Monday Morning Color

 

Thursday News

So file this under things I didn't expect to have happen today . . .

My very first root canal!

Back story, way back, is that in October of 2013 the left side of my lower jaw began to hurt. It was so painful, I'd started chewing only on the right side. About the same time, I developed tinnitus.  I went to the dentist and he said everything looked fine. I went to my doctor, she said everything seemed fine. But I was headed out for a long weekend in Albuquerque with Marci for the Balloon Fiesta, so she prescribed me some pain killers and said if it got worse, come back. 

It never seemed to get worse. It settled into a sometimes tenderness that I mostly got used to. And I still largely chew things on my right side. 

Backstory more recent: About a month ago, brushing one night, I noticed a little white bump on my gum. Since I'd been hitting the tomatoes pretty heavily and was prone to getting mouth sores when I ate too much acidic food, I chalked it up to nothing much. 

But it never went away. It seemed to get a bit bigger. Just a bit tender, but not really painful.

see?

Google those symptoms and you're either 1) dying or 2) perfectly fine. 

I do not advise trying a Google Image Search. People's mouths are NASTY.

I also knew I had my cleaning scheduled for October 15 and decided, if it hadn't disappeared, to just ask at my appointment. 

So, at 8:00 this morning, I did just that. 

And, at 1:00 this afternoon I was at the Endodontist (4 doors down) getting a root canal.

It turns out, this little bump was nature's way of keeping me out of excruciating pain. Of course, that meant the infection in the abscessed tooth had gone so far as to work its way from the bone out to the gums where, and here's definitely TMI, it had probably been draining and refilling. 

ACK.

If it hadn't done that, the pressure inside from the build up of infected pus would have made me get to the dentist far more quickly. 

It didn't really help that my dentist is saying things like, "I don't usually prescribe antibiotics but with this much tissue damage, I think you should start right away. We can't mess around with that much of an infection in your head."

YIKES.

In fact, according to Dr. Patel, whom I now love, that experience two years ago was very likely the start of the infection. He said it would take that long for me to have developed as much of an abscess as I presented with today. 

All that black area is where the infection has eaten through bone. Pretty!

Basically, he was going to drill down to those light lines you see running through the tooth, clean it all out, including all the necrotic tissue and nerves, thus ending all ability for the tooth to ever feel pain. 

We chatted for a good while in between the numbing shots before getting down to business.

For future reference, always bring your ipod, because I didn't, and had to choose from the available CDs on hand for the 45 minute procedure today, which was the first half of the operation. I have to do a two week round of antibiotics and then go back for the rest. And then go back to my dentist for the permanent crown. 

So, for Schroeder, I chose the Beethoven disc. Naturally, it started with the Fifth, which, I can now say, was not the most relaxing choice to get going on.  

They put you in sunglasses, with headphones, and prop your jaw open with a little block on the non-surgical side, then lay in a little surgical drape, that isolates the infected tooth. Very weird, kind of like how they drape your abdomen for an appendectomy, except this little sheet is poofed up and out of your mouth across part of your face. I am seriously asking the nurse to use my phone and get a photo when I go back for part 2, because I know how bizarre all that felt, but I really need to see it from above. 

It's now 4 hours later and I am still numbed up. It can stay that way for as long as it likes!

edited to add . . .  surprise root canal surgery can also net you new Snoopy longjohns if you look pitiful enough. And, please to appreciate not only the cute little Peanuts people all over the pants, but also the insane length of my fingernails.They're usually not past my fingertips, so I'm just waiting for the first one to break before cutting them all back. But I've been waiting for weeks, so now I can't cut them until one of them breaks just to see how long they can go. (I think just by posting a photo of them, one is likely to break before the night is out.)

 

Tuesday News

78° and 12% humidity means it still doesn't feel like Fall yet, but with the surprise early delivery of the new HONY book and a light work day (very unusual for a Tuesday) it was a lovely afternoon to sit and contemplate the turning colors of the leaves, the perpetually scruffy lawn, and how my two dogs never fail to make me instantly happy just by their presence.

I've been fighting off a cold since late Sunday but the warmth and the really good cold meds combined to make me feel better than I have in days.

Of course, looking at this doesn't hurt either...

Been texting the afternoon with Sammi who was bummed to learn she is not eligible to move off campus next semester but then surprised and excited to find out they had an opening in an upper-classmen dorm with a single roommate (who seems to be very nice) with a private bath and her own closet. She's already packing up to move!

Nick has the unusual days off from practice thanks to the team's bye-week colliding with the campus' Fall Break (through tomorrow) so I've actually seen him, albeit briefly, on Facebook. Miracles never cease.

Also found out this afternoon that I will have the corporate condo at Breckenridge one weekend in December that, on a whim, I happened to ask about. Got a visitor coming in and now we have a place to stay in the mountains for a few nights!

on the move

Seeing Nick

Friday we drove down to Dumas and Saturday we made the hour north into the tiny little sliver of the Oklahoma panhandle to see Nick play. 

Here's pretty much the entire drive once you leave Raton and until you get back:

(note the standard windmill for perspective)

(From the Southwestern page yesterday)

Nick got to see a good bit of playing time, but his best moments are typically when he's wrapped up in the middle of a pile or dragging someone to the ground, so I'm usually watching for his Batman cleats to distinguish him when I can't find #55 in view. 

  

OPSU is a Division 2 Team, so they are considerably larger and harder to take down. 

  

  

His chin was split open in the last game and started to pop back open during this game, so he got to sport some chin tape to keep it from bleeding too much. That stuck around for a couple of quarters before he tossed it. 

looking like a coach in training 

  

After the game, we got to spend about 20 minutes with him before they had to load up on the bus and make the 10 hour drive back to Georgetown.  

 

 

We're flying in to Austin for the final game of his playing career next month, on Nov. 14. As the only senior on the team and the first graduating football player since 1951, we're pretty proud.

10/2/15 Disney Halloween

On Monday, Sam let me know she was probably going to the Friday Halloween party at Disney alone thanks to changes in other people's plans.

Monday night, at Bob's nudging, I shopped and found a reasonable flight to get in before the party on Friday and back on Sunday so we could go together.

Instead of having to wait until Thanksgiving to see Sammi, I got to spend one-on-one time with her in one of our very favorites places!

The time between Monday night and Friday was the slowest.E.V.E.R.

Up at 4:00 and arriving in Orlando at 12:00 (that two hour time difference is much better going the other direction...), family friend Bill picked me up from the airport and Sammi met us at Bill and Julie's place an hour later. 

I'd bought some temporary face tattoos for us to wear with our Disney shirts as "costumes".  They were Day of the Dead skeleton face ones. Between having to pack very light to avoid additional fees on Frontier (only a bag that will fit under the seat is free) and the heat and humidity and high chance of rain, neither of us wanted to mess with anything heavy for costumes.

So after we ate a bite, we started applying them to our faces before heading for the Magic Kingdom. Between Sam's slightly too-far apart eye sockets giving her an over surprised look and my managing to get one tattoo firmly attached to my eyebrow at first (not a good look) we got a terrible case of the giggles. Once we could pull ourselves together and finish, we were out the door and on the way! We arrived around 3:20 and were through the gates by 3:50.

Since we purchased our tickets ahead of time, we could also make three fast-pass reservations between 4 and 7 that afternoon during the "regular" park hours before the official start of the party time. We just made it over to our first one, Big Thunder, with a minute to spare on the allowed time frame. This was on Sam's must-rides since it was down when she and Emily came for her birthday.

in our favorite back-row seat!

 

Our second Fast-Pass was set up for 4:05 - 5:05, so we went through Adventureland and rode the other must-do for Sam, Pirates of the Caribbean, because it had been closed most of the month of September for refurbishment and she'd missed riding that one as well. 

We made it from there to Space Mountain in the last minutes of our FP window and got this shot from the ride. As we were gearing up, I'd told Sam, "Camera's at the next turn, on your right," so she could pose. I then asked, "Is it a little scary I know that?" "Just a bit," she replied.

We headed from Space Mountain back to Haunted Mansion to ride the last of our three reserved rides and then stopped by the Frontierland Pin Store to get the limited edition party pin. If you don't have a party ticket, which gets you a party wristband, Cast Members cannot sell you any party merchandise. Since we were still ahead of the 7:00 party start, there were plenty of people in line who weren't allowed to get things they wanted. 

Next, we strolled up Main Street to pick up our party exclusive Sorcerer Card (it's an interactive game we play and collect cards for). (There, too , everyone in line wanted to see what the exclusive card was since they couldn't get that either.)

Some photos of Main Street decked out for Fall:

 

 

 

 

As the sun was setting behind thick clouds, we grabbed a snack and people watched folks coming through in their costumes before making the rounds again. 

This is where we stopped for the first Party exclusive Magic PhotoPass shot of the night. You pose and they add the overlay in after the fact.

 

Things were so uncrowded that it was taking way less time than I'd allotted for us to do everything we wanted. Our plan was to get over to Splash right as the first parade was getting started (which generally draws away most everyone and, thanks to the parade route, cuts off easy access to that corner during it's run) so we'd have the place to ourselves. But since we were ahead of schedule, we decided to go ahead and see what the wait was like beforehand. 

It was a complete walk-on. Empty log except for us!

As we were heading out from Splash, we spotted another PhotoPass photographer posing a group hitchhiking, so we knew this was where we could get the three Haunted Mansion ghosts together. As we were waiting, it started to rain. The last bit of us who were in line took turns holding an umbrella over her head so she could finish before scurrying her gear over to the covered area to wait it out. You can see the rain drops in our shot.

We followed her under the porch area to get our ponchos on and it occurred to me to ask if she knew where we could nab the Poison Apple/Cauldron magic shot. She didn't know, but her manager who had appeared to check that she'd gotten out of the rain said, "Oh, you can do that one right here." He directed her through the settings and we, in our ponchos, posed. But, since it wasn't the ordinary spot to get the overlay, when we looked at them later, it's just us. I've sent in a request to have it added, but the "missing" shot is pretty fun. 

 

Everyone who had staked out a good spot for the first parade for a long time had to have been disappointed. The rain got going just minutes before the planned start of the parade, so it was delayed. It was pouring at that point, so we made our way over to grab a bite of dinner, like everyone else who was trying to stay dry. About 9:30, an hour after the first parade time, it was letting up as we walked down Main Street. Since everyone had abandoned their primo-curb-on-Main-Street spots and it seemed like, to me, the rain was going to pass soon, we curled our ponchos under us and sat down to people watch some more.

Sure enough, about five minutes later, the announcement came on that the parade would be starting in ten minutes. It got rolling down Main Street just before ten. 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed like the hour+ rain sent a lot of people home. We walked up a few paces to the perfect spot on Main Street that is at the highest point and waited. Sure enough, an announcement came on that e fireworks show HallowWishes would start in ten minutes! Seriously, without the rain, we'd never have had the patience to get the views we had!

It seemed like the folks who'd gone into the back of the park during the rain had figured out Main Street was hopping again, because as we walked further toward the Castle to see if they'd run the delayed show, everyone had the same idea. This is where we encountered our only real crowds. We wormed our way around to a pretty good angle and just had to peer around a few heads to see everything. 

At that point, it was 11:20 and the few times we'd walked by the one ride in the Magic Kingdom I hadn't yet ridden, it was either down or the wait was too long. So after the show, we went to check on the wait. We caught Eeyore in his costume along the way.

The Seven Dwarves Mine Train is a very hard Fast Pass to score, so people wait a long time in line to get to ride it. Sam and Emily waited an hour and a half! But we walked right on this late in the evening. It's a super smooth kiddie coaster through the story.

On our way out, we saw one of the super-sought-after character meet and greets, all seven Dwarves together. You never see them all in one group. The people in that line (already closed off when we came by so no one else could get in line) had waited hours for their turn for a photo with these guys. I just snapped from behind the ropes and saved all that time. 

We then walked on Peter Pan, also usually with hours of waits, and as we were leaving, realized that they were running the second round of the parade again, already after midnight, the supposed end of the party. We sat down at the Ice Cream Parlour on Main Street afterwards and watched from afar as the castle show got going again. We got the special sundae in the Poison Apple souvenir cup, too!

A few more photos on the way out of the park:

We got back to Bill and Julie's around 2:00 a.m. and didn't wind down until closer to 3:30, nearing being up 21 hours before collapse. We spend Saturday just hanging out and going out to eat and resting our weary feet. 

Set the alarm for 4:40 (2:40 my time) Sunday morning so Sam could drop me off at the airport to get back to Denver. It was very surreal to have a trip that short when we typically spend an entire week at Disney World, not a single night, but it was such a fun time and so good to get to talk non-stop while we  caught up on things in person. 

Now we have about six weeks to Thanksgiving, and then only another three between that and our week-long Christmas Disney trip!