Did not brush my teeth because apparently we have terrible teeth (presumably a side-effect of our evil state
healthcare.)
Just saw this and had to mention that early on the morn[1] of 4/7/2011[1] I went to arrange a dental appointment. The first open slot was the 4th of August. (If I wanted an emergency appointment, I could have gotten one on the day, but only if calling wihin 15 minutes of the practise opening, with the apparent demand. And if I'd missed that I couldn't have gotten into an emergency slot for the following day except by calling again the next day, early on. Or so I gather from conversations that occurred within my earshot.) This is by way of being typical not for an NHS dentist (certainly wasn't typical when it
was a pure NHS dentist), but for a dental practise now owned by a private company who deigns to continue servicing NHS patients. I'm only with them because I've been with them all my life (since it was a specific dentist, since before I was even born, rather than an apparently rotating set of qualified by otherwise anonymous dentists who generally get swapped out for someone new by the time your next routine check-up time comes round), and it is reported (though I've never tried to do so) to be difficult to get a new NHS dentist, despite living about 15 miles away and having a good couple of dozen alternatives that are closer or otherwise more convenient.
So, a mixed bag review there for the NHS, which is far better (from the few times I've needed it) in non-dental medical emergency situations, but that's a completely different issue from the US obsession with perfectly aligned and bleached-white gnashers[3], that I suspect is replicated by the people over here who can afford to go the whole hog and use private healthcare to obtain the veneer of purely cosmetic treatments for themselves and their children.
Anyway, as by now you've gathered that I'm not in the States, it would be no great surprise to learn that the rest of the day I spent at work, as did more or less everyone else I know who are employed. I had already realised it was a special date from the fact that I'd been able to derive the Geohashing coordinates for Tuesday[6] since early afternoon on Friday, though took a little thought to work out why the US financial markets would have been closed on the Monday.
[1] All but the Hawaiian state-siders had passed midnight, by my reckoning. (Yes, I checked western Alaska.)
[2] That's 7/4/2011 for the less logical among you, and 20110704 for the more logical and pragmatic people out there...
[3] My own (and they
are all my own, and on the whole all there[4]) are a little less than perfectly white, have some metallic filling material hidden away in teeth in non-visible parts of my mouth, and aren't so regular[5]
[4] Except for one of my wisdoms that was removed, and another rearward tooth might cause me problems in the future.
[5] I used to open the ring pulls of cans with my teeth, but I don't think that caused more dental disturbance than just generally being bigger ones than most people with "perfect" front teeth seem to have. A salesman in a shop the other day beeamed at me with perfectly white "insectivore" teeth that were impossibly narrow, for all their aesthetici and perfect-looking nature. Like an obvious case of massive breast implants, a sign of money spent, but by no means could it ever be natural.
[6] What's more, that geohash point in my graticule was accessible (though not particularly close, so would have needed some driving), but unfortunately my time that evening wasn't free so I couldn't pursue it.
Author
Topic: how was your 4th of july? (Read 2182 times)