"What a Difference...

a day makes"!

Somehow I can hear Etta James singing that in the back of my empty head...

Yesterday I awoke with thoughts of pulling my teeth with Channel-lock pliers to get rid of the pain the sinus pressure was causing in them. After a latte and a shower, I went to the clinic (yes, I have health care, but my office visits are over $100, unpaid, and I can go see a nurse practioner at Walgreens for $59) and got an antibiotic prescription. I got it filled, took my first dose, and got home just before Dottie got off work. I had been using Afrin nasal spray for 3 days to try and "dry things up" enough to survive work and relieve the pressure some, and rotating doses of Tylenol, ibuprofen and aspirin, 4 at a time, to try and kill the pain.

I quit using the nasal spray last night, and after it wore off switched to a Mucinex with a sinus med in it. Today I awoke stuffy, and with a mild headache, but the pressure is gone, and though my teeth feel "loose" the pain is gone.

Through the years people have asked "Where would you go it you had a time machine"? Since I got all these crowns and this porcelain bridge, my answer without hestitation is "No where without taking antibiotics with me"!

Last night when I got home John called; his dishwasher, part of their Christmas from last year, had quit. It didn't seem to be getting water. When he tried to use the shutoff valve we had put in, he found a small leak in it's base (there was a concoction of soft copper and fittings I didn't really like at the time, but it was the quickest way to do it, and I had hoped they'd be moved before it came back to haunt me). So I saved the video game I started over the holidays (Xenosaga 2, one of last years presents) and dosed up the Afrin again, then figured out Dottie would be home in a minute or two. I called her, she was a block away, so I waited for her and we both went to John's.

A survey of things; a trip home for tools and PVC pipe, a trip to Lowe's for fittings, back to John's so we could make a first attempt; back to my house for Dad's pipe cutter when John blew mine up; finally at 9 we had water to the dishwasher again with no leaks.

When we put it in, the only supply line we could get had a check valve in it in case the line should ever rupture. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Hooked it up, and didn't have water. Popped the dishwasher end off, no water. Took it off, turned it around and I could blow through it. Put it on backwards and squirted water in the sink. Hooked it up and it worked fine!

That was a year and a couple of weeks ago. When John took the same line off the dishwasher this time, he couldn't get water through it. He took it off and could blow through it both ways. He turned it around, still no water. That was when he discovered the leak and called me...

So we replaced it with a line with no check valve, but sadly, the dishwasher still won't fill. When we gave up and came home at 10 last night, he was digging for the book and Noel was digging for the receipt as we bought it with a warranty.

Sadly, I hadn't eaten before I went to the clinic. When I got home at 5 I ate a half a peanut butter sandwich because I was planning on feeding Dottie and I after she got out of the shower.

I hadn't counted on her not getting her shower until 10:15!

Dinner was at 10:40. She still had to wash her uniform...

When the movie "Waitress" ran at my local "arthouse" I really wanted to see it. I was working a lot of overtime and Saturdays at the time and didn't get a chance to.

There have been arthouse movies I wanted to see that Dottie didn't, and Noel and I have gone. She wanted to go to this one as well; when it came out on DVD she bought it and lent it to me during the holidays.

So I popped it in the DVD player, and was very glad I did!

Adrienne Shelly wrote and directed this wonderful piece of filmwork, starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and others you will recognize. A brilliant piece of casting is someone I hadn't seen in a long while, Andy Griffith, who proves he "still has chops".

You might have caught a story in the news about Adrienne Shelly, as she was murdered as she was completing work on this lovely film.

My poor wife went to bed at 1:30 and had to be up at 7 to get ready for work...last week she did the same thing refusing to go to bed until we finished all 6 hours of "Tin Man".

This has already gotten too long; my next post I will venture into "cinemaphilia"...

It's 60 outside, I have a truck covered in road salt and scum; if the garden hose isn't frozen still, I'm going to try and clean it up before dark...

May the Monday and the rest of the week be kind to each of you!

alan

BTW, since I was a bit vague below, the lovely mantle is at my sister's house in Lawrence, where most of the "family" parties are since it's about 4 times the size of my little house, and has more than one bathroom, lol! The parties that aren't there are at John and Noel's because it's larger as well. The only one we have here is Independence Day, because fireworks are still legal here...