I have been absent for a while. Sorry about that. It’s been a trying couple of weeks. Not that you care, but I wanted to share and I need to get back into a blogging mode.
First, work has been utterly kicking my ass. Big project, several new technologies, lots of changes to the deliverable work… well, let’s just that everyone had a bit of a freakout when they realized that the drop dead date… that date which is the ultimate deadline, there is no possible way to complete the rest of the project on time, when the contract allows for the “shoot all the employs” clause to be put into effect, the Earth stops spinning, and zombie locusts destroy all living matter in the known universe date… was 11 days ago.
I am learning a new skill and I suck at it. It’s called “delegation”. It’s when you have to give some work that you think that only you can do to someone else and hope that you have communicated all the requirements and that they can handle it. And then you stay up til 3am redoing that work because they can’t see that “A” does not equal “blank”. I have deep trust issues due to much experience with different groups at work. And now, I’m putting my name on something that someone else did and I’m still so far behind that I can either check their work or catch 3-4 hours of sleep before the next work day begins.
Today, I had the day off. Not because I particularly wanted to (see “project” above), but because I had to.
Three weeks or so ago, I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. They found a cavity. Not good. I haven’t had a cavity in over 20 years and I was being particularly careful. The vast majority of dental issues I have (and a few other medical issues) is because of incorrect dental work done decades ago. I have deep feelings of distrust toward dentists.*
Anyway, this cavity was odd (if something odd is going to happen, it will happen to me). It was along the gumline on the inside flat face of the tooth. That’s a pretty easy spot to keep clean and it’s not the most common place for cavities, in fact it’s one of the least common places. Unless you have the problem I do…
Some of the cells in my gums have decided that my teeth are foreign invaders and must be destroyed. So, the gums are attacking the teeth. The weakened teeth are perfect attack points for cavity causing bacteria. This is an autoimmune issue. Still working on that part of it.
This morning was filled with well… fillings and using lasers to destroy chunks of my gums. The idea being that the material of the fillings will resist any attacks from the gum cells and that killing the groups of gum cells that are causing the problem will prevent the spread of whatever mutation/epigenetic issue that is causing them to see my own teeth as giant, invading, alien, monoliths.
At this very moment, my jaw truly hurts and, curiously, my teeth itch. That’s the only way I can describe this sensation. It’s decidedly odd.
I am also writing a book. It’s going well, up to about 15,000 words and I’ve got one chapter complete, with another one started and two more half done. I’m realizing that writing is almost the easiest part. Doing the research (which I’ve gotten pretty good at) is time consuming, but the real tricky part is organization. It’s easy to get rolling on the writing and realize that you’ve just interwoven a concept that you wanted to talk about somewhere else.
Finally, mainly due to work stress, I’ve had to detox from the drama for a while. Every story is just driving me absolutely nuts right now. There’s too much crap coming up, too many people who refuse to consider that there may be other opinions and that those opinions may actually be correct. Too many people who refuse to look at the evidence. And too many cases of Dunning-Kruger (especially in government).
I would like to put it to my readers (those of you left), what things would you like to see more of in this blog? Politics, pure science, creationism, kitties, Q&A, general skepticism, technology, climate, or anything else? Leave a comment, lend me your thoughts, because mine are pretty scattered right now.
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* For example, it wasn’t until I had a crown put on (5 months ago) that I learned that dental work isn’t supposed to hurt. I thought that the pain that leaked through the Novocaine was normal. No one told me otherwise. So, I suffered quite a bit (as a fairly young child) for no reason. The other example is that the dental surgeon who pulled my wisdom teeth also damaged my jaw, which caused swelling in my jaw muscles, which interfered with my inner ear, resulting in loss of hearing and vertigo. This was also diagnosed about 6 months ago… when I finally found a dentist who knew what he was doing.
