Wednesday, January 6, 2010

A Flossing Injury and a Vandalism... One Strange Day

I am the biggest wimp in the entire world. I may have been hiding it from my self for years with all the karate and rugby and rock climbing, but from time to time it comes to the surface and yesterday was one of those days! First up, the tooth:

Last week I was trying to teach Sadie to come down the stairs at Nani and Grumpa's house by scooting along on her bum (instead of launching herself from the top and expecting someone to catch her). On about the fourth stair I landed a little hard (from that giant four inch drop!) and one of my teeth started to ache. It lasted all week and seemed to be getting worse and worse so I finally caved in and let my dad make a dentist appointment for me at his dentist... You see we stopped going to our dentist last year when we went in for a teeth cleaning (thinking we'd pay cash, how much can it cost? Even with x-rays?) and left with a bill for around $600. They told us we both needed more fillings, but after forking over the $600 (half a months cash for us!) there was no way we were going to be able to afford to go back for a long, long while...

The toothache was bad enough two days ago that I caved. I was cheered up a bit by the fact that my mom had announced that her dentist does not charge for x-rays (I wish I'd known that before our last cleaning!).

And he was very, very nice! Now for the outcome.... I had a....

Flossing Injury.

Apparently my overzealous flossing (because I knew we couldn't afford to go to the dentist) was the cause of all this discomfort. My instructions are to floss "more gently." I am a wimp (and the dentist was very nice and didn't charge us anything... we're even going back in a few weeks for a cleaning).

The day however, which started at Mass got weirder before we even got to the dentist appointment. We went to breakfast with one of our dear friends from our parish (or weekly after Mass event). We always go to the same restaurant (we even usually sit at the same booth). Yesterday there was a man there who glared when we walked in (I'd never seen him before). He glared at Paul all through breakfast and stared at the rest of us.

He looked very angry. He left a while before we did and I really didn't think much of it until... we walked outside and found that someone had put there foot through the front bumper of our Prius (the car that we really needed since Paul commutes 600+ miles each week for school). Apparently the Prius' bumpers are not particularly foot proof (and it had gone all the way through to the styrofoam). We had parked right in front of the restaurant so the person would have actually had to stand on the front steps in front of the front door to kick the car. And our car would have been easy to identify with the baby seat in it... I don't know if it was the angry man, but say prayers for him. He must be very, very unhappy (especially since I was looking very pregnant yesterday, all the waitresses were talking about it... who vandalizes the car of a pregnant lady with a toddler? Someone with major, major problems...).

So while the day started at Mass it ended at the sherif'f's office where we filed a report. Not that anything can really happen because no one saw what happened or who did it. Now back to "the city" (another three hours of car time) for today's OB appointment. Sadie is not going to be happy about that!

11 comments:

  1. Good Grief, for a "backwoods", small town lady, you sure are having your share of excitement. Your breakfast "admirer" incident sounds really awful. Be glad Paul wasn't outside when the guy's foot went through the bumper. It's easier, & possibly less expensive to deal with the vandalism, than to face potential anger/confessional issues & hospital bills. But doggone, I would have liked to have been there!

    So, is that a Mom & Pop restaurant or a chain outfit? On the odd day I hit weekday Mass, I will go to Braums and mooch off the "old folks after-Mass club". Take care & God bless. -Cliff

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  2. I am so sorry that happened. I hope I don't sound too esoteric here, but I really think that some people are very susceptible to demonic influences. I wonder if that man's spirit was reacting to the godliness of your family.

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  3. Good grief! Did you all stand out in any way? I can't imagine why someone would do such a thing.

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  4. Wow, that is pretty creepy. Maybe you should skip the restaurant for a week or two just to let the weirdo cool off. Did you have any bumper stickers or anything that might have set him off his rocker? Glad to hear the dentist appointment was not as bad as you feared. I haven't seen the dentist since I had Susi, because it is just plain hard to see a dentist when you have such a squirmy baby as my Susi.

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  5. Hi Cliff-
    I was glad Paul wasn't outside too. He was a bouncer for years (that's actually the work he was doing when we met) and I don't think he's too out of practice to toss someone quite a distance. Very glad we avoided that temptation.

    It's a mom and pop italian restaurant that serves the best breakfast in town and everyone races over after Mass to get a booth instead of a table! It's almost competitive on a Sunday morning!

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  6. Hi Miss Linda-
    That's actually something that I mentioned to my husband when we were driving into town (the demonic influence thing). Because he was just so angry and there really didn't seem to be any reason for it (and because the Peter Kreeft book I just finished with had a part that was kind of like the Screwtape letters and that's probably helped put the idea into my head too).

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  7. Hi Brooke-
    That was what was so strange, because we looked fairly typical (I didn't even have my headcovering on!). Our group was Paul (in a New England Patriot's t shirt), me in a long dress and sweater, Sadie, being cheerful and giggly, and our close friend from our parish who is in her 60s. We probably looked like a family with a grandparent having a late breakfast! Paul wondered if it was a gang thing because his t-shirt was mostly red (and we have gangs and drug cartels up here in the middle of nowhere because of the pot trade). But you'd think a football shirt would be pretty typical. It was so strange!

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  8. Hi Maria-
    No bumper stickers at all. I looked at the car when we got into it and there was a "Catholic Babies First Bible" on the floor next to my knitting, some jackets and sweaters in the back in case we get stuck in the snow and the car seat. We'd never seen the guy before, and even Paul was pretty sure he didn't recognize him from work.

    We definitely came up with a lot of hypothesis' for reasons on the long drive into the appointment that followed. It ranged from our gang theory to demonic influence to drugs (around here that's another really probable one). Paul wondered if it was a case of mistaken identity, because apparently he was angry from the moment Paul walked through the door. I thought he was kind of creepy because every time I looked up he was staring at our table intently. So weird!

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  9. I told Kay about your breakfast incident, and she had a bit of a different take on it. She didn't really think it would necessarily have to do with your being pregnant. Assuming he actually did the bumper, surely he would have had to be angrily "primed" before you arrived for brkfst. For whatever reason. Perhaps he is depressed, and actually envious of happy people. In which case, he deserves our sympathy & prayers, which is what you said in the first place.

    How new is that car? If it was my car, I would not have comprehensive insurance on it, just liability. So, I'm thinking fill in the hole with some insulation foam, then paint over it. Be glad it didn't set off the airbag!

    Paul having been a bouncer, and now a theology student is quite interesting. At first glance it doesn't mesh, but I suppose the first occupation could lend some perspective to the second.

    Nasty weather outside here today. Do you get much wind your way when it snows?

    Peace. -Cliff

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  10. It's almost two years old. I think we're going to start saving up to have it fixed. We have comprehensive insurance, but the deductible is $500 and since I just saved up enough to pay off our credit cards this month (I'd started to juggle them before Christmas and that really bothers me! It was the first time in years we hadn't been able to pay them off in full each month) I think I'll start a "jar" for us to put money into until we come up with the $500. Hopefully it'll be fixed by summer (or next winter).

    I think we're the only part of the country not getting the snow right now! We have a light drizzle but it's supposed to be 55 degrees here today. Balmy! We usually get wind by itself, in the summer during the afternoons, but not so much in winter or when it's snowing. Although there are those rare exceptions that bring down a lot of trees. Earlier last month Paul and a bunch of guys had to move an entire tree out of the road to get to work. Luckily enough had gotten stuck that they were able to do it and move it off to the side.

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  11. I envy you not having too much wind in the winter. Wish I could have been there to help with the tree! :)

    Good thing on those credit cards. You can email me if you ever need more incentive to stay off those things. I won't bore your blog readers with my woes. Just do the "jar" thing. :)

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