Sunday Snippets 9.7.25

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In this week’s Sunday Snippets 9.7.25…

Simon is acting like he’s slightly crazed. He does this every morning. I wonder if this is innate male hunting skills training kicking in each day, as he’s wilder than the female kitties.

My dental work began on Friday morning. The area in the lower back of my mouth had two crowns. Both had holes in them, and there was decay underneath one of them. They extracted one of the two teeth.

It took quite a while, and it came out in pieces. They fixed the decay, built a temporary bridge, and then inserted stitches. The dentist said she knew that tooth was going to be hard to get out due to a bone and a nerve next to it, as evidenced by the x-ray.

In six weeks, they will examine the temporary bridge and extraction site to assess the healing in that area. They left a hole in the area underneath where the tooth was extracted to allow air to get in for healing purposes. But that means food could get into the area and underneath the temporary bridge. I’ll have to be very careful.

It was supposed to take three hours. However, the procedure took four hours.

Temporary Bridge Placement:

The temporary bridge won’t be looked at for 8 weeks. Then they will check the healing and put the temporary bridge back on. I’ll probably get the permanent bridge around Christmas, barring any other problems.

Eating on the other side of my mouth is somewhat tricky due to the big molar that I had to have extracted a year ago. I should have addressed that space before now.

The oral surgeon’s office called me to make an appointment for them to check it, not long after that tooth was extracted. But I was in the midst of packing and moving, so I didn’t make an appointment.

Now I realize that I should have prioritized it and decided how I wanted to fill that gaping spot. Either a bridge or an implant is an option, and both are expensive. But if I had done that, I’d have a better tooth in place now, making it easier to eat on that side of my mouth.

So I guess after this is all done, I’ll have to deal with that.

One Dental Problem After Another:

A few months ago, I had to have another crown replaced just above the area they worked on Friday. Lord, dental work is expensive!

On Friday, I drove the paper prescriptions to the pharmacy after the four-hour appointment was over. The prescriptions were for an antibiotic, a pain pill, and a steroid pack. I forgot that the CVS pharmacy closes for lunch from 1:30 to 2:00, so I drove home to wait until it was almost 2 p.m.

There’s always a long line at the drive-thru that typically goes all the way into a busy street, so I went inside CVS. There was already a line of people inside waiting for the pharmacy to reopen too.

The Pharmacy Was Understaffed:

They said they were down three employees, and told me that they wouldn’t get to the prescriptions for a while. So I went home again.

Riley drove to the pharmacy an hour or so later, after picking up a few soft foods at a nearby grocery store that Kendra had told him to get for me.

They had two prescriptions ready when he went back there the first time. Naturally, two of the three prescriptions they had ready were not the non-narcotic pain pill to help with the pain. So he had to wait a few more hours and go back to get that one.

I finally managed to take a pain pill around 5:30. She told me to take it with Tylenol. The pain significantly lessened within an hour, and I slept well on Friday night.

Pain Level:

There was a lot of pain on Friday. I’d had the plastic mouth expander in my mouth off and on for the whole procedure. When the dentist finished the four-hour procedure on Friday, she said, “Well, you endured it.”

I had dreaded it, and it was even worse than I thought it would be. Yesterday I didn’t have much pain, thank goodness. I stayed on top of the medication that she prescribed. So far today, it isn’t bad, either. I’m hoping it stays that way.

Movies I Watched This Week:

The Silence of the Lambs:

I saw this movie many years ago, but decided to watch it again. The reason for the name of the film is explained in the movie dialogue.

What it’s About:

In The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent killer.

He’s serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Red Dragon:

In that same vein, I watched Red Dragon with Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman on Amazon Prime Video.

What it’s About:

After a series of particularly grisly murders, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) soon realizes that the best way to catch this killer, known as the Tooth Fairy, is to find a way to get inside the killer’s mind.

For Graham, that means facing his former nemesis, the now-incarcerated Lecter. He visits forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to get his input to create a psychological profile of the new killer.

Seeking Justice:

I watched the Seeking Justice movie with Nicolas Cage and January Jones on Amazon Prime Video.

What it’s About:

After his wife (January Jones) is assaulted, a husband (Nic Cage) enlists the services of a vigilante group to help him settle the score. Then he discovers they want a “favor” from him in return. And he had no idea that favor was going to threaten and upend his life.

Series I’m Currently Watching:

I’m watching The Wire on HBO, a series that came out years ago. My grandson said he watched it and thought that I’d like it.

What it’s About:

This series looks at the narcotic scene in Baltimore through the eyes of law enforcers as well as the drug dealers and users. Other facets of the city that are explored in the series are the government and bureaucracy, schools, and the news media.

The show was created by former police reporter David Simon, who also wrote many of the episodes. The series premiered on June 2, 2002, and ended on March 9, 2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons.

The idea for the show started as a police drama loosely based on the experiences of Simon’s writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public school teacher.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve read this book at least once before. It was published in 2010.

What it’s About:

Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject—forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he’s always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he’s usually right.

But when a terrible murder rocks Jacob’s small hometown, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob’s behaviors are hallmark Asperger’s, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police. Suddenly, the Hunt family, who only want to fit in, are directly in the spotlight.

For Jacob’s mother, Emma, it’s a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that constantly threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it’s another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. There is the soul-searing question: Did Jacob commit murder?

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I hope you enjoy this week’s Sunday Snippets 9.7.25.