A THING OF SHREDS AND PATCHES

3 September 2003

I've been patched!

Cindy's office staff apparently never gave her my message about losing half my tooth in LA recently, so she never set up an appointment for me. Figuring it was too late, I dropped her an e-mail two days ago just to let her know she should set something up for when I get back. Instead, she called.

She doesn't see patients on Tuesdays, so asked if I could come in first thing this morning and she'd check the tooth. It was kind of nice being there when it was just the two of us. Since she had knee surgery a few weeks before my accident, and since by the time she was ready to ride bikes again, I was not able to, I haven't really seen her in a very long time. My last dental appointment was with the hygienist, and Cindy's role was to just stop by, check x-rays, and say hi.

Today it was heavy duty dentist - patient time, but we also got caught up on all the gossip, tales of her recent vacation to her husband's family in the Netherlands, my upcoming trip, my recovery, etc.

Going to Cindy for dental work is like going to a beauty shop--lots of chit chat along with the business end of things.

We discussed my two options--having her do a crown prep and putting on a temporary crown, or patching the tooth with a plastic "bandaid" and we decided on the patch, as the thing that was less likely to cause me problems while I'm away.

An hour later, my tooth feels as good as new and I have an appointment for October 29 to start the whole crown work to fix it more permanently. I do love Cindy as a dentist. I can truly say that I have not felt a twinge of pain whenever she has worked on my mouth. I don't even feel the injections she gives, since she numbs the gum so thoroughtly first. I dunno...maybe all dentists are like that now-a-days, but I ain't about to try another one and find out. I don't know what I'll do when she retires (though since she's younger than I am, maybe that won't be an issue for awhile yet).

So with my choppers now back in good working order, I set my wheels for the Bay Area. I will miss my mother's 84th birthday by a day and so I told her I would take her to lunch before I leave. We had a lovely afternoon. I got there early, so we had a cup of coffee and just chatted for awhile.

Then we went to the Hilltop Cafe, overlooking beautiful, scenic Novato (check the 360º panorama on the web site) and had a leisurely lunch, much too much food, especially the tiramisu that we shared for dessert, which was enough for a party of four.  But decidedly tasty.

On our return from lunch, we sat and chatted some more and I was watching the dove on the porch. My mother has a hanging basket and each year, a pair of doves raises several families, laying their eggs in the basket. This has been going on for years and I've never been there when there are babies. I've seen mom getting ready to lay eggs, I've seen eggs in the nest, and I've seen babies who have gotten old enough to leave the nest but not quite brave enough to leave the porch, but I've never ever been there when there were babies in the next. I've just kind of given up on it.

But the mother was sitting rather high on the nest today--at the end of the season she always is, because she's not only sitting on the shreds that make up the nesting material, but on the guano that has accumulated over her many confinements.

I mentioned that she was sitting up high and asked if she was sitting on eggs.

"No, there are babies in there," my mother said.

BABIES???? I'd actually timed it right and there were two tiny babies in the nest.