Pumpernickel, carrot sticks, crunchy fruits and nuts

I kind of went a decade or so without my teeth being cared for by anyone. It wasn't on purpose, I just didn't know how to work my health coverage in Singapore and kept finding reasons to put it off, and then when I came back to the United States didn't pick up again partly out of fear for what would be found when I got examined. But earlier this year I decided to get my teeth cleaned, at least, and fixed if need be, before I married bunny_hugger and got on a wholly different medical plan. After some squabbling over my insurance I got my teeth checked, and an alarming report of many small cavities, although not cleaned because ... I didn't really get that straight.

Shortly after our honeymoon I got an appointment with bunny_hugger's dentist, originally planned to be a cleaning, although after he found two cavities worth worrying about (the tiny ones he didn't think needed any particular care) we filled them rather than clean my teeth. So it was another month before I could get my teeth cleaned. In fact, it was long enough that I forgot when my appointment was, exactly, and had to call to check.

But I did finally get my teeth cleaned. In my long neglect I missed the transition from little sinks to spit the water out to small vacuums instead, and it took about half the cleaning before I quite got the hang of it. And the tooth-cleaning polish is still incredibly good-tasting. I also got a bag of dental stuff which we didn't actually need --- toothbrush, mouth rinse, travel-sized toothpaste --- but it's not like they'll spoil either.

Outside the office window was a bird feeder, and there was a squirrel who'd latched himself onto it, upside-down, to snack. He was there every time my head was high enough to see; apparently, he just spends the afternoon like that, despite the stern glares of the local sparrows. I'm delighted by it anyway.

My tradition after dentist visits back in the day had been to go to White Castle afterward --- it was something my father always treated us to --- but the nearest White Castle to here is an hour or so away, so I skipped that part.

Trivia: In 1930 the United States had 151 women who practiced dentistry; less than half that many worked as accountants. Source: Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941, Michael E Parrish.

Currently Reading: Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress, Hasok Chang. Also I hadn't realized how supercooled and superheated fluids really do play havoc with the idea of using, say, ``the freezing point of water'' or ``the boiling point of water'' as ways to set a temperature scale's zero or degree size.