so, i've got the weekend roughly planned out (the occasion is the solstice) and it really is a wild one.

i'm not going to get to ann arbor for the fuzz fest, which is a shame. but, i'd be looking at far too much traveling time, which means far less drinking and dancing time. it would be better if there were known after hours spots in ann arbor, but the late night parties are all in detroit. so, if i go to ann arbor, the night ends at 2:00 and i'm stuck trying to get home; if i stay in detroit, the night will go until dawn, and potentially into the afternoon. as it is, there are good rock shows in detroit this weekend.

there are arguably better rock shows in pontiac, but it's more or less the same problem. at least there are buses, but do i want to spend all night on them?

thursday is pelican, and i can bike to ferndale (i'll be stopping around grand for electronic sets both ways), but understand that it's less than half the distance to pontiac. google says it's a three+ hour bicycle ride to pontiac from the tunnel; it's a nearly two hour bus ride. so, i'd probably rather go to touche amore on saturday night, but it means i'll have to sit on the bus from after eleven until around one or two. again: there's no late nights in pontiac. as it is, there's an earth & helms alee show in southwest, so it makes more sense to go to that. likewise, i'd like to catch astronoid on sunday, but it means throwing away the whole afternoon, and potentially getting stuck overnight. there are interesting shows at cliff's bells and ufo, instead.

but, if those shows were at least south of ferndale, i'd probably go to both of them, instead. i've got a roughly 15 mile radius to work with on my bike - you don't have to put the show 30+ miles out of town.

there are overnights on both friday and saturday, and there's enough happening that i could actually leave on friday night and come home on sunday night. i have a few different possible paths, too, so i'm not entirely sure. it's going to depend. as previously, there are dead spots on saturday and sunday morning, but i'm closer to filling them in than usual. we'll see how that works.

as for next week, i might not have time to push forward too much further. we'll see.

what's the update on my teeth?

i sent an email on friday afternoon requesting information about a fluoride varnish, and they sent me something back late on monday indicating that they don't usually do fluoride varnishes until after they've done the drilling.

that is literally complete bullshit: the purpose of the fluoride varnish is to prevent the need for drilling. and, i don't let people lie to me twice; i'm done with this dentist, done with this office and done with this hygienist. so, i'll be looking for dentist #3, probably on monday.

i explained in the email that the first thing i need to do is stop the bleeding, which is what the fluoride treatment is about. the city i live in does not fluoridate it's drinking water. so, a fluoride varnish would be like a chlorine shock in a dirty pool. i was able to find some peer-reviewed studies that indicate that the silver solution, particularly, can very effectively arrest existing carries, and shows especially strong results when the water source isn't fluoridated. obviously, the better answer is to fluoridate the water, but windsor is really a very, very backwards place. the fluoride should both kill existing cavities and stimulate very small amunts of rebuilding.

once i've had a fluoride treatment, i'm going to start using novamin regularly, which should aid in rebuilding. i do not believe that my teeth require more work than that.

i'm going to want to deal with the stains, though, too, and that's probably best done with sealants.

so, why did she tell me that? because she wants to maximize profit. it's profit over people - she doesn't care about me, she just wants to max out the coverage. fillings are expensive; fluoride treatments and sealants are cheap.

i suspect that this may be the norm in the "profession", and i may need to go through several dentists before i find a good one. they're not really doctors, they're more like mechanics in the sense that they assume you are overwhelmed by ignorance in the topic and can essentially be manipulated at will. so, they're constantly trying to rip you off - you can't give them the benefit of the doubt, you have to double check everything they say. as mentioned: i'm not going to let a dentist, or a hygienist, or a secretary lie to me twice. your teeth are too important for that. i just hope that any damage done in the cleaning is reversible.

i will need to find somebody willing to do a strong fluoride treatment, first, and willing to seal over the cosmetic issues, second. and, i'll be using novamin in the mean time.