the dentist and deforestation

don't let the framed pictures of puppies, despite their tackiness, or the extremely friendly receptionist fool you. the dentist office is not the happiest of places. it is just a routine, twice a year clean-up. so why must the assigned teeth cleaner, not the dentist, wear layers of masks--paper and hard plastic? why must she shine a bright light into my face as if interrogating my teeth on where they have been for the past six months? why must she use a cold, metal, hooked contraption and dig into my teeth and gums creating a noise very similar to nails on a blackboard? over and over she scrapes my teeth. but they are strong and do not cave under this type of torture. they are even strong enough to withstand the strings of hard plastic being vigorously carved into my innocent gums. this is the first time to the dentist for one tooth--my new wisdom tooth. at my last visit to the dentist, i was told my wisdom teeth must be removed--carved and stripped from my mouth. but i need all the wisdom i can get, so i stubbornly held on to these teeth. in revisiting the dentist i feared this tooth would come up in conversation, maybe even start a debate. but my wisdom tooth silently held its place, and nothing was said by the cleaner or infamous dentist--wisdom was saved. and my teeth withstood yet another visit to the dentist.

my dad called it family time. i call it torture. the great deforestation of 2004 took place at my home in sugar land, texas today. our ten or so trees in our front and side yard were raped of many of their branches. the yard looked as if a hurricane had ripped through the silent yard. branches and leaves were everywhere. and it was my job, as well as the job of the rest of my family, to further cut the trees' limbs into smaller pieces in order to neatly bag the evidence of this injury. placing the remains of such a massacre in large, black plastic bags is hard, exhausting work. and it may have been considered family time, but it was definitely not fun time. sigh.