Tooth Fairy?

I was only four years old when I knocked my two front teeth out. I was hopping across the kitchen floor with my ankles crossed. I had just learned how to hopscotch and this was a new variation on a theme. Not one my father was keen on. He told me to stop before I got hurt. As soon as I rounded the corner and entered into the other room and out of sight from where my father sat, I started hopping again and then…

I think you get the picture. The years afterwards were difficult for me waiting for my permanent teeth to come in. Every Christmas my older brother teased me as he sang the song, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”. His name is Alan and I retaliated by calling him “Alvin”. Remember the Chipmunks?

After nearly five years I started seeing “dental specialists”. I needed more room, my mouth was small and my front teeth…too big. Eight baby teeth and four permanent teeth needed to be pulled over a period of time (not all at once) and hardware called a “spacer” worn for at least a year to keep the teeth from crowding. It was a lot of visits to the dentist, oral surgeon or orthodontist.

Finally when I was about ten my front teeth finally started growing in. I could eat apples and corn on the cob again! My nickname, Snaggletooth, was history and I was good as gold.

Fast forward a number of decades later and the usual amount of dental visits until the lock downs and nobody went anywhere. Well, my teeth were needing a lot of TLC that they weren’t getting. My family dentist decided to retire when things started opening up again. The new dentist was too fresh out of dental school and too “wet behind the ears” for a case like mine. Six months later I finally found another dentist to help but it was too late.

Now, I find out all my upper teeth are bad and can’t be saved. I’d lost the back molars from grinding and gritting my teeth or biting on a screw. That’s another story. My remaining teeth have shifted and now are soft and crumbling. There’s no way to save them.

I want to know why after the year of lock downs when no one was going to the doctors or the dentists and using any insurance money, why isn’t that money available to us to get caught up on all the dental bills? Many problems may have been prevented if the lock downs hadn’t happened. My year’s worth of insurance isn’t enough to cover the expenses now. I need the money from two years worth of work to get all the work done. Did you run into this problem too? What a horse’s …. you know.

Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

I’m going to need some money from the tooth fairy to help me pay for my teeth. I’m getting tired of soups and stews and yet I learn I may have to find even more recipes for this soft food diet. This has prompted me to make two new additions to my life.

I bought a Ninja food blender and I’m introducing a paid subscription tier for my blog. I’m hoping that you’ll be praying for me and supporting me as I move through these “golden years” of life. This is physically and emotionally hard for me to lose these teeth I waited for so long and worked so hard to have.

Lately I’m noticing how hard it is for me NOT to write every day. I miss the interaction and the opportunity to share what’s on my mind. There is so much to talk about, things that weren’t discussed and now are paramount and ripe. The weekly posts aren’t enough to satisfy my writer’s “itch” and give me a warm and fuzzy feeling and it’s apparent by the stats that you’re feeling the absence too. So I’ll be writing the free posts plus writing my book for the paid tier to read along with lots of extras (more about that next time). I anticipate I’ll be writing a post every few days rather than once just a week. I’ll see how it goes.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Traditional vs. Self Publishing

I did some research on publishing and came to the conclusion that traditional publishing wouldn’t work very well for me. I don’t have the patience to wait for a year for the typical timeline in the business. I understand they need this lead time for catalogs and printing, editing, etc. However when I looked at the profit margin and learned that marketing and publicity is left to the author is part of many standard contracts these days; I decided traditional publishing wasn’t a good fit for me. And all that was only if I found an agent and a publisher for my book in order to make that happen.

I contemplated the concept of self publishing and I may still go that way, eventually. I’ll be doing a lot more research and writing about it here. There is a LOT to getting a book to print. The writing, then self editing, then beta readers, editing, proofing, ARC readers, formatting, cover design, marketing, and printing takes time and has a learning curve. I’m a person who prefers to learn from other’s mistakes…not my own if I can help it. I’ll be researching and writing about all the phases for self publishing but first I need to write it…the book, that is.

I have come to the conclusion that, for me — for now, the best way to write my book is with you, online. I look forward to getting a chance to share it with you soon.

Today’s post featured photo by Daniel Kempe on Unsplash