Day #186 – Chores

Gatlinburg TN

Until Thursday, there were six rigs in this campground.  All of us were full-timers, with Kelly and me being the only non- workers.  Now, the place is full to capacity.  There are kids on bicycles, parents on Harleys, and folks just sitting around campfires.  Apparently, some families come here every year for the Memorial Day weekend.  There was a lot of catching up for them to do.  There was a group of Polish youths on a tent site and most of the cabins were full.  What surprised me was the quiet, well except for the Harleys.  Some folks were drinking, but there has been no rowdiness or fighting.  Except for the Polish kids singing folk songs, everyone turned in early last night.

We started the day at the farm market.  This week, we bought some brownies, comfrey salve, and an heirloom cherry tomato plant.  That scraggly little thing is a symbol of hope and an investment in the future.

A while back, Kelly lined the bunks with sheets of vinyl linoleum to protect their surfaces and make it easier to slide boxes back and forth.  Today, she made a template of the shelf under the sink and lined it, too.  It looks really good and now the “natural wood grain finish” will be protected from spills and scrapes.  She’s so pleased with her work that she’s decided to line the shelf under the bathroom sink, too.  But, not today.

Kelly planted her garden today.  She had purchased basil, parsley, and oregano plants last week and had been hardening them off under our awning.  We had to keep them off the ground to protect them from peeing dogs.  Today, she planted all three in a window box.  As you can see from this photo, she’s planning on a bumper crop.

Day #185 – New Cupboard

Gatlinburg TN

Well, there’s not much use in complaining, so I've skipped a couple days.  My mouth has been really sore.  It hurts to chew on the temporary crown and I’m not supposed to chew hard on the side that was treated for gum disease.  I’ve been avoiding sugar and eating lots of soft foods, like beans.  It’s getting a little better each day.  We haven’t been able to hike because I’m still getting a lot of throbbing when my heart rate picks up.

Today Kelly had a fantastic idea.  The grill you see in this picture is on a sliding shelf that stows under a dinette seat.  One dinette seat has storage under it, but this one does not – the entire space is taken up by the shelf and grill.  We have not yet used the grill.  The grill is not attached to the shelf and cannot be used safely if it were attached.

Kelly’s idea is to detach the sliding shelf and turn it around.  If she puts a cupboard door on the side of the dinette, we could open the door and slide the shelf out.  We could easily attach a box to the shelf and have a way to store canned goods and bottles of oil, vinegar, and such, under the dinette seat.  Is that cool, or what?  The woman really is the best!

In other news, we love our new dish drain.  I realize this may not be a big deal to you, but little things add up quickly in our lives.  There isn’t much counter space in our house, so every inch counts.  We had been using cutting boards to create an angle on the dish drain or sliding it across the whole sink.  This prevented pools of water on the counter, but made it tough to either use the counter around the dish drain or use the sink.  The new dish drain stores on the counter in a collapsed setting, then expands to whatever length we need.  It has legs under it to create enough height and angle to drain perfectly into the sink.  We love it!

Day #182 – Dental III

Gatlinburg TN

I had been dreading today.  I have a terrible fear of dentists.  In my younger days, I’d go years between checkups.  But, in the last five or six years, I’ve been going regularly.  I’ve had some problems with gum disease, but was sure I’d gotten it under control before we left Pittsburgh.  This blog is going to be a bit graphic, but even if you’re afraid of dentists, too, please read on.  Hopefully, my experiences will give you courage to keep your mouth healthy.

Kelly did a great job of distracting me, starting yesterday.  She kept me engaged in other things and somehow managed just the right blend of talking and not talking about it.

Today, the dentist planned to take full x-rays of my mouth and then discuss the results with me.  This did not go well.  Me, the stoic German girl, cried.  And got really pissed off.

Let’s start with the cavities.  I have four.  One comprises about 25% of a molar.  It takes at least a year for a cavity to get that big.  That means my former dentist either missed the side of a barn door or mislead me.  On all those trips to deal with gums, asking about cavities at every checkup, I was told my mouth was fine.  Oh, yeah.  This is fine.

Now let’s talk about gums.  Mine are in bad shape.  There are two teeth he may not be able to save.  Again, I thought I was in maintenance mode – no idea things were this bad.  Actually, I thought my gums were better than they’d ever been.

Today, I got what they call a “deep cleaning” on the right side of my mouth.  First, the hygienist injected pain killers.  In Tennessee dental hygienists are certified to give both local and nerve block injections.  She did a good job – didn’t hurt a bit and she nailed it on the first try.  (Kelly says I’m a freak of nature because it’s so hard for dentists to get my teeth numb.  These guys, armed with that information, have nailed it consistently.)  Then she took those sharp little instruments and chipped away.  After that the real fun started.  She used a tiny tool that sent out a very powerful jet of water to clean some more, deep under the gum line.  This part was not comfortable, but it never really hurt.  She stopped often to suck up spit and let me catch my breath.  The water part took a long time.  Then, she packed antibiotic powder into each tooth, again below the gum line.

They gave me a special rinse to use at home to help keep the bacteria down.  I was advised to not floss on the treated side for ten days.  They told me to not chew on that side either, but since I’m not supposed to chew on the temporary crown – which is on the other side – I expressed some confusion.  The final advice: chew on the treated side, but don’t eat anything that could get stuck.

Kelly also has some gum disease.  One tooth was pretty bad.  She got the same treatment, but on just that one tooth.   She had two places on her upper jaw where food was getting stuck and evading flossing.  The dentist recommended she have two fillings inserted in those spots, essentially blocking the space so that food could no longer get stuck.  She had that done today.

We looked pretty funny, each of us drooling out of opposite sides of our mouths.  We kept laughing at each other.  After the shots wore off, we could feel the treated teeth throbbing.  She was able to eat supper, but I was so sore I couldn’t eat at all.