Take half day off work that day and head to the dentist. Correction: referral to a dental specialist from my dentist. Been having pain in my back teeth for a few weeks and Ye Olde Tooth Driller wants a second opinion. The guy is nice for an endodontist (a fancy name for someone who causes great pain at your expense), but he must have way too many older patients. Everything he says to me IS SPOKEN AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT APPEARING OFFENSIVE. After the exam, he tells me that I HAVE A FRACTURE IN A TOOTH AND I MUST UNDERGO ROOT CANAL WORK. This was only supposed to be a second opinion, nothing more. Now I’m suddenly told I’ll be back here in this office a few weeks later under the ether. And one more visit to finish the job. I’m a cheapskate, especially when it comes to some 8 Benjamin’s worth of dental work on one tooth, so I ask if it would a smarter idea to have the tooth pulled. Plus I had what I thought were some valid reasons for an extraction:

First: after having numerous fillings in the offending molar, there isn’t much left to save.

Second: my wisdom teeth have actually pushed some of my existing teeth crooked and I figure removing a tooth would allow for some room.

Third: my family has a horrible history with breaking crowns.

So I ask about removing the tooth. ABSOLUTELY NOT. YOU’RE YOUNG AND YOU HAVE ALL OF YOUR TEETH. UNLESS THAT FRACTURE IS TO THE ROOT, YOU DON’T NEED AN EXTRACTION. I WOULDN’T EVEN CONSIDER IT. I don’t know whether he was just using his Outside Voice or he was ticked at my suggestion. I didn’t even bother with the Valid Reasons.

I know this is more about my mouth than you ever wanted to know. I can already hear Al Pacino from "Scent of a Woman" chiding me: "How fascinating. ’A History of My Dental Work.’ Hoo-ah. You should be posting this on a web site. You’ll be getting hits like the Tet Offensive."

The computer is still down for the count (Second Evil Force to park on my doormat). The ITGAW was running the equivalent of computer intensive care on it over the weekend and the machine had effectively flatlined. Now the possibility for problems may lie with the CPU. At this rate, I’ll have rebuilt the computer for what it would have cost me to buy two computers. Suddenly an abacus is looking very good right now.

On an up note, we went to visit some friends up in Connecticut this weekend. Nice trip, all in all. Spent a lot of it doing housework for them (they’re expecting their first child soon, thus reducing their house staff and groundskeepers by 50 percent). Didn’t mind doing the work, especially since I got to glue up some nice oak dining room chairs for them in the process. There’s something about working on chairs that I really enjoy more than most furniture. Chairs are really great time capsules and each one has a different story to tell. I always try to consider who might have sat in that chair before I got my hands on it. Did someone famous (or infamous) park their butt on this very seat? Was it a young child sulking about having to eat broccoli? A newly engaged woman? A father receiving news of the death of his son? It tends to elevate the nature of my work and makes an ordinary chair take on a life of its own.