Hooray for lasers!

(disclaimer: there are no lasers in this post. The laser is a symbol of the general awesomeness of modern science. Sorry for getting your laserhopes up).

Nostalgia can creep up on anyone at anytime and inflict upon them a yearning for an idealized version of the past that has little resemblance to the actual events. At the risk of alienating any renaissance faire/ SCA readers, I have to tell you that the past stinks. Instead of dreaming of days of yore, you should revel  in the ridiculously fantastic things that are a part of your everyday life.

We all agree that the internet is great (bewbs!), modern medicine is marvellous, and on and on. But let’s take a quick look at three small,  simple things that make modern living top-notch.

1)On-demand heating and cooling. When I stand on one of the floor registers and the furnace turns on and it hurtles warm air up to encase me like a body slipper, I melt with delight.

2) water flosser. I have always hated flossing my teeth. Sawing my poor gums with a waxy, minty piece of thread left me with a sore mouth and bloody saliva. Now that I have this aqua-jackhammer of cleanliness, I feel like I have healthy gums for the first time ever. I look forward to using it: “Its time to floss, WHEEE!)

3) Sanitation. Whenever you find yourself in a historical recreation of some sorts, like ye olde village, think “What part of this experience isn’t authentic?” The answer is the smell. I shudder to imagine living so close to other human beings if there were no sewer pipes magically taking the piles and piles of poop magically away and out of sight.

Tardy for no good reason

I got a little pinched for time yesterday, and I decided to spite myself and you, my electro-audience, by refusing to adhere to my blogging schedule. I have taken the horse whip to myself and hopefully beaten all the insolence out of my wretched form.

It’s been a surly day for me. I woke up angry, but with no discernible reason or solution. This has happened before, and I think it may be a rage built of a thousand minor annoyances. When you’re with a kid all day, every day, there’s little opportunity to get cheesed off at something and voice that frustration. Those moments of tiny rage just pile up in the corner, until your anger background count is through the roof. My warning sign is a powerful urge to yell at people driving in a way I don’t like. Today I wanted to walk up to the grey hatchback in the grocery store parking lot that had suddenly turned in front of an ambulance with lights flashing, and give that guy a piece of my mind. Since I was pushing Max in the stroller at the time, I decided to skip my personal mission of road vengeance.

It’s just another aspect of mental health. You have to recognize that anger, acknowledge it, and find some reliable methods of venting it safely. So, if you see me standing by the road, shaking my fist angrily at cars passing by, please direct me to the gym for a good workout.

 

Traumatic Event…Endured!

Today was Max’s date with the dentist. He had two cavities back on the molars, and even though they are baby teeth, those suckers stay around until he’s 8 or 9 years old, so we had to fix them.

For those who aren’t up to speed, here’s the nitty gritty of toddler dentistry. To get them amenable enough that they dental work can get done, they are dosed with some goofy sauce (a sedative that also creates a touch of amnesia. Nice!). I had been freaked out that Max would become a gibbering nutcase when the sedation took effect, but other than a little extra giggling and some wobbly legs, he was the same boy before the procedure.

After the sedation kicks in, the kid is wrapped up in a restraining pappoose and taken back into the work room, while mom and dad lose their minds in the waiting room.Though both the wife and I were crazy with upset, or particular manifestations were different. she couldn’t bear to be any farther away from him than she absolutely had to be, and I wanted to bolt away from the thing I couldn’t stop. So, she sat vigil and I got us coffee from the Tim’s around the corner. My rational mind knew that he needed to get his teeth fixed, he was safe and he was resilient enough to weather this little storm, but the powerless feeling of not being able to save him from something unpleasant drove me out of the room.

When I returned with coffee 10 minutes later, the work was almost done. they found a third cavity while excavating the first two, so we gave them the green light to fix it too. 5 minutes later, a puffy faced and sad boy was handed back to us. The poor guy couldn’t communicate with us, between the swelling in his mouth and the muscle relaxation of the sedative, and I think that made things even harder for him.

It took a lot of hugs and kisses from mom for Max to calm down, and for the next hour or so he would occasionally wail with sadness. But, as he snuggled on the couch and relaxed with his mommy, things slowly got better. He didn’t want anything to do with me, so I had to help on the periphery as mommy’s assistant. After a 2 hour nap and a little more relaxing, he was ready to go to his favorite restaurant, the pink restaurant (AKA the Mandarin). After dinner, we went to the bookstore, toystore and fishy store, and he was back in fine form. Whew.