examination room, a technology light years ahead of what I was used to in the dentist's office, even I could tell they told a sorrowful and bitter tale.

Enter Dr. Chang, a peitie and somewhat pretty Chinese woman who is now my designated dentist. She has a look at the pictures and then my mouth, and begins rattling off a dizzying torrent of practically every possible category of dental condition and oral procedure to her assistant. After her grave littany finally began wind down, she turned to me and explained my treatment plan.

I was still under the impression that she was going to simply have a look at the infected molar, set up an appointment later on that week, give me my free toothbrush and send me happily on my way. But instead, no doubt feeling the Gung-ho spirit of her ancestors, she said we can "take care of the root canal and two crowns today and set up an appointment a few days later to take care of the other cavities." At first, when she said "today,” I wasn't really sure if she meant that day, or something more along the lines of in this modern era of dentistry. I was still clinging to the hope that she meant the latter, but instead of "Here's your toothbrush, so long, now, and have a nice day!" she said "I'll be back in a few minutes to numb you up." I actually tried to misconstrue that statement as well, but couldn't. I had to resign to the fact that I would be getting drilled upon within the hour.

So, three and a half hours of whizzing and buzzing, one root canal, two temporary crowns later, and more instruments passing through my mouth than I could keep track of, I was out. I still had to return my rental truck and pick up my newly repaired car from the body shop and go to work that afternoon. Luckily, I wasn't really in any pain. I went back, today, for the cleansing and scaling beneath my gum line, a filling and yet another temporary crown. This wasn't as bad as I thought, either. I go back in two more weeks to get my permanent crowns fitted and more cavities filled. After all that, I'll be back on a more civilized dental schedule with routine check-ups. Everything should be back to normal.

Well, except for that "cutting out part of my jaw" business.