Jan 22 - at Stef's

I'm breaking with tradition by posting this in the evening. I don't what to throw your schedule off though !

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So far everything has gone like clockwork today. We left the cottage about 15 minutes late, which doesn't seem like a lot but we needed to get to the Parry Sound LCBO shortly after opening to pick up wine so that I had time to get to Stef's, drop Sandy and Abby off and then get to my dentist appointment. All went well though, with no traffic hassles, and I got to the dentist with a few minutes to spare.

The three cases of wine are now at Stef's, in the basement, waiting for Spring to make their way to our wine cellar. I had my two fillings replaced at the dentist, and in-between him showing me close-ups of my teeth he was showing me videos that he'd taken of deer with an automatically triggered infrared camera. He's quite the character.

As he was about to stick the needle in me, I said -- is freezing necessary ? You're just going to be drilling teeth, correct ? So ... he proceeded to do his drilling and he and his assistant were amazed that it didn't bother me. It's hard to say that drilling doesn't bother you -- all that vibration and noise rattling your jaw etc. etc. -- but it doesn't hurt, even though he was drilling well into the root of the tooth below the gum-line. That has never bothered me ... I've never gotten shooting pains or anything like that from this type of thing and vastly prefer the no-freezing approach to drooling. I'll do enough drooling when I'm older ...

Next, on to the Periodontist for cleaning. On the way though, well out of the way if you really want to know, I went to a self-serve spray wash to remove at least 100 pounds of muck and frozen salty slush hanging from the car. It was a real mess. It looks better now and you can open doors without a "yucch" reaction. It needs more cleaning, obviously, and we'll be driving on salty roads until we get to South Carolina, but at least it's passable.

Periodontal cleaning is much less fun than having teeth drilled. The ultrasonic de-scaler does to me what the drilling does not -- sends shocks through my jaw. The deep scraping under the gum line is just as bad but not as shocking. This delightful process went on for almost an hour, getting my full money's worth. After she was done, I commented that it seemed worse than usual -- was there a lot of buildup ? She said no, it wasn't bad at all, but that was from her perspective, she wasn't in the chair. A sense of humor ...

I was back at Stef's before 4:30 and got the rest of our luggage out of the car. We won't be heavily loaded going to Florida, for a change. When we come back it will be another matter, pulling a boat etc. -- but that's a tale for late April. I'm getting ahead of myself !

I talked to Sandy a short while ago and she was on Bathurst Street downtown Toronto, having just met up with Aaron. She has completed her errands, getting her hair done and picking up green coffee beans at The Grean Beanery, where we bought our coffee roaster. They will pickup Swiss Chalet on the way home and we'll eat dinner once they're here. We're going to celebrate Lauren's birthday as well. Lauren decorated the cake herself !

The plan for tomorrow is simple. Get up, eat, drive to Beckley WV, stay at our usual place that takes Abby --Econolodge -- have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. The good news is that tomorrow's drive is only 8-9 hours, better than 12 hours from up north.

I just got an email from UPS that peterwhitecycles.com has shipped my wheels and lights. I'll be biking soon, and long distance biking at that. That's quite a change from ice fishing.

That's it ...