Saw my new dentist yesterday and she was great! She and her team weren’t quite as friendly as the old team, but they were still very nice and seemed quite competent.

The only thing that annoys me is that my old dental records haven’t been forwarded yet. She said something about calling (more than once) and being told they sent an email, but they never got it. I emailed them but have been blown off. What, are they spiting me for leaving or something?

First, I was checked in by Rachel who is the youngest on the team that I know of. The place is in an old but nice building. From the outside, it looks like it’s a solid building but there’s actually open space in the center like a courtyard. There are wild roosters you can hear in the area as well. This is in Fair Oaks rather than Roseville.

There was no TV playing in the waiting room, which was nice, and we didn’t have to wait long at all. They did have music playing but it wasn’t overwhelming in any way. The waiting room was very small and the place, in general, was small but clean. They could really use some new carpet and paint, though.

Once brought into the exam room by Dana, a middle-aged woman, I had a pretty good view from the dental chair. Because the office is perched on a hill, I could see a lot of nature and some buildings around us.

Due to the virus, California dentists have been asked to hold off for a couple of weeks on non-emergency procedures because of the shortage of masks and other medical gear. They took x-rays and did a visual check of my teeth but no cleaning.

The dentist was younger than I thought. She looked to be around 40. She talks louder than loud. Even louder than me and I usually talk pretty loud. At least she’s easy to understand.

I have two cavities but not where I thought they were. They’re both up top. I have a minor one and then one right on the root system with no enamel covering it. Surprisingly, though, it’s the minor one that’s irritating me.

I might have avoided these cavities had my old dentist, as great as she was, told me that the only crown I had to worry about popping off with regular flossing was the one I already popped off that had to be re-cemented. This dentist said that’s the only one that’s cemented on. I forgot how she said the others were applied but they can’t pop off. They could shatter, though, just like regular teeth. Now I’m back to regular flossing but I’ll stay away from that one area. She says that if I could hit it two or three times a week that would be great, but I would rather not.

Love the rubber toothpicks she recommended way better than the plastic ones because the plastic bristles on the ends would poke my gums. The rubber ones are much gentler, though.

She did the gum probe and checked my pallet, jaw, and that sort of thing. She had to scrape my back upper molar just to see if there was a filling there. That’s another thing I learned… The reason that tooth is always getting covered with shit is that it doesn’t have one below it to grind down on. The teeth grinding together actually helps keep them cleaner. But this one has nothing swiping against it to wipe food off, so I’m going to have to give that tooth extra attention.

On my way out, an older woman named Vicki scheduled me to do both fillings on April 6th, and we’ve already gone over my medical history so she knows about my ear, TMJ, that heart disease runs in my family and I would prefer numbing agents without epinephrine so it doesn’t make my heart race and me jittery. You don’t want to be shaky when someone’s working in your mouth.

She’s going to do the larger filling with a laser instead of a drill, so I’m hoping that will make it easier for me. I hate that fucking drill!

I’ve got a home care routine going where I brush with Enamelon when I get up and use a tongue scraper as well as the sticks. At the end of the day, I’ll brush with Sensodyne and use the regular floss and mouthwash. She gave me a sample for dry mouths which I have due to my age.

Safeway delivered groceries for us yesterday. We didn’t get half the stuff, yet we were charged for it. So after spending an eternity on the phone, Tom managed to get $39 worth of food we never received refunded. Not surprisingly, they were out of a lot of stuff. Tom went to get some stuff they didn’t have from Walmart this morning and said there were tons of empty shelves. He’s never seen anything like it.

This is the second worldwide crisis that I can think of that I’ve experienced. First the recession and now this. I just worry and wonder how long it may go on, but I wonder a lot more than I worry since he’s now 62. If he were younger, then I would be worried, not that anything would be in a hurry to get us out of a flight path. The worst-case scenario is we take early retirement and buy a dump on an acre or two in a cheaper state. Our equity is still the same no matter what.

The other thing that frustrates the fuck out of me is that they’re canceling all kinds of flights all over the place but Sac International is still going strong, of course. We’ve got the usual 6-8 planes tearing overhead every hour. It’s worse in the early mornings.

Tom got a message yesterday saying that the clubhouse, pool and spa are closed.

When are they going to do something about the rise in boom stereos going through here?

Not sure if I mentioned this before but we got a way better internet deal. We’re now paying $55 a month for faster speed. Before we were paying $105 a month.