One goes to the dentist and it seems they come out just a bit different. This 'phenom' has been with me since I was a kid. Of course, as a kid....I would be directed, without real knowledge or aim nor want or whatever....to just go to the dentist. My mom would plunk us all in the car, or most likely myself since my brothers and sisters never had any cavities. I was the "D" student in the inward thinkings of dental employees I have a feeling.
"Oh, here he comes....the "D" student and then often wonder if they were going to see their "A" student's (my brothers and sisters' once more)...." So this past week, and as an adult...as we do seem to grow up....I found myself in the dental office. A professional dentist if I have seen one....no Doc Holliday thing going on here. Just a very educated dentist who has just about every instrument she needs. I think she can tell fortunes, or misfortunes in my case...from the start. 'Let's see....see that black small dot embedded between those two teeth? I think in a few years your tooth will need a crown ($$$) or an implant ($$$$$$$)..... " So, here in the chair I was...a very familiar place for me....just a different chair. But lay prone....feet stretched out....these oversized dark glasses on.....body tilted slightly back....mouth gaped open like a dead man. Slurred speech....hands shoved in and out of mouth with minor pressure (so she says), ....close mouth and pretend it is a straw as the other one sucks up matter and liquid..... This was supposed to be a minor issue as a bridge needed replacing. I have no issue with that as I feel half my retirement is saved for the dentist so I just accommodate where needed (credit card). "But wait....what's this....is this an abscess ? Oh jim....you have an abscess...nasty....I thought we could save that tooth and just overlay the bridge over it but no, ...oh jim....needless to say I must perform an extraction here. Of course you can have an implant moving forward." 90 minutes later as the extraction ended....as of course the tooth decided to play 'split the atom' on me and broke into 'atomized parts'.... Pieces here and there and luckily it was already on a root-canaled tooth. Yet, for some reason it didn't stop the pain....da pain...da pain...da pain. You sure you gave me some novocaene,.....as she gave me more topical. "Now....I am giving you some pain meds' for this plus an anti-biotic for the abscess you will take over this coming week. You will need both.... here is a LONG list of what not to do or drink or act or say or stretch your mouth or sleep or eat or generally behave in the next week, as yes, you will need to know this. " So, I return to my abode...swollen face....numb....feeling a bit shattered ..... the next day or two is okay. Wow....I tell myself....I skirted around that. Pain....the doctor knows nothing about as I have no pain. Go ahead....think ahead...two days. Yes, that would do it....da pain, da pain...da pain.... Where is that 600mg of Tylenol Deb? How many did she give me? Just 10? And I have like 10 days of anti-biotic to take. Collectively that combination messes up just about the entire bodily functions and systems and constitution. I know I am in for 10 days of relatively minor "don't talk to me much please as I am in no mood to respond'..... Yesterday...what was that....a Tuesday? .... Garbage day and normally that is an event that I look forward to for rarely can I screw that up in Deb's eye. Mainly because she doesn't want to take the garbage out but even then, I do a pretty good job of getting both the garage and recycling material not only out to the cans, but the cans out to the street. I somewhat excel at that I must say. But as I was still in the 'don't talk to me mood' and wasn't really up to speed in my mental capacity and thinking, ....I forgot about the garbage. Yes, I forgot....a job I excel in and even then, the dental excursion I had mixed me up to the point that I forget....it just 'got away from me'..... Deb understood as I lay on the couch. She went out to push the cans out....pull them perhaps. Push or pull, it makes no difference as I have found that I; being an expert in garbage/recycling can hauling...can do both. Sometimes I push, sometimes I pull. "THAT" is how much of an expert I am in that arena. Yet from the depths of my somewhat deaden ears....I hear a scream come from somewhere outside.... Oh no.... I must venture out and up and be a functioning adult. I leave the house in daylight.. and turn the corner to see Deb running back out at me....."snake...snake....snake.... Under the can......" I see..... A snake....a rattlesnake....under the garbage can (not recycling can). And yes, it is a rattlesnake under my garbage can. As the can is already pulled (not pushed back in this case) by Deb, the snake is just curled up ....hidden within the patterns of the rocks. I take my place and guard the snake so it doesn't escape while Deb calls the Fire Department to haul it away (one of their more popular functions of their occupation). Now, I am guarding it....but not sure exactly what I will do if it decides to uncoil and head towards me. I have no plan and my brain wasn't functioning enough (due to the dentist) as to what I might do. I wasn't thinking that far ahead. To continue and to shorten this.....the snake was taken away....a 3' one.... but in retrospect I am thinking that the dentist actually saved me. She saved me, unknowingly and one I will remind her of. If this was my normal day and normal functioning brain patterns (without dental pre-amble) ....I would have done what I normally do. I go to the garbage can and pull it out and then, now get this as this is important....I then walk to where I just pulled the garbage can from, ....and push (not pull) the recycling can forward. This involves a two-step of sorts and a twist. I enter where one garbage can just was ( and where the snake happened to be coiled) and with a turn/twist motion combined into one....I immediate push the recycling can. Is that verbiage enough for you to visualize? In either case, that action would have taken my sandal-clad feet to the point where I pushed or pulled or stepped on ........ the snake. I can only imagine the outcome. Thankfully, the dentist, with all of her foresight apparently was thinking way ahead of me and made sure to prescribe the drug induced medication that make me loopy. Thus preventing me to push, pull...slide or step on a rattlesnake that was just minding it's own business.
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Deb and I travel across country and now find ourselves in our Arizona home as I write..... Not so different than New Jersey. But no, perhaps a bit; yes a bit.....
But for the past 90 minutes, since 6pm; I was just hanging loose outside enjoying nature with no technology, no phone....the gentle curse of our lives; my phone...not to be seen. Freedom. I have this old strap chair, you know the type that was common just a few years back. It has some nylon webbing running criss-cross. I like that chair. I have had that chair for awhile and actually picked it up in a garage sale years back. Webbing....I love the feel. Although in this case the webbing is dangling off a bit so not sure if this means the end is in sight for I am no sure you can't buy 'webbing' much anymore. And I am not going thru Amazon....no way. I am 'off' Amazon. I am doing my part to save humanity. Either way, I slightly feel the brush of dangled webbing against my calf. So, sitting in my chair....binoculars in hand, was how I was. Directly in front of me there was a kettle of 49 turkey vultures...swirling around, as I counted them. One by one. Then, they morfed into a funnel cloud...slowly making a spiral to the east of me. One slow funnel cloud in constant swirl. Out of site they went and about a minute later, here they were, back once more in reverse direction. But this time they were widely dispersed across the sky, following each other towards the west like a band on parade stretched over the course of a half block. Easy to pick off...easy to ID....easy to count. They just kept going west, with no sure purpose I am sure. A kettle, innocently following their next of kin in a line. A pair of bunnies skipped around like a pair of kittens next door. One would dig itself into the ground while the other looked slightly amused, or perhaps annoyed. Regardless of or not the one 'dug in'...would just pop up, like a kitten and chase the other. They circled the yard and dove in and out of a bush...but pretty much staying out in the yard not afraid of much I suppose. I haven't seen the neighborhood bully in a few days although have heard the Great Horned Owl, throughout the nights. Many doves....just flying back and forth as on a mission. Eurasian Collard doves on the roof...bold and big and watching over the flock of all others. Quite a gang of Mourning Doves constantly in motion from one tree to the next...landing, then off...then chasing each other and off to rest once more. The doves would go from tree to tree and scatter the house finches. I know there were at least 7-8 finches in the tree next to me they landed in. Orange, bright orange spots flew out all around. A white truck comes in.....past my house. Humans I would guess. My feeders all topped off and three Anna Hummeringbirds buzz in.... buzz out. Land and dip. One of them took a huge gulp and then on the way out just spit it all out. What? I just filled that. Fresh stuff man. How dare you spit it out and it was free. Come on.... Drink up. A giant raven flies past from east to west....all hunched shouldered and on call to attend a black-tie event someplace. Oh....look...a cormorant, solo.....flying up from a local watering hole. Why fly this way....you are leaving the water? And only one of you? It just continues on sailing north, that too dressed in black. Must be some fancy event for all of these black-tied birds to be making an appearance. Oh the sun begins to settle ....a mockingbird takes up his call of the night. Brash it is...at this time. All the other birds are starting to nestle down and you my friend are just starting? The white truck returns, this time the opposite direction..... gone it went. My shoes are off....I am grounded. I do a lot of grounding....I love to sit on the brick patio which is great for grounding and just feel the warmth beneath my feet. No shoes....I take them off and if I had them on they are these awesome leather shoes with a grounded copper nail in them. Nefes, ...handmade from Turkey. Go ahead...look em up. Nice shoes....I ground myself with these often. Of course when Deb is around I have to pretend I am not wearing them outside as she would 'mention' something to me. Yes, mention. Deb is real good about 'mentioning' things to me. But hey...I am grounded...I feel good...I am relaxed....I am peace with nature. Nothing around to bother me so I can handle her 'mentioning'. But the point is....I am free. No technology ....no sounds. Nothing but nature and myself. That is so needed for our souls. Deb pokes her way out now....opens the door....and begins to 'mention' things to me. The neighbor next door just had a rattlesnake in their backyard, hence the white truck, as I put 1+1 together and get 'fireman'... Down here, the fire department frequents these parts with white trucks as they do free snake removal. Around now, they are doing 15=20 calls a day, so this is where Jersey might differ. There I was sitting....in the early dust of a new night...in the front....open to the ranges and whatever elects to come in. Not barefoot but no shoes. I wasn't even looking around me to see what might have been under my feet. But the image below shows what I might have seen, just a door down. It is roughly 1:00 in the afternoon and I have been observing without binoculars or without a camera . Just my eyes.....my ears.... I wait and nature comes to me. As I sit here in the outside patio on my oversized cushion (why do they make these so large?)....hummingbirds flutter around me making that 'hummingbird' buzz..... they continually chase after our garden of pollen. A quick trip from one open flower to another... no rush, no worries....just a dab of pollen for their effort. I read once that the color of pollen, whether it was just 'used up' or rejuvenated after re-establishing itself actually changes to the hummingbirds eye. That is how they know to partake of or not.....the color.... some university made a study on. Couldn't tell you which one though.
Bopping all around me are several wrens chatting away as the recent spring addition to the clan is in place and demanding food. I find it amazing how I can putter around in my garden and hardly come up with a respectable insect/worm but these birds can use their beaks and just about with every dig into the soil, they find a mortice to feed the young. Never fails....what instinct do they possess that I have no knowledge of? What sense, ....hidden. Oh, I saw an oriole.....just poking out of a black olive tree. The orange of spring decked out in with a solid black....yet the oriole springs back into the cover of foliage to be lost once more. I pick myself up and grab a few oranges we have scattered around our house in various collections of table plates. Taking two, I slice in half with my goal to entice that oriole back. I grab the top and bottom half's or is that bottom and top half's...? not sure, ....don't think it makes a difference. Going outside I pick up my favorite hammer (I only have one) and a few good nails and find an unused portion of an empty wooden ladder rung. Carefully with the nails successfully impaling each bottom / half combo.....I tap them in. There they sit now, in anticipation of being on the bottom of the pecking order in nature. I have tried this before, in various houses and spots. No success though for myself although I have visited enough places around the world none-the-less where this works. Perhaps I have mixed up the bottom and top half or plain slice it wrongly down the middle. When sliced and when viewed, they look rich and juicy and enticing but will see how it might go this round. I turn Merlin on and being a human, I 'allow' this 'AI' generated piece of whatever, to connect to the sounds around me. One by one a name pops up...the list grows. A bird is highlighted by having a repeat performance while others never seem to stop as they continuously speak to me. In a short few minutes my list grows to over a dozen.... I imagine if I wake up at dawn my list would be 20-30 quite easily, but now, in the mid afternoon.....I am limited to a dirty dozen, no make that a bakers dozen. I grab a pair of binoculars from inside and replace myself on the oversized cushion. I bring the bins up and view my impaled oranges. All there....no change, no movement....oh, perhaps an insect I see but not my intended game. A few 'fly-by's' overhead, most likely doves of sorts. Natures fodder. Against the wall I witness the wrens busy at it. Oh the poor parent or is that just the mom. In human years I wonder how old the young wren is as the mom has to take care of once more, twice....well, it seems to be a non-stop occupation. Is the young a teen yet? Can and when will it fend for itself? A cardinal clasps on to a branch right above me....a female. I know we have several pair who own our property. I slap a mosquito, .....missed. But I gave it a good scare as I know it won't be back. No, they won't....I know that. Oranges still in place...coming on 2:05. Might be time for a nap. That would be a sure way to lure the orioles. Maybe work on the crossword from the May issue of The Atlantic as it is difficult and if my mind wanders I would alleviate the pressure that might build up, my hidden aura of an expectation within my universe. With the pressure of my Aura off, the Orioles would certainly take up on the orange invitation as all birds do sense what we do not. But dang-it-all....those oranges are there and I just bet you Mr Oriole that you still are hanging around, staring at me thru the leaves, waiting for my eyes to close so you know it is safe. As I am going to do anything to you, surely you jest. |
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AuthorJim Lehmann Archives
August 2024
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