Whew!!!!!

It's very very strange to be without any connection to the outside world, even for 2 days. And yet, it's only been within the last 10 years that I've had a cellphone and then even more recently a laptop with the *possibility* of wi-fi connection away from home. How quickly I've become accustomed to it all! Spoiled brat!

The two days with David at Fort Ross were really wonderful and beautiful and relaxing --


although I kept having to remind myself we were there to relax and it was okay, really really okay that not only was there no cellphone reception, there was no room phone. And there was no checking email or Facebook to see how everyone I've ever known is doing, and no Blogger updates. No cheating at the NY Times Sunday crossword by googling for answers, no putting a new book on the Kindle, and I'd just have to look up the name of that local bird when we got home.

It was weird, but relaxing. And yet, productive. I finished Maddox's afghan (!) and went on to Bella's stocking, realizing too late that I hadn't brought enough dark green and had to put it aside. (ARGH! I'm out of knitting! What was I thinking when I only packed two projects?) I watched the last 2 episodes of Scrubs Season 1 (which was sitting on my iTunes) while working on the afghan, and then read all of The Road by Cormac McCarthy and had nightmares about being sliced up and cooked.

I read aloud 2 chapters of Stolen Child, which we started a long long time ago and then I got sidetracked, probably by Christmas. :o)

Together we finished up a dvd college-level course on Linguistics (the last 3 lectures) that we'd been dribbling through for months and played a full game of Scrabble, which I lost but by a lesser margin than usual.

One night in the hot tub under moonless clear sky with a gazillion stars,

one night enjoying the fireplace. I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing with a fire, coaxing it along.


The last night we went out to dinner at a classy restaurant a ways up the coast.

I had dungeness crab salad (I will pretty generally have dungeness crab *anything* except possibly sherbet) and salmon roulade. And a glass of merlot. You know, for medicinal reasons. :o) I cannot tell you how good it all was. Tenderest salmon ever. Oh, yum beyond yum -- and yet, there was dessert! Once in awhile I do dessert, cautiously, and then perhaps have an extra hit of metformin just to be sure. This one was worth the hassle: bittersweet chocolate torte with a hint of valencia orange, three perfect raspberries on the side and a light dab of whipped cream. Not too heavy and not too sweet.

It was halfway into the torte that my tongue touched the side of one of the four posts in my mouth and found what I was pretty sure was a sharp lower edge where it's usually all just smooth metal of some sort right into the gum. Hmm. Let's ignore that and get back to the chocolate. (nibble nibble swoon swoon) So, did I really feel an edge there? And what would that mean? (touch with tip of tongue) Yup, something isn't right. But this is a rare chocolate torte treat. (nibble swoon) What happens if I sneakily touch the post with the tip of my finger? Oh, crap, it wobbles!

I left the last two bites of torte, which I regret now, and fretted all the way back to the dear little cottage, where I finally got bold enough to press down on the post and it seemed to resettle itself. Ahhhhh! I told myself I had been hysterical and mistaken, there was probably some piece of the salad wedged there that I had misinterpreted as the exposed lower edge of the post. Do not think about the wobble. Do not eat anything. Play with the fire and keep reading this incredibly dark and disturbing book with its tiny little grey parts that seem bright by comparison. Wow, how 'bout that ocean, eh?

I seriously do love the ocean.

Sunday we drove home and I was careful about eating my incredible superburrito with garlic prawns from our favorite little Mexican place in Guerneville

but by the time we got home that sharp edge was back and so was the wobble. I planned to call my dentist first thing in the morning, but at 2:30 I woke up, rolled over, and the little metal post rattled around against my teeth. I was pleased not to have swallowed it (although it was small and would have been fine) and I put it on my nightstand and fretted the rest of the night about how bad this might be.

I got an appointment for 3:15 and David (who is still on vacation today) went with me because I was afraid this meant my body was rejecting the posts and we were going to have to look at some ugly decision or do a brief surgery or something. As it turned out, what came out was a *cap* that screws into a little sort of implanted cup, it happens quite often, everything's fine, and Dr. Speert screwed it back in, checked the healing of the other three, and said I can skip the scheduled July exam and return in August for the ... abuttments, whatever those are. I think they come shortly before teeth.

Tomorrow, vacation's over. Til August and Oregon. Missed everybody!