Boldly Going Places I'm Not Going To Pay To Follow

I just watched the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. It took me a week to psych myself up for it, because it seemed like, however I might feel about the show, this was going to be your classic no-win scenario. (And, alas, when it comes to no-win scenarios, I am no Captain Kirk.) I figured, either I wouldn't like it, which seemed very likely given that I haven't been entirely happy with any new entry into Star Trek canon since Deep Space Nine, in which case I'd feel disappointed. Or else I would like it, and then I'd probably feel even more disappointed, because I'd have no way to watch the rest of it without paying yet another monthly fee for yet another streaming service, and that is not happening. No way, no how.

So, yeah, I can't say I went into it with the greatest mindset. And how did I feel about it after watching? Kind of shruggy, to be honest. I mean, it looks really pretty. And it's got a nice diverse crew, thus upholding an important Trek tradition dating back to 1966. On the other hand, only one of the characters so far has gotten any development or definition at all, and I can't quite decide how I feel about her. And while the plot seems to be trying very, very hard to be tense and interesting, I mostly wasn't really feeling it. Plus, hoo boy, did the beginning of this have the worst case of Bad SF Expository Dialog Syndrome I've seen in a long time. Which is saying something.

But, of course, it's entirely possible all of that is attributable to the difficulties any pilot/first episode faces. You have to establish all the setting and backstory stuff and introduce all the characters while trying to tell an engaging story from the get-go, and you have to do it with actors who haven't settled into their parts yet and writers who haven't had the chance to see how any of it plays on the screen. So, I'd certainly be inclined to give it some time and see where it all goes, if, you know, it were actually available on my TV. Or anyplace else I am already able to watch stuff. Oh, well. Probably it'll be available on DVD or something eventually, and I'll finally get to see how the cliffhanger comes out. Assuming I still care then.

I will say, though, that despite being the jaded old fan that I seem to have become, and the fact that I've been deeply disappointed by Trek shows in the past, I did still get a teeny little thrill at hearing the familiarly Trekkish notes of the theme song and seeing the credits sequence start playing (even if it was kind of a weird-looking credit sequence). There is something touching, I guess, about seeing something that you loved from childhood still surviving and taking on new forms.

By the way, speaking of new forms, I'm a little taken aback by the new look of the Klingons. Something in the back of my brain keeps complaining that they're just wrong, like I've fallen into some weird uncanny valley of Klingon makeup. But, given the history of the Klingons and their look, that seems like a really dumb thing to complain about. Well, probably I'd get used to them. If, y'know, I could actually watch the damned show.

(Sigh. You know, a quarter of a century ago, I used to dream about future developments that would let us watch anything we wanted, any time we wanted, thanks to the magic of computer technology. I imagined some central storehouse of media that we could pick and choose from and download at our leisure. And for a while there, I thought I was so prescient! But it never remotely occurred to me that what we'd eventually get instead would be a zillion different independent services, each wanting a separate subscription fee to watch their particular crop of shows. Even though in retrospect, it seems like it should have been predictable. But, really, it's always easier imagine the technology than it is to anticipate all messy real-world stuff that factors into how we use it.)

September Currentlies

Current clothes: A white t-shirt with a picture of a T-Rex wearing a monocle and holding a cup of tea, with the caption "Tea Rex." Which I find delightful, although scientifically inaccurate, as the T-Rex probably should have feathers, and it doesn't. Then again, it's wearing a monocle and holding a cup of tea, so scientific accuracy is clearly not really the number one priority here, anyway. I am also wearing blue jeans and white socks.

Current mood: It's an odd sort of mood I get sometimes, especially when I'm on night shifts. A sort of pronounced but not entirely unpleasant lethargy, which makes it hard to feel like I want to do anything. I am mostly fighting it.

Current music: Not much. Last thing I listened to was some Bowie, I think, but I don't quite remember what.

Current annoyance: Having fewer teeth than I'm supposed to. Still. Although it does seem to be healing up well. I found myself accidentally chewing on the side with the missing tooth a little today, and it was fine. I still worry constantly about it, though, which is annoying and probably unwarranted.

Current thing: The abovementioned state of lethargy seems to be mostly it this week.

Current desktop picture: Still the Twelfth Doctor. Who I am already preemptively missing.

Current book: Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson.

Current song in head: It's pretty quiet in my head right now, which is a blissful relief after having the same damn song stuck in my head for at least the last two weeks. (I will not name it for fear of summoning it back.)

Current refreshment: Mint tea.

Current DVD in player: Disk 3 of season 5 of Sons of Anarchy, which I am still making my way through at a pretty good clip. It's a show with a lot of flaws, some of which seem like they should bother me probably more than they do. (I mean, so many women in refrigerators. So many.) But I keep finding it compelling, anyway. I think it's all the Shakespearean scheming. I'm a sucker for some good Shakespearean scheming, apparently. And perhaps especially from the kind of people you wouldn't necessarily expect to see that sort of thing from. Like, y'know, bikers. Plus, the cast is fantastic.

Current happy thing: Um... I got paid overtime for having to labor on Labor Day? And my tooth hole really does seem to be healing up well. And my current state of mental apathy is actually making it pleasantly difficult to feel anxious about any of the stupid things I usually find to feel anxious about. So that's all good, I guess.

Current thought: I don't care how much I just want to sprawl on the sofa and binge-watch violent TV shows, I have things I need to do before work tonight, and I am going to get up and do them. After I post this. And finish my tea.

Well, It Looks Like The Dragon Spit The Sun Back Out, At Least.

So, how was the eclipse? I, uh... I slept through the entire thing, by virtue of getting off work at 8 AM and collapsing from exhaustion for five hours and change. Well, it was nowhere near totality here, and I have seen a partial eclipse before. Still. This probably comes under the heading of "you know you're getting old when..."

And Now, For Something That Has Nothing To Do With Teeth (Aside From A Reference To The Fourth Doctor's Teeth And Curls)

I am going to see this tonight! Should be awesome. And excellent for taking my mind off the state of my mouth and/or the world at large.

One Week Later. (Well, Eight Days, Because I Had To Work Yesterday.)

Had my follow-up appointment on my tooth today. The doctor and I did not sit down and have a long talk about best practices in dental medicine. But he did assure me that the tooth socket is healing up well, the gum tissue looks healthy, and the bone graft looks good. So that's reassuring, at least. I think it would have been just my luck at this point to have things go horribly wrong with the healing process.

I've still got to be careful with it for another ten days or so, though, until the wound is completely closed up and there's no chance of the artificial bone stuff inside washing out and making a bid for freedom.

Sigh. I miss being able to do things like chew and brush my teeth without having to think about them. That was nice. I did not properly appreciate those days when they where here. Isn't it always the way?

Anyway. After this, it's going to be another three months before they can start the process of giving me a fake tooth, thus taking me the first step of the way on my journey towards becoming a cyborg. (Hey, I have to look on the bright side and make this sound cool somehow, right?)

August Currentlies

This is definitely later than I usually do it, but what can I say? Things have been a little weird lately.

Current clothes: I'm still in my pajamas: blue plaid lounge pants, a nightshirt that says "So Many Books, So Little Time," bear claw slippers. I'm trying to take it very slow and easy today. My brain and body both probably need it.

Current mood: I don't know. Mostly OK, I guess. I'm feeling less tired and out of it than I did for the first day or two after the tooth thing. And I'm mostly doing well at staying kind of zen about the whole debacle, but I am experiencing intermittent flare-ups of stress, which are no fun. And not being able to eat properly is really, really annoying me.

Current music: Most recently, Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas.

Current annoyance: Yeah, see above. I'm not supposed to eat anything hard or crunchy or hot, and I really don't want to eat anything I have to chew too much. (It doesn't hurt, but it feels a little weird, and I'm super-paranoid about food banging into the wound and maybe disrupting the clot.) This is getting very old very fast. I am starting to crave steak.

Current thing: Between the tooth and being given the wrong glasses prescription, I seem to be suffering a personal vendetta by Murphy's Law against my ability to carry out normal bodily functions like seeing and eating.

Current desktop picture: Still the Twelfth Doctor.

Current book: At Winter's End by Robert Silverberg. Which is OK, but far from his best.

Current song in head: "Melanie" by Weird Al Yankovic. Which is a slightly creepy song to have stuck in your head.

Current refreshment: Room-temperature coffee. Yum.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment. I have season 4 of Sons of Anarchy; I just keep not getting around to it yet.

Current happy thing: Um... Give me a minute, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Current thought: I miss my tooth. It was a terrible tooth, but it was mine. And it was the first body part I have lost that I actually wanted to keep. (The wisdom teeth and the uterus were just pointless annoyances, but I was using that tooth, dammit!)

So. That Happened.

I went for my dental procedure today, and... it did not go as anticipated. Mainly because the endodontist apparently, like, 99% of the time ends up pulling teeth with these kinds of infections, so when he came into the room to do the operation that might save my tooth, he forgot that's what he was supposed to be doing and fucking pulled it instead.

Yeah. I kid you not. And, man... It seemed to me what he was doing was weird and not what I was expecting him to do, but I figured he knew what he was doing and there was a reason for it... and the next thing I know, there are pieces of my tooth all over my mouth and I'm trying to process what the hell just happened.

Needless to say, it was pretty freaking upsetting. I mean, there was a really good chance it was going to end up getting pulled anyway, but I was not prepared for it to happen today. I think I started to freak out a little, but then I sort of had to calm down, because I realized the dentist was trying not to freak out, too, and I found myself thinking, "Oh, man, I need to be calm so he can be calm, because he still needs to finish this up." Which was actually pretty useful, because I had to drive for an hour and twenty minutes to get home after that, and I needed to be functional.

Anyway, I guess the bad news is that I now have fewer teeth than I had this morning, which is NOT WHAT I WANTED OR AGREED TO.

The good news is, I saved the $130 he refunded me for the procedure, and I get a free dental implant if I want one. Because he was all, "It's OK! I will fix this! I will give you a new tooth! It will be better than your old one! I WILL MAKE IT RIGHT! Please don't sue me." Well, he didn't say that last part, but I think it was pretty much implied.

And, hey, I guess it could have been worse. At least he pulled the right tooth.

Still. This was not exactly the best day of my life. Send ice cream. Since I think that's one of the things I'm actually able to eat right now.

I Can See!

I have my new glasses! Again. The opticians were kind enough to mail them to me this time, since I live so far out of the city, and since the frames had already been adjusted for me. And the prescription is now correct. Hallelujah! It's amazing how much difference that makes. I don't know how I ever thought for a second that the previous ones could have been right.

They are going to take a little adjusting to. This is pretty close to my last prescription, but just enough different that I have to fine-tune my head-tilting impulses all over again. It does seem to be a change for the better, though, as I'm already noticing that it's easier to read fine print. The fact that I kept finding myself taking my glasses off to do that is what made me realize it was time for new ones in the first place. More annoyingly, I am getting a bit of queasiness, especially when I turn my head too fast. I think I had some of that with my first pair of progressives, too, though. Hopefully it should go away pretty quickly.

Otherwise... Well, I am second-guessing my choice of frames already, but too late! They are a part of me now, and this is my face for at least the next couple of years.

Anyway. I'm glad to finally have that taken care of, finally. Now on to all the other stupid things...

Adventures In Modern Dentistry

I just got back from my endodontist appointment. They took these really cool 3D x-rays that let the doctor zip around and zoom in on and rotate my teeth on his computer. Very 21st-century!

Anyway, even though the infection is pretty big, he says it is confined to the area around one root, which makes me "a good candidate" for the apicoectomy procedure. Which still gives me maybe a 50-50 chance of saving the tooth, but I'll take it. Also, it costs less than I was expecting; with the insurance it looks like I'll maybe be paying less than $100. And they were able to schedule me for it on a day when I actually shouldn't have to work, despite my current stupider than usual work schedule. Plus, he confirmed that with a local anesthetic, I can drive myself home. Admittedly, I generally prefer to be unconscious any time someone is doing something invasively medical to my body, but it seems like it shouldn't be too bad, and he says it might only take maybe ten minutes to do. I figure even I can suck up my weeniness that long.

So, all in all, pretty good news! My only complaint is that my appointment is at three in the afternoon, and I don't particularly want to go from having oral surgery to driving through the city at the onset of rush hour, especially as the office is practically in Rio Rancho. So hopefully I really will get out of there pretty quickly.

Doctor Who?

WE HAVE A 13TH DOCTOR! REPEAT, WE HAVE A 13TH DOCTOR!!!!



I've seen one or two people saying they'd maybe rather not know who it is until they turn up on the show if they can help it, which... Well, good luck with that. But just in case, I'll be vague here for anyone who doesn't want to watch the video. (But if you want to get spoilery in the comments feel free, and we'll call that read at your own risk.)

Anyway. Wow. I suspect I would be surprised by any choice, but I'm really surprised by this one. I know this actor from precisely one thing -- it's probably not hard to guess what -- and based on that I'm not 100% sure how I feel, as that was very much not a Doctor-ish sort of role. But I am cautiously excited. I think this is going to be interesting.

Various Things

A few random things, numbered even though there is no actual order to them:

1. I am now 46. It doesn't feel any different from 45. In fact, I had to stare at the date for a while re-checking how old I actually am, because apparently I'd already been thinking of myself as 46 for a while in anticipation.

2. I was doing really well with my one-book-in/two-books-out method of TBR control, but my birthday trip to Barnes & Noble set me back a bit. And today there is a library sale here in town. I am trying to be strong, but I fear I might succumb. Does "it's my birthday" still work as an excuse a day later?

3. Today's excitement: a wildlife encounter in the middle of my dining room! Well, OK, don't get too excited. It was just a frog. (We get spontaneously generated frogs here every time it rains hard enough in the summer to leave puddles. Or at least, they sure seem spontaneously generated. Apparently they dig down into the mud and go dormant underground between rains.) It was perfectly still, didn't even move when I gently poked at it with a rolled up bit of napkin, so I figured it was dead. I tried to scoop it up on a piece of cardboard, because I didn't want to touch it, at which point it suddenly hopped at me. I am embarrassed to report that I emitted a high-pitched yelp at this point. Zombie frogs are startling! Anyway, it has now been relocated outside, but I'm trying to figure out how the heck it got in. I know I have cracks in my house big enough to admit bugs (hence my regular employment of an exterminator), but frogs? Did it maybe just hop in the door with me when I came home, and I somehow didn't notice? I mean, WTF, frog?

July Currentlies

A bit late in the month for this, but the time really has been slipping by me lately. Anyway:

Current clothes: Gray shorts, a t-shirt that says "Please Go Away, I'm Reading," white socks.

Current mood: Aargh. Today is supposed to be a day to decompress, do some reading and catch up on some housework, between finishing a 56-hour work week and making yet another trip up to Albuquerque for yet another appointment. And yet, my brain does not seem to want to let me relax and enjoy it. Instead, it seems to want to get irritated over every single stupid little thing, and if it can't find something to be irritated about, it makes something up. Chill out, brain! Yeesh.

Current music: David Bowie's Blackstar, which I just got for my birthday.

Current annoyance: Seriously, everything and nothing. At this point, my own annoyance is annoying me. I hope I will be able to get my brain to snap out of it soon.

Current thing: Just muddling along, really. Which is much better than not muddling along, so, hey.

Current desktop picture: Stil Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. I want to keep him for ever and ever and ever.

Current book: Mastodonia by Clifford Simak, a pleasant-enough SF novel from the 1970s.

Current song in head: Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl," courtesy of this week's episode of Preacher.

Current refreshment: Nothing just this moment, but I'm going to go have some leftover pizza for lunch soon.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, disk 2 of season 3 of Sons of Anarchy. I'm making my way through this series pretty quickly.

Current happy thing: Well, not having to work today is a good thing! And I've gotten some cards and gifts for my upcoming birthday, which is nice (and very sweet coming from some folks who really didn't need to get me anything at all).

Current thought: You've got nothing to be pissy about, brain! Eat some pizza, watch some good TV, go accomplish a few useful things, and get over yourself.

OK, I'm Done Wallowing.

After all the whining I've been doing lately, I figured I should pop in to say I'm feeling much better now. Not that lots of things aren't still irritating, because they are. But I'm approaching them with more equanimity. The Doctor Who season finale really did cheer me up immensely, because it was amazing. Also, this may be 100% the power of suggestion, but I think it's possible that tooth infection just had me feeling a very subtle, low-level kind of crappy for a long time, a kind of not-feeling-top-notch feeling I tend to just blame on my sleep schedule. But whether it's pure placebo effect or something else, after a week's worth of antibiotics, I actually feel a much greater sense of well-being. Even if I am still tired.

And hopefully someone will be here to fix my swamp cooler soon. Not living in a sweltering house will surely also help improve my mood.

Oh, and I also just saw what I think is the little cat that was locked in my shed! I'm not entirely positive it was the same animal, but I think it was. So it's probably still alive. Yay!

In Which I Just Give Up And Wallow In Self-Pity

Aaaaand, now my swamp cooler's stopped working. I got up in the middle of my sleep period to pee, and discovered it blowing warm air into my house, because the pump wasn't pumping. The same pump I just had replaced a few weeks ago. Well. Looks like I'm in for a very hot 4th of July. And, of course, I was so pissed off after that that I couldn't get back to sleep, so now I need to work a 12-hour night shift on maybe four and a half hours of sleep. Sigh.

Well, at least it means I have time to watch Doctor Who before I have to go to work. But first, I need coffee. SO MUCH COFFEE.

FML

So, I just got a call from the eye doctor/optician's office. Apparently they think maybe they screwed something else up besides my prescription and they want me to re-take my eye exam. Which means yet another goddamn trip back and forth to Albuquerque on a day when I'd rather be doing something else, this time on my fucking birthday, because that's the day they had available when I'm not working. (I'm working a hideously extra-long week just before that, because of course I am.) And I still need to make an appointment with the endodontist, too. I tried to do that today, once I finally got my work schedule for the next month, but apparently they close early on Fridays. I probably won't be able to call them until after the holiday. And who knows when I'll even be able to schedule that appointment. I'm willing to bet it won't be the same day so I can only make one trip. Then, of course, I'm going to have to schedule the actual endodontal surgery, and god knows how that's going to work out with my schedule. I just really, really hope I'm allowed to drive myself home from that, because it's not like I've got anybody to bring with me, not on a weekday.

It's enough to make me want to smash my forehead into the keyboard.

nmj m, m,bynjhm

Hmm. No. Don't think that helped.

Eyes And Teeth

So, I took my eyeglasses back to the eyeglass place, and it turns out it was made with the wrong prescription. They were very apologetic about it, and in time-honored tradition, they blamed it on "the new girl." I'm actually kind of glad that it was something that blatantly obvious and didn't involve having to re-take various fiddly measurements. (Although they did double-check where my pupils were centered on the lenses, which is probably a good thing.) And, despite the (not inconsiderable) inconvenience, it may actually have been for the best that they have to remake the lenses. Because I got anti-reflective coating on them, and almost immediately remembered why I didn't get anti-reflective coating last time. They make the lenses ridiculously easy to smudge, and extremely difficult to clean. And the smudges bother me way, way more than the reflections ever have.

In other news, I have been taking antibiotics for my tooth abscess, and now the inside of my mouth tastes like dead bacteria. Yum!

Upsetting Event of the Day

Upsetting event of the day: I was standing in my kitchen, and heard meowing coming from somewhere outside. I looked out, and there was a cat pawing at the doors to my shed like it was trying to get at something in there. And the meowing was coming from inside. From inside my hot metal shed, which hadn't been opened in days. I keep the doors secured with a bungee, and it had snapped, and the doors blew open in the wind. When that happens, I usually check to see if anything's gotten inside before I re-secure the doors, but apparently I didn't look hard enough. Because sure enough, there was a cat in there. Well, probably a kitten, really. I don't think it looked quite big enough to be full-grown.

I was hoping to catch it and take it to the vet. I didn't get a very good look at it, but from what I saw, it didn't look to be in great shape, and it must have been terribly dehydrated. But catching a small cat in my shed is no easy feat. It's full of randomly stacked junk with lots of little cat hiding places. And before I managed to corner it and grab it, it was out and off.

I feel terrible. Also, the inside of my shed now smells like a cat was trapped in it for days.

Man, I hope the poor thing is okay. I left some water out just in case it comes back.

The Tooth? I Can't Handle The Tooth.

So, I finally got to the dentist, and sure enough, I have a tooth abscess. I have a very bad tooth abscess. (Really, it's never a good sign when a medical professional looks at you and goes, "Yow.") Hopefully the tooth isn't going to have to be removed, but salvaging it is going to require a bit of oral surgery. Specifically, an apicoectomy, where they clean out damaged tissue and snip off the end of the root. Aka, yet another unpleasant, expensive, annoying thing that's going to be hard to work in around my work schedule and require multiple trips into the city. SIGH. This being human gig is getting old fast.

Wait, I Don't Think That's Just Me

Seems like the new glasses are actually wrong, rather than just needing time to adjust to them. I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have to tuck my chin all the way down into my chest to clearly read a sign five feet away. SIGH. Why can't anything just work properly the first time?

Various Things

Because I haven't been updating much lately, here is one post about various things.

1. I was really sorry to hear about the recent death of actor Stephen Furst. I loved his character Vir in Babylon 5 so much I named a cat after him. After I heard the news, I sort of just went and stared sadly at the cat for a while.

2. My car is now in the shop getting the damage from being scraped in the parking lot fixed. Meanwhile, I have a rental, a Hyundai Sonata. This is a much more high-tech car than my Fit. It greets me with a little musical fanfare when I get in, which I honestly find somewhat unsettling. It seems like a decent car; it's got a pretty good ride. But it has led me to a new appreciation of one of the Fit's selling points: visibility. I've got a lot less of a view of the world around me in this one. I keep trying to adjust the rear view mirror for a better view and then realizing, no, that's just all the window I've got back there.

3. I also have new glasses. They are strange and uncomfortable and slightly nausea-inducing. Probably just because I need to get used to them, not because there's anything really wrong with them. It's worse with the progressive lenses than with the regular kind. Stupid aging body.

And, OK. Three things is probably enough for now, right?