New Post, Fitness, Garden Work, and Windows, While The Weather's Good

Was getting business done today while the sun was out and the sky was blue.  It was down to 29˚F (-2˚C)  this morning, but closer to 50˚F (10˚C) when I biked to the oral surgeon to get my new post checked out.  Last week, when he put it in, I had to have a driver to take me home.  But today he was just checking it and he was pleased with his work.  It's a long process getting an implant.  The dentist said an implant was a better option than a crown some time ago.  Then it had to be extracted and packed with bone that needed to meld with my own bone.  (It wasn't easy getting that picture.)


When that was set, he put in the post (last week) and now it's three more months until the post is tightly embedded in the bone.  And then, finally, a fake tooth gets snapped onto the post.  I've got a retainer like device with a 'flipper' - a temporary fake tooth, but it's a hassle.  It fits well and you'd never notice it, but it's not fun to eat with it in.  And the plastic backing rests on the roof of my mouth, so it always feels dried out.  And it catches my tongue so I feel like I'm talking funny.  I think I would have skipped the flipper if I'd have known I couldn't eat with it in.  (Well you can eat with it, but it's not comfortable.  It would make a good diet tool.)  I guess it's a question of how willing you re to walk around with a missing tooth, cause it takes a long time to be able to put in the implant.  Mine is not right in the front, but you can see it when I'm talking.

I stopped at the YMCA on the way back to check on the various exercise classes.  Two weeks ago in San Francisco, my son took me to his gym where they had an open day for potential new clients.  It was an hour of circuit training - pulling, pushing, jumping, lunging, carrying, running - and I was pleased to be able to keep up with the rest of the crowd - if a little bit slower - who were mostly 20 years or more younger.  But the next four days, muscles I haven't heard from in years, were all letting me know they didn't appreciate me waking them up.  But it felt great during that hour and the rest of the day.

J's been taking some of the Y classes and so I went to find something that might challenge my body more than biking can do, especially as we move toward winter.  We'll see.  I figure the best way to keep moving is to keep moving and to push those muscles a bit.  But I'll build up more slowly than two weeks ago.






Then back home to work out in the back yard. Yesterday I planted a bunch of narcissus bulbs.  I had a bare spot in the front yard where I'd taken out some of the mountain ash shoots that I'd let grow into small trees over the years.  But they're starting to block the sun too much.

The first bag of 18 bulbs was disappointing.  I'd say about eight were either dried out totally or they were mushy soft.  The other two bags were good, and I had more bulbs than would fit in the space.  We'll see next spring whether my plan for a stream of daffodils works out or not.


Today I raked leaves for mulch.  Online it said to mulch with evergreen branches so I trimmed a couple of the fir trees in back and then covered them with leaves.

And then I tackled the rain gutters.  The one in front had lots of wet compost.  The one in back just had dried leaves.  Finally, I washed the windows in the front.

My window washing kit makes it pretty easy and it seemed like a good idea to get this done while the weather was almost warm.  The windows look much better.

Also watched some 'good' and 'bad' videos of interviewing people for my Journalism Skills for Engaged Citizens.  It was nice to know that lots of journalists dislike the confrontation often necessary when interviewing folks for a story.  Basically, what I saw as the differences between the good and bad interviews (of the same people) were 1) getting to the point and not doing a lot of apologizing for having to ask hard questions, and 2) being prepared so you know enough to ask the hard questions.  I always admired Lisa Demer's tenacity in interviewing and not being easily brushed off - starting back in 2007 at the political corruption trials and later in Juneau.

The last several nights @Auroranotify has been proclaiming northern lights and the sky's been clear, but I've only seen, one night, the palest-you-wouldn't-see-'em-if-you-weren't-looking-really-hard wisps of lights.  I just went out on the deck and nothing tonight either.