Toothaches

Tooth aches... Why did God give our teeth nerves? Was it so we would pay attention to them when something went wrong? Probably. But then why did He tie the tooth nerves to those that connect to the inner ear? This I may not know until I stand before Him and ask. What I do know is that when I get a tooth ache in a molar in my upper or lower jaw it goes straight to my inner ear and now do I not only have a tooth ache but I have an ear ache as well. And there isn't much that I can do about it. Without dental insurance or with dental insurance that makes you pay up front first and has a whopping deductible there isn't much a person can do about getting a cracked tooth fixed. Yes, I'm pretty sure that it's cracked by the way it responds to cold and pressure. Normally I would go the my dentist and get it checked out. She would then tell me what I already know and send me off the the endodontist for a root canal, $600.00 to $900.00 right there. Then I'd go back to her after a couple of weeks and she would then crown it, another $600.00 to 900.00! I simply don't have that kind of money. The insurance that we have requires that we pay for the dental work up front then get reimbursed later. And the endodontist requires payment in full before they will finish the work. So I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. No money for dental care and nothing to kill the pain but acetaminophen. And that doesn't always work.


So if you know of a national organization that offers either to help pay for dental work or offers it free then please leave a comment telling me who they are and for the love of Mike PLEASE leave their phone number!

Cursors, Part 3

I've published a lot more cursor sets now. Go to RealWorldGraphics and check out all my cursors. Click on the Graphics Tab then the Download Cursors link to the left and just look for the ones by oneloneman.

Cat Farts

My late dad was a farter. He would fart all the time. But unlike my farts, which are quite loud, his were the silent but deadly type. I can’t remember the first time it happened but one night as we sat around the living room watching TV, Mom and I smelled the pungent odor of methane. Knowing neither of us had farted we both cast an eye at Dad with a disdaining look. Dad, playing the forever innocent one, looked around the room, grinning slightly, then inquired, “Where’s that cat?” in an effort to blame his flatulence on a poor nonexistent feline. At the time I could only guess that cat farts were silent but deadly. I could never have imagined the truth.

It wasn’t until I grew up and got married that I would learn the truth. My lovely wife had had several cats as pets over the years while my family had only dogs. After we had been married for several years my lovely wife began to pester me about getting a cat as a pet. I resisted simply because I did not want the responsibility of a pet. Finally one night I gave in after a friend told my lovely wife that she had found a stray but couldn’t keep him. We named him Spencer. He’s mostly Maine Coon but he has a birth defect, a stubby tail. Spencer was our only cat for many years. But I never smelled his farts. Either he never farts or they don’t stink.

Then several years ago we acquired Emily, A black and white tabby. We saved her from the local Humane Society. She got along with Spencer just fine mostly because she ignored him. Emily is a darling, and a pain in the butt at the same time. She was queen of the house until a couple of years ago. That’s when Molly, Miley and Maxx showed up at out back door. Molly was a couple of years old but the other 2 were still kittens. We fed them, but had no real intentions of taking them in. After all we had two cats already. We did however banter the idea around. The Maxx showed up with an abscess on his left hip. We had to rescue him or let him die.

After his recovery we took in Miley, his sister, then Molly. Unfortunately the three ‘intruders’ don’t get along well with Emily. Why? I don’t know. It’s a cat thing. Maxx and Miley chase Emily all the time, especially Maxx. The 2 ‘kittens’ will actively stalk Emily! Many a time we have had to sprits the two offenders in order to keep them from chasing down Emily. Maxx has actually caused Emily physical harm. So in order to have some peace in the house we began to allow Emily to sleep in the bedroom with us at night and spend a lot of her time in the bedroom alone. We even put a litter box in our bedroom for her along with a food and water bowl.
It’s not a perfect solution. Emily is a high maintenance cat. She all but refuses to drink from a cat bowl and insists on drinking from the faucet at the bathroom sink or from a measuring cup! And she constantly wants either out or in the bedroom at all hours of the day and night.

For the longest time Spencer was the only cat we allowed into the bedroom and onto the bed even after we got Emily. But as I mentioned we had to let her into the bedroom in order to keep the peace. It was after we began letting Emily sleep on the bed with Spencer and the 2 of us that I discovered just what Dad had meant so many years ago. My lovely wife was the first to experience Emily’s nightly gift. Emily likes to curl up at the head of the bed, generally between us or on my lovely wife’s pillow on the other side of the bed. She does so with her tail section aimed at my lovely wife’s face. Emily is a tail wager. She will wag and thump he tail constantly for a while before settling down. This means a face full of tail fur. Since my lovely wife uses lip balm just before retiring she gets a mouth full of fur. But this is livable when compared to Emily’s farts. I on the other hand had yet to experience the wonders of cat gas.

I don’t work but my lovely wife does. She is constantly changing shifts so there are times when I’m left to sleep alone, well almost. It was during one of these times that I got the full force of a cat fart. When it’s only me in the bed Emily will most often sleep at the foot of my side of the bed. But sometime during the night she will wander up to the head of the bed and park herself in front of my face, her tail to my nose. The most disturbance this causes generally is that I will have to put my hand on her tail in order to keep it from constantly slapping me in the face as I try to fall asleep. Then one night it happened. Emily was in her tail-to-my-nose position and I was drifting off to sleep when the overwhelming order of rotten eggs greeted my flaring nostrils.

The nauseous gas was worse than my Dad’s farts had ever been. It took me a moment to realize Emily had farted right into my face. I fought down the urge to heave, not to throw up but to heave Emily right out of the room! I rolled onto my back in order to gasp some fresh air as I made silent comments about the lethality of cat farts. I wondered just what she had eaten in order to produce such a deadly potion and whether it had been especially concocted for me and me alone. I was still trying to clear my sinuses when Emily, having delivered her gift of gas, arose and walked nonchalantly to the end of the bed, as if smug in the fact that she had, in her own little way, enriched my life to some small degree. I suppressed the urge to kick her off the bed. As I drifted off to sleep the true implication of my late dad’s words, spoken so long ago, came to light. “Where’s that cat?” She’s here, Dad, she’s right here.

A Poem

I found this at Associated Content. It's a poem entitled Lava Words. I thought it interesting. I hope you do.

Cursors, Part 2

I published my first set of cursors the other day! You can check them out at Real World Garphics. Just click on the Real World Graphics logo th the left on my blog page and click on cursor downloads and search for a set called Blue Wedgie. I hope you like them.

Cursors

Do you make your own cursors? I do. I find it quit enjoyable. I use an older version of Microangelo. It may not have all the features of the newest version but it's paid for! I've made hundrerds of cursors with it, most on my computer, which is down at the moment so I'm using my wife's computer. I enjoy the challange of thinking up different ways of doing the same thing all the time. Some of my cursors are quite good, even if I do say so myself. Some are real stinkers, too. I created a line based on the original Windows arrow which I called "Wedgies" because they looked a bit like a wedge. The first ones were little more than black and white 2D imagies but as time went on I refined my technique and made them 3D and in various shaded colors. The current "Busy" cursor for the series is a little anti-gravity animated robot. I'm quite proud of him.

My latest series really doesn't have a name. They started out as flat 3D shapes but ended up as raised shapes with a shaded side. I've made several different varieties of them, each different yet recognizable as from the same family. The current set that I am using is USA themed, red, white and blue in color. The "Working In Background" features the basic cursor but with a US flag atop it which changes to the basic cursor with the word 'Wait' atop it. The "Busy" cursor is a US flag that changes to the word 'Busy'. The "Help" cursor is a basic cursor with the word 'Help' atop it which changes to the word 'Me!' atop the cursor. All in glorious red, white and blue.

Because I have a program called 'Cursor XP' I'm able to have little US flags follow the cursor around (that's more for my wife that me. I like the program for the other features it has, like shadow control).

I'm sure that I'll be on to other cursors soon. If anyone knows of a place that will host and distribute my cursors for free, speak up!

Shipping Costs

Up until my lovely wife put the kibosh on my spending I purchased a lot of stuff on-line, especially from eBay. It's fun to shop on-line. It's peaceful, quiet, there's no crowds and I can shop in my underwear. Try that in Wal-Mart! I can most often find things on-line cheaper than I can in retail stores. The trouble is that they slam you with shipping charges! The shipping charges are usually more than the item that I'm wanting to buy! It's ridiculous! And it will vary from vendor to vendor. One place will have the item for X dollars while another place will have the exact same item for the same X dollars yet one place charges $10.00 to ship the item while the other charges only $2.00! Come on, the Post Office charges both vendors the same amount to ship the same item to the same place. So why such steep shipping charges?

I think that a lot of hidden 'handling' charges are tied up in the so-called 'shipping' charges of some vendors. They want a higher price for the item but can't compete with other on-line vendors so they 'sell' the item for the same amount or less then jack up the shipping cost to cover the remainder of the real price of the item. Or perhaps they can't buy in bulk like the other vendor. They are charged more so they have to charge more. But again they couldn't compete with the other vendors if they did. So again they advertise one price but recoup the rest of their profits by charging the customer such outrageous shipping charges. In some cases I think the vendor is just plain greedy. They want more so they jack up the shipping charges.

All other things being equal, who do you think I'm going to buy from? The vendor with the low price and low shipping charges, or the vendor with the low prices and high shipping charges? Duh! It's a no-brainer. Of course I'm going to buy from the guy with the lower shipping charges! Who wouldn't? Doesn't mister 'high shipping charges' know this? And just how does he stay in business? Do they ever sell anything? Of course they do, they are still in business so somebody must be buying from them! But who?

Then there is the vendor who has the corner market on an item. He knows it's a hot item, hard to find, limited edition, etc., and he jacks the price up 25% to 50% knowing that if you want it bad enough you'll pay his price. And when you do they still jack up the overpriced shipping charges on you! They get you coming and going!

Then there's the one who insists that the item has to be shipped whatever the most expensive way is then ships it a different, cheaper way! Or the one who claims that shipping by (insert carrier here) costs $X.XX. But later, when you have to return it you find out that your cost to ship it back the same way by the same carrier is a lot less!

Then there's the guy who charges an honest rate for whatever he's selling. He may charge you a dollar or two more for the item, but still within the average price range for it, but he only charges what it actually costs him to ship the item out. You got to love this kind of vendor. He's not out to gouge anyone, he's out to make a profit, sure, but he really cares about his customers and wants to have them for life. This is the kind of guy I like to buy from. They seem to be few and far between now-a-days, but Ive found a few on eBay and a few other places. These are the people I'll throw my business to, how about you?

My First Blog

This is my first Blog. I have a lot of thought on everything but at the moment, I'm speechless! Imagine that, a blogger with nothing to say! It sure is nice of Blogger.com to host this blog for FREE! Thanks! If you want to read a few of my thoughts on Pens and Pencils visit my posts on the JetPens forum. Just do a search for all my post under my handle there, onelonegunman. I'm sure that if you are a pen and/or pencil addict you'll find them interesting.