February 6th, 2007 by The Bosphorus
Last week one of my molars went bad. I thought, feared, a root canal was needed. What made the rotten situation worse is my insurance. Knox Co dropped the dental insurance we’ve carried for the past seven, eight years. Wouldn’t you know the new insurance we could afford doesn’t include my dentist. So off I go, hopped up on hydracodones, calling dental offices, searching for a new dentist. I found one and he told me all I probably need is a crown. That’s what I got. The dentist ground the tooth down (I got bits of it in my eye. Rock on!) The crown seems to have worked. There’s no more pain anyway.
Then, get this. The shifter on my truck hasn’t been engaging like I think it ought to over the past few weeks. First and second were the usually suspects, then fifth acted up. Yesterday the clutch starts behaving really spooky. Driving home last night it started popping out of first and second when I’d engage the clutch. So I took it into the shop this morning and told them the clutch is acting funny. They called home later and told the Missus the clutch was at about total failure.
Woot. We get a new clutch.
There goes the Car and Home account money. But you know what? We’ve got the $$ to cover it and the tooth. That’s pretty good. What a blessing. Thank God.
February 6th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Yeah, I feel pretty fortunate that we had enough to cover it (tax return helped, too). Had this happened at some point earlier in our history, we most likely wouldn’t have.
It still smarts to have to fork it over, though.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Although you are out the money, you can’t really go wrong putting a new clutch in on a toyota. The things are monsters and will out live you — heck, lugnut may be driving it when he turns 16! I am sorry to hear about the crown. W has pnemonia (sp). It was a freak thing that just sort of creeped up the past day or so. She is sleeping now. We have been down this road before so out comes the vaporizer and push the triamedic. She has come to associate sickness with me trying to give her medicine — which by the way tastes pretty damn good compared to the crap I have taken in recent memory.
It seems, as an axiom to life, that when you have money it seems to find some void to fill. This is what has happened in this first quarter or our fiscal year. We have been running with a pretty nice surplus and than all of the sudden crap happens. Wife and I sat down and pushed the numbers around and it just does not make sense — that sucking noise — it appears to be my bank account/checkbook. We close on the 23rd for our house. (more sucking noises). It is a good house — needs some TLC — mainly cosmetic. Old, dated, but she looks like she’s got potential. Nothing major wrong with her. Just some bad taste in decor.
I bit a dentist once. Not on purpose. She told me to bite down and I did — on her hand. Her fault — not mine. =)
February 6th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
It has happened to me more than once, I say to myself “self, you have a little bit of money set aside. What a nice feeling.” Then something happens that requires said money that was set aside. Then, no more money set aside. I always try to look on the bright side of things. What a good feeling to be able to pay for something you need (tooth, clutch, or recently, getting a leak in the roof fixed). And of course, the alternative is NOT being able to pay….a very bad feeling.
February 6th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
That’s what it is all about….the whole savings account, it “saved” your butt! Hooray for crowns and hooray for clutches!
February 7th, 2007 at 6:17 am
When it rains, it pours. Congratulations on having the discipline to carry an umbrella!
I feel your pain, though; we got word yesterday that the engine is blown on the Mazda.