Long in tooth, short in patience

The white update box seems to be at a premium again on D�land. I don�t really have all that much to add since I last posted here, but we did make a visit en famille to the dentist in N�rth Hatley for our semi-annual cleanings. Hubby had a chipped tooth fixed at the same time, since a patient scheduled for one procedure ended up getting off with a much shorter one, and Buddy Boy�s very first adult-teeth cavity was discovered. Shame! He was admonished to brush more often and floss daily, and to use a fluoride rinse a couple of times a week since there are four other spots where the enamel is weakened but repairable with the proper dental hygiene.

The hygienist was a sweet, soft-spoken woman, barely taller than yours truly, with one hell of a digging arm. We were all complaining of sore gums when she was done with us and even now, seven hours later, I am still experiencing pressure pain. Luckily I am blessed with good teeth for which I can only thank my parents and their combined genetics. I take relatively poor care of them, never flossing, and yet I haven�t had a new cavity since I was a teenager. I have the same five fillings I had back then and the dentist marvels anew each time he looks in my mouth that there is no change.

But there is a change, and that is in the amount of gum recession I am experiencing, especially above my right canine. There�s a fair bit of exposed dentine and I fear that the expression �long in tooth� will soon describe my appearance. It doesn�t bother me in my day-to-day life; it is only when the dental hygienist cleans my teeth that I experience discomfort. Usually I warn her ahead of time and she avoids the area, or goes around it very gently. This particular soft-spoken sadist, knowing full well where it hurt, kept touching it with her probe, driving me crazy. I was ready to leap out of my chair and swat her if she did it again. She did. I didn�t.

Tonight we had a Musica N�va meeting wherein we discussed the fact that the Canada C�uncil didn�t give us our grant and the Quebec arts council didn�t give us the full amount we asked for. It�s a matter of doing less with less, it turns out. We managed to cut costs on having a poster made up since Richard and I will do that. We�ve cut the out-of-town musicians from the first concert, which saves musicians� salaries and travel money, and Hubby and I will kick back our fees (we�re performing in each concert) which will end up being a healthy donation for the ensemble. I was yawning uncontrollably, feeling myself to be excessively rude but incapable of stopping. We were there a long time, hammering out budget allocations in a mixture of French and English. I�m afraid I was just too tired to make sense out of a lot of it.

The insurance adjustor finally called back, approving the estimate for repairing the Subaru. Normand will be able to work on it next week and has even promised us a courtesy vehicle, which is nice of him but not necessary since the Volvo is working quite well. We�re planning a little getaway around our anniversary, going to Quebec City for a dirty weekend and to see the show at the art gallery, and then take a few days to drive up the Saguenay to Chicoutimi where we have a standing invitation to visit our string quartet friends. It�ll be nice to have a shiny, undented car in which to travel in style!

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