Posts made by surreality

@Aria Yeah, I wish I had known about the place you're describing at the time.

To give you an idea of the level of fuckup that was common: "Oh, we forgot to take a mold for your crown before we drilled this tooth off, that's OK, though, we can just carve out the tooth above it to fit later!" Yes, let's get rid of huge chunks of the bottom and core of a healthy tooth because of this oversight, that'll be fiiiiiiiiine.

(The whole front of that tooth shattered off last month because of this. Clearly, this is fiiiiiiiiiine.)

@Aria We tried one of the teaching dentistry places -- the one at the local hospital which is supposedly best in the state. It's a huge part of why we're in this mess. I had fillings fall out the same day they put them in and have permanent nerve damage to my lower face from one appointment. They did a spectacularly horrible job. Don't ever, ever, ever go to the one at the hospital in Wilmington if you can help it. Ever.

...one of these days, I will manage to do something right. Am tired of feeling like that's probably not true.

@Shaggy Empathy hug sent. There are more than a few people here in a similar position. I have to have a full extraction some time soon for implant hell, and when I mentioned this, a lot of folks came forward to describe similar things. So it isn't just you, or me, or them. It's a thing.

Someone who knew about this tried to throw it in my face recently to cause as much emotional harm as possible, but ultimately, all they did was prove how ugly they are inside, which far surpasses me inside or out, even with 'broken ass teeth'. Your wife deserves all the hugs, and is clearly made of awesome.

FWIW: If you have never been to an oral surgeon vs. a dentist for an extraction, typically, the oral surgeon is going to do it faster, less painfully, and much less expensively.

It seems counterintuitive, but with hell teeth and going through this more than once, I have found this to be consistently true, and insurance covers neither for me.

Dentist: $450
OS: $180

YEAH. Big difference.

(That said, our dentist is nnngh on overcharging for all the things, but still.)

Having given it much thought, I know what my ideal ending would be.

***It will never, ever happen, and yet.***

@Admiral It was the Shang mention, wasn't it. (And yet, on Shang, it wasn't that... )

I... you know, I realize that 'this reminds me of a thing that happened on Shang' is maybe my own tragic trope by now, but this reminds me of a thing that happened on Shang and I'm so, so very sorry. I'd share the story and related desc in all its dubious splendor if it wasn't rotting on the hard drive of a computer that hasn't even been plugged in for about a decade now.

...so glad I'm too old for most of this shit to reside in the memory banks. For like, the very first time, I'm super glad I'm too old for a thing.

A new feel, thanks to MSB. Thanks, MSB... I think.

@Meg All the hugs, Meg. You do what you need for you. No snark, just a lot of 'I know how that feels, it's a sucky feel, and I hope you feel a million times better soon'.

@Ghost You can't. Trust me, I've spent years trying. It sortakinda maybe works but doesn't really at all in any useful way.

@Dreampipe

@Ghost That's a more valid approach, and I think could be interesting.

Though, really... setting up a wiki with tabs or collapsible sections to denote which info is available and to whom is relatively trivial. I've even considering laying out something like this for the project that's been on hold for about a year, roughly cribbed from the way the various WoD books handle 'how this group sees group B' and so on.

Mediawiki presently won't let you prevent the PLAYER from seeing this information, but it can be tucked away so that only public information is available, front-facing at a skim.

Then you just have tabs or collapsibles for things like 'this is how Vampires know Jane and what she thinks of them', 'this is how this Werewolf tribe sees Jane and what she thinks of them', and so on. That's easy and I'm sorta surprised it's not something I've seen before, but ah, well.

@Sparks He doesn't go out much (unless it's to movies where he'd have to turn it off anyway), and it very not-active.

Though if this was all a thing decades ago? He would have had to. He used to travel all the time for work, often enough on somewhat short notice. (Sportswriter for the local paper, sometimes got sent along from there upstream to Gannett.) We used to have to dance around when we could use the phone because the suction-cup style travel modem (still filled half a dang briefcase) would be skree-tweeping through a text file for the paper for three hours at a go.

Any time he looks at my mother's, my husband's, or my phone, ohhhhh, do his eyes ever narrow after decades of carrying around all that gear all over the dang country. The hmmph-squint factor is hysterical, though I can't say I blame him one bit.

It's something of a shame none of us knew there was a 'computer museum' (there may not have been, depending on how old the one I know of is) when they moved from our old house to the one they're in now, and tossed it all. Some of it probably could have been donated (and then they could have thrown it out, most likely, but still). I know I've never seen a modem like the one he used most often in any of the pictures of them that are around, and there are very few pictures of them from that era as it is, let alone the actual things! I remember him being so angry the year they upgraded it on him with a new, faster replacement, because it meant... we had to have at least one touch-tone phone in the house. Previously, they'd all been rotary, and it used to cost extra to have a touch-tone here.

@Sparks I actually have only had mine (still on the verra first one) for about... 3 years now? I work from home, don't have a car, don't get out much. I'm not agoraphobic but I go out so rarely (yay light sensitivity, but also just not needing to as often as the average person) I am never surprised when people have wondered.

We ended up getting it since we do travel once a year (and sometimes do an idle day trip here or there) and after a few too many rounds of puttering around for 4 hours while person A went off in search of person D and person B is running all over like a frantic toddler on a sugar binge, it was decided we should all have phones.

Except my father. He refuses. "If I am out, do not bother me. I'm usually out because I don't want to be bothered!" His old coot-ness is coming along swimmingly.

@Rinel Many thanks.

@Ghost My folks still have a landline, as do I. Those numbers I know, since... my folks' number is the one I grew up with as a kid. Mine was 'my maternal grandmother's number' since I was 7 or 8. Mine is also especially mnemonic; it's a multiplication table going down the line for the second half. I meeeeeeaaaaannnnn...

We still use the landlines more, because I am pretty much always here and it's still hit or miss if I even remember to take the mobile with me unless we're going to be out a while. I use it for messages and such more than calls. The only people who have the number are a few gaming friends, my huband, and my folks. Anyone and anything else is spam or people calling (so insistently forever) for the person who had the number previously. (Casey, your friends are assholes who love you a whole lot. Or you owe them lots of money. I don't care which.)

@Ghost I couldn't tell you my mobile phone number if there was a gun to my head.

@Ghost Oh, I'm sure. Long before that, even. But damn if that wasn't a moment of likely 'my, don't we feel a bit awkward about that design reference all of a sudden'.

@Rinel I may request to pick your brain about the laser thing later in the year if you're amenable. There are some reasons I may want to look into it also, and money is... yeah, exactly. I alternately hear I'm 'totally the best!' candidate and 'totally the worst!' and that's nnngh, but on top it's like... yeah, that shit sounds like it hurts. But so does hair so fucking coarse it very literally cuts my 'zomg fabric touched me I'mma flip out now!' skin. So... augh.