Yesterday was on of those days that was both fantastically awesome and horrifyingly awesome at the same time. Last night, under the influence of pain killers, I would have said that made it a pretty great day. Now that the drugs have worn off, my opinion has changed somewhat. Now I’d say it was an OK day with some parts that were absolutely fabulous.
OK, that’s not entirely true. The drive to Fritztown and the drive home were, in fact, completely and totally awesome. That’s a rare thing for me to say. Usually after a trip over there, I start off by griping about how utterly terrible the driving was, because it usually is utterly terrible. But this time, thanks to Lin and I sharing the truck right now, I left from Cedar Park instead of Austin, which meant I got to take a different route. A route that didn’t involve any rush hour Austin traffic. In fact, there was no traffic and nothing but beautiful scenery and a roller-coaster ride.
I wish there had been somewhere to pull off the very narrow road to take photos, because I so wanted to share how beautiful it was with everyone, but there really weren’t many places to pull over and get off the road. Ditches and hills on both sides! But it was GORGEOUS! All the trees were green and happy, and there were so many wildflowers everywhere I drove with the window down to enjoy their perfume while winding around the bends and curves in the road that brought new visual delights around every turn. Simply a wonderful example of the beauty of Central Texas.
And the road … the road was incredible for driving! Sharp banked turns and hairpin curves and steep hills and valleys. The sort of driving that is exciting not because some idiot going 90 miles per hour may suddenly kill me (or aggravating because the road is pretending it’s a parking lot) but because it was FUN. Up and down and round and round, and all if it two small lanes surrounded by nature. I haven’t had that much fun driving in a long, long time. I was reminded that there was a time in my life when I actually enjoyed driving, before I moved to Austin and most of my driving was on lonely ranch roads.
On my way home, I made note of a few locations where I could get off the road and hike a little way to get some good photos, so I will be taking this route to my mom’s house again. Lin thinks that’s insane, because it took me longer to get there. Obviously, such a road has a pretty low speed limit –50 mph in most places with bits that were much slower. I don’t care how long it takes me to get somewhere. I care about how nice the drive is, if there’s something pleasant to see, and not being a complete stressed out wreck when I get where I am going. The less white-knuckle heavy traffic driving the better in my eyes, especially if I get to have an entire ranch road to myself to enjoy! Why should I care that it took me longer to get to my destination? I had a blast on the way and was in a good mood when I got to my mom’s house.
The dentist appointment, on the other hand, was considering less fill with fun. In fact, the only word that comes to mind is torturous. It was supposed to be a simple and quick visit to replace three old amalgam fillings that had begun to chip and had the beginnings of cavities forming on the chipped bits. It turned into over an hour of pure hell in the chair. The good news is that we got to the problem before it required a root canal and crown (far more expensive). The bad news is I am in some pain today from all the poking, prodding, clamping, drilling and cutting.† I’m glad I have a wonderful dentist who is not only talented but also gives a damn about whether his patient is in distress or the whole thing would have been even more horrible.
But only one more appointment to go and this will all be over with. There is that to be happy about. I’ve seen the dentist every month since November, and that is getting really, really old (and expensive). As much as I may like my dentist and his staff, I don’t necessarily want to see them so often. It’ll be nice to just go in for cleanings and checkups like a normal person once or twice a year.
So yesterday was a mixed bag. I had a fabulous time driving to and fro and an awful time at the dentist. I guess it was sort of a “best of times, worst of times” situation. Such is life, if you’re living it right!
Footnotes- † And the reconstruction of one of my front teeth has to be redone on top of it. While I’m not exactly happy about that, I wasn’t entirely happy with the shape of that tooth anyway, so we get a second go at it now. [↩]