I saw the prisoner today for his consultation. He and his 2 guards were 35 minutes late for their appointment. He had his leg irons and handcuffs on but he was dressed in regular clothes, including his rasta hat. Both guards accompanied him into the room while I did the exam and went over the details of a retreatment and potential future apicoectomy.

Before I could give anything to the patient (like the AAE brochure on retreatments), I had to pass it by the guards. I guess they don’t know for sure that I’m not in cahoots with the guy.

Overall this was nothing like Oz. The prisoner was a nice guy, and so were the guards — although I don’t know what our next patient thought as he watched them leave our office together.

Marilyn Manson is in need of a new orthodontist if you’re interested. Check out his blog here.

I’ve just re-added the moon tracker module to the sidebar on the right (it was on the original version of the blog). My front desk staff puts all full moons for the year into the appointment book because of the wackiness that happens around those times. The last full moon and lunar eclipse was an especially crazy time. Don’t know if it’s because of me, or the patients, or a combination of both.

This last week started out on an abjectly depressing note for me. Some major (almost catastrophic) family issues caused me to really withdraw into myself. Things have slowly been resolving and through the support of my wife, my brother and his wife I’m almost back to myself again. Thankfully my patients didn’t suffer too much.

I now know who does and should matter most to me in this short life that we live.

I’ve always maintained that blogging is a therapeutic exercise for me. Although through my comments this week you’ve probably had no inclination of what I was going through, my blog and its readers have been an anchor of sanity for me.

Thank you all.

We’ll be seeing our first patient from Correctional Services soon for a consultation. He’ll have the full orange jumpsuit, shackles, and complement of guards.

We’re not allowed to tell him when his subsequent appointments will be (if any).

The jail recommended that we schedule him either first thing in the morning or last thing in the day so that we don’t scare our other patients away.

Yesterday wasn’t too sunny, but it was hot. The hot weather started this year earlier than I can remember and has brought with it severe allergies and drought-like conditions. The air yesterday was filled with pressure and humidity that foreshadowed the severe thunderstorm that had been predicted for days. The storm blew past us without a drop of rain.

After work I braved the humidity and went to Home Depot for some light bulbs for the office and other odds and ends for home. I always end up spending an extraordinary amount of time there because I can never easily find anything that I need and have to hunt and hunt.

Afterwards I hit the highway, pumped the tunes, sat back and started cruising at my usual speed 25km faster than the posted limit. This highway is quite a fast road and I’ve passed cops many times while I’ve been doing 125. They haven’t even looked in my direction. I’ve even spoken to patients who are cops and many of them have said they don’t bother with anyone who is doing under 130.

The last few weeks have seen some major fatalities on this highway, however. Most are because of street racers causing damage themselves, or leaving a wake of damage behind them.

It was while I was thinking of this that I noticed way back in the distance of my rear view mirror a car slowly but sure approaching. At some points I thought I could see something on its roof, at other times, the roof looked smooth.

As it approached, however, there became no question that the roof had a rack of lights. It was a provincial police cruiser approaching me from behind…about to pass…and then slowing down to match my speed. I cautiously decelerated to 120 and pretended I didn’t notice them–which was silly because I had slowed down as they approached.

After a few long seconds of me trying to act nonchalant and pretending to be enjoying my music, I noticed that the cruiser still hadn’t passed me and its front end was up to my door. Becoming nervous now, I turned to look out my window.

The car had two officers in it. The driver was driving and paying attention to the road. The passenger was female, dressed in uniform, and waving like crazy at me with a huge smile.

Turns out she’s one of my patients who is currently in-treatment with me.

With a sigh of relief I gave them the thumbs up and they shot past me. As they pulled ahead they flipped on their roof lights for a second and then they were gone.

So slowly but surely, I’m running out of corners here in Workland where I’m able to escape my patients. Two of my favourite stores, Costco and Home Depot, have patients of mine whom I’m always trying to hide from when I go in.

I guess I wouldn’t make a very good famous person. I like my privacy too much to be able to handle paparazzi.