Wisdom and a funny holiday

The Surgery Last Friday, I trooped to my Dentist's clinic (surgery) to have my wisdom tooth extracted. Dr Toledo, my dentist, was a petite lady with pleasing manners. She explained to me the details of the operations, how complicated it was and how long it would take. And she also said she would be assisting another dentist who will be doing the procedure. I was a bit worried but this soon disappeared since I reasoned out that the other dentist was probably her seasoned mentor, with deep lore in care and extraction of teeth. Within a few minutes I was seated at the chair and being readied for the operation. My dentist was checking the teeth near the wisdom teeth and discovered something. "The tooth next to the wisdom tooth has abscess", my dentist said Oh-Uh, I said to myself, more expenses. According to her I could have it undergo root canal treatment or have it removed. I ask her which was cheaper? A few minutes later she was removing my tooth. Of course there were other factors that prompted me to have the tooth removed. One was it might ease the extraction of the wisdom tooth. A space in front of the wisdom tooth would give more room for the dentist to extract said wisdom tooth. Of course it was also cheaper. It did help in the extraction of that wisdom tooth. They did not have to make a big incision or cut bone in order to extract the tooth. All of this was done of course in the background of Regine Velasquez music and the chatting of the two dentists, who it turns out were batchmates. At one point the CD jumped and skipped, breaking the mood in the clinic. In between the extraction and the chatting, my gums were injected with local anesthesia. Interesting things about dentists when they operate they love to chat about small things. Problems with the local dental association and the life of their fellow-dentists.The only time they were silent was when something critical was done. This was how I monitored the progress of my operation. Chatting, everything was fine. Silence (except for the mood music) things were critical. At least it did not turn into a scene from the Marathon Man. With the dentist talking in a German accent asking,"Is it safe?". No thankfully nothing like that. For those who have watched this thrilller you will understand what I mean and we are probably of the same age. The operation ended an hour after noon. I did not feel much pain, thanks the liberal injections of local anaesthesia. I wonder does any dentist still use laughing gas. One fourth of my face though felt nothing for hours. I proceeded home stopping by the drugstore to buy medicine and ice cream, my dentist advised me not to eat anything hot. This is the upside of having one's tooth taken out( a plus side quite similar to having one's tonsils taken out also). The rest of the week was devoted to leisurely rest with welcomed interuptions from time to time by my nephews. One friend wanted to visit, but advised him not to. This particular friend has this odd way of appearing at the house and inspite of good intentions ends up aggravating the person he is visiting with his smirk and a bedside manner of a member of the Spanish Inquisition. Fortunately, he did not appear. The beauty of life's little blessings. While resting did a couple of things. I organised some of my stuff. Watched a couple of DVDs and a few programs. Re-read a book on photography. And watched the film Valiant with my nephews. Wisdom tooth or the third molar is called such because it appears between the age of eighteen and twenty, the age when one is supposed to be more wise than as a child, when the first set of teeth appear. And an office mate told me that when one is laid seiged to by one's wisdom teeth one gets a gem of wisdom for each wisdom tooth attack. Epiphanies, epiphany: noun, a sudden realization, during the weekend: Never rely on government announcements During the weekend Malacanang announced, re-announced and made a mess of things with the holiday. Is it? Is it not? Public holiday? Public Holiday except for those working in private companies. I hope Malacanang learns from this tale from Aesop. The Man and His Two Wives Pundits and Columnists like most of us are prone to philosophical myopia. One newspaper columnist, who I respected and still respect, wrote about his optimism with the young political leaders and how different they can be from the old political leaders. I think this is one case where his romantic notions of politics and hate for the present leaders have severly impaired his otherwise astute reasoning skills. Not that the old political leaders are as ideal as the young leaders but rather the young political leaders are as corrupt given time. The Fox and the Lion Money the fleeting asset The most immediate ephipheny I gained was the fleeting nature of money, wisdom tooth extraction costs money. And they still have to extract two more wisdom teeth from me. As Dr Zachary Smith said so often"Oh the agony!".

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It nice to back even if it today is a public holiday for everyone except those working for private companies.