177:garlic, doritos, and black coffee

My disdain for the dentist has been well documented. My battle with the hygienist who I bit when I was 10, and who in the subsequent 25 years later has reminded me that I bit her,
has been well documented. My normal routine of garlic, Doritos, and a large black coffee before my visits has been my subtle rebellion and my way of leveling the playing field. If you’re gonna jam me, at least you can work in a place that smells like death.

My latest dental visit was no exception. I went to the dentist for my 4:00 appointment, as advised by my wife. Only there was some sort of communication error. My appointment was not the day I had arrived, but for the next day.

Shocked at this scheduling gaff, I tell the woman at the head desk, I’ll have to reschedule. She says, “you know I bet we could squeeze you in” So here I am with my garlic, Dorito, coffee breath, full on ready for battle with the hygienist who has tortured me since I bit her when I was ten, and now they are going to squeeze me in. I feel a rush of blush in the face. I repay their kindness and flexibility with death breath. Beautiful.

Sure enough, the receptionist finds a hygienist who can help me , despite my appointment being the next day. The hygienist is cute and nice! Not that I’m in the market, but here I am with breath smelling like a garbage dump, and a kindly, cute hygienist, who by all rights would be on her way home, is staying late to help out my now disgustingly smelling mouth. I admit I felt a bit embarrassed.

I sat quietly and had my teeth cleaned, all the while knowing how bad my breath must have smelled. Perhaps I need to adopt a different attitude toward my dental visits in the future.

The weekend did not progress as expected. Layla became very ill Friday, projectile vomiting and shooting shit across the room. Additionally, her BM was covered in blood. Needless to say we were quite concerned.

1:30 am Saturday morning, we read our credit card number to the folks at the emergency vet, and the better part of 1,500 clams was gone. Ouchie. Late Saturday evening we picked her up. The doctor's were unable to determine the cause of our poor pups illness, but stabilized her, and gave her IV fluids as she had become very dehydrated. Saturday night was a rough one as I was up and down checking on her, and taking her out, just in case she might get explosive diarrhea again. Layla, who is generally very energetic and frankly spastic, is still a little lethargic, but looking much better. Thankfully she is looking up.

Grass track has been the secret focus of my entire season. Today I had a pretty good day. The efforts were all a bit longer as (i)Paul was feeling extra mean, and 8-9 lap efforts were the norm.

In the final event of the day we had a pretty horrific crash as Epi rolled a tubular, and slid out, as JAY-Z hit him at full speed launching himself into orbit. Re-entering the atmosphere is always tougher than the launch, or so I here. As the race was a handicap race, the lead group had no idea of the crash, and plowed into the two downed riders at full speed. It looked ugly, Epi's bike looked uglier, but JayZ took the worst of it with a broken arm. Ouch, that totally sucks. Jay would continue to do his 4 lap ITT, putting up his best time of the year, with what turned out to be a broken elbow.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Anne Rock won that event.

Noah took some video of my barrier work. I'm not getting back on the bike as smoothly as I'd like, feel like I'm taking too many steps. Hopefully I can get this worked out a bit better...

Finally, I have always been a huge fan of the Challenge clinchers. When I say that Jan usually follows up with a comment like, "how many flats did you have last year?" To answer that question I had four, four flats last year. So like the time I finally had to give up my "members only jacket" I have had a set of tubular wheels built up. They are Rick built wheels, and as always, he did a phenomenal job.

Grass track was my first effort on said tubular wheel set. Wow, this is how the other half lives !? You mean to tell me the world isn't flat!? Who knew?

90% of the DCCoD is who knew, as I think I was the last clincher hold out. Really wow.

be safe out there kids.

respect.

faticus