Choppers

Outside by the trees. And the water.  That is where home is.  Winds pull off the ocean.  I am more tired than I have a right to be. 

Sugar maples turn their brilliant oranges and red.  October Glory shine their redness in my face.  The sun casts its beam and everything at once is glorious.  I can't stop from yawning.  It's been that way all day.  It was that was just two days ago.  Before the earthquake.  The dogs do not look restless.  Yet.

The day began checking out a new dentist.  Recommended by a neighbor. I was whisked into a room separated by three pieces of equipment.  Stalls.

"What medications are you on?" asked the dental hygenist.

I had already filled out the requisite forms.  Apparently she didn't, wouldn't read.  Immediately, I told her I was uncomfortable in this mini Grand Central Station.  I asked about HIPPA laws.  Privacy and all.  I couldn't see how they could apply to this open air assembly line. Privacy?  For $176, prophylaxis and a professional dental exam, I wanted...expected at the minimum some privacy. So for the next hour or so, I heard two other conversations, a drilling, dental pain and problems.  Hardly what I expected.  I was just glad it wasn't a gynecologist visit.  But in truth, I would have run.

Recommendations are like the people offering them.  Health care en mass. Sitting in the chair I remembered my other dentist in the south.  Michael.  I remembered the tree I watched with the bird constantly feeding at one of the filled feeders in the large window opposite the dental chair. Today, I saw a wall. Boring paintings, copies.I won't discuss the wall color other than to say it was the color of yarf.  Not too conducive to a fresh mouth.  But kind of funny after the fact.

I had claustrophobia in the dental chair today.  My thoughts flew to escaping.  Over an hour later, and a fifteen minute wait for the dentist Dr. Cold And Clammy to do a three minute exam for $77, I was out.  I thanked the crew for their time for they were cheery folk.

A friend recommended his dentist.  In six months, I will be there.  For now, my choppers are bright and shiny. And I am a whole lot wiser. 

Viva la difference!