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| I have some reading to do |
I got a Crown. No, the un-fun kind
I've been going to the same dentist since about 2022, I'd guess. They're very close to my house and I like all the staff and the owner-dentist.
Since I showed up, they'd been hemming and hawing over my back, left molar. Before Christmas, I was in for a cleaning, and a tech said "the doctor wants to talk to you about getting that crown...".
Pals, there had been no prior crown consultation, but I knew where this was headed. Which... you know, I'm at the point in life where I'm throwing car-payment money at my body to keep it going, it seems.
My primary concern was that the last time I had to get a crown, which was at the start of COVID, it took *forever*. I watched all of Into the Spider-Verse while they did the procedure. During that time, I learned all about going to one's happy place when you're trapped and masked people are going Marathon Man on you.
Anyway - I left that dentist for a few reasons and found this new one.
I am happy to say the procedure took, like, 13 minutes? The dentist was timing herself and clearly got the blues that it took, in her words, so long. She believed one should be able to do that procedure in under 10 minutes, but that tooth was weird (apparently not lined up correctly, and was more messed up than they assumed, so it was breaking).
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| I wore my own sunglasses instead of theirs. |
Behind me is the tech who was making my temporary crown while I waited. My face is completely numb here, and I can't focus the left eye properly.
Anyhoo... I was in and out in under an hour with a temporary crown. Back in a week for the final, actual crown.
If you need a dentist in South Austin, I have a rec.
Okay... NOW Christmas is over
We finally took down the outdoor lights on Sunday. Jamie had unplugged them on Tuesday, deciding we were being ridiculous.
I am glad to have the lights down and a foot in working order so I could climb the ladder, help out more, etc... It also led to some organizing in the garage.
I'm also trying to get out with Emmylou for a mile and half every day and see if I can't get that foot in order. Things seem okay? And the more I walk on it, the better it seems to be. I do think there's something about driving that the foot doesn't love, but that may be unused muscles pulling on the foot if I drive any distance.
With the holidays done, I am also looking to try to eat a bit better. And Saturday night wrecked that as we had a lovely dinner at Nicole and Matt's for Juan's birthday. Between the coquito and spice cake and food, it was a lot. But! Did better today and will hopefully do better tomorrow.
And I walked 3 miles, all-told, with the chores.
Currently reading:
Trying to start reading more again in 2026, and using this blog to hold myself accountable.
Sports report
Skating
I watched an inordinate amount of ice skating this weekend. It's sort of Jamie's thing, and so it is my thing. There will be more skating updates as the winter olympics are in February.
Football
How about da Bears? I watched the second half of that game, assuming Green Bay had it in the bag. When people ask "why watch sports?" I'd suggest "watch a game like this and tell me football can't be great."
UT Longhorns Women's Basketball
Lady Horns suffered their first loss of the season, 20 games in. LSU is well coached, and they played at home. It's two very good teams and UT just didn't look fired up in the first quarter - like LSU just knew how to shut them down. Bit of a bummer, but you hope it's a learning experience and they get back to winning.
I never talk about comics or my comic shop anymore
I think I don't like to talk about collecting comics anymore as I am 99.999997% sure no one really cares. It's just a thing I do, like how you do sudoku or chainsaw sculpture. You're generally aware I hoard funnybooks, but it's background noise.
I've been a customer at ABC since probably 1985 or 1986. I am unsure when I talked KareBear into driving us into town so I could buy comics. The same thing I could get at Piggly Wiggly and Skaggs Alpha-Beta (which I did as well), but I wanted prior issues.
Shortly after we moved back from Phoenix, I put up a post about shopping at Austin Books, and Brad reached out to me. We've been friendly ever since, and I like to check in with he and Brandon when I'm in. These days I only hit the shop once per month - the need for the weekly haul is no longer what it was. Plus I live 30 minutes away with no traffic. I basically need a gap of 2.5 hours where no one is looking for me for a successful trip.
In the past twenty years, ABC has expanded and taken over most of the strip center where it's been located since the 1970's. There's (1)
the main shop - comics, magazines, and the best back-issue selection I've ever seen. And which is partially why I'm poor. They have (2)
Guzu Gallery, which is an art gallery, oddities and art-object store. It's super fun. (3)
Austin Books and Games is where you can find vintage toys, and new and older games - role-playing, table-top and card. It's nifty. And, some time back, they re-opened
the Sidekick Store on weekends. Basically, it's unorganized back-issues, mostly unbagged and unboarded - it's stock they find from collectors, stores, etc... the deal is, they sell it for less than market rate because you're essentially doing the hunting and finding.
Anyway, stop on in. It's a terrifically well run outfit, and I challenge you to talk to the staff and not find *something* you won't find super cool.
