The Effects of Atmospheric Pressure.
Workland April 13th, 2009
Spring weather is here, and with it comes a very active interplay of high and low pressure systems. All sorts of displaced strangeness occurs such as the sounds of songbirds and wild turkeys in the middle of a blizzard, hot sun and yet the existence of snow banks, and this:
It’s a water jug that I filled at home so that I could water the plants at work. It was filled in the morning and looked entirely normal. By the end of the day the high pressure system that had moved in crushed the bottle.
The Toymaker’s Apprentice.
Cowland April 5th, 2009
The best toys for most animals are those that can be destroyed. For birds, toy destruction is a way to channel aggravation and frustration while in their cage. In a future post I will write about this further with respect to the self-mutilation that birds will do if they have no distraction from boredom and frustration.
Unfortunately, destructible toys cost money. The more destructible the toy, the more the bird enjoys it, and the more often you have to spend money to replace the toy.
Commercial toys are nicer to look at than homemade toys, yet homemade toys can offer hours of entertainment for your pet bird. They don’t care about how a toy looks. All that matters is how easily they can shred, puncture, or fragment it.
I started stringing together toys for our birds years ago out of wood and plastic trinkets that I bought online from a bird store. The idea was to use these components to build your own toys.
I eventually realized that I could get most of the same things from the dollar store or even a hardware store — much cheaper and with many more options.
Here’s my workshop:
And here are some resulting bird toys:
There are bits and pieces of rawhide and wood and rope from other toys that were previously mutilated. I add in telephone books, PVC piping, and pieces of hemlock and cedar from the trees around our place. I’ve used birch to make their perches.
Everything is destructible, everything is fun.
Our birds have the same zest for these toys as my cousins did when they would come over for our family parties and destroy my brother’s toys.
Yeah, you know who you are…
Dear Other Endodontist In Town.
Dentists April 1st, 2009
Dear Other Endodontist In Town,
You are a nice guy and everything, but I wanted to send you a note to say that you are embarrassing me. In fact, you are degrading the specialty of Endodontics as a whole.
When you do work like this and tell the patient that everything is good and then the patient ends up seeing me a short time later with persistent or recurrent issues I end up having to do lots of damage control. After all, this tooth was treated by an endodontist, and he didn’t say that he had any trouble with the tooth.
In fact you did have trouble getting around the curve in the MB root. You had trouble getting the job done properly in the excessively short amount of time that you booked for the treatment. So much, in fact, that you over-instrumented the coronal aspects of all the canals and then created a strip perforation on the distal aspect of the MB root.
I have seen better work done by a dental student. Shame on you, and shame on the rest of us for allowing you to pass your specialty certification exams. A higher standard of treatment is implicit in the referral of the patient to your office.
Or maybe you were more conscientious and skillful in the past and for medical reasons you are not physically capable of doing better work now; or maybe greed has gotten in the way?
As specialists, when we fuck a tooth up, we always do a first class job — So much so that I have recommended that your patient have this tooth extracted. It is unlikely that I will be able to get around your ledged curve, fix your perforation, fix the obturation in the other canals, and leave the tooth strong for the long-term. In this case an implant is a better option than retreatment.
Stuff hits the fan in specialty offices all the time, it’s unavoidable when we see the tough cases. It’s always a good idea to be up-front with your patients and explain these complications or unexpected results to them. They usually understand that you tried your best.
They are hard-pressed to think you tried your best when those unexpected results and complications are explained after the fact from one of your peers.
Yours Sincerely,
Peri Apex, The Other Endodontist In Town.
I See Dead Animals.
Cowland March 28th, 2009
The rain that had been predicted for this weekend held off long enough for the warmer temperatures to offer us an opportunity to do some gardening.
This was the first bit of gardening that we’ve done for the year and it consisted of a clean up of dead leaves and grasses.
Everyone was having a great time (the wine on the windowsill helped):
Until The Girl found this:
Out With The BMW, In With The Subaru.
Cowland March 11th, 2009
After years of little niggly problems costing tons of money to fix and then recurring, I finally had enough. From getting rear-ended the second day after I got the car, to having my emblems stolen, to parts wearing out excessively fast (and only being able to purchase them from a dealership), I said, “enough”.
The recession makes buying something like a new car quite a dream. I chose a sage green 2009 Subaru Forester, traded in the jalopy, switched plates, and won’t look back.
I will not buy another BMW.
As The Vapors sang:
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
