Cha, Cha, Changes...

I went back to my dentist to get my permanent crown attached? Adhered? Placed?. Whatever, The bionic mouth has a new piece.

Before I could get anything, I had to get to the dentist and I missed my turn. I’ve been there two or three times and while I tend to get lost on the way out, I’ve never missed it from the highway. I don’t know if I missed it or failed to go far enough but it was clear that I had left my map. I had to go it alone. A tiny town can go Mayberry to Manhattan like that if you don’t know where you’re going. It doesn’t matter if it has three cross streets or three hounded, if you can’t find where you are going, its like being in hell.

And I was getting confused as to what time my appointment was. There as the actual time, the time I put on my calender as a reminder and the time I told my boss it was. There was not a lot of over lay there, pretty much it was after 2:30 but before 4:00. I could have dug around my purse at 60 miles an hour but I decided that was contra-indicated.

Fortunately the tiny town is pretty proud of its historic downtown and I remembered driving on some historic-y streets - but In between the last time and this time the one store I really remembered either went out of business or changed their sign because I couldn’t find it, and? All of a sudden the place is festuned with garlands and signs hawking some town breakfast or something and all of a sudden everything looked different and it appears the towns lauded historic municipal sewers were getting a last minute make-over as well so there was also a lot of one way streets all of a sudden.

Not happy. Not happy at all. And I’m driving around trying to find a land mark, anything. The one downside to lovely historic downtowns? Somewhere along the way the city fathers inevitably decide to freeze time, it doesn’t matter when this building was built, it’s going to be frozen in 1889 or 1920 and within a few years everything looks the same: The same painted down spouts, the same awnings, the same signage and very likely about three street names. Ye Olde Avenue North/South/East/West, with cross streets Cutesy-Wootsy Lane and Historic Personage Boulevard. If you want to go anywhere developed after 1975, you are going to have to go back on the freeway and not miss your damn turn off.

I finally found the city hall and got two different sets of directions, in stereo, to my dentists office. Score one for the small town.

Later, crown in place, I drove home deciding what my plans for the evening were going to be. I thought about taking Dogger for a walk, but there was a pretty stiff wind blowing and Dogger hates wind, so then I thought about taking her to the park since we hadn’t been since late last week but I really needed to stop by the grocery and that would make us run late, but at the same time, I’m not entirely happy with the dogs there when we have been going so a later time might work better for us,but maybe the devil dogs I know are better than the devil dogs I don’t. Keeping up with the doggy politics is exhausting...


It was a moot point. As I drove into my drive way it struck me that the abandoned house nee’ the drug dealers, looked different: The lawn was mowed.

I suddenly knew how my evening was going to go. I had to get my lawn mowed and I had to do it now. It’s one thing to live next to the over-grown mess it’s another to be the over grown mess. The only good thing about living next door to the blocks lone over-grown mess is that by comparison, your yard always looks pretty good. Until the over grown mess gets a buzz cut. They even did the edging!

I changed my clothes and decided that instead of a walk, Dogger and I would mow the yard together. I thought this would work, the mower is a manual, it doesn’t make much noise and I thought Dogger would just trot next to me or at least bring up the rear - And she did fine for about ten minutes. She didn’t really know what to do and she was shocked, shocked that I didn’t think every three steps was a good time to take a minute to stop and eat the grass or chew on a twig. In her mind, these are integral parts of lawn care. I used her tie down for the first time since last summer, and while I mowed, she flirted with Singer under a shrub.