Okay, I’ll just flat out say it – “I’m GRUMPY!” Most of the time I manage to roll with the punches, and, when I get annoyed, I can usually manage to shake myself out of it. But, you know what? There are days when you just need to “get your grump on!”
First off, I have a lovely landscaped shrubbery bed in which I have a little village of rock houses, with little wooden fences around each. Yesterday, the guy from the landscaping company our homes association uses, decided to trim a couple of my bushes which didn’t need trimmed and he stepped inside the bed, heedless of where he put his monstrous size 14 feet. In the process, he managed to totally decimate two complete fences! He didn’t just knock them to the ground. No, he ground them into the dirt! By the time I ran outside, it was too late. I pointed out what he had done and he got this clueless look on his face and murmured, “Oh yeah, sorry,” and moved on to the house next door. I’VE GOT YOUR SORRY RIGHT HERE, BUSTER!
Next, you know how my friend, Babs, and I had this whole hiking schedule set up for this summer? Well, that’s shot to hell! You wanna know why? Because her husband had to go and fall off a ladder and break his hip! Now I know that becoming an invalid was the last thing he ever wanted to do this summer. And I do sympathize with the awful pain and feelings of helplessness he has gone through. Let me be clear – I really like and respect her husband. BUT, and this is a big “but,” guess who has had to become his legs, his nurse and his driver? You guessed it – Babs. It doesn’t leave her much time for playing. We’ve managed to squeeze a couple of outings in since his accident, but too few for either one of us. Our summer is quickly slipping away and my buddy is tied to her house! All our big plans have been put on indefinite “hold” and it adds to my grumpiness. Yes, I’m being selfish! WANNA MAKE SOMETHING OF IT?
I could go on and on, but I’ll just add one final grump-inducer. Earlier in the year I wrote this post about a tooth my dentist has practically written off. He was starting to talk dental implants for that tooth and one adjoining it. The problem with that is that I found out my health insurance doesn’t cover dental implants, and we’re talking big money here – a thousand apiece for each implant and then almost another thousand each for the crowns. So, I’ve been being very careful with that tooth and all has been well. Unfortunately, this past week I noticed the gum above that tooth felt a little funny when I ran my tongue over it. There was no pain, mind you, but it seemed a bit puffy. When I checked it out with a dental mirror, it appeared that a little bit of the gum was actually “dripping” over the crown! It looked bizarre, like a little teardrop. I saw the dentist on Tuesday and he said it was a periodontal abscess and had the hygienist drain it and clean it. Then he started me on antibiotics. I have no idea if this will solve the problem, but it raised the whole “that tooth’s gonna go, sooner or later” discussion. So, that’s at the back of my brain…causing me worry and MAKING ME GRUMPY!
I know that in the whole scheme of the world, these are just mini-problems. The first one is a done deal. The second one will (hopefully!) become less of a problem as time goes by. And the third one is something I’ll deal with when it happens. I always do. They’re pretty much like the kind of problems everybody has. It’s just that today I’m not in my Pollyanna mood. I’m in my Grumpy mood. If you have any grumps you’d like to share, feel free to comment. Meanwhile, I think I’m going to go somewhere and have a good scowl!
About that tooth (the Voice of Experience speaks):
I would try to avoid an implant. I know dentists think they are The Thing to do nowadays, but my uncle had several implants, and it was a long and painful process, and then they had to come out because, I forget why, maybe his bones shrunk as he got older, or his gums or something, so he was back to starting over.
Oral surgeons (good ones anyway) can do great stuff with buried infections. (I know this involves the money problem, I’m just saying in my case it was easier. I would dread having an implant. Come to think if it, oral surgery may be covered under your medical plan vs. dental plan.)
You are probably too young for this, but if you have ever taken one of those bone help meds like Fosamax, you can get something called jaw death. That’s when a tooth is removed the bone never heals. However, my dentist tells me that for some reason it doesn’t mess up dental work or oral surgery in general, just extractions.
If it has to come out, you can have a permanent bridge put in (not as bad as it sounds, it looks just like regular teeth and you will not notice it is difference from your natural-born teeth after a couple of months for the gum to restabilize and grow down.
Basically it’s a one piece thing which is a crown for each end “anchor” tooth and one or two fake teeth in the middle.
It does need a little different flossing. I have a four tooth bridge due to one missing tooth and one not so stable tooth in the middle. The end “anchor” teeth have to be good. I got a lot of “an implant would be much better” and “a four tooth bridge is not stable” but that was several years ago and it’s fine.
Fences – I think that comes under, was it Dorothy Parker, “men and their big feet”
No offense intended to the other gender, but sometimes I have thought that only women should be allowed to work on yards. Or even do construction work in houses, for that matter.
Have you tried just going out and kicking something.
Unless you break your toe, that can sometimes help.
Hope the grumps are soon gone.
You have every reason to get your grump on. Hopefully it’s off soon. : )