Monthly Archive for June, 2011

Page 7 of 7

Continuing the Conquest of Cramming Crap in Costa Rica Container

Published on June 2, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 4 Comments Tags: .

Box #221 was added to the manifest this morning and stacked up in the garage ready for our forty foot shipping container to arrive prior to moving our crap to Costa Rica.

Still no confirmation from the woman who is in charge of our shipping container. This is the same women who prides herself on her great communication skills.

I understand the business of Tico Time: Everything moves slowly in Costa Rica. But I’m still on Gringo Time. Nancy is frantically loading boxes and I’m sealing, inventorying and stacking them. The last time I heard (May 5) our contact wrote:

I should think June 28 would work well.

Should work? How about WILL work?  (I thought to myself.)

Then nothing for two weeks.  I expressed my chagrin that I hadn’t heard from her she was very apologetic

And, truly, apologies for leaving you hanging.  (This is normally my real strength – communication! — so it’s so out-of-character for me to be behind in this regard!)

What should I do because it’s happening again? Her strength is communication. This is out of character. Maybe she has been eaten by a bug? I should feel sorry for her?

If I was Steven Tyler, I wouldn’t have this problem.

There are three shippers that specialize in Costa Rica. One didn’t respond at all to my emails, and the second is very slow… our choices are somewhat limited and time is winding down. I won’t have a place to live come July 1.

I explained to her that I’m being a nervous-nelly – but only because I. HAVE. NEVER. DONE. THIS. BEFORE.

And this morning this showed up in my inbox:

UPDATE: The power of blogs. I had just posted this when I got an email response. She in fact HAD emailed me on Monday and I did not get it (and I did check my spam folder.) This does nothing for my confidence that future communication from Costa Rica to the rest of the world will be good.

Pura Vida.

Tori Tori Tori: “That’s Some Mouth You Got Mark”

Published on June 1, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments Tags: , .

“That’s some mouth you got Mark,” Dr. Blevins said throwing up his hands.

He was giving up on my mouth. He said to take my mouth and go to Costa Rica and see if I could find a dentist down there to replace my crown.

I have tori mandibular.

A Torus on each side of my palate. Two torus = tori.

See A & B above, Tori, Tori! (tongue is lifted for illustration purposes.)

I lost a crown a year ago and since it didn’t hurt I didn’t bother to have it replaced. At the next check up with Dr. Blevins, he said I should have the crown replaced because the tooth could decay. If I still had the one that came off, he could just glue it back.

Well damn the luck. I knew the tooth laid around on the bathroom counter for months. Who knew that it was actually recyclable? I’m pretty sure I threw it away.

Dr. Blevins said he would make a new mold and have another crown made and fix it.  Three molds later, he has given up.

Ever had a crown? You know that nasty tasting junk they shove in the tray to make an impression? Because of my torus mandibularis my mouth gives them a bad impression if they use a tray.

Mouth. Bad impression. Heard that before!

In order to try to get a good impression out of my mouth, Holly, the dental tech, just shoved a gob of that dental play dough in my pie hole.

Three times.

Three times she sent the mold to where-crowns-are-made. Three times they sent back a crown. Three times Dr. Blevins attempted to conquer my Tori! Tori! Tori!

Fail.

Fail.

Fail.

My torus mandibularis had beaten Dr. Blevins at his game.

My mouth has been known to send some adults away, but for sure, when I show a kid my torus mandibularis I get a great reaction.

First there is the recoil in disgust and then there is the fascination with “those things.”

  • Do they hurt?

Nope, they are just like my gums to me.

  • Will they get bigger?

Yes, but they took a life-time to get this big, so I  won’t have tusks as I age.

  • What’s it feel like?

This is the hardest. This is my normal mouth. Since I never had a mouth without torus mandibularis, I don’t know any different.  It’s my normal, which is abnormal.  Heard that before too.

  • Does food get caught?

OMG, yes. Good lord there is nothing worse than getting a kernel of popcorn lodged down there. The only way to get it out is to swish it out.

Letter C represents my retirement fund. Silver is on the rise and my mouth is getting more valuable by the minute. Just hope the torus mandibularis don’t grow over my estate.

When the heirs gather around and my will is read, I want them to think good thoughts when the lawyer says, “That’s some mouth Mark has.”