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Dear children, I know you have all been waiting on tenterhooks (perhaps in empathy,) for the story of my root canal yesterday. A grimmer tale you will be hardpressed to hear! First, I have a huge abcess ("how rude to put it that way, I said") and I may lose the tooth, dear sweet #18, a molar, one of a set of four of which I've grown quite fond lo these many years and am loathe to part with. Additionally, there is another trouble-maker lurking in my Eastern jaw (head to toe is north to south, ear to ear is east to west, no?) a tooth, #2 I believe which may or not be cracked but was found to have a "pocket", an apparent harbinger of doom, destruction and/or removal. The combination of this news and the 12,000 shots I received rendered me shaken and stirred and clutching at the dental assistant for sympathy (they are all very wonderful there). Too late I realized I forgot to ask for gas! Realizing I had at least an hour more ahead of me, I requested it and was told there was a fee which turned out to be 90 bucks but as Steve said, worth every penny. My anxiety level is in direct proportion to time spent in the chair, but can further reduced by watching the ordeal on CC TV. I've seen it so often, I could probably do it myself. So, there are 3 roots in #18, all badly twisted. Of course! The root worked on yesterday yielded an ancient copper filling which turns out to be toxic as well as an agent for infection. Could it be ever thus? I've got at least 2 more visits. So it googled Root canal today and boy was I ever sorry; way too much information. It seems that either I lose my teeth or suffer from the root canals themselves even tho today they no longer use toxic metals.In my nitrous-induced state, I got hung up on canals and Mars and Ray Bradbury, so it was very weird when the dentist said my roots were red, like the Martian canals,from the copper. And why is it orthodontist and endodontist but not dontist?Our cat visitors are gone, we are bereft and I have this sudden awarness of being alone, which does not usually faze me. But logically, we should wait for new pets till the kitchen is redone. (Older peeps are more logical and practical because they don't really need to give a crap) Thanks, Catherine for the tip, Bichons are on our list. You sent me on a web trip to pet sites that drove me crazy but abide I shall and anon, it will rain cats and dogs. As of late, I have been accosting people on the street to grill them about their dogs. This is aberrant behavior as it is my usual custom to accost the dogs while snubbing the owner. Last Sunday we had 2 feet of snow, but it's been gorgeous and in the 50's all week. Today is 60 degrees, Sat nite we expect a high of 15.(No global warming, Tex? Just insane weather, record icemelts in northern glaciers and warming oceans. Don't worry, soon you will have an oceanfront home.)My bro came up on Wed and I took him for a Thai lunch (for Valentines Day, cause I love him ) and we went to the Bklyn Botanical Garden.
This is the Japanese Garden, if you look closely, you can see that I'm yet again on thin ice. It was gorgeous and we had a fun day. It was a long time since we spent some quality, fun, nothing-serious-to-take-care-of time together. It was metzuyon! (excellent in Hebrew, tho it sounds like Japanese) He took Steve and I to an italian dinner, Joe and Marion came to pick up the kitties, so they came with us. Twas brillig!A friend in Israel forwarded an unbelievably racist letter printed in a Spanish newspaper decrying the Inquisition and the Holocaust but pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction. The scariest thing about the whole fucked-up world situation is, its becoming a "them or us" thing, Islamists and everyone else.It's so not about that.Honey is home early for the holiday weekend and I must jet, but remember to keep all those dead presidents in your heart! The Constitution meant something back then.
Happy Valentine's day to all! I am back in the land of the living, purified by snow and rejuvenated by cats. We went to Fla to escape from death, but it was waiting at home. How could I forget all those sci-fi stories? No matter, nothing is more life-affirming than shoveling 2 feet of snow and then snuggling in for a few days of TV and eating bad stuff. On Sun, UPN aired 5 Voyagers in a row!!! It was a gift from the television gods. We rented "The Brothers Grimm" which should have been a lot better. But the details were amazing and I enjoyed it very much. I do love Terry Gilliam, whatever. Anyhow, the City did a pretty good job with snow removal, for a change. It costs NYC one million dollars for every an inch of snow. It's a whiter shade of pale.
For comic relief we had Buster and Frannie (real names: Spencer and Kate), my cousins' cats with us for 10 days. They both have long hair, are devious, bold, too fuzzy, demanding, curious, and adorable. It was great to have cats in the house and we are thinking about getting another one and a woofie dog too. I am partial to black cats and jellico cats and big shlumpy black dogs, but for the sake of practicality we will look for a portable, medium size dog that does not shed, drool, require grooming, require long runs and most importantly, is a rescued dog.My dreams are full of cats and dogs.
Florida was fabulous, here are the shells I promised.
We drove north from Tampa to Weeki Watchee, stayed with Camille and JR at the incredible house on the river that they built most of. We saw manatees! Then south for a few days in Bonita Springs, (astounding birds) across the Everglades (alligators!) to Miami Beach, (botox ladies!!) then up to Coral Gables (New Yawkers!)to stay with Ruthie and Tex, who turned 60! Of course we were treated like royality, cooked for and fed to bursting, but it was all the hugs and kisses and togetherness that made it great. I know Camille for almost 30 years, and Tex almost 40. The story of Tex and Ruthie is a good one, but for it's for another day.
Below, JR, me and Camille are on the left,Tex, Ruthie and Stinx are on the right, but not politically, which reminds me, how funny is Dick? Is it not delicious that the Republicans are having trouble with quail/Quayle again?
Probably because of my grief and my Uncle's faith. I've been thinking about a conversation with a very perceptive 18 year old I met yesterday at the shiva. I'm constantly astounded about how cool kids are thesesdays.We discussed our respective trips to Israel where he felt, as did I, a very different place then the one portrayed in the media. After the service he mentioned how the rabbi had made a reference to the 6 million Jews sacrificed in the Holocaust. He did not think sacrifice was an appropriate term for murder which was intriguing to me. I was brought up in the 50's with the then media-popular concept that the Jews were exterminated, an extremely prejudiced and loathsome view, so I had to mull awhile with this one.
This morning I opened the paper and there was a story in the NYTimes with it's usual slanted American view (especially from columnists Myre and Erlanger) about the lastest from the ultra-right, ultra-orthodox, ultra-illegal settlers in the West Bank. They resisted expulsion and attacked the police. Over 200 police and settlers were were injured. As I thought about this unbelievably useless and criminal act, an act against their own Jewish state that so many had sacrificed and died for, it realized what the rabbi meant. It was a sacrifice because it was so shameful and heinous, the world would never forget, so it would not be in vain. It tightened a bond that unites all Jews. And it was a prelude to the ultimate sacrifice, for the State of Israel, a place where peace takes precedent over religion. The sacrifices of Jews should be over, now we have a place of our own. The Rabbi's sacrfice was not in vain.
It's unspeakable that in the midst of external choas and internal instability, that some use this as a political ploy and Jews attack Jews.
You know, in Israel people greet each other with, Shalom. The response is always, Shalom, Shalom.
This is the Japanese Garden, if you look closely, you can see that I'm yet again on thin ice. It was gorgeous and we had a fun day. It was a long time since we spent some quality, fun, nothing-serious-to-take-care-of time together. It was metzuyon! (excellent in Hebrew, tho it sounds like Japanese) He took Steve and I to an italian dinner, Joe and Marion came to pick up the kitties, so they came with us. Twas brillig!
