A Bit of a Mess in Everyday Ramblings

I so enjoy exuberant slightly overgrown gardens. For me this turn towards the 4th of July and high summer means the turn towards the darker side of the year as my world gets warm and we enter our short dry season.

Yesterday it got up to 99°F (37.22°C) here. Whoa baby. That is hot for us. It was 70°F at sunrise today. It is still wonderfully green out and there has been enough wind to make the mountain views visible and mysterious. Mt. St. Helen’s has been particularly lovely the last few days with her snow iced blown flat top.

Speaking of saints, in my little world on Monday we had quite the shock when I got a call from an obviously distressed St. Joe in the early afternoon as we were fervently working as a team (quite well I might add) getting last minute fiscal year end stuff done to tell me that his father had been found dead that morning.

His 61 year old father that raised Joe and his brother.

They were like The Three Musketeers, making do as guys with a sense of humor and a love of the 70s movies like The Godfather. Joe has told me some wonderful stories about his dad that made me like the guy and hope some day to meet him.

Not sure exactly the story of his parents separation but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I even knew he was still in touch with his mom, when he needed to take a day off to drive down to rural south central Oregon with his brother to help cut up a tree that had fallen across her driveway. We had a lot of fun teasing him about being a lumberjack.

He has a much older sister who he adores and apparently grew up with their mom and lots of colorful aunts and uncles in California. This has all come into play over the last few days as Joe is with his family taking care of what needs to be addressed with the family business and the house. His dad was living alone and it was suicide.

With my dental surgery this morning we have had to scramble and compromise on our service commitments. Yesterday was very intense. And did I mention, quite hot?

The senior dentist in my office wanted to do my surgery because it is still a relatively new procedure and complicated. It went well. This is all towards saving one of my top teeth, as it was either that our take it out as in my unusual mouth, an implant wasn’t really possible. When he first started working on it, in one area I had excruciating pain and he was like oh, that is great, it means that whole area we are trying to save is “Vital”.

Vital! I like that word. Particularly in relationship to me. :) He gave me more anesthetic.

And then the assistant goes, “Oh look, there is her sinus!” Eek. I’d like to keep my sinuses private please. I have what they call a low hanging sinus. Who knew?

Anyway, it turns out that the situation was exactly what the team had surmised, I had a fracture deep in my jaw and this was the best solution given the circumstances. I have six weeks to heal and then in mid August they will do the crown prep and placement.

I iced my face for a few hours and I hope that is enough to keep the swelling at a minimum and took a nap. They can’t seriously expect you to apply ice 10 minutes on, ten minutes off for 24 hours even though those are the post op instructions.

I’ll be working from home tomorrow and probably part of Friday, the holiday.

It is so wrenching when someone we care for has one of those forever life changing moments. St. Joe will get through this, he has lots of support and is a healthy young man, but he will never get over it. Not even close.

Today marks six weeks since my sister had her surgery. It has been rough but she is healing. She hasn’t been able to take a proper shower that whole time. Her daughter dragged her out to the local beauty school this week and she said last night that it was divine to finally have her hair properly washed.

I feel a bit like I have been in some rapids this week and am looking forward to calmer waters soon. Everyday, no matter how interesting things get, I am grateful for all the basics like clean water, fresh food, literature great and entertaining and today in particular, a cool breeze and anti-inflammatory meds.

Oh, and a restless orange cat in my lap.