Two Teeth and the Great Stream Project

 Had my two root canals yesterday.  I sat in that chair for an hour, mouth propped open with a wedge and filled with the suction hose and rubber dam, and watching Dr. Pereda work on me while looking through a microscope like I was some kind of science experiment, listening to the grinding and drilling.  Finally, he stood up, took all that stuff out of my mouth, and asked the tech to take an X-ray to check it.  He looked at the result with satisfaction and said that it looked good.  I gave a great sigh of relief and started to relax.  Then came the fateful words:

"Now let's do the other one."

But it was finally over - at 5:00 p.m.  Facing afternoon traffic in the dusk and rain for the long (well, 45 minute) drive home.

On the way home, I found myself thinking about a woman that I used to know.  This woman would have come back out to the waiting room, and a tall man with a concerned look in his eyes would have asked how she was.  She would have gotten into the passenger side of the car, probably closed her eyes, and said "glad that's over with" and rested until she got home.  Then she would have gone inside, put on her pajamas, and curled up on the couch while he took care of a few things and then brought her a bowl of soup.

But that woman was lost the day that the gentle man closed his eyes for the last time.  So I drove home, then fed the squirrel and the cats and walked back out in the rain to the chicken coop to put the hens up for the night, and then I could go put on the jammies.

No soup, but I had treated myself to some pudding.  Recently a pudding shop opened on my side of town, and I was curious.  They have tubs of pudding, like ice cream places have tubs of ice cream.  And dammit, I decided that I deserved pudding, so I stopped and got a pint.   It turned out to be nothing like pudding.  It was light and fluffy, and rather like eating a carton of expensive Cool Whip.  I won't be going there again.

The Great Stream Project - is done!  I can walk from one end of my property to the other along the stream.  I've been alternating starting points just to keep things interesting.  Today it was from behind the house (where I have to go past my little "toll booth" tree - today I left an orange.)  I was hacking my way through yet another stand of palmettos and suddenly came across the cleared path from the other side.  I just had to stand and admire it for awhile.

I have such a deep feeling of peace down there.  I went back to the house to make a thermos of tea, then got my book, grabbed an orange off the tree, and just sat to read and listen to the water for awhile.

But I expected this project to take at least 3 months.  Must find something else to obsess over.