Friendly Neighbors and the Coffee Drinker

A friend posted this Meme on Facebook. It made me laugh a little and also feel a little sheepish. I wrote a reply comment which is actually (almost) 100% a truth of my life:

      I wake up in the breaking-dawn morning, make coffee, and if the weather permits, I will go sit on the porch and breath in the new day. I will sit there and sip coffee, read a book, or a newspaper in the quiet solitude of the apartment complex. Sure, from time to time someone will walk by on their way to work, and we might nod to each other, or might not. I am happy with my coffee, or my tea, with my book, and with myself, alone. 

    After oftentimes hours of sitting in peace, someone will walk by, sometimes alone, sometimes with their dog, and will come over close to me and say, "Good morning! How are you? Is that book any good?"

    I mumble a reply and smile, hoping they will go away soon. They usually do. If they have a big dog, I will say my usual lame joke about it needing a saddle. We chuckle, and they leave. 

    I go back into my apartment, shut the door, and grumble, "They never leave me alone! I can't get a moment of peace. I need to move to a secluded farm! Damned people!" 

Heh heh heh

Yeah. That's me in a nutshell. 

Best regards,

M.W. Van Dyke

Broken Teeth and Broken Promises

    So. The MOBILE Dental Service I just set up with and had my first appointment with last Tuesday posted a notice on their Facebook page that they are now going to be stationary at one location in Louisville starting on 8/1/22. They don't come to you; you go to them - except on a reviewed case-by-case basis.

    Since last Tuesday, I've been calling the number provided by the mobile dental hygienist to schedule my next dental appointment (and to get that bad front tooth extracted); I waited a long time in hold queues and left several messages. No one ever called me back. I was starting to get annoyed because it was appearing that I was being *ghosted*. 

    I could have gone to an urgent care dental place if they were not going to follow up with me after the Tuesday appointment. I *needed* that tooth addressed.

    Well... that notice was "noticed" by me too late in the day and the other dental office I was considering was already closed for the weekend. That frustrated me to no end. 

    

    Long story short, the loose and descended tooth is out. I helped it leave the nest. I am now an official front-toothless Kentucky resident - something I never thought I would be. *sighs*

    Ah well. Once everything heals up, I will get an appointment with a different dental practice. I see no reason to use a mobile dental practice that isn't... mobile. 

***

    The weekend passed by and today is Monday. At 9:00am a voice call and a text message came in on my cellphone. Another call came in on my home line at around the same time; I did not answer the phone calls in time, so they went to voicemail. When I checked the messages, the calls/messages were from the MOBILE Dentist Service - the one that *ghosted* me all last week when I was repeatedly attempting to schedule the tooth extraction and follow up appointment.

    It seems that they set me up for an appointment for the tooth extraction and follow-up TODAY, at 4:00pm (rush hour traffic), in downtown Louisville, at a location that is an industrial warehouse.

On top of that, we are having major storms roll into the area today.

    No return calls, no text messages or e-mails, no call notifying me that they won't be coming here, I must go there; Just suddenly out-of-the-blue, "Your appointment is today."

Err. No thank you. I declined. I didn't call them back on the phone, I responded to the text message that said to reply with a Yes or No to confirm or cancel the appointment. I replied "NO".

I was nice about it. What I really wanted to type was "F*** No!"

    I would not go to the place shown in the photo below even if it was just up the street from my house. The first thought that came to my mind when I looked up the address and saw the building was, this is a place where they steal your kidney, and you wake up in a bathtub with ice around you - with this note pinned on your shirt: "Go to the hospital now!"

Sheeeeesh and sheeeeet!

Bleh

Crazy.