Nov 25, 2007
Last week I posted a picture of me when I had Shingles and got some mixed comments on it so I took it down within a hour of posting it. I've since heard from some who want it back up because they had no idea what the ailment looked like.
So. . .
Here is a thumbnail you can click on to go visit a short page on the subject. . . . . with pictures.
Good Luck
Did you Mom ever tell you to only cross the street at corners? Mine used to say 'Never, ever, arc weld in the rain'. Hah! this guy's Mom forgot. The rain is starting to come down pretty good at this point and he never let up welding. I took the picture from under the Burger King entrance canopy across the street on 5th. I wonder if his feet are tingling.
There were over 20 of us who attended the AA Thanksgiving pot-luck at Bonnie's Thursday. In preparation for that I ordered a whole pan of 'Pooding' (bread-pudding) at the 'Super Bakery, Aguilar' on 5th. 24 bars for ~$4.80.
There's a lot going on around this next look:
First off, there was a Spanish language AA clubhouse on Calle 6 that was very active. After Wilma in '05 they put a new roof on the place and made other improvements. It was located next to a primitive bordello and across the street from a mortician. The fellowship had some fun offering a newcomer the choice between AA and the mortician.This year it appears the property they were on was divided and one half sold for condo's. That blue tarp is hanging on an inside wall of the remaining half of the clubhouse. The group has moved down the street to a storefront.
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The updated building codes in PDC now require an off-street parking spot for every condo/apartment unit and there are underground garages being built beneath every new construction. This is the entrance ramp for the condo being built on the half lot. Notice the way they build the floors. The inverted steel reinforced 'T' beams support a layer of special cinder blocks and then the whole thing is poured with cement over 6" wire mesh.
When Richard and and Cindy arrived in PDC in Richard's pickup/camper there was no room at the apartment complex on Calle 6 where he likes to stay. Finally after camping on the street for a while Richard broke down and offered to oversee the apartments just to occupy one. The owner wanted to return to his family in Canada, so. . . . . .
That explains Richard's fetching and hauling a replacement microwave from Wal-Mart back to the apartments. PDC is becoming so modern.
My Dentist on Cozumel has an endodontal specialist come in on Fridays to do her root canal work. Her specialist has her own practice in PDC and I was referred to her for this darned tooth I've been agonizing over. Still no pain but no prospect of the infection problem going away. Plus, a dental tech who's opinion I value highly pointed out that this infected tooth was putting a constant load on my immune system. Should there be some other immunity challenge I could be in deep do-do.
I made an appointment for Thanksgiving day with the specialist. On the way to her clinic I passed this excellent spiral staircase and any excuse to delay a visit to the dentist. . . . .
Actually I was early enough to stop across the street at my favorite bike shop and get a pair of new, smooth tread, 65 psi Nylon cord tires put on the front of the Triciclo. ($17 for the two, installed)
And then. . . . . It was time to see the dentist. And she is lovely.
She invited a friend over who was fluent in English to explain the procedure and help answer ALL my endless questions. We arrived at a price of 2500 pesos ($228 usd) for the root canal and a composite filling. The precess began with a painless shot of Novocane. Next she isolating the tooth with a sheet of blue rubber, held in place with a spring clip on the tooth, that she installed with a pair of Stainless Steel snap ring pliers.
She then stretched the blue sheet out with a frame like an embroidery hoop.
Now we're ready to start work.
She used probes to determine how solid the tooth was in it's socket and that last winter's ceramic inlay was intact.
Then the drill. . . .
Let me make this next point absolutely clear. . . Her technique was perfectly painless! Painless to the point that I took all these pictures with a free hand as she worked. Her strategy is to mine down to the beginning of the canal that holds the now dead and infected nerve. In her other hand she is using the suction tube to collect the cooling water from the air drill and tooth debris.
Once she broke into the root canal she used these beautiful little hand augers to remove all the dead and infected nerve tissue plus ream out the surrounding infected tooth material. They were spun and twisted by rolling the little handles between her finger tips.
When she felt that she had gotten everything cleaned out she took an Xray to see exactly where she was.
The white areas are my other fillings, the spring clip and one of the augers showing the exact depth of her excavation. Here's a closer look.
This is a model showing the anatomy of a tooth and some problems leading to root canal work. . . which is just the removal of dead and infected nerve material. It's dead, you feel nothing.
The tooth, second on the left, shows how mine is going to end up, but with a composet filling. After cleaning the root canal out she slid in a very slim medicated taper and put in a temporary filling over it. In a week the taper will come out after it has sanitized the canal and made it ready for a permanent filler. If not, then another medicated taper.
She said to not bite down hard on anything so when the Novovane wore off I visited the $/dip Chinese restaurant for some excellent curried chicken over rice with some sweet and sour. All that for 30 pesos and it includes an Internet connection.
I've kept in touch with Juliette, the French gal I took my diving refresher course from in '03. She is now in China teaching English to . . . "about 900 screaming little kids" for quite good pay while her teaching credentials are being processed back in Australia.
I mention this because I thought of her as I passed by her old place yesterday.
This is the view out my hotel room window. Note the leather office chair they are letting me use from a downstairs storage room. I'm still using the foot of my bed as a desk just like home. I have to clear off my desk if I want to go to bed at night.
On my way to the beach from the Noon meeting I spotted this Yamaha 200 TW. It's a little newer than my red one but has seen way more service.
Here is the first one I'd ever seen, on Cozumel in '04. It was stolen last winter. Very sad for the owner.
After returning home in '04 I described that Blue TW to a Pal who just happened upon one for sale a month later and bought it. The year after that he sold it to me.
I was planning to sell it next Spring but as I look at these pictures. . . . .
I had hot cakes and bacon on the beach one morning and saw these fishermen coming in. They must have been cleaning their catch on the way, which was of great interest to that gang of sea gulls (flying rats).
A couple doors down from the Hotel is an ice cream shop.
That first freezer is filled with Popcicles made from actual fruit juice.
They run coconut and coconut milk through a blender and freeze that into a bar. I asked if they could than dip one in hot chocolate and they now make them a half dozen at a time. Excellent and only $1 each.
Here is one of the most interesting T-shirts I've seen in a while.
After the Sunday morning Men's AA meeting some of us went for brunch at a restaurant under this great thatched Pallapa roof.
OK, I lied, there is another sunrise photo from a couple weeks ago to close with. This is absolutely the last one, so dig it.
-Home-