Soft peddling oral surgery-Nov. 13, 2023 update

I’m tired of pudding, macaroni & cheese, chocolate protein shakes, fluffy scrambled eggs, and apple sauce.

Not that I don’t mind mixing those culinary treats into my diet now and then, but when you can only have soft foods and beverages for four days or more, it gets a bit monotonous. I’m craving hard, chewy, crunchy stuff. My kingdom for tortilla chips with sharp edges, hard blocks of Colby cheese, crispy apples, and crunchy cookies (made by elves or anyone else).

I’m also over the feeling in my mouth that oral surgery has subjected me to. I’m not sure I’d necessarily call it pain, but discomfort and weirdness might come close to describing it. Mostly, but sometimes pain. Not to mention having to chew only on the left side of my mouth and being otherwise careful not to undo any of which was done to my person. The goal is fast and proper healing.

Don’t worry; the surgery was minor. A snip here, a slice there, a bit of suture … and voila! Good as new. Or at least better than before. And designed to prevent bigger issues down the old gum and ivory road.

Now, what’s for lunch?

Reading

I finished up Soundless Silence by M. Katherine Clark, an author I know in Indiana. It was her first stab at a Sherlock Holmes novel. Well done, Katherine!

I followed that up with a polarizing classic, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.P. Salinger. I’m not sure what all the hubbub is about. I mean, I thought it was a pretty good book about teenage angst, coming of age, seeing through other peoples’ masks, and all that. But a classic? Eh. Maybe it just didn’t register with me like it does for others, or maybe I’m just not deep. I was more enamored of Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker.

And now it’s back to the Inspector Rebus Series from Scotland’s cop writer, Ian Rankin. Published this fall, A Heart Full of Headstones is the 24^th of 24 Rebus books. It will be the 11^th one I’ve either read or listened to on audiobook.

Miscellaneous

Many of you know I ran for city council here in Columbus, Indiana, this fall. I didn’t get elected, though I did get 2,447 votes. Add that to the 2,191 I got last year running for county council, and I’ve got 4,638 votes for my career. I don’t think that total will rise next year (it might be nice to have a year without a campaign), but I rarely say “never.” There are other ways to serve my community, and I’m exploring several.

Meanwhile, Packy, my felt border terrier who goes on walks with me, has been on quite a roll finding coins to donate to Huntington’s Disease research. At the end of October, we were on record pace with $90.20 collected. And November has started strong. We’ve got a good chance of topping our high mark for a year, $113.04, set in 2021.

That’s it for now!

Paul