The Rain Keeps Coming Down

Not as bad as elsewhere obviously, but the last few days of rain combined with the crud on the roof from the cottonwood trees finally overwhelmed the gutters again. Without our noticing, either yesterday or last night, it came in the basement window - again.

So, we have a flood in the basement again. The carpet tiles are soaked beneath the window, and there's a patch of paint about 8" diameter which has completely separated in a nice pocket. Spectacular.

I'm glad I have a steam cleaner, now - it works nicely for extracting water from the carpet. Now we wait for it to dry out, pull up the tiles when it's sunny enough to lay them outside to dry, and figure out how to patch the paint on the wall.

Not the thing I wanted to find when I came home from a fruitless shopping trip looking for a new desk.

Dreaming

I'm dreaming and procrastinating. It's been an interrupted week, what with the sudden "Let's repaint lil'Rogue's room" festival, kiddo's dance/gymnastics/cheer camp and the whole beginning of summer thing. And classes.

So I have one big project to finish - seaming a sweater for my MIL. And one big project to start - a skirt for lil'Rogue for faire in 2 weeks.

Instead I'm dreaming of new projects and pondering dying yarn, and thinking about having a beer and a big bowl of baked Cheetos.

Way to be productive, rogue.

Exercise

Discovered that, yes, it is possible to ride a bike from the house to the library. Without riding on truly major streets, and only one huge street cross. With time to wander at the library and rest for the ride back, it's about an hour and a half total trip. About 25 minutes each way, riding time.

The way there has one short steep hill and the rest of it looks flat but is very subtly uphill.

Which makes the way back an easy ride. Even with a backpack full of books.

Customer Service Message

How to Lose Customers as a Pediatric Dentist:

1) Buy the practice from wonderful people who really understand children and who my daughter has been seeing, with no problems even with a cavity filling, for the last 2 years.

2) Change all the policies which made it a successful practice, including putting a signature page in the new paperwork that has the parent sign away their right to come back into the office with the child. This new policy does not have an age limit on it - they could take a 2-3 year old back there with no supervision now.

3) When questioned, say that the new policy has always been in effect (BS), and that the reason for it is that it “reduces drama” and “gets them used to going back on their own”. NB: I’m all for kids doing big stuff on their own, but can only read “reduces drama” as “the kids believe anything we tell them and they’re too scared to say anything to their parents afterward”.

4) When I’m back there with my daughter and you’ve brought in two 3-year-olds with their moms, it’s bad form for a hygenist to say “What is this? Mommy day?!?” loudly.

5) When my 6-year-old has been a complete sweetie through the x-ray, and the poking, and the spinny-thing cleaning, and the first half of the flossing (uppers), when she flinches and squirms and wiggles around during the second half of the flossing there might be a problem. NB: I noticed this, but said nothing. I was quiet as an invisible mother.

6) Do not say to said 6 y.o. “Why are you crying?”, in a clearly ticked off voice. When she says “My gums hurt” and points to exactly where, don’t look at me and say “This is what happens when parents come back. You haven’t been brushing well enough and there was some build-up. A little bit of bleeding is perfectly normal after cleaning.” No, no it’s really not, thanks

7) Do not use as part of your defensive argument that you’ve been doing this for 37 years. You’re clearly only about 10 years older than me, at most.  So, unless you started being a hygenist at 13, you’re lying your ass off.

8) Do not blame the patient for being in pain, and very quietly crying.  She is 6. This is pain, not drama, I can tell the difference, even if you can’t. Do not argue with me about this point.

9) When I look in her mouth and see a dark pink stripe between two teeth where your over-enthusiastic flossing of her teeth bruised the heck out of her gums, possibly even cutting, don’t give me lip and continue to blame her crying on me being there. Do not tell me that this is normal. Do not tell me there’s nothing wrong. Do not say that clearly I’m wrong and that she’s had cleanings before, and that I have to do better cleaning her teeth. I never said she’d not been cleaned before. I said she had no problems before.

10) When checking out, Ms. Receptionist, don’t continue to blame me and the patient for the fact that she is still quietly crying and pushing against her gums where they hurt.

I am quite proud of myself that at no point in all of this did I speak in anything but the most calm and mature voice. I blamed no one, I said I clearly understood what they were saying. I just at no point agreed with them. Particularly about the brushing - she brushes her teeth twice a day for over a minute and a half each time. I supervise every brushing and even do it for her if she’s not doing it right. There is no yellow build-up anywhere on her teeth. Anywhere. The x-rays showed only perfectly healthy teeth with no new cavities - we must be doing something correctly, even without flossing since there is absolutely no evidence of cavities between her teeth.

I never said to the hygenist that this was her fault; not even by implication. I never did anything but ask my daughter to calm down, where it hurt, and talk to everyone nicely. All of the arguing was coming from the hygenist who was clearly feeling very defensive. Gee, I wonder why. I also wonder what would’ve happened if I had stayed out in the waiting area like a good little obedient mommy - believe me, you’d’ve had one really ticked off amazon then.

I informed the dentist of all that happened (since he wisely asked) in the same calm voice, and explained that since her lower teeth are very tightly together with a large space near the gums what probably happened is that the hygenist had to force the floss to get it between the lower teeth. This makes it snap down very, very hard on the gums, hurts like hell, and can cause swelling which makes the mouth painful for hours or even days later. This is precisely we don’t floss except in extreme circumstances. I will gladly teach her how to do it when she is old enough to control the floss herself.

No, we will never be going back to that dentist.
Yes, I will tell everyone about the new experience and recommend against this place to everyone.
Yes, I have already found at least one “rate the dentist” site, and put a very condensed version of this up there.

It took 30 minutes, with ice water rinses and a dose of ibuprofen, for my kiddo to calm down after we got home. There is a huge pink line between each of two sets of teeth, exactly where she was complaining.

Thank you "Pediatric Dental Group of Colorado - Arvada". We'll be searching elsewhere from now on.

Summer should always be like this.

Knitting on the deck.
Kids running through the sprinkler.
Happy breezes with the smell of grass and lilacs.
Iced tea with peppermint.
Just the right amount of shade and sun.
Listening to murmur of conversation of neighbors; no words, just calm.
Occasional bird song from the many local residents.

Possibly Back

It's been a huge while since I posted, and probably no one cares but me. This year has been completely not what I or anyone else expected it to be and the changes have been odd.

But here we are, with school only a month from ending for the year and summer looming on the horizon. If winter would ever actually decide to stop, of course. I'm looking out the window at my lilacs, bent over by the slush which fell last night. The first part of the garden is in, and starting to sprout. Lettuce is probably toast now, but I won't know for another day or so. There was no reasonable way to cover it.

Some changes are good. I started doing some freelance writing. I'm going to be taking community college classes to get what I hope will be a useful certificate which will allow me to continue to work from home. I'm still knitting and planning out some sewing. I've been helping out at Little Rogue's school, which looks like it will extend into some summer commissioned work.


I'm looking forward to summer, with all it's associated scheduling silliness.

The agony of defeat?

Some Olympians soar to new heights, winning medals and setting new records.

Some Olympians fall right out of the gates and never recover.

Methinks this Winter Olympics I may be in the second camp.

Have I picked up the spinning since the start of the games? Nope.

Have I knitted on the sweater since the start of the games? Nope.

Have I knitted? Yes! Just not on the sweater. I'm 90% of the way through a really cool and slightly crazy pair of slippers for the Little Rogue. They fit, they're bright, they're an out of my brain modification of a store-bought pair with the help of Cat Bordhi, and kiddo thinks they're fun. Two rounds of crochet and I'll be posting them on Ravelry. Even though I truly suck at crochet.

This evening, while waiting through dance class, I started another 2-row scarf. They just make such amazingly simple travel/waiting knitting. And I had the wonderful fun of explaining to a just-turned 3 year old what it was that I was doing, how it worked, and what color I was going to use next. Her mother thought that it was very cool, since the little one is apparently fascinated with tiny hand movements. I got the little one to understand the concept of 3+3=6, which her mother thought was even better.

Over the time that I've been knitting, I've had a many small children come to me, wherever I've been, and ask what I'm doing. I usually just say what I'm making - "I'm knitting a scarf." Most children are satisfied with that. I take great joy in the ones that are more curious. The one who ask questions - "What is knitting?" "Is it done yet?" "What are those you're using?" Or the ones who just stand there and watch. It's so fun to see their brains work, processing new information and tucking it away somewhere for future reference.

So, while I may not be fulfilling my Olympic dreams this year, I think I may have found again some of the joy in knitting and some of the joy in teaching. Competition isn't always about winning, since there can be only one. Competition and challenge are also about learning, growing, expanding knowledge, and gaining confidence. While I may not win the gold this year for completing my Olympic goals, I think that I will be moving forward.

And that, after all, is what life is about.