Look, Ma, no cavities!

Just when one thinks that life can't get any more frantic, you check your voice mail and find that you and your entire family have dental checkups tomorrow. Like I remember making those appointments six months ago; I guess that's why they make reminder calls.

A few moments in the waiting room is hardly Quality Time, but I did get to chat with my two older kids for a bit. I was quite the bookworm as a lad (still am) and it was delightful to see that they both brought books. Actually, it was delightful to see my son with a book in his hands instead of earphones on his head. He had just finished Jurassic Park for the third or fourth time and expressed his annoyance that Crichton killed Ian Malcolm at the end of JP but brought him back at the beginning of The Lost World. My daughter was reading a book by Frank Peretti called Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea. I've read some of his adult Christian works such as This Present Darkness and Piercing The Darkness; I'll have to get on Amazon and find copies of both those and the other books in the "Cooper Kids Adventure Series" for her and some other Crichton books for him. No, I don't get anything if you click on the links; this is a non-profit blog. However, I buy pretty much all of my books, music, and movies on Amazon's "used marketplace" and make frequent use of Wikipedia as well, so you may consider them as having earned the Southern Man™ Seal of Approval™.

My cleaning was, for once, uneventful. I have really poor teeth and a report of no cavities (and that the one spot they were watching from last time was still OK) was a welcome surprise. Usually it seems that I don't get out of a dental checkup with less than the threat of a root canal or two. My son and his mother finished first and left, so I got to take my daughter (who was also cavity-free) home, which meant a little more Quality Time in the truck. We stopped by a place called Jamba Juice, which sells expensive but delicious fruit concoctions, for even more QT before I had to drop her off at her mom's house and head back to work.

Life is getting less lonely, and my quiet rental duplex is slowly becoming a home. I got a spur-of-the-moment invitation to lunch on Sunday after church, and may be able to meet some other friends for lunch later this week. My co-workers have been incredibly supportive. It may be that a post-divorce existence will be bearable after all. It hurts a bit that a few in our Sunday-School class (awkward as it is, we are both still attending the same class) have apparently chosen sides and are giving me the cold shoulder. I suppose there's still a lot to work through, but with God's help we will work through it one way or another.