Thursday a.m.
So I called the dentist this morning to try to weasel out of today’s appointment. My understanding was, we were to discuss and maybe try to do something about the chronic pain in the upper left jaw.
Ugh! Just what I don’t wanna do with my morning…
….and in fact, when I rolled out of the sack this a.m., the pain was GONE!
This is something that’s been going on, unchanging, for weeks. Now, poof! It’s GONE???
Well, I have other things to do than endure more dental torture, so I called to cancel the appointment. But…
noooooo…..
Today’s appointment wasn’t for dental pain. It was to get my teeth cleaned.
Dammit!
I am DEAD SURE we did that less than 6 months ago.
*****
24 Hours Pass
Now It’s Friday
*****
Somehow I survived the trip to the dentist’s. Just tooth-cleaning. No big deal. Time-consuming, but otherwise bland enough.
Followed by a very bland day.
M’hijito has made no move — that I know of — to pursue another dog. Probably that’s best: he needs to recover from losing the beloved Charley. But I do hope he can shake off the blues and seek a new sidekick, in due course.
Meanwhile: One of the lamps on my dining-room chandelier developed a short. I installed it shortly after moving in here, lo! these many years ago, and I still love it. This one is close, though not identical. You get the idea, though: half-a-dozen fake candles
So I call Electrician Dude. He and his young sidekick surface. He spends maybe half an hour inspecting and then fiddling with it. Get it working again. Then he forks over a bill for TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!
As you can see from that Amazon link in the previous paragraph…I could have bought a brand-new chandelier for that!
Soooo…dammit! Guess we’ll be looking for a new electrician.
****
Saturday a.m.
And another 24 hours pass. Wake as usual at dawn, dawg campaigning to go outside. Putter around. Notice her eyes are running, not an unusual thing here in Allergy Central. Like humans, dogs are allergic to all the dust that blows around and the weeds that sprout everywhere you look. Get a Kleenex to wipe her face and…ohhhh shee-ut! it comes away with BLOOD on it.
Holy mackerel. Her eye is red because it’s bleeding!
Should I take her to an emergency vet?
{cringe!}
That means
a) an interminable wait (one commenter on Yelp said they sat in a waiting room for SEVEN HOURS)
b) a BLINDING bill
Any chance I could squeeze in to the ineffable Dr. Bracken’s schedule?
Right! Sure! On a Saturday morning!!
They supposedly open at 8:00 a.m. It’s 8:15 a.m.
Get on the phone: line is picked up by an answering yakathon. It blasts Muzak (of a sort) into my ear: a repetitive banjo twang.
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
twangidy-twang twangidy-twang
….on and on and on… After about five minutes of this, a young-sounding male voice answers. He takes my number, supposedly to call back. He says they don’t open until 9:00 a.m. I remark that maybe they’d better change the data on their website.
Ohhhhh welll….
How can I SAY how much I don’t wanna drive way to hell and gone into Darkest Arcadia on a Saturday morning?
This will blow away half the day…assuming I can get in at all.
Phone rings: Vet’s staff on the phone. Explain what’s happening. She wants to ask him about it. She puts me on hold: BLASTING goddamn annoying Muzak…combined with advertising pitches for why you must bring your pet right in.
Godlmighty! Are there PR people out there who specialize in annoying your customers?
Human comes on phone: He wants to wait and see. Thinks it could be allergies, since she’s not digging at it and seems not to be in pain. Suggests gently wiping with dampened cotton balls; call back if not improved by Monday.
THANK YOU, GOD!
This is why I take my livestock to that veterinarian, endless schlep notwithstanding. He’s not in the business of clipping you, and so if he thinks something can benefit by a wait-and-see approach, he’ll tell you.
As it develops, everybody else who’s ever heard of the man betakes themselves there, too. That office is humming with traffic, all day, every day.
I’m convinced that he really IS the single best vet in the city, and probably in the state.
***
In other precincts: someone else has noticed that it’s hot outside. 😀 Ohhhh how the media love Arizona summers! On any given Slow News Day, there’s always something to get rattled about…
EEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!
HISTORIC HEAT WAVE CONTINUES ACROSS ARIZONA THIS WEEKEND!!!!
What to do? What to do?
Hilarious.
Nothing like a little hysteria to sell newspapers and news websites. No, there’s nothin’ “historic” about 112 degrees. It’s actually pretty typical for July and August in the low desert.
That said: my power bill is gonna be through the roof.
Jacked the A.C. down to 77 last night, so as to manage to sleep. Just turned it back up to 80, which will make it mighty hot in the family room & kitchen, where skylights act like automobile windows. So we’ll have to hang out in the bedrooms throughout the afternoon.
Which is what I’m gonna do right now: Go back to bed!
Electricians are expensive.
My dad and uncle were building contractors, my brother is a plumber (not residential-to do with water-management-rivers & dams-I think he calls it big plumbing).
But no electricians. I guess everyone is afraid of electricity. I even asked my grandson if he wanted to be an electrician and of course he said no.
There was an article in the LA Times about a community college that had an 18-month course to become an electrical lineman. After finishing it, he could get a job making $100,000 a year. After working 3-4 year and becoming a journeyman, he would make $150,000.
Even if you had got the new fixture from Amazon, I assume you would have to hire someone to install it. So, $200 isn’t so bad. I have a few electrical issues (like installing new outlet & fixing loose outlets). But I want to do them all at once to save on the service call.
Yep, no question: they earn their pay. Some of the work is risky (one COULD in theory get electrocuted, if one were not paying attention), plus it often entails climbing into un-air conditioned attics in unholy heat (or unholy cold, in other parts of the country), or climbing on the roof. At least this job was one Dave could do inside the house!
And yep: Some of the jobs you can get through community college training or by apprenticing in the trades are WELL paid. Some of them darned well should be…but nevertheless, even some where the work is reasonably civilized pay well.
Plus…one of the beauties of the trades, IMHO, is that if you’re reasonably smart you can eventually end up owning your own business. In that case, if you play your cards right you can make more than a decent living.