Date: 2009-02-24
To: Tuesday: My Very Own Stimulus Plan!
Miles today: 0.0

After yesterday morning¢s psychic meltdown in the cigar tube, I managed to convince my orthopedic surgeon to allow me to have what¢s called an ¢open¢ MRI. He doesn¢t¢ like open MRI¢s because, if the patient moves even just ever so slightly, it screws up the pictures and he has a harder time with his diagnosis. He relented, however, in my case because I told him it was going to have to be an open MRI or NO MRI, his choice.         The open MRI went just swimmingly, and I stayed perfectly still for the 30 minutes it took to complete. The nurse and the technician also seemed to understand my inability to do the closed MRI thing the day before. It turns out that I¢m not the first ¢slightly¢ claustrophobic patient to come through their doors.        So Tuesday started off well, and I arrived at work on time and ready for a productive day. I had several projects underway, including a paper I was working that would be distributed sometime the following week for review by senior management, a workshop that would be video taped on Thursday in preparation for some kind of ¢e-learning¢ product, and preparations for a training ¢needs assessment¢ mission to our office in India that was scheduled for the first week in March.         And then it happened. Over lunch, I bit down on something and felt a slight ¢crack¢ in an upper tooth. I pushed against the tooth with my tongue, and managed to dislodge one of my crowns. My first reaction was that I had probably just loosened the cement that holds the crown in place. On closer inspection, however, and with a bit more probing with my tongue, it seemed more likely that I had managed to break off the ¢post¢ that the crown is attached to.         I carefully wrapped the crown in a paper towel and put it in my pocket. Knowing what one of those suckers cost, I did not want to take a chance on losing it! Then I called my dentist to schedule an emergency visit. My dentist was gone for the day, but I was able to see one of his colleagues at 6 pm. Driving out of D.C., I couldn¢t help but reflect on the fact that this was becoming one of those weeks when it gets difficult to maintain the fiction that I am still only 18 years old. Between my back, and now my tooth, I was beginning to feel like one of those old jalopies you see in comedy films ¢ where parts are falling off as it drives down the street.         So I get to the dentist, and he takes one look at the empty spot where my crown used to reside, and says, ¢Uh huh. Well, that¢s not good.¢ I hate it when they say that. You know they don¢t mean it. What they MEAN is: ¢Hot Damn! I¢m gonna be able to make my boat payment THIS month fer sure!¢        Long story short: we¢re going to extract the miserable remnants of that particular tooth, and then we¢re going to remove the crowns on the two teeth on either side of it, and then were going to install a ¢bridge¢.           ¢A what?¢ I ask.         ¢A bridge¢, says the dentist struggling to hide his enthusiasm.         ¢What¢s that likely to cost?¢ I ask. At which point he names a figure that has almost as many zeros as my formerly robust IRA. And then it dawns on me: I¢m going to have my very own stimulus plan. Thousands of dollars to generate jobs by building infrastructure ¢ bridges, in the first instance, but probably also a new wing on the Dental Arts building I¢m sitting in, and several new homes for the staff. I wonder if all of this construction will be engineered for environmental sustainability.         Just like Mr. Obama's plan, mine seems to be "shovel ready"! "Excavation" is scheduled for the following week. With a bit of luck, I¢ll have the new bridge installed just before my trip to New Delhi. I leave the Dentist¢s office feeling vaguely patriotic, and wondering who exactly might be willing to "share my pain."                       "Well¢, I thought, "at least it will be taken care of before I leave for my hike. And it¢s a good thing it happened now rather than while I¢m on the trail." See, I¢m pretty much into counting my blessings.         Which is a good thing, given how the REST of my week went¢¦.