February 21, 2024
Tomorrow!
Life's great, life's grand / Future, all planned / No more, clouds in the sky / How’m I ridin'? I'm ridin' high - Cole Porter
For all the times we’ve gone through this routine now, it doesn’t seem to be getting any less stressful with practice. I’m still waking up in the middle of the night making a note about one more thing I need to check on, and Rachael’s been going around for days now petrified that I’ll lose my wallet at the last minute. We’re both so ready to leave town and head for the sun, and anxious about whether we’ll sabotage ourselves by dropping something important.
Or fearful that something unexpected and unpredictable will happen at the last minute, too late for us to recover from it. As happened last Thursday when I went in for my teeth cleaning and the dentist discovered I have a cavity. She tells me what I expect to hear, that it needs to be dealt with now. If I wait nine months until we return, the odds are poor that I’ll be able to save the tooth.
That’s the bad news - or at least part of it. The good news - or at least part of it - is that they can juggle their schedule and fit me in first thing Monday morning. The further bad news is that it’s on an experienced tooth that’s already received a root canal and a crown. The last bit of good news is that because of the root canal I’ve been feeling no pain from a cavity that turns out to be quite advanced once the crown is removed so they can see it. As it turns out, it’s already almost too late to save the tooth. The cavity covers the whole top of the tooth, spreading silently and unseen because I couldn’t feel anything and the crown hid it from the X-rays.
The final bit of bad news? I’m too late to get a permanent crown, so the best they can do is a temporary one glued on with permanent cement in the hopes that it will last until we return - which means that when I get back they’ll need to start all over with a new temporary and finally permanent crown.
And since insurance won’t cover two crowns on the same tooth within a five year span, today’s is financed out of pocket.
We’ll do you a favor at this point and not show you any photos of my teeth. Instead, let’s break up the narrative with a few photos of my last time out on the bike before we leave, another easy loop down to the Sellwood Bridge and back though the Oaks Bottom refuge again. A longer loop would have been possible, but it’s cold and chilly and windy enough that I decide I’ll just wait for warm, sunny Mallorca at this point.
In fact I nearly changed my mind on going out at all when I stepped out and felt how chilling it was, but felt too guilty to stay in if Rachael was going to make it out for another long hike herself. It’s a good thing I did get out because I pulled in one last bird before leaving the country, and another interesting mammal sighting.
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Other than that, our final few days in town are the usual series of last minute tasks, errands, visits and meals. It’s crowded calendar, but a last coffee date with Elizabeth and Bruce get squeezed in as well as dinners at Gallo Nero and Serrato. Filling in the gaps are Rachael’s crazy trip to the laundromat, an oil change and car wash for the Raven before turning it over to Elizabeth for the next nine months, a trip to the LBS to get the bikes boxed for flight, and the usual storage unit shuffle. Everything fits in though, and by the day before departure we’re relieved to realize we’re ready to go.
Oh, and about that crazy trip to the laundromat Rachael doesn’t want to forget. It’s an unexpectedly unpleasant experience, and one that requires her to purchase time on the machines through an app rather than using change. Later she’ll be enraged to realize she’s bought herself $30 worth of laundry time, most of which was unused. She turns it into a positive experience though by returning the next morning and spending it down by donating it to other customers, in the form of machine time and beverages from the vending machine.
Oh, and one last surprise: I have high blood pressure, a condition that showed up when I went in for my cortisone shot and again at the dentist. It’s a recent development, and when I brought it up with my doctor he connected it with my medication change after my ablation surgery. I was surprised to learn that diltiazem, the drug I’ve taken for years for arrhythmia, is also commonly prescribed for high blood pressure - in fact, that’s probably its primary usage. So in a surprise twist I’m back on it again, starting tomorrow. I’ll be anxious to see how that goes for me.
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