Wisdom teeth week

So, all eight wisdom teeth are gone! On Monday morning we got up fairly early, for us, anyway, and went off to the oral surgeon in Westminster. Teen A's appointment was at 9:20, so he and Rocket Boy left at about 8:45, and Teen B's appointment was at 10, so he and I left home at 9:15. We arrived at 9:45, just in time to say hi and bye to Rocket Boy, because they'd finished with Teen A and were pushing him out the back door. They took Teen B in right away, early, and he was done by about 10:20 I think it was -- I didn't have time to even open the book I'd brought with me. I was typing a message to my sisters when they came out and said, "He's done -- please pull your car around to the back door." So I sent a quick "oops" message and ran out to my car. They brought Teen B out in a wheelchair -- he was barely awake, very dopey -- and somehow got him into the car, where he dozed all the way home. 

Once we got home, Rocket Boy came out to help get Teen B out of the car and almost injured his own back trying to drag him into the house. Teen B only weighs about 115, something crazy like that (at 5'7"), but 115 pounds of noncooperativeness can be very heavy. 

For several hours they were pretty dopey, but then they woke up, and we've been in the boring recovery stage ever since. I have made jello twice (orange, strawberry) and pudding four times (vanilla, banana cream, vanilla, banana cream). We have gone through many many cans and packets of soup (Rocket Boy also made homemade soup, but it wasn't well received). Not surprisingly, Teen A has been very compliant with the oral surgeon's instructions and Teen B hasn't. They were supposed to start rinsing with a special mouthwash the day after surgery, and Teen A got right on it. On the fifth day they were supposed to start irrigating the wounds and Teen A got right on that too. Teen B has used the mouthwash once, that I know of, two days after surgery, and has done no irrigating, because he thought it was weird. Hopefully this will not matter.

They have been taking their painkillers regularly, but I think we are almost done with that. Both of them come to me to dole out the pills, even though the pill bottles are all sitting on the kitchen counter and they could easily take them themselves. Nobody's been hoarding their pills or taking them weirdly, anything like that. My good boys. 

I'm still taking ibuprofen once a day, which is bad after almost two weeks. I see the oral surgeon tomorrow afternoon for a follow-up, so I'll ask her why I'm still in pain. It's much better, but it's not gone.

Despite having two bleeding patients at home, on Monday evening I joined our friends Dave and Kathy for a free concert in Martin Park, put on by the Boulder Concert Band. Rocket Boy was making his unpopular soup at the time, but he joined us for the last song. It was so fun! The theme of the concert was "California Dreamin'" and they played medleys by the Beach Boys, the Association, and the Eagles, along with various patriotic songs, a Sousa march, and some Herb Alpert selections by the guy in the photo. You can't see here, but there was actually a huge turnout. Martin Park neighbors know a good thing when they hear it!

Other than recovering from surgery (and attending the concert), we didn't do much this week. There was a protest scheduled for Thursday, and we were planning to attend, but in the end we didn't, and I felt bad about that. I've been getting so depressed about political stuff recently, and it's becoming very hard to do anything about it.

However, I did do two political things this week, and I'm happy about them both.

1. I increased our monthly donation to PBS by $5, so we are now giving them $10/month.
2. I signed up to give NPR $8/month. We used to give to CPR, Colorado Public Radio, but somehow our membership had lapsed, so this was a way of starting up again. I gave to NPR rather than CPR, in the hopes that the money would help some of those rural stations that are in danger of going off the air, but I'm not sure it will do that. We may rejoin CPR too, eventually. 

We need to watch our pennies these days, so these aren't huge donations. But every little bit counts, and if more people would do this, it would help even more. So I felt good about that.

Speaking of money, the Prius v is home! We picked it up yesterday. It still needs a few little cosmetic things, bits of trim and whatnot, but it's completely drivable, and our mechanic needed the space, so we went and got it (and paid him). The cost was just under $7000, so since our insurance company gave us $12,000, we made $5000 on the deal -- which we will promptly turn over to said insurance company, since our rates are now $3637.80 every six months. Youch! At least they didn't cancel us.

The car drives and looks as good as new, so we are very happy about that. We took the opportunity to remove the sticker from the back windshield, though. Previously the little figure was holding up two middle fingers -- I removed those (see photo) and then Rocket Boy got busy and scrubbed the whole thing off. We haven't actually said to Teen A, "No more stupid stickers," but if another one shows up, it will be removed too. 

Today we ventured out for an activity -- Rocket Boy, Teen B, and I went to Summer Heritage Morning at Walker Ranch Homestead, about 10 miles west of Boulder. They do this every summer and I've thought about going ever since I moved here in 1997. But it's always in late July, when it's really hot, and even though it's not as hot in the mountains (the ranch is at 7600 feet), it's still hot (and you're closer to the sun). So I've thought about going and then I've stayed home, sweating. This year, however, Rocket Boy said he'd like to go, so I said sure, let's do it. And I even managed to convince Teen B to come too, although he had second thoughts about five minutes into the trip.

It's so pretty in the mountains right now. So many wildflowers, so green. At the ranch, they had people dressed up in old-timey costumes, demonstrating things like churning butter, making the holes in buttons, cooking beans over a hot cookstove, blacksmithing (is that a word?), and playing old-fashioned games. You could go in some of the old buildings (this is Rocket Boy in a root cellar). 

Lots of kids were there, bringing back memories of doing things like this with baby twins, toddler twins, etc. Of course, when they were really little, we were in Ridgecrest. But we could have gone when they were 5, 6, 7, etc. Oh well. It was fun with 17-year-old Teen B, too, even though he complained a lot. We made fun of Rocket Boy, who asks embarrassing questions and knows more about everything than the guides do, and we mostly walked around without him (to avoid having to listen to the embarrassing questions). 

On the way home we stopped at Starbucks (of course). The twins aren't supposed to drink out of straws for two weeks (one more week, in other words), so Teen B got a strawberry drink instead of the summer berry refresher. Teen A texted me that he wanted the summer berry drink, but I got it sans straw.

I had the divine horchata drink. I'm so afraid they're about to cancel it. Must drink as many as possible before it goes away.

At Walker Ranch, there were hummingbirds EVERYWHERE. It was so wonderful. A few days ago, we had hummingbirds here, too, which was also wonderful. I don't know where they came from all of a sudden. Perhaps they were attracted by the flowers in the new planter? (See photo at the top of this post.) Mostly it was a male (the males make a buzzing noise), but then a female came too. 

I hadn't changed the nectar in a week or so, and I was worried that it might have gone bad, but they seemed to love it. That night I was going to make more, but I realized/remembered that we were completely out of white sugar. So, the next day I went to King Soopers and got more sugar, and that night I made more nectar. And I haven't seen a hummingbird since! Maybe they like it better when it's old -- maybe the sugar is stronger because some of the water has evaporated? Or maybe it had gone bad and they all died from it. I don't know. Maybe they'll come back. I'm waiting.

This coming week we have a few minor things planned. I'm seeing the oral surgeon again tomorrow afternoon. My old Michigan friends and I have a Zoom call planned for Tuesday morning. Rocket Boy is getting his hair cut on Wednesday. And then we think maybe we'll feel good enough to start planning a few little trips. We might even take our first college tour (I'm thinking Colorado State on Thursday or Friday). 

I need to start cooking again, although Teen A still thinks he can't chew. We ate out at Panera last night and Teen A didn't even come with us because he said he would want to eat and there would be nothing he could eat. Panera has soup -- that was why I thought of it. I had a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup and papaya green iced tea and it was delicious. But Teen B came with us, and he had a chicken ranch sandwich and ate the whole thing! So I think they can eat. And I can make real food this week. Maybe not a crunchy salad, though. I'll think about it.

And something political? Hmmm? Maybe a letter. I reminded myself that I want my political actions to be POSITIVE, not negative and angry and depressing. I want to support people who are doing the right things, not waste time criticizing those who aren't. So I thought I might write an encouraging letter to Ketanji Brown Jackson. Or someone like that. I'll see. If I could do even one thing this week, I would feel better.