Crowned

I received a nice new, shiny gold crown yesterday.  I'm not royalty though, nor am I feeling particularly noble.  The new crown is a bit of dental work.

A couple of months ago I thought I had lost a crown.  Since the tooth didn't and between work and my presentation in Wisconsin I was way too busy, I held off on seeing the dentist about it until last R&R. 

It turned out that I hadn't lost a crown, but rather had shattered a tooth.  With a couple of fillings in it, the thing had weakened over time and eventually couldn't stand the strain.  Apparently it was pretty badly damaged, but my dentist was able to create a good base and then he placed a temporary crown while the permanent one was being made.

Of course I had to return to my place of employment, so the new one had to wait.  Meanwhile, the damned tooth ached off and on (more on than off) for a week before finally settling down.  The temporary crown held up very well, and in fact was so well seated that the Doc had to work damned hard getting it off, setting off the toothache again.

So, yesterday I dashed straight home from work and got a little nap (very little) before going into town for the new crown.  With my new shiny crown in place I did my grocery shopping, returned home, and fetched the dogs home from their boarding kennel.

I did sleep like royalty last night and well into today.  Coming off night shift really messes with my circadian rhythm.  I ate supper at the Lodge last night, came back to the house and crashed about 10 pm.  At 3 o'clock I was awake, wandering around the house like a zombie.  I got back to sleep about 4 or 4:30, and didn't drag my lazy butt out of bed until 10 o'clock.  I still have some more errands to run, so I doubt I'll run dogs today, but I do have everything set up and ready so I can do so tomorrow.  Meanwhile I need to go back to Mike's and fetch home a couple of harnesses, I need to return some phone calls while it's still business hours in parts of the Lower-48, I need to check my mail (I'm sure there are bills to pay), and then of course I have to sort through the mail, answer correspondence and all that related stuff. 

The heck of it is, it's just the middle of the day, and I'm feeling sleepy because my body still thinks I need to be asleep during the daytime and awake at night.  It'll get sorted out soon enough, I hope.  On the other hand, my tooth isn't aching at all and the crown feels pretty good. 

Mike Green brought his snow machine by and broke out my feeder trail the other day.  It's looking much better than it was before, so I'm confident I'll be able to safely run small teams of dogs.  Abbie West and some other local mushers have been up on sleds with big teams, and report the trails are in "OK" condition.  I have a couple of invitations for Christmas dinner, and I'm looking forward to visiting friends on the "big day".

Things are looking good today.