28 October 2005

Morning Musings

I live in California's Central Valley, where summers are long and hot. But Fall is finally here, with comfortable days and cool, crisp nights. Yesterday we had a few rain showers, and today there's some cloud cover. My students have responded by putting on hats and scarves and parkas and Ugg boots. They look like they're ready for a polar expedition. For goodness sake, the highs are still in the mid-60's! I don't know whether my students are genuinely cold, or if they're just anxious to use their cold-weather gear.


My beloved SUV got crunched this weekend in the grocery store parking lot. An idiot in a pickup backed right into me, even though I was honking like mad. He says he didn't hear me, and he certainly didn't see me. I strongly suspect he was talking on his cell phone, because he managed to have 2 more phone calls in the 5 minutes it took to exchange insurance information. He did $1700 worth of crunching, which my body shop won't get to until the end of November, and which will take them a week to fix. Foruntately, although the kids were in the car with me, nobody was hurt or traumatized. And there is a small silver lining: the fender he squished, which will be replaced, already had 2 largish door dings in it. So at least I'll get rid of them.


I stopped this morning for a venti pumpkin spice Frappuccino because I needed a major caffeine and sugar boost. Right in front of Starbucks, some guy was in the process of being arrested. I have no idea what for; probably nothing important, because there was only one cop car involved. I felt kinda sorry for the guy. What a crappy way to begin your Friday.


Thing One needed to get some cavities filled yesterday. She was an extremely good girl. And for an extra $200 out of her parents' pockets, she got Twinky Star fillings, which are colored and glittery. She even got to choose her colors (pink and blue). The dental tech warned us against orange--he said it just looks like the kid's been eating Cheetos. While I certainly appreciate anything that will help a 6-year-old tolerate dental work, I wonder if it's really such a great idea to make cavities FUN!?!


Elizabeth Hickok has sculpted San Francisco in Jello. Knatolee, does this inspire you?

3 comments:

Knatolee said...

So much news today!

The Jell-o sculptures are weirdly beautiful! But I suppose they aren't particularly permanent. Hmm... no Jell-o in the house. Maybe I could sculpt with Hallowe'en chocolate?

Bummer about the SUV. That idiot HAD to have been on the phone. How could he otherwise not have heard all the honking? I'm glad you and the kids weren't hurt. Bad karma on the truck guy!

"venti pumpkin spice Frappuccino", see, these are things that make me wish I liked coffee. The best I can do at a Starbucks is a chai latte (mmm) or a hot choclate!

And the sparkly fillings are amazing. :) But yeah, talk about encouragement to get cavities!

Peg said...

And these are permanent? So like in 50 years men will still be buying their midlife Corvettes and women will be covering their gray, but they'll all have Twinky Star teeth? I think I have to stick around for this.

Phyllis said...

The fillings are in her baby teeth, so they'll fall out in a few years anyway. Which is a shame. They're more colorful than my old amalgam fillings, and surely wouldn't look any sillier in middle age than all the tattoos teenagers are collecting today.

Knatolee, maybe you would like a pumpkin spice frappuccino (hmm--that just reminded me of fraps, which is what I'm likely to do after ingesting all that caffeine). I'm not a hot coffee person. But I am a cold coffee person, and I'm especially a cold coffee with sugar and ice and whipped cream person. I do like chai, too!

And also, Knatolee, around my house, Halloween chocolate scupltures wouldn't last any longer than jello.