Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Cotton Bolls....

Wednesday was the day we returned to our dentist in Los Algodones (means 'the cotton bolls' in Spanish, which is raw cotton) for TLE's rescheduled appointment with Dr. Urena, and my appointment with an 'endodontics' dentist (root canal specialist).  I wrote about an issue Dr. Urena discovered while cleaning my teeth in December with an old root canal dating back to when I was 13.  At any rate Michael decided to accompany us to meet Dr. Urena and to get a consultation for some dental work he needs done in the near future, so the three of us set off at 0830 hours for the 93 mile drive south to Los Algodones and our 1100 hours appointment.

The drive south on HWY 95 was totally pleasant, although there was one small construction zone which slowed us just a little, nevertheless, we arrived at Dr. Urena's office at 1030.  TLE's appointment this day was to make the molds for the crown that will be attached on the 29th of this month to her dental implant.....that last part of her process.  On the other hand my appointment with Dr. Jose Armando Hernandez (endodontics) was just the beginning of my odyssey.  As it turns out my 53 year old root canal tooth has cracked, which is what caused the abscess.....it will have to be extracted, then I will begin my year long process of getting a dental implant just like TLE, and ultimately a new crown.  In addition to that the tooth next to it which has a very old and large filling has also cracked, and will need a root canal, plus a crown to restore it.....so begins my journey.  I will return on the 29th to Dr. Urena's office to have the bad root canal tooth extracted, then I will return to Dr. Hernandez on February 17th to have my root canal done......oh joy!  Ironically this will be my first extraction in my 66 years of life, and only my second root canal.

While I was having my consultation with Dr. Hernandez Michael walked TLE down to the optometrist (Best Optical) Dr. Urena's office had recommended where she proceeded to order three pairs of glasses (distance, reading, and tri-focals) at a total cost of $77.......she was told to return in 3 hours to pick up the glasses.  These three pairs would have cost us close to $400 in SoCal!

After I finished with my consultation and had all my immediate near future appointments set Michael and I walked down to Best Optical to retrieve TLE and go to lunch....we had a couple of hours to kill at this point so walked around and found a restaurant that served cerveza and fish/shrimp tacos.....I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but they had wonderful fish and shrimp tacos.....I had one of each, as did Michael, and TLE had one fish taco.  I chased my tacos with an Amber Dos Equis, and Michael chased his with a large Margarita.  There was a band playing music, and the atmosphere was splendid......just what I was looking for.....total cost for lunch....$14!



 My fish and shrimp tacos

 The garnish plate

We finished up around 1500 and walked back to Best Optical to retrieve TLE's three pairs of glasses, and after clearing US Customs were in the car and on our way home by 1600 hours.  On the way back to Quartzite you must pass through a Border Patrol check point, and for the first time ever we were asked to pull to the side for further inspection, which included a drug sniffing dog......after about 10 minutes we were allowed to continue our trip home.....very, very interesting.  We were home just after 1730 hours......just in time to catch our 7th Quartzite sunset, which is memorialized below......

 A little more muted and subtle than our 6th sunset, but quite beautiful just the same.....

Of course, while we were gone all day our batteries where efficiently recharged back to 100% by our solar panels.  Also, also......on our way home we received a phone call from Nomad Glass advising they had our new windshields in, and they set our appointment for installation for this Friday.....we will have to remain stationary for at least 24 hours, so our departure from Quartzite will most likely be Sunday, if not Saturday afternoon.....we shall see......looking forward to windshields with no pitting, chips, or cracks!

Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

  1. Nice to get your dental work done, love the fish and shrimp tacos there, we will probably check them out in February when we are in the area.
    If you in the mood you can drop by Bloggerfest at La Posa south Sat afternoon for a bit and meet some fellow bloggers.

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