Things that make you go hmmm.: June 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

Dentist Difficulties

I had to go to the dentist last week and will go again this week for some under the gum scraping. Oh joy. Yes, I have gum problems. Apparently not only has my hair line receded (all the way to the back of my head) but my gums are also receding. Actually they have been for years, but in the last few years it has gotten noticeably worse. I do a very good job with brushing, flossing, and other procedures but it hasn't stopped the receding and now they are taking more agressive action by going under the gums and cleaning/scraping. I have had this done before several years ago and it is not a pleasant experience.

Anyway, back to the point of my post. Do you have the same difficulties that I have when you go to the dentist? I'm not talking about the cleaning and other procedures they do that can be so dreadful, but the other "social" difficulties that occur. It never fails, the dentist or hygienist or other assistants always will ask you a question when they have their dental instruments stuck in your mouth. Don't they know it is impossible to reply when they are pushing your tongue away from your teeth where they are cleaning, drilling, or scraping? Actually you are able to reply, but never intelligently. It sounds more like the-tha-thu-thu. Or you figure you can wait until the next time they stop working and give them a more complete answer, but by then they have already gone on to the next topic so you don't say anything. It can be a little easier when they ask you a yes or no question and you can say ah-hum or uh-uh, and hopefully they can understand your grunterance esp. if it is in dealing with whatever procedure they are doing. The other problem is that you are usually lying down past horizontal and it can be very difficult to be cordial in that situation. Usually it is when the hygienist is working on your teeth and the dentist comes up to do the quick check to justify that you have actually "seen the dentist" and he will greet you from behind and you try to find him from where his voice is coming from upside down. He may then come around and extend his hand. Maybe he is wanting to shake your hand, maybe not but you try to reach up and hopefully you are lucky and can give him a firm handshake and not the wimpy one that us guys hate when that happens. Or is that just me? I hate to shake another guys hand and not get your hand in there firmly before they grab yours and you end up having them shake your fingers and you feel like you all of a sudden have lace on your shorts. Anyway, then when they are finished they sit you up and as you stand you are a little dizzy and at least a bit disoriented. Of course, this is the time that they are telling you all the instructions for you to take care of your teeth in between cleanings or explaining that you have to come back for under the gum scraping etc. All the important things that it is good for you to pay attention to, but for which you only half way get because you were just laying down with your head lower than your feet for about an hour. This is also the time when they have you swish that nasty fluoride wash for 3o seconds twice. Do you have to do that? It is awful. My vote for the worse part of the whole dentist experience. It tastes awful and you want to just keep spitting and you can't drink or eat for 30 minutes afterward and you get this upset stomach feeling and even when you can eat, nothing tastes good.

What are your dentist difficulties? Do you share any of these or is it just me? I didn't get into the whole worrying about your breath smelling bad or even worse when the dentist's breath is really bad. Fortunately, they have to wear the surgical mask now adays so I haven't had this experience in awhile. : )

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Moon Size: Big to Small

Have you ever commented on how big the moon looks at different times esp.

when it is closer to the horizon and then just an hour or so later you look again and it looks smaller? Why does it look smaller when not much time has past? Is it really further away? It may just be all a matter of our perception in relation to familiar objects like trees (like in this picture) or buildings. Maybe you saw this article on MSN yesterday about this subject from Bill Nye the Science Guy. Check it out. You can do a test by marking the size of the moon on a piece of paper and then mark it again a few hours later and although it appears smaller, the marks on the paper show that the moon will be the same size.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Talking a mile a minute

Do you know people like this? People who have the communication skills to "talk a mile a minute". My wife is one of these types. It is quite impressive how her brain can work so fast to a. be able to speak and add something to a conversation; 3. be able to keep up as the conversation quickly goes from one subject to another; and d. be able to listen to what the other is saying while thinking about what she is going to say next. Sometimes when my wife is talking to one of her friends like this, I try to keep up and just when I am about to add something to the conversation, I realize they are already on to the next topic. I admit that I talk pretty slow and it usually takes me awhile to get something out, but the way these ladies do it is pretty amazing. I say "ladies" as a stereotype because that has been my experience. Not too many guys have these kind of skills. Usually these are instances when I gladly will divert my attention to keeping the kids in line or something else just so I don't stand there with a blank look on my face as I try to keep up with the conversation.

This is often the case when trying to leave after church. My wife and I will often go together to pick the kids up from their class, but it usually ends up with me and the kids waiting for Mom in the foyer as she is stopped several times on the way. In between the worship service and Sunday School, I usually try to wait for my wife until I remember that it is a wasted effort as she stops for several of these conversations along the way, so I end up just going on. I think this might be a common thing for guys as one of my fellow church-going friends said it best that we ought to come up with some tool similar to blinders for a horse to lead them out of the church in a straight line to the car. I guess this shows I need to work on the area of fellowship a little more.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Flag Day

Did you know today is Flag Day? Do you even know what Flag Day is? Or why it is observed annually on June 14th? It is an annual observance in the United States to celebrate the national flag. June 14th is the anniversary of the official adoption of the American flag by the Continental Congress in 1777. According to this article, the first Flag Day may have been back in 1885 when a Wisconsin schoolteacher celebrated June 14th as "Flag Birthday". President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first nationwide flag day in 1916, and in 1947, Harry Truman signed legislation for Flag Day to be observed annually.

Do you recognize or celebrate Flag Day in any way? Growing up, we usually celebrated it in a round about way since one of my family member's birthday is on June 14th. The cake and/or decorations would often incorporate the American flag in some way. Sadly, sometimes we don't recognize this day until we see someone with a flag being flown and we wonder why and then remember, oh yeah today is Flag Day.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

More of kids say the funniest things

I have a few more funny things my 3 yr. old said recently.

For some reason we were talking about money or earning it or something and our little one says "I have some money" referring to some dollars she got for her birthday awhile back from relatives. We have tried to stress the importance of tithing, esp. to our 7 yr. old recently on the small allowance money he earns and we often will give our 3 yr. old some coins to "give to Jesus". We proudly hear her proclaim "I want to give my money to God". Then she says "you know, in one of those cantelopes" referring to the little offering envelopes.

We were out in the backyard the other evening and I was tired and ready to go in. Our 3 yr. old says "Daddy, you have to come swing Ma-Lisa on the rope swing". Now this is her favorite of the recurring imaginary friend names that she uses. I am spelling the name like she says it. It is not Melissa. She will call some of her dolls this name and sometimes an invisible little friend like in this instance. Being tired, I tried to get out of it saying "Ma-Lisa doesn't really want to swing, she's ready to go in." In order to avoid the little fit she was about to throw, I agreed and went over to push the rope swing. I played along and said things like "wow, Ma-Lisa is having fun" etc. The next time I pushed the swing, I pushed it too far and it almost hit the frame of the play set so I said "Whoa, I almost knocked Ma-Lisa off". She looks at me like I'm nuts and says "she's not really real". Of course five minutes later as we are going in, she hands me two imaginary friends to take inside and says "Ma-Lisa and Joshua are ready to go in now".

Our 3 yr. old disappeared for a few minutes and then came in the living room with a little piece of paper that she had scribbled two splotches on and shows her mom. My wife says what's this? She says "it's thhhhppffff and thhhhppffff", making the little toot noise with her tongue sticking out and blowing.

Monday, June 12, 2006

New roof in a can

We get random junkmail faxes at my work all the time. If I walk by the fax and notice something came through, I check it and deliver to the appropriate person, or trash can in the case of the junk ones. This time, I read the fax and had to laugh. It's an advertisement for Aerosol Instant Roof Patch. "Spray it on, walk away... you're done! No more leaks!" This product may actually work, but sure sounds fishy to me. All I could think of was telling someone that you just got a new roof... and it came in a can.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Kids say the funniest (strangest) things

We really should start writing down or recording some of the funny things our kids say. They always make us crack up, then it seems we forget about them when trying to recall these random bits when telling someone how cute our kids are. Also, they are usually instances where "you had to be there" for it to be really funny. Anyway, here are a couple of these that I remember that our 7 and 3 yr. old said recently.

When eating at a KFC recently, our 3 yr. old pointed to her chicken and said "what is this?" pointing to an indistinguishable piece of chicken that comes on the cheap meal plate. My wife said "chicken parts" and right away and in all seriousness, our 7 yr. old questions "chicken farts?". We all start laughing with everyone in the restaurant looking at us.

Last night I took the kids to Wendy's (I guess we've been eating out too much this week) while Mom is getting her hair done. We observe a family with 4 wild children come in and go to the counter to order. The dad is dressed in a tie and looks like he just got off work and is pretty much just staring at his kid's as they crawl all over the line divider railing and making all kinds of noise. The mom is trying to order and finally whips around and with a very angry tone and angry face to match yells at one of her kids "I told you to stop it, now go sit down!!" where everyone could hear. My 7 yr. old and I look at each other with expressions of "Whoa!!" on our faces and then he says "that sounded just like you or Mom when you yell at ___ 3 yr. old when she is acting up".
Nice. Nothing like thinking how terrible this mom sounded and then have your 7 yr. old compare you to this "bad parent".

While driving home from Wendy's, the 3 yr. old says "I want to tell Mommy about where we ate" or something like that and I say that she won't be home for awhile because she is getting her hair colored (actually highlighted, but I said colored). A moment of silence, then she says "what color is she going to get?" I chuckle and say it will be the same color just a little brighter. I later found out she was thinking pink or purple would be nice. When Mom got home, our 3 yr. old greets her at the door and says "I like your bright hair".

The other day as I was bending over brushing our 3 yr. old's teeth, she is looking up at me and says "when you get older are you going to have hair all over your face?" Now I am clean-shaven but think maybe she is confused since she has seen me with a few days growth before so I say no, I won't have any more hair on my face than I have now. She then says so you won't be like that guy we saw on TV that had hair all over his face. I then realize she is referring to a documentary we watched briefly several month's ago about people who have the genetic condition Hypertrichosis or "werewolf syndrome" where they have excessive hair growth all over including their faces. I guess our daughter must have been affected more than we thought by this show. I wonder how long she has wondered if/when her loved ones like her grandparents will begin growing hair all over their face as they get older. I explained it to her.

Now that I have typed all of this, I read back through all of this and think not only did you have to be there, but you also probably have to be their parent to really think these are funny. Oh well.

By the way, do you remember what you were doing 16 years ago today?
"I do" !!!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Funny Shoes

On our recent trip to the emergency room which I mentioned in yesterday's post, we were greeted by a staff guy who had on some pretty funny looking shoes. We later saw a nurse that had on the same kind of shoes. They are called Z-Coil shoes and look like a normal athletic or running shoe with a big coil spring in place of the heel. Check them out at the Z-Coil website. They are apparently great for pain relief and for people who are on their feet all day.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Kid's Play Revisited

In light of my last post regarding a parent's responsibility to watch their children in order to keep them safe while playing, we had an incident occur last night that goes right along with that topic. My son fell while riding his bike and tore a gash in his chin. Both my wife and I were out watching him ride his bike up and down the street and our daughter as she rode her scooter. We rushed over and helped him into the house and thought it may not be too bad as it didn't bleed too much, but looking closer we decided we better take him to the ER. Sure enough, it was pretty bad and he needed about 10 stiches with 5 internal ones to "push back in" the exposed area and 5 on the outside to seal it up. He was a real trooper and did great and even the doctor commented on how mature he was in handling this.

So what can we gather from this related to my previous post? Well, I guess a few things come to mind. It could have been a lot worse. He could have broken something. If we weren't there watching him, he may not have been able to make it inside on his own and his little sister may have not known what to do. On the other hand, it goes to show you that no matter how much you try to protect your children, there still may be things that happen that you couldn't prevent. We just need to trust God to protect them while still being responsible doing our part. We can also thank God that he wasn't injured more severely and he will be ok. I guess on the bright side, now our son will have a neat scar he can show his friends and it is not in a real prominent place. He also has something else in common with me as I got a gash on my chin when I was a kid, which is actually a somewhat humorous story. I was sitting with my brothers watching TV and I needed to go to the bathroom, but I didn't want to miss the program we were watching (probably one of the Gilligan's Island reruns). Anyway, my oldest brother said why don't you just cross your legs like this and he pulled my legs in opposite directions. I don't know if I was just startled or stupid or both but I fell off the couch hitting my chin right on our uncarpeted floor. I don't know why my arms didn't work to break my fall, maybe it was the same reason my son's arms didn't work either. : )

Friday, June 02, 2006

Kid's Play Questions

Would you let your kids (age range from 2 to 7) go out in the front yard by themselves to play? Would you say go ahead if they saw the neighbors across the street come home and ask if they could go ring on their door and ask to play? Would you not even check on them for over an hour until they come home and then not even thank the neighbor for watching your kids? We don't, but our neighbors do all of these. We figure that in the world we live in today that we can't be too careful with our kids and like to know where they are at and with whom to make sure they are safe at all times. Oh sure, we are made fun of by our neighbors and have to deal with their comments about never seeing our kids, etc. Maybe our kids suffer some because we don't just let them wander the neighborhood playing, but they have a great backyard they can play in. We suffer too with feeling like we have to go with them when they go in the front to ride their bike or play with the neighbors' kids. But at least we can be more confident in their safety. Also, our kids seem to be alot more respectful of the other kids and property etc. With the way some of the other kids act, I'm not so sure I want my kids hanging around them that much anyway. What are your thoughts?

Things that make you go hmmm.