licence to eavesdrop

I spent an hour in the dentist chair today. The dentist and his hygienist chatted back and forth as I lay there in the middle listening to their conversation. Somehow I felt I shouldn't be there, even though it wasn't personal at all... it just felt odd to be up-close-and-personal while they discussed several topics. I closed my eyes and became silently entertained as their conversation jumped from topic to topic. Left over spaghetti for dinner last night, LIFE cereal for breakfast, and no, he did not make a PB & J sandwich for lunch despite having all the makings in the back room. Instead, it was donuts and milk.

There were no exciting plans for dinner for the hygienist, she having invited friends over but having been turn down she now jokingly feels like the "low-man-on-the-totem-pole".

I learned of an uncle who after 49 years of marriage lost his wife and is having a hard time missing her; a cousin who recently got engaged after knowing her fiance for only 28 days; and I even learned of the need to buy fish for the fish pond.

The hygienist was teased for having big fingers which led to the neighbor that is a rancher/dentist and he has HUGE ranch hands which left my dentist wondering how his neighbor could be a dentist with such big hands.

That led to the cat who had his "fangs" pulled and it cost $600! That is more than they charge for human teeth...and apparently the one pulling the cat's teeth did not appreciate the prying questions of the one working on my teeth... Cats. They both like cats and debated the need to de-claw the cats. Getting the cats fixed, however, was not cause for debate. They both agreed, they need to be fixed.

The dentist went to Colorado last year to visit a boy in the hospital who had a diving accident and was paralysed. "Do you know the Pack's? " My eyes opened at the silence that followed to see both the dentist and hygienist just staring at me waiting for my answer. "I don't know them, but my daughter does and she follows his progress on his blog". http://joshpackupdates.blogspot.com/ That is what I wanted to say. But with the bite-block, numbing agent, and who know how many fingers in my mouth, all that came out was, "mmm uuu mmm" and a nod. I closed my eyes again and I learned about the benefits of working through college as a roofer and I learned that if there was a need to choose between and bicycle and a car, it would be the bicycle.