I went to the dentist today. I had deferred the appointment, to rejigger some loose fillings, twice, so I needed to get there. I got a reminder call yesterday that the appointment I thought would be at 12:50 was for 11:50.

I had a meeting set up that was shorter than I expected, since I had to end sooner than planned to make it to the dentist. That worked out fine. We were done early anyway. I raced to the dentist, risking speeding tickets as I went 35 in a couple of 25 MPH zones. Still, I was several minutes late. Then I had to wait around for a while, first in the waiting room, and then in the chair (where I learned that Novacaine hasn’t been used for about 50 years, that now they use other drugs, like Septacaine, that Novacaine is a brand name that everyone bandies about for various similar numbness drugs, and that Septacaine contains Epinephrine–no wonder I was shaking like a blender).

I had eaten at about 10:00. I left the dentist at about 1:00. I couldn’t feel crap in the left side of my mouth. I literally could have had crap on my face and I would not have known. Luckily, my glance in the mirror revealed not even a bit of shattered filling when all was over. But the numbness meant I couldn’t eat for a while.

The dentist suggested a milkshake. We were almost out of milk. I wouldn’t have enjoyed that anyway. Who wants a milkshake with a numb tongue? I had some cereal at about quarter to five. That was a bad idea. The numbness was mostly gone and soreness had replaced it. Every crunch was uncomfortable, so I let the cereal soak for a while. In the small pool of milk I eked from the jug.

At 5:00 I had to leave for an evening meeting. I didn’t eat much today. I am still hungry. On my drive home the only thing I had with me were a couple of caramels. Given the fresh fillings in my teeth, I figured they would have been a bad choice.

If the pears are ripe, I will go with that. My wife did bring home some milk so maybe the milkshake idea can still work. I will need to wait until the children are fully asleep, however. In our open house, a blender at bed time would be worse than caramels with new fillings.

Or maybe I will just make the chocolate Santa right next to the computer go down. At least that would be a start.