The Dentist, The Devil, and Ethics

Did you all know that the number one occupation among serial killers is dentist? That's what I once read. OK, been so busy with caregiving that I let me teeth go. As part of getting in optimium health, dentistry has to be included in the plan. I'm really doing well on my three step plan to find someone to share my life with. Get healthy, get fit, get out there. The first one is almost there. I do now have twelve more pounds to lose to get at my high school weight. A lot less then the 44 I had at the beginning of my plan. I am off several of the medications that I was on, reduced a lot of the others, and will eventually arrive at the place where I am off all medication. Things are going great. I decided to go head to head against my fear of dentists. Scheduled an appointment for Monday. Of course what happened could only happen to me. I had a deep cleaning Monday. Because of some problems they run into they only did half my mouth and scheduled another appointment for yesterday. Monday was easier than I thought. I did really well in the dental chair. UNTIL The next morning when I woke up and my mouth was swollen. I called the dentist and they said that just isn't normal. They had me come back in on Tuesday to look it over. There first guess was a latex infection. Nope wasn't that. Thank goodness they discovered that before they gave me a medication that the way things were going I'd probably would have had a reaction to. They said put some ice on it and when you come in for your appointment tomorrow we will check it again. Wednesday I went in for the appointment, the swelling was way down. They looked at again and they deterimined it was a bite. My Monday appointment was at 11 and as soon as it was over I was starved so I ate lunch before the novicaine wore off. As part of eating with a dead mouth I bit myself. Only me. Yesterday's appointment went well. This morning everything looks as abnormal as it did before the appointment.

The last three days besides the dentist I have also been dealing with the devil. The devil's name is Verizon. I hope those idiots are reading this post because they without a doubt are one of the worst companies on the planet as far as customer service goes. They would have to improve to stink at customer service. Think I'm upset? I'm only starting. We decided to hook up a land line in mom's apartment at C. Springs. Monday I called to set up the phone. First they have a phone system with four hundred and fifty choices and none of them have to do with ordering new service. They start out by asking if the number you are calling about is the one that you called them on. Then if you answer no they ask what number you are calling about. How do I know what freaking number that I am calling about, it hasn't been set up yet? I finally figured out if I hit the o key four times it takes me to a breathing person. So I did that. Got a really nice lady that took my order and said they would be out to set up the phone between 8 and 10 Tuesday morning. I went out there to be at mom's apartment when they came. At 10:30 they still hadn't got there, I had the pleasure of going through Verizon's menu from hell again. Finally got another breathing person. They said they dispatched somebody at 10 and they would be out within the hour. When they hadn't shown up by two, I went through the Verizon menu from hell again and got another live person. This one told me that Mom's phone was never scheduled to be set up on Tuesday but it was scheduled for Wednesday. When I politely asked why then had they told me six different times that it was scheduled for Tuesday and why if it was scheduled for Wednesday had they told me thay had dispatched someone on Tuesday the response I got was "What do you want me to tell you?". You idiot I want you to tell me when the phone is going to be working. It is now Thursday morning and mom's phone still isn't working. I called the Verizon menu from hell again yesterday afternoon and after getting to a breathing person was told they had hooked the phone up but there was trouble on the line and it would cost two hundred dollars for them to come out and fix it. Instead I called a friend who has a small phone repair company. He came out and said the line was so screwed up that he couldn't do anything. He called the Verizon repair office directly and told them what they had to do. Verizon said they will be out between 8 and 6 today to fix the phone at no cost. I do wonder, however, if when they come out to fix the phone they will have enough freaking brains to go the apartment and make sure the phone is working before they leave. They never had that many brains before on their supposed previous trips to C. Springs. I sincerely hope mom's phone is working sometime today. Oh and by the way the people at C. Springs said several other residents have had the same problem with Verizon. Being incompetent must be contagious. Verizon can threaten to sue me if they want but I'm not removing this post, they deserve every word.

Ethics is what I was learning about yesterday. Us accoutants are required to take a four hour course in ethics every two years. The only course that fit my schedule was in Corvallis a little city about ninety minutes from my home base. Course starts at 8:3o so I had to be on the road early. They actually take attendance at these things before they hand out verification that we attended. Following my flexible ethics after they handed out the verification after the 10:15 break, I left and came home to get ready for the dentist.

That has been my week. How has yours been?