New food groups

The spacers have changed the way I'm thinking about food. All of a sudden the food groups are not fruit, vegetables, meat, grains, etc., but very soft or liquid (no teeth required), soft (can be processed using the pressure of the tongue or light chewing), not so soft (may be uncomfortable but probably safe), and hard or sticky.

On Friday, the spacers were taken out and now I have metal bands cemented around my molars. Eating is easier now, actually, because the teeth fit together again. So anything but hard or sticky food which could cause some damage is usually not a problem. I just have to rinse my mouth and brush my teeth after every meal.

Population 1. Plus 5,000 Volumes.

MONOWI, Neb. — Weeds twine around the disintegrating remnants of the water tower and sprout in a tangle through the floorboards of the grandest house in town. The Methodist church, gray with rot, slumps toward the frozen ground. An empty mailbox flaps open on a gravel rut that was once a road.

The people of Monowi have died or moved — all but one: Elsie Eiler. Brisk and unsentimental at 71, she lives in the one home still fit for living in, a snug trailer with worn white siding. She runs the one business left in Monowi, a dark, wood-paneled tavern, thick with smoke.

She also runs the library.


Via
The Centered Librarian.

Magic Castle

Finally we went to the Magic Castle again after a few months of not going -- busy lives. We had a guest from out of town. I'm amazed that I'm still fascinated and impressed by all the magic, even though I know how a lot of things work, because I've seen a lot of explanations. Paul Wilson does great close-up magic. (R. Paul Wilson, is second unit director of "Shade", a movie I recommend if you haven't seen it already. Some of it was shot in the Magic Castle.) I also liked the ambience of the dove magic in the Palace.

Spacers and Banding

Welcome to my new blog.

Finally they are starting my orthodontic treatment, i.e. I'm getting braces. After all the preliminaries like cleaning and getting your cavities filled, the first thing they put into your mouth are "spacers". Unless you've had braces yourself you may go "What's that"? I was asking the same thing and found a great website to answer this and other questions: Braces 101.