Saturday, December 31, 2022

End of December Update on My Activities

I expect for my stores to remain closed for at least two to three more weeks.  It could be a bit longer, depending upon how events play out.  Since I'm on winter break, I'm doing okay.  I am having spells of sudden deep fatigue, but I'm at home where it doesn't matter.  I can loll around for an hour or so until my energy level recovers.  The real test will be when I go back to work on January 6.  At that time, I'll truly know how I'm doing.

I once again broke out in terribly itchy hives due to my medication increase.  The hives were nearly unbearable from around December 14 to around December 25 even with taking four to six antihistamines per day.  It was truly horrific.  I am still itching.  At least the level isn't as high, and I am taking fewer antihistamines. 

As luck would have it, I broke a tooth on December 26, and my dental insurance is still maxed out.  I thought I could avoid dental work for quite some time after I had tooth #18 changed to a crown in October.  No, tooth #29 had other plans.  I believe the failure of tooth #29 is directly tied to my implant crowns for #30 and #31 that were placed in July.

Tooth #29 rotated 90 degrees when the implant crowns were installed.  It was under a lot of pressure right after the crowns were placed and had to be adjusted.  Furthermore, in the two months leading up to the delivery of the implant crowns, I chewed on the left side along with the front right side, meaning that I was chewing on #29.  I knew that I was putting stress on #29 that it normally wouldn't have and hoped that it would hold out.  At least it did hold out until December 26.

The tooth lost a good chunk of the outer side wall, enough that I thought that I needed a crown.  Fortunately, the dentist was able to just do a filling.  I had a small filling in that tooth.  The filling was removed and then enlarged to cover a good part of the missing section.  The jagged edge was smoothed out, so the tooth feels okay. 

The filling cost $270 since insurance covered nothing.  I was given a discount, which was probably the write-off.  If I had waited until Tuesday, then I would have had insurance coverage again.  I was a bit stressed about the broken tooth, so in my opinion, it was worth paying $270 to have it done five days sooner.  I mentioned previously that I will spend extra money on something if it will make my life better.  Having the tooth fixed five days sooner has made these five days better.  The money was spent wisely. 

A great benefit to me not selling is that I devote my attention to other activities that tie in with collecting.  A recent post of mine on Facebook sparked a discussion about how people decide what to collect.  I decided to write some posts about that topic.  Those posts will begin to be published soon.

I also finished reading the Harry Potter books again, and on a whim, I picked up one of John Benton's Christian young adult books about teen prostitution and drug abuse.  I read three of them back in the summer.  I decided to force myself to read a few of them.  I'm going to try to continue.  I'm also going to try to write up some reviews.  

I have no motivation for reviews, so this will be a struggle.  I'm not sure if I will be able to make myself follow through.  I find that I cannot stay focused long enough to get through a set of books if there are more than a few books.  This has been a problem for me ever since the pandemic began, and the problem has continued to worsen.  I furthermore can hardly motivate myself to write a review.  I just don't have it in me at this time.  While I have good intentions, I don't know what will come of them.

I am mostly unmotivated about writing my usual post about books read during the last year.  I'll make myself do it, but I have little interest in doing so.  I'm not even sure if my list of books is accurate.  I found that when I read, which was quite sporadically, that I didn't remember to get them on my list promptly.  I don't know if my list is accurate, but I can tell you that I read fewer than 50 books, which is the lowest annual number of books I've read in the last decade.

That's what is going on in my world.  
 
Here's to me once again having dental coverage beginning tomorrow!  Not only that, but the first three original text Hardy Boys books will be in the public domain tomorrow.  I look forward to seeing how this plays out.  We have just three more years until the first three original text Nancy Drew books enter the public domain.

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