Marie Antoinette crowns dentist with botanical cowboy hat
“… grown a lot since we were here a few weeks ago,” Nazy informed me.
“All babies grow fast,” I replied.
“Our grandchildren do it better and faster..”
“Of course, my dear.”
I wasn’t able to go, but Leandra remembers me well..
“… she remembers your hat, Dad.” Darius corrected me.
“My hat?”
“If she sees anybody with a cowboy hat she yells: ‘Dan!’. It’s very cute.”
“Hmm…”
“When we came out of the grocery store the other day, a very strange man went by on a bicycle. He had a white beard down to his waist, his scraggly hair was disheveled, he was wearing short pajama bottoms..”
“… this guy sounds like…”
“I know, Dad! But he had a cowboy hat and Leandra yelled: Dan! Dan!.”
“I assume you corrected her,” I replied.
“I thought it was cute, Dad.”
Darius and Leandra are enjoying their newly purchased home. Darius, clearly demonstrating faulty memories, or perhaps, idealized memories of his Dad’s botanical prowess, actually asked me for advice about his lawn.
“You can get seeds and turf builder,” I replied. “Or a lawn service. Or astroturf,” I thought.
“I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying this house and the lawn, Dad.”
“It’s a pleasant, outdoors thing to do, Dar and very rewarding.” I replied. “Rewarding on the rare occasions where the moles don’t mess things up, the soil has more dirt than rocks, no snakes are hidden in the only green things that grow and the deer don’t eat the 1000 tulips that you planted in the fall,” I thought.
Nazy had a dental appointment — installation of a replacement crown — the day after she got home. This particular orthodontic effort had not been going well. A few weeks earlier, the dentist had somehow left Nazy in the chair for a little more than an hour (which was a little more than an hour that I would have waited). Nazy left, but not before making them aware that she was leaving in a huff. They apologized profusely agreeing to expeditious service next day. They did work on her teeth the next day, and they were expeditious. But the temporary crown, installed by a dental assistant with a full 20 minutes of training, was too high: a fact that became apparent only after the novocain wore off and the dentist’s office was closed. Nazy flew to Bellingham with a very uncomfortable temporary crown. She was, however, heartened by the happy awareness that nothing worse, at least in the dental realm, could happen when the permanent crown was installed. This happy awareness was erroneous.
She arrived at the dentist in time for her 1:00PM appointment. They claimed that she was late for her 10:00AM cleaning. She explained that they had moved the cleaning to follow the crown installation. Eventually, they capitulated and rescheduled the cleaning. They would have begun the crown installation but…
“… we can’t find your crown,” the technician told Nazy. “It didn’t come form the lab.”
“You can’t find it?” Nazy, incredulous, asked.
“No. But we’ll do the cleaning while we look.”
They rolled out the practitioner who had mis-installed the temporary crown, armed her with a ice pick and turned her loose. When that was done, they apologized. IProfusely — a core competency it seems.) They promised to order another crown before sending Nazy, miffed, on her way. While she was driving home, they called and said that they had found the crown.
“Where was it?” Nazy asked.
“It was on the ground. Someone kicked it.”
“And you want to put it my mouth?” Nazy asked.
“It’s in a box. It’s fine.”
Nazy returned to the dentist. An assistant removed the temporary..
“ … her gum is swollen,” the assistant whispered to the dentist.
“That’s because the temporary was not fitted properly,” the dentist whispered back.
In time, the crown was installed and Nazy made it home. She asked my opinion.
“The last person to have that much trouble with a crown was named Marie Antoinette,” I replied.
While Nazy was in Bellingham, I took the boys to see the i Madonnari chalk drawings at the Old Mission. We also went to see the rose garden and the botanical gardens. The boys were excited and cheerful as we walked the 78 acre botanical garden path. We had a pleasant stroll down a hill to Mission Creek which, amazingly for June, contained running water. We threw a few leaves into the stream and then (gasp!) the boys got tired. It was an arduous trek back up the hill.
Nazy and I are heading to the East Coast this week to see her sister, attend her college reunion and attend the 25th anniversary celebration of the International Women’s Club of the Upper Valley.
For last week's letter, please click here
Darius and Leandra on the swing