Friday Hodgepodge on Saturday

Tooth-pulling Follow-up

Bill Cosby was correct when he said “Novocaine doesn’t stop pain; it postpones it.” About four hours after Thursday’s dental work the numbness in my jaw came to an end and the throbbing pain began. It was worse than the toothache that compelled me to go to the dentist.

An hour or so later I decided I’d had enough of it. I took one of the pain-killers the dentist had prescribed and went to bed. Six hours later I awakened in pain; so I took another. When the alarm went off Friday morning, I found myself still in pain, but refused to take another of the prescribed pills. Besides stopping the pain, the drug caused me to feel nauseous and as if it had put my brain to sleep. I went through Friday semi-awake and have decided to take nothing for the pain stronger than Tylenol!

Why I Love Bureaucracies

Wednesday evening I had a job interview. To meet the new requirements of Homeland Security, the company required that I have an “original” Social Security card. I had gotten a new one about a year ago and mailed it to the Board of Education so that I could substitute teach. They were to copy it and mail it back. Somewhere in the process, the card was lost.

I had obtained that card at the main Social Security office, which meant going into downtown Louisville, finding a parking spot, and waiting for hours in a crowded office. The woman who interviewed me informed me that there is a Social Security office at my end of the city, so I decided to go to that one.

I began my trip at noon, after confirming the address, which was in a strip mall. Of course, since no one puts addresses on strip malls, I went to three before I found the right one, which had no listing for a Social Security office. I telephoned the number listed for this office; the phone rang but was never answered.

This mall had three cul-de-sacs. I searched all three and in the third I found a hand printed signed on an empty office that read “Social Security has moved to Plainview.”

There is a strip mall called “Plainview” on another highway, so I drove there. Again, there was no listing for Social Security. I began investigating the cul-de-sacs; again no Social Security office. There was, however, a Post Office where I asked for the address. The postmistress informed me that I wasn’t the first to ask and that the Social Security office had moved to an office complex called “Plainview Point” which was about three miles from Plainview mall.

With these directions, I drove to Plainview Point and finally found the new Social Security office. It was 3:10 when I arrived; the sign on the door said they closed at 3:30. The waiting room was filled with about 40 people. I decided to give up and start over on Monday.

It is experiences like this that remind me—who had had been a state bureaucrat for 12 years—why I love bureaucracies.


Winter

A couple of days ago I was enjoying sunshine and 60 degree F temperatures. At the moment the temperature is 17 F and this is what my street looks like:

There isn’t a lot of snow on the streets; however, there is ice! And, of course, Alex had to go outside to explore! He was out about ten minutes before scratching on the door to come back inside. He is now sitting under a lamp to warm up and dry off: