In the middle

In the middle was Originally Posted on January 28, 2004 by lavarock

This blog could have been titled “Decisions, Decisions” or even “A Quandary”, but let’s leave it at “In the Middle” for now.

I got a great deal on some hard candy and enjoyed it for a week or so, until I bit down the wrong way and (wait, are you ahead of me already?) broke a tooth. I asked around and had a couple recommendations on the same dentist and called him. He could not fit me in and suggested another dentist. After an x-ray and some poking around, it was determined that to save the tooth (of which there was precious little left) an ONPLANT would be the best choice. Of course, what a surprise, the dentist had equipment to do it, but at least it would be cheaper and faster than a crown.

They clean what is left of the tooth and spray a reflective coating on it. Then a small instrument (or camera) is pointed there and they take a 3-d picture. Then on the computer, the dentist makes some 3-d adjustments and a final tooth design is completed. He then sends the info to a machine in the back room. That machine has a small porcelain cube and tiny drills take off the parts that will not be part of the final tooth. The automatic shaping takes all of about 15 to 20 minutes. Within an hour to an hour and a half, you have a new tooth surface on top of the old tooth. The bad part is the $600 bill!

As I was sitting in the chair, I was wondering if I should have quickly joined a dental plan, paid the first payment and THEN “discovered” my broken tooth…. Even though I am a bit too honest for that, I didn’t really have the money to invest in this, but I was afraid that the remaining tooth would quickly begin to break off and/or I might get other problems. This might have delayed any root canal work the dentist hinted at…

A week or so ago I got my high speed Internet in and have been quite happy with it. It is faster than the fiber connection I had in the Atlanta area and the cost will be a bit less.

Today I got the bill and found that they were c haring me for cable tv also (which I didn’t sign up for). I have been in the house here for a month or so without TV and figured I would save the money for now. I did hook up a TV to the cable to ensure there is no signal, and sure enough, only about 3 channels are clear enough to watch. None were things I would have watched though. SO I called and they will send someone out to verify I don’t have TV and stop the billing. Of course, NOW I’m thinking that in a few months I may WANT TV again and they may charge to come out and hook it up… I don’t know, it is something like $15 a month (.50 a day), but I still think I’ll get the business running faster if I don’t have that distraction around. I have plenty of videotapes (from many years ago) that I can watch in the meantime.

As an aside, I think I saw a whale breach the other day. A splash that big could have only been a whale. I was 2 miles up the mountain so I can’t be sure, but it IS that time of year

I have also had two separate visitors from my konaweb.com group stop by to see the farm and a third person arrives on the 4th (the same day the cable company checks my line). For someone out in the boonies, I sure seem to be a stop on the tour, don’t I?

AS you know if you have been following along the many months, I took an early retirement and my savings are getting quite low. My house in Georgia FINALLY went on the market and I hope to have my two cars up for sale back there in a few days. In the meantime I’m pinching pennies. I also am pushing to get the website ready to sell coffee and make a few dollars.

Along those lines, I have an opportunity to continue what I was doing years ago, supporting PC’s office technology like LAN’s and printers, etc. I can actually get paid for that! Of course, that is the LAST THING that I wanted to do here in Hawaii, but the money will help tide me over. It also means that I’ll have to buy another pair of long dress pants (something that goes well with a nice dress Hawaiian shirt :-). Sigh, I guess it could be worse, I could be getting dressed up somewhere OTHER that Paradise…

I’ve completed a few minor repairs around the farm here, but the big repairs will wait for me to actually own it.

I’m making great progress on the website and just installed the code to handle all of the “discount coupons) I handed out over the past year. If I want I can implement gift certificates and vouchers, but will probably hold off for now.

The new Printer is contacting another Printer to get higher resolution artwork and I’m in the middle of all of the emails. I’m trying to get them to contact each other. I need a scale and some shipping cartons, the credit card interface and a few other things and I’m off and running.

Stay tuned….. (as if you could tear yourself away from another THRILL-PACKED adventure???)