This week I had to go to the dentist. I ended up getting a root canal because a
prior dentist had done poor work on a filling and the situation had gotten
worse. It was actually not as bad as most people would make it out to be, and
because the dentist was a reservist the treatment I got was top-notch. This is
not to say that active duty dentists do not deliver good service, just that a
reserve dentist tends to have a better bedside manner because his practice and
livelihood depends on it.
I will also tell you that the procedure
involved a blowtorch and smoke coming out of my mouth. I am not sure when fire
became a major part of every procedure above the shoulders (see last week's
missive regarding my Turkish haircut) but apparently I'm going to have to get
used to people coming at me with flame.
When I was a kid I was told to keep fire away from your head, but
apparently as you get older it becomes more and more of a necessity.
We had our first sandstorm of the year this
week. It is unusual that we get hit
this early and had something to do with an unusual jetstream out of Sudan according
to the Kuwaiti meteorological folks. The thing that made this one kind of
unique was that in the middle of the sandstorm it started to rain – – and
because of all the sand in the air it rained mud. I luckily made it to my car
before it came down.
Forgot which day, but someone in the
neighborhood got a rooster and one morning when I was out walking Falkor the
rooster went off. Falkor’s first reaction was to run back towards me and between my legs. He kept looking
up at me to see if there was reason to panic because of this new noise. Falkor
finally moved out from hiding but every time the rooster would crow, he would
turn and look at me to see if it was time to panic yet. We still have not seen
the rooster, must be living in the backyard – – I think if we ever saw it and
Falkor connected the sound with the animal he would no longer be worried about
it.
Friday night while I was out walking Falkor,
a passing car stopped alongside of us. Rolling down the window I could see that
the driver was a Kuwaiti, dressed in traditional clothing so I greeted him in
Arabic and he responded in perfect English.
He then asked me for directions to a local supermarket. I gave him the
directions and as he pulled away I realized just how odd that was. Not only was
a Kuwaiti asking me for directions in his home country, I actually knew where
he was talking about and gave him accurate directions on how to get there.
There times when I feel like I've been here way too long, this was one of them.
Last night, the International Space Station passed
directly over Kuwait and was visible to the naked eye. Well, when there is dirt in the air and clouds above that you can't see much but I was told it looked very similar to the picture -- well sortof.
BTW I still want to know: WHERE IS MY JETPACK?
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| Again with the fire, I am sensing a theme here. |
Oh and because of possible furloughs and
other financial downsides of sequestration, I have extended through the end of
November.
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