Elvis Presley's Birthday

I learned that on the radio coming home from swimming at the Y this morning at 6:00 a.m.

Steve, of course, knew that...??

That's pretty fun and the "old-y" radio station (that serves the Quad City area of Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and Dewey-Humboldt -- which, of course, is really FIVE cities) played a nice Elvis song while I was driving down Whiskey Row admiring the Courthouse Square Christmas lights.

What's not so fun is the fact that The King, had he lived, would have turned 79!!  Yikes.

I wonder if HE would have had hip issues...

A New Experience -- Carpentry Project in the Mouth

So even though I had been humming "All I Want For Christmas is My One Front Tooth" through most of December, it wasn't until today that I was finally able to get the process started, with dental insurance paying all but a couple hundred dollars of the $2,000 bill -- yup, my first DENTAL implant....somehow I feel it's so important to stress the "dental" part.

I guess it could be considered cosmetic since I don't actually have to use that incisor to rip apart meat to survive, but I was convinced by the idea that NOT filling that space could lead to future problems.

Last year, while I was in Homer, Alaska for three months the tooth was definitely getting looser.  I'd had a cyst in the gum removed, a root canal in the past, etc., etc.  I decided to just wait until I got home to Prescott.  The dentist sent me to an oral surgeon to have the tooth extracted....

Here's where I have to sing the praises of modern dentistry...wow!  I don't even want to think about what life was like before anesthesia.

After the extraction, I had to wait four months for the bone to heal and grow back enough before they could attach the little post that will hold the "faux tooth."  Fortunately, everything worked...no bone grafts, etc. Hunh?  Might have changed my mind there...

So today I got to go in for my "carpentry project."  First, the drilling (I love it when he says you're going to feel vibration...since I went to my Happy Place in my mind -- where I go for things like Childbirth, Kidney Stones, Dentistry...I didn't have to focus on what was REALLY happening).  Then I guess he took a little tiny hammer and tapped in the post (probably would be better if an oral surgeon didn't say "Oooops" during this process...maybe he almost hit his thumb with the little tiny hammer), the best part, and I really did love this, was he explained that he would be using a little tiny wrench to tighten the post down...(Maybe like a little tiny allen wrench...is that how you spell that?)  A couple of "squrinch, squirench" turns with the little tiny wrench and we were all done.

Now I guess we have to let THAT heal up before we can work on the New Tooth...

Sending A Post From My Phone

Here's my new notebook 

Well, gosh...things just keep getting smaller and smarter all the time!

List of Things That I'm Going to Need Them to Open For Me in the Store as I Get Older....

 1.  HP, High Capacity XL Cartridges (More pages, more savings...)

The packaging is actually translated into French & English which always sets my mind to spinning...why just the two languages?  Hmmm.  There is a beautiful butterfly on some type of pod-like looking flower...maybe a lotus?  The only problem is....I can't get it open...Tried cutting along the dotted line of the HUGE package (which is why I was trying to get the little cartridges out so that I could put them in a Baggie...would they dry out without that protective packaging?) I couldn't BEGIN to have enough hand strength to cut through it.  I tried to cut slightly to the side, there weren't so many layers of cardboard, but of course, the indestructible package was still sealed firmly.  I'd just managed to cut off one edge.  Sigh.  Hack saw?  Anyway...it has motivated me (since at this point I'm "only" 61) to start preparing this list of things to take to Customer Service at the point of purchase and ask them to free their product from the @%$## packaging.

This is kind of out of focus -- I was probably shaking from the exertion.

(I'll be adding to this list, believe you me!  Amazing how anger DOES motivate us...)

"It is what it is, but we make it what it will be..."

Coach Pat Summitt, 61, who is battling early onset Alzheimer's disease.

I love it!  I've always disliked the first part of that quote...and I've heard it a lot.