Making Memories

Our dentist is someone from out of town.

If it sounds crazy to drive a few hours away to see a dentist, know this.  Every local dentist we've been to has told us "you desperately need XXX at $$$$" and this dentist, who is a personal friend and works with Sweetie's department at the University, has told us our teeth are fine and need only X for $.

For some reason, dentists around here look in our mouths and see payments on their student loans or expensive cars, one or the other.  This guy lives in a small town, even does all the dental surgery that many dentists now leave to specialists because he's the only dentist in that small town, and doesn't need to tell you stuff you don't need because he has plenty of business, being the only game in town.

So we drove up there on a day that began hot and muggy, got wet and cold up there, and ended hot and muggy again as the cold hadn't moved through our area yet but was on the way down.  The hardest part of the day was the drive, with rain sprinkling on and off, making it necessary to really concentrate to keep the car on the road, especially once it got dark.

Things went well.  Sweetie needed some work done, and it needed to be soon.  Mine has been delayed as it's all cosmetic, and we need to get Bigger Girl up there next to have her wisdom teeth looked at, and maybe pulled.

While he was there getting his teeth cared for, i drove through most of the downtown in about 10 minutes, and a lot of that time was spent at red lights.  The Town Hall, Chamber of Commerce, and Tourist Bureau are walking distance from the dentist's office, which is just up from the only place in town that has free wifi besides the library, the McDonald's.  So i had coffee and got online a bit there, then went back to get Sweetie.

On the way back home, Sweetie insisted we drive through the town where he grew up from about age 6-12, and where he went to college.  (It's a bit bigger than the small town where the dentist is, and is about a 45 minute drive away from said small town.)  Thus i was treated to over an hour of reminiscences, of the "That used to be the such and such place!" and "The road past that hospital used to be where the city ended!" and "The laundromat where I washed clothes is still there, and looks almost the same!" variety.

The hotel where he and his family stayed their first night in town when his father, the new Education Pastor at the local Southern Baptist church, brought them here, is still running and still announces, as it did in 1961, that it has telephones and A/C in each room.  Some places changed, but a lot is still the same.  The population then was about 9,000, and is now just over double that.  (The town where the dentist is located has a population of just over 5,000.)

Altogether he was pleased, and nostalgic, and surprised to find that sushi has come to this place where he has so many memories.  Pretty good sushi, and miso soup, and more memories from a place he loves.



Today is:

Armed Forces Flag Day -- India

Day of Mourning for Dingle-Fritter, Gooseberry-Humple, Tiger-Get-By, LoneFolding, But Not Zimber-Quattor -- Fairy Calendar

Caldwell Country Christmas Parade & Fireworks -- Colombia, LA, US

Cape May Christmas Candlelight House Tours -- Cape May, NJ, US (tours of homes, b&bs, guesthouses, hotels, and churches for 3 consecutive Saturdays)

Chester Greenwood Day Parade and Celebration/Ear Muff Day -- Farmington, ME, US (celebration of Farmington's most famous resident, the inventor of the ear muff!)

Christmas Candlelightings -- Coshocton, OH, US (Roscoe Village opens for Christmas fun for 3 consecutive Saturdays)

Christmas on the Prairie -- Wahoo, NE, US (Christmas 1800s prairie style; through tomorrow)

Día de las Velitas -- Columbia (Day of the Little Candles, a celebration on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

Feast of Osiris in Abydos -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Hang a Wreath Day -- after all, by now it's about time

Holiday Happiness -- Upper Arlington, OH, US (Christmas fun for the family at the local public library)

Hollywood Beach Candy Cane Parade -- Hollywood, FL, US

International Civil Aviation Day -- UN

Letter Writing Day -- no origin info found, but think of how happy someone will be to get a letter if you write one!

Natchitoches Christmas Festival -- Natchitoches, LA, US (the biggest day in the Festival of Lights in Natchitoches, parade day and the first fireworks of the season)

National Cotton Candy Day

National Heroes' Day -- East Timor

Norskedalen's Old-Fashioned Christmas -- Coon Valley, WI, US (log home Christmas and fun for all; through tomorrow)

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day  -- US

Quema del Diablo -- Guatemala (Burning of the Devil, to cast out impurities before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

Shaker Christmas Fair -- Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, New Gloucester, ME, US (traditional holiday church fair)

Shalako Festival -- Hopi and Zuni Native Americans (dates of main festivals and dance ceremonies vary by area, but usually the weekend nearest the 49th day after the 10th full moon)

SKYWARN Recognition Day -- National Weather Service, NOAA, and Amateur Radio Operators, working together to report dangerous weather conditions

St. Ambrose of Milan's Day (Patron of bee keepers, bees, candle makers/chandlers, domestic animals, learning, schoolchildren/students, wax refiners; French Commissariat; Milan, Italy)

Students' Day -- Iran

Spitak Remembrance Day -- Armenia

Tamale Festival -- El Centro, CA, US (tamales and arts and crafts, a fun way to holiday shop; through tomorrow)

Territorial Christmas Celebrations -- Guthrie, OK, US (old time fun this weekend and later in the month)


Anniversaries Today:

National Fire Safety Council founded, 1979
Delaware becomes the first US State, 1787


Birthdays Today:

Aaron Carter, 1987
Tino Martinez, 1967
C. Thomas Howell, 1966
Edd Hall, 1958
Larry Bird, 1956
Tom Waits, 1949
Johnny Bench, 1947
Harry Chapin, 1942
Ellen Burstyn, 1932
Ted Knight, 1923
Eli Wallach, 1915
Louis Prima, 1910
Willa Cather, 1873


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Band on the Run"(Album), 1973 (UK release date)


Today in History:

Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated, BC43
Chinese Emperor Lo-Yang makes notation of a supernova (MSH15-52), 185
Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways in the US, is completed to Trumbull, 1696
The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, 1732
Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general, 1776
The New York Philharmonic plays its first concert, 1842
Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission, 1900
Leo Baekeland of Yonkers patents the first thermosetting plastic, Bakelite, 1911
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, 1941
Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils, 1962
The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise is held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats, 1970
The final Apollo mission is launched, and takes the photo now called The Blue Marble as they take off, 1972
Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist, 1988
The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched, 1995
The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement, 1999
The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, 2003