By Joel Vernier
What a beautiful fall day! The trees are at their peak color, the sky is blue with brilliant sunshine, and the weather will stay clear all day! I just finished breakfast, Amish eggs, toast, coffee, juice, and the temperature is 38 degrees. Perfect for my morning nap.
As I slipped into my ‘Comfy Chair’ my wife yelled out: ‘Joel, get up, it’ time to go to the dentist for your teeth cleaning appointment!’
I guess my nap will have to wait.
I love clean things; clean sheets, clean dishes, clean house, clean clothes, clean humor! Clean is wonderful, the fresh smell of clean, the crisp feel of clean, the look of a newly cleaned kitchen is one of the little things that make life so worthwhile!
But teeth cleaning does not bring those good feelings, scents, crispness and look to mind. What it brings to mind is, well, an uncomfortable time sitting in a not too comfortable chair. Now don’t get me wrong, I like my dentist and the hygienist, but I do not like my time in the chair. I was never a fan of going to the dentist even when I was young.
The cartoons of dentists as a kid were not complimentary. The depiction of dentists in westerns was even worse! My first trip to the dentist, I was about 6, I remember I would not leave the waiting room and go with the hygienist to the room with the chair!
I guess my thoughts were filled with dangerous chairs that I had learned about; The Electric chair, the Spanish Inquisition chair, the chair from George Orwell’ 1984 with the head cage that held a rat next to your face.
Then it happened, the dentist, a giant of a man, (of course I was only 6 and very short for my age) came out and grabbed me, I held on to the arms of the waiting room chair for dear life, but he pried me loose, a finger at a time, threw me over his shoulder and took me into the back room, slamming me down into the ‘chair’. Then he gassed me to clean my teeth. That’ how I remember it anyway.
I was nervously sitting in the waiting room when I heard; ‘Joel Vernier’ the receptionist cried out, I stood up and begrudgingly walked into the room and sat in the ‘Chair!’ No nap in this chair I thought!
The hygienist was masterful at talking to me to distract my brain from what she was doing to my gum line. In a short period of time, I was all polished up and it was time to go, after I set up my next appointment in 6 months. It wasn’t that bad, and my teeth passed inspection, I was told to floss more, and they gave me a bag with freebies in it. My mouth did feel fresh clean and minty!
Time to go home and sit in my real ‘Comfy Chair’ and take my nap, I deserve it!
‘Remember, every day is a gift! Some are just a little more fun to open than others. – Joel
joelmvernier@aol.com
-¬ Joel M. Vernier October 19, 2016
