Quick Update: Bedtime Story and Fireworks Coming Soon 📖🧨 (Patreon)

Hey hey ✌️, everyone~! Hope you are all well, you know, the 'doing as well as possible given everything'. Me? Root canal. That's my fault. Lost a crown awhile back and something got in the way of me going to the dentist. Fear. Fear got in the way. Beat that bastard to the ground -- months after I should have -- and getting the tooth taken care of. Finally. Japanese doctors and dentists, you might have heard, really don't like giving pain meds. They hate it as a matter of fact. I've asked why and it's something about they aren't good for you and you might get addicted.

With the DVT, my leg was twice the size it should be, screaming pain, and I had to beg for a Tylenol. Not an exaggeration. And they were still pissy about it.

"Are you sure? Does it really hurt that bad? Can't you gaman (endure)?"

"My apologies but my leg is black. I'm in tears. I can't move...."

"Well, we need to contact the doctor and get his write off. "

Cue: Five hours later. "You're allowed one every twelve hours. Here you go, Big Baby." 😭 Okay, I added the Big Baby part. Put if eyes could talk...I had Julyan with nothing. No epidural, no aspirin, no bullet to bite on. Just like the cave women did it! And it's nothing to get excited or brag about because it's mostly how it's done. Or used to be done.

So that leads into dentists here, who are also notorious for not giving anesthesia. Just like the cave people did it! I flinched once getting a cavity drilled ears ago and got yelled at. BUT! This new dentist I bravely searched for and found is super neat and modern. Everything is gleaming WHITE! Nicely underwater bgm bubbly music and they even have low window in all the rooms that opens up to a small Zen-like garden. They also have a policy, No Pain! Imagine that. I mean they don't do nitrous oxide (damn) that would be too much to ask for. But he did numb the area a little before going in. So much has changed since the last time I went to a dentist (embarrassing admission there). Like, they take photos of the progress on you tooth. So everything you stop to rinse your mouth, you can look at the big screen in front of you and think: "God, my teeth are gross." But also see what he's doing. Cool!

Another interesting dentist factoid: They don't do all the work at once. They divide it into as many visits as they can. I pay like seven bucks a visit, but they need to charge my insurance and they want to do that as many times as they can. So you go once for the diagnosis. Again for the drilling. Again for more drilling. Again for taking the mould of your tooth. Again for actually putting the crown on. The first time I went in after they told me root canal, I was out in literally 15 minutes. Richard was in the waiting room and was like WTF? You done? Yup! So my next visit should be my last. 🤞

In other news, I ran into M-san neighbor the other day. She informed me the on again-off again housing development is ON again. They'll start building in September. Sad. Am still weighing the option of burying waraningyo cursed dolls in the fields. Not serious. Just a little dreamy dream. I wouldn't actually curse them. That's some bad karma there. But thinking of it as a save the frogs, insects, and nature hail Mary, I guess.

M-san also told me about a nearby festival/matsuri that was happening that day. She called it a village. Maybe it used to be, now it's just a small part of the city that is a ten or fifteen minute walk from our house. So I dragged Richard and we saw some fireworks. Boy do I not like being around a lot of people. I used to get panic attacks back in the day and I was quashing the niggling of one as we walked around. Totally overwhelmed. So we found a place a little away from people. I got some video I'll put together and put up here, so you can see and enjoy some very small matsuri vibes. I also recorded another Bedtime Story that I'll get up this week.

And finally, the photo at the top is of Buddy waddling over to see what this yellow stuff is. He's never eaten corn before. He thinks it's the best thing ever. More, please. That was cute. Niblet is doing great. So curious, so big, so goofy. I got a couple videos of his first time stuck in a downpour. I think it was raining too hard for him to fly and he was just angry about it all. Some truly unique caws going on there. Poor little lamb.Okay, I'll leave you with a photo from the back of the veranda. Gonna lose this view by the end of the year, so I'm going out daily to relish in the sunset and take a photo if it's pretty. This was a very brief break in the rain.

All my love, XO, and stay safe and well, fireworks coming soon!

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