Thursday, November 13, 2008

Can You Picture That?

This is the retaining wall in front of my dentist's office. I went in yesterday to have my teeth cleaned. It took an hour and a half. Part II is in two weeks, when the left side heals.

I can hardly wait.

I'm used to it, actually, and don't think anything about getting eight shots in the jaw It's like water off a duck's back. Agonizing water, but water nonetheless. Honestly, the most tortuous thing about the whole event was that the regular hygienist was out sick with the flu, and the fill-in, (who really was super nice/competent/cheery/quick/good) had changed the radio station to a grotty country station. I really like classic country, which this wasn't.

Yarf.

So, I noticed this on the way in, and asked the receptionist. Apparently, the day before, a 13-year-old had stolen a truck from a local funeral home and wrecked it, flying through the steel polls that one might hope would prevent this sort of thing, destroying a huge chunk of retaining wall, and coming to rest on someone's car.

Do you think becoming airborne, Bo & Luke Duke style, in a real vehicle feels like it does in MarioCart, or much, much worse?

Based on nothing except the most basic understanding of physics, I'm guessing "much, much worse".
That could be my sense of schadenfreude kicking in, though.


Q: If your patient is in the dentist's office, getting their teeth cleaned or whatever, and a funeral parlour truck and large chunks of a retaining wall lands on his or her car, do you stop the proceedure and tell them? Should you wait till they are done?

A: I dunno. Do they teach that sort of thing in dental school? I'm sure whatever the answer is, the staff did the right thing. They're awesome, and I really like the doctor.

All I know is that my 90 minutes with nu-country and a chipper hygienist couldn't't have been anywhere near as bad as all that.

In honor of all things dental, here is Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem performing Can You Picture That?, from The Muppet Movie(^) (1979)



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