niall_can

So I had a weird ache in my lower left-side teeth for a couple of months... was supposed to see the dentist in the winter, but the one evening I was scheduled for, we had a major snowstorm and I wasn't able to make it. So it was even later that I got it looked at, and it was basically a hole in my back lower wisdom tooth. There was a smaller one in my lower right wisdom tooth.

This is not fillable, so off they have to go.

It's one thing to get them out when 20, when the jaw is still somewhat malleable and can recover. At 50? It hurts.

Thankfully, I got lucky, in that they were willing to do it one half of the mouth at a time so I could recover more easily and chew on one side, let it heal, then do the other side. Also, they have had me as a patient for a long while so they were willing to only let me pay the part the insurance wouldn't cover, instead of the usual pay it all and insurance repays me. It's not cheap.

I went in last Thursday, and also decided to get some triazolam to not remember much of the procedure. I didn't take it early enough, and took it one at a time, so by the time it really kicked in, it was all almost over. I have few memories of the second my friend came to pick me up to get me home. Supposedly I was... entertaining.

I'm now in that annoying portion where I'm tired, so I take a nap of an hour or three, then wake up hungry because I can't have any solid food, eat, recover, and then get tired, and... sigh. Smoothies, applesauce with fruits blended in, ice cream, warm tomato soup, and now (somewhat) mashed potatoes for starch energy. I'll go back on Monday to the dentist to have them look at it. The swelling might finally be going down, but I want to make sure I didn't do anything wrong, as info for the second half...

So... we're looking at buying a car. I've never done that, not even close. My sister's information is years out of date, like 10 or so. Things are different today.

Not sure about used, but we're looking at hybrid - not plug-in or electric, since we're not at a house and there's no way we can ever expect apartment buildings to offer this capability.

Does anyone have recent knowledge to offer as advice, including pitfalls to avoid?
- I'd be the one buying since I have better credit and have been insured for 25 years continuously, both as occasional driver on my sister's car and for a while with Vrtucar's group insurance. My partner is looking at learning with Young Drivers, which will also help on insurance rates.
- No idea what insurance companies are best... how do I even compare rates?
- Do banks check past history of putting money in savings as well as income?
- Do I go to the bank first to see how much of a loan I could get, and base the vehicle price search on that?
- Is there any way to have a clue about actual, final price of cars, with all the hidden or dealer fees? (I don't think we'd go for fancy options)
- obviously I'd prefer Ontario or Canadian knowledge, as some brands aren't even offered here... plus I know that I have to check on how hybrids fare in very cold weather (-25C and below), maybe there's information out there

Augh I know so so little and I can't even figure out how to search...

(I expect to update the title before too long)

This was the diceyness mentioned earlier.

My mother has stage four lung cancer (half left lung collapsed with air pockets - sounds counter-intuitive that it would be bad, but it's not air where air should be - spread to the liver below it and metastasised brain tumours) and is not expected to last the weekend. Might not even make it to the weekend. We're now on death watch.

( Ugly medical details inside )

I have possibly the strongest link of all three children to my mother. I grew up with her for 20 years, and she marked me - mostly in positive ways. Even my sweetie, having met my mother but a few times, saw from those visits and from my talking of my mother how she influenced me in being the person that they fell in love with. We had our differences, but rarely quarelled. She helped me in times I needed it and allowed me to make mistakes, but also to take risks and end up having wonderful memories I would not have been able to have otherwise.

I dearly love my mother, and will miss her terribly. I do not know how I will take this when it happens, which is why I am typing this now. This weekend will be rough, and I don't know how I will feel at the end of it, or further down the line.

I thank you in advance for your kind words. I have some emotional support, and a few arms to hug me. Most people go through this and continue their lives - especially when it's not unexpected.

Bonsoir, mamon. Merci pour tout...

I'm still around... still happy in my relationship, which has many discussions, some deep ones, some emotional ones, but never any arguments.

In a week I'll be going to Seattle for a convention for the weekend with said sweetie, seeing friends and spending likely too much, and each of my sweetie and I will show each other parts of the city the other may not have seen before.

(Sadly, this will be a week before the NorthWest Chocolate Festival, a world-renowned extravaganza with tons of American chocolate makers (not just from the US) and a few international ones as well, with classes, seminars, and sooo much samples to taste and bars to buy. It would drain my finances - but deliciously so.)

Other things in my life are dicey, but I'm dealing with them as best I can, and with lots of support. I'll let everyone know at some point.

Otherwise, I'm pretty boring right now... oh, got a new job as my old one was about to disappear, same pay, same group, same office even. It's been a challenge, but a nice one. Good thing I didn't go somewhere else, this group would collapse without me...

So this Saturday I'm going to update my Montreal Chocolate map. And I won't be alone, hee. I don't have a huge budget for personal purchases, but, um, new things must be tried to see if they're good enough for What The Fur's chocolate social, yes? yes? Yes.

Also, I've been happily watching Steven Universe. This animated show is cleverly written, with emotions that slip in for real impact sometimes, not dumbed down at all. It's difficult for me to figure out if this is made for children or for adults - I'm not going to check any article on it until I've finished watching all of season one, but it's nice to see character tidbits peppered throughout that develop each personality, or at least give it some roundness. It's still a cartoon about magical (and semi-magical) entities in a (weird) (semi) urban environment, so suspension of disbelief is quite paramount. And the main character's voice acting is likely to grate on many, but I think it hits the mark just on this side of annoying - because earnest children excited about things can be amazing or annoying, depending on the mood. (Also, this is lampshaded in the show itself. among so so many other things.) And goodness knows I can be annoying sometimes when excited about something. Like, say, chocolate. Or saké. :)

I'm trying to get a few photo posts going to share things/places I've seen. Kind of the point of me having this forum, after all.

March has been the usual very busy time for me. Things should be more loose in April, including return to more physical activity, if the cold ever lets up.

April should also see the release of the phone I'm currently eyeing; thank you to arndis for the older phone I have that is keeping me going and making me contactable again.

Thank you to those who enjoyed my saké tasting. My next big saké thing is attending Kampai Toronto at the end of May, including figuring out when to travel and where to stay. I can only afford one night at a hotel though, even shared.

Also, while my apartment is not ready yet, I should start making plans for my ( dark beer tasting. )

So I was getting ready to choose, went to kiosks to try them out*, and suddenly noticed one design element that I had not checked for before: of the 5 "finalists" I was looking at, only one, HTC's One M8, did not have the charging plug hidden behind a water/dust protective swivel access door. Samsung's S5's door is at the bottom, but at least hides only the charge plug - Sony's Z3 compact's door accesses and thus leaves open the SD card when recharging. This made me blink, and rethink my dealbreaker criteria.

So I ask, for anyone who has a phone with one of those protective doors, has it impeded anything? Has the door ever broken? Am I weird for thinking it shouldn't be shared with other vitals?

I just wonder how they fare in prolonged daily use; also, the design seems to assume that recharging will be done at home in comfort, security and warmth.

I will likely, if past use is any indication, have to sometimes recharge "on-the-go" with a battery pack, so in my pocket (if with a coat) or bag (if summer). Thus, being outdoors in some way, I wouldn't want any even remote possibility of accidentally losing an SD card or something, or breaking the swivel.

*: I do like the Rideau Centre Bell kiosk since most of the phones there are live models, so I get to physically play with them. Otherwise a dummy piece of plastic does nothing, not even giving the idea of how it feels in the hand since the security tethers foil that idea.

Well, seems like my cell phone is officially dead - the (admittedly one) place I went to tried replacing the flex cable (I get the feeling that's the mobile phone equivalent of rebooting a computer to fix it), but as I expected, that didn't fix anything. They feel it's the PCB itself, which makes some sense for a sudden double change in behaviour - first having extremely faint display (which sometimes suddenly worked in full, unless and until I wiggled the keyboard slider) but which booted, as the POST sound and double buzz told me; then a few days later, only a bit of backlight would show, even in complete darkness, and no sound or vibration anymore.

(This started Dec 5, the day after I arrived in Chicago for a con, where staying in contact with some people would have been really, really nice. Also nice would have been the repair shop calling me with any news, including that it was unrepairable, but instead I had to phone five times and finally talking to the tech who gave me the news - and to his credit, will make a note that I don't have to pay the $35 ausculting fee due to this lack of communication.)

I found a Toronto Amazon seller that has new ones for $200 - not a bad price for a full three years' use - but they say it's unlocked. The question I ask from more knowledgeable people, is: does Bell support unlocked phones? I do have a pay-as-you-go plan (a sort of mistake to switch from a billing plan, as I realised when I could not use a US data plan at said con - but then again, I now haven't paid $150 with no phone to access said service), if that is important.

Also, I'm curious - where are all SMS kept? On the phone itself (and thus now lost for me), or on the micro-SD card? Someone told me on the SIM card, but I thought those were ROM chips... also, space issues. So when I eventually get a new phone, put in my SD and SIM cards, and turn it on, all the text messages will download, but will that be all I have? I expect the contacts are all saved on the googlemail account... This would have been interesting considering that the repair shop said (much, much too late - as in last week) that they could give me a loaner phone, but I wasn't sure if I wanted all my texts on that machine if it wasn't portable. Also, leery of all kinds of things done that might stay there as an imprint of my activities.)

Just been a bit busy. Also fighting some laziness. And inertia. Despite the changes that have happened.

Work is still the same, living in the same place, which gets more cluttered as time goes on. Same old same old.

I went to four conventions in 2014, two of them new, big and in the US - Seattle (NorWesCon) and Chicago (Midwest FurFest). I explored more of the former, and a bit of the latter. Found my mecca of chocolate stores in Seattle, as well as a fantastic, all-sustainable sushi restaurant of delectable delights, while in Seattle. I finally got to try authentic Chicago deep dish pizza in my journey from Midway to almost O'Hare airports on public transit, going through downtown; the Chicago River is not as large as I expected, about three times as wide as the Rideau Canal.

I made new friends with many artists online; I even managed to meet a few at cons. I met some longtime online friends for the first time, again through (or around) the cons. Somehow, I had fun and just enjoyed myself, and stopped feeling sorry for myself somewhere along the way; I had friends, I was well-liked, and I did what I could to spread bits of joy and smiles around me - what else would I want to do?

So somehow two hugs in a weekend have led to exploring a relationship. New emotions, new ways to think and feel, and new ways to spend time and share things with someone. Whee! Not that the nature of the person or the relationship itself are anything typical (nor that there should ever be anything typical about love - the people involved are the people involved, whoever and whatever that are), but it makes me learn more things about people and the world. And I'm happy. So that's that.

I'll try to be more active on here again, possibly make a few long-outstanding photo trip reports. Tastings will continue, if nothing else...

Looks like I'm not safe from any of my hobbies:

- Dancing: first injury back in 2000, then 2002 at my first real date, and more followed, all toes
- Orienteering: broke big toe in 2009, and of course my major clavicle fracture last June
- And now Curling gets added tonight: took a fall on my mid-lower left of my back, fairly flat, nothing on elbow or head.

(What's left: congoing, DDR, boardgaming, videogaming, online chatting...)

Quick trip (less than three hours) to the Civic, x-rays, nothing shows up, so likely no hairline fracture. Just soft tissue damage, as much to the surface muscles as the muscles underneath, the ones connecting various surface muscles together. In ways one doesn't normally think. I'm getting a pretty darn good anatomy lesson if I move a particular way, or extend to pick up something, or bend a bit, or... do a lot of things, really.

But if I sit fully in a chair with my back and neck straight, then there's no real pain (though I happily will take the tramacet prescribed, I know how well it works on me). Yay, an injury forcing me to improve my posture! (this is called grasping at silver linings)

And in ten days, I'm flying to Seattle through Vancouver. Yeah, could have been better timing. Take-off should be fine, it's the landing I'm not looking forward to. And going to a con, but no dancing... that'll be hard on me.