Whew.  i was going to write yesteday but it wasn’t till last night that i had the energy to open up the laptop, and then it was only to see if we could watch something instantly on netflix.  putting together any kind of coherent sentence was way beyond my ability.

for the next three days i am NOT SUPPOSED TO DO ANY STRENUOUS, DANGEROUS, OR PHYSICAL ACTIVIES, nor am i supposed to operate any DANGEROUS MACHINERY.

so there go my plans to be in a triathlon, go parachuting and swim with sharks, and go running with Mollie and Kevin.  plus NO RIDING AROUND IN ANY TANKS.

but wait, is a tank really a dangerous machine?  i mean, it’s dangerous if you’re shooting at somebody from inside the tank, but just driving the tank wouldn’t be dangerous, would it?  it would be less dangerous than driving a car because if somebody annoyed you or got in your way you could just DRIVE RIGHT OVER THEM.

if only i had a tank.

and really, not even anything physical like going running, or shuffling as kevin calls it?  i don’t know about that.  right now i’m just sitting around eating pudding, so not too much exertion there.

it all went ok.  when we pulled up at the oral surgeon’s office, kevin said “this is the place where i got my wisdom teeth out and my face swelled up because they didn’t give me any antibiotics and i almost died.”

GOOD TIME TO TELL ME.  that was almost as good news as randy’s admonishment about DROWNING IN MY OWN BLOOD, or mom saying they were terrible to David and he referred to them as BUTCHERS.

so when i sat down in the operating chair and the nurse took my blood pressure, it was a little high.  very quickly the doctor came in and explained what was going to happen again – pull tooth, do bone graft – and i couldn’t remember the whole deal about the bone graft so he showed me the bone they were going to use; it’s from a cadaver and he said it looks like little white balls but to me it looked like a small container of nothing.

he sprayed some cold stuff on my arm and then stuck me with the needle and almost instantly i was feeling woozy and then…after it was all over i guess i woke up and i might remember being taken into the recovery room.  there’s really no need to be worried about the potential of pulling and digging and scraping when you’re not even going to be conscious for it.  easy to say now.

i reclined in the recovery chair and kevin came in and i remember the lady coming in and kevin paying, and i remember him leading me out.  he drove to the drug store where we got stuff and he got me some water, and then we went home and i immediately had to lie down on the couch after taking my antibiotics (i didn’t even have to ask for them) and my tylenol 3 with codeine.  and my chocolate pudding.

so then for a few hours i just slept, mostly, and there was no gushing of blood or horrible swelling or anything.  at about two i decided i wasn’t going to take any more of that codeine, but instead took a couple motrin and i haven’t had any pain to speak of since.

i spent the rest of the afternoon lying around on the couch, with no energy to speak of except when i tottered out into the yard and said hi to jim and he offered to make me a delicious shake like he has every morning for breakfast, with berries and yogurt and liquid vitamins and whey protein and flax oil.  that sounded good.

we had said we’d go to mom and dad’s for corned beef and cabbage but i’m not such a fan of that anyway, so i took the giant shake with me to their house.  it was definitely too much, traveling in the car, sitting at the dining table, trying to talk and not fall out of the chair.  i just didn’t feel right, and kevin was relating the details of the operation to mom and dad and suddenly he said “and then they gave her the sobriety test – she had to stand up and lean her head back and touch her hand to her nose, but she wasn’t good at it…” and i looked at him and said WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?  and he repeated what he said and i said WHY ARE YOU MAKING THAT UP?  and he assured me he wasn’t.  “it was right after the video they showed about what to do in the next few days.”

NOW I KNOW YOU’RE LYING.  THERE WAS NO VIDEO.  WHAT WAS ON THE VIDEO?  I’M SURE YOU’RE LYING TO ME. WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS UP?

he finally convinced me that he wasn’t lying and for some reason then i was VERY FREAKED OUT that all this stuff had happened and i appeared to be awake but CLEARLY I WASN’T.  plus the music mom was playing seemed REALLY LOUD and i felt that i might melt down at any point, so we finally went home.  on the way home i grilled him about the contents of the video – WHAT IF YOU HADN’T TOLD THAT TO MOM AND DAD?  I WOULDN’T HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE VERY IMPORTANT THINGS THAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO!  WHAT ARE THEY?  mostly i’m supposed to gargle with salt water.  it all seemed very intense last night.

i went to bed at 8:30 and got up this morning at eight.

things are much, much better now, except for the massively gaping hole in my mouth.  that was a mighty, mighty big tooth.  it doesn’t look so big, but the gap is huge.  they gave me the tooth to take home and i could have put it under my pillow last night but i forgot.

i can’t tell now if i’m still tired from yesterday or if i feel tired because of sleeping for 12 hours.

meanwhile, here is a video that I IMPLORE YOU TO WATCH.  kevin showed it to me last week and i kept meaning to post it, but then my friend sandy e-mailed it to me this morning.  it’s all about the snow geese on the lake, and it’s able to capture everything i wasn’t able to in pictures.  it’s by a guy named dave heinzel, and he’s very talented and it’s an AWESOME video, so please make the VERY HUGE EFFORT to click on the link and watch it.  even if you think that the whole six minutes is too much for you, at least watch a little bit of it.  i realize that for many people, CLICKING ON A LINK IS MUCH TOO MUCH EXERTION, but i promise that you’ll find it worth your while.

SNOW GEESE AT LAKE SPRINGFIELD

by dave heinzel.

also i have more photos of key largo, the final ones, and after i rest from all this typing (if you type really fast, is that considered physical exertion?), i’ll put them up here, since i have plenty of time today because of not being in the triathlon or riding around in my tank.

a fork lift, i bet that’s dangerous machinery.  but once again, not dangerous to you but to others.