(no subject)

Dental procedure is done; my tooth no longer looks like Pac-Man when seen from above. I am, very carefully, eating a banana on one side of my face and slowly drooling water out the other side every time I drink. Ah, the ignominies of the modern world. Still, it beats a mallet and a pair of tongs wielded by a barber-surgeon.

(In Avebury, one of the stones in their massive stone circle is called the Barber Surgeon Stone because, when modern excavators lifted it from its fallen posture into its upright position once more, they found a dead barber-surgeon who had been trapped under the stone as it was pulled down by religious fanatics in the fourteenth century. TROO FACT.)

I came home to find a strange man in our backyard (which has no fence dividing it from the front yard, a situation my stepfather is currently working on) cutting up tree branches. Apparently our CRAZY neighbours are having their tree trimmed and the only way to get the branches out is to throw them over onto our lawn and then cut them up there. CRAZY neighbours did not warn us of this or ask us about it beforehand, but then they are CRAZY. I'm pretty sure they have either a meth lab or a pot nursery in the basement, and the matriarch of the extended clan living there never stops talking. I flee when I see her.

Tomorrow I get to go have a physical, including blood tests and TB screening, which I will always test positive for as my father was a carrier and so am I. But they always look at my medical records and say "Hey, positive for TB! BETTER TEST AGAIN."

I'm going to go lie down for a bit now and contemplate a time when nobody will want to put needles into any part of my anatomy.

(no subject)

I've been having a Bogartfest this afternoon; The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and a documentary from decades ago. I'm becoming of the opinion that Casablanca would be a much better movie without the extended flashback. I love Bogart films and Casablanca is a shining point in his career, but the flashback kills it.

"What's he like?"
"Oh, just like any other man, only more so..."

"This gun is pointed at your heart."
"That is my least vulnerable spot."

We were discussing the best cinematic fight scenes once, the family and I, and we almost declared the Marseillaise scene one of the top five, but then decided it was more of a battle than a fight. But that's a post for another time.