Simply Norma

I never thought I would use a leaf blower but all of the neighbors who passed by and saw me using a push broom for all the leaves we had recommended we buy one so we did.

This blower works very well and is not overly loud so I have not had to use ear muffs. It is also a mulcher so comes with another attachment and a bag that the mulched leaves go into. Since you carry the bag around your arm while using the mulcher, it is not very big so I had to keep emptying the bag.

It’s a good leaf blower/vacuum/mulcher and we’re happy with it.

I’ve put the leaf blower away for the year. Next spring I’ll need to bring it out as I’ll have to remove the banks of leaves from the property so we can try doing some landscaping.

Inside our mouths, we have salivary glands. I knew they were there but didn’t realize the impact of having a malfunctioning one. Actually, it was blocked.

I went to the dentist in March 2011 and had a new crown put in along with a root canal and a composite filling. Ever since then, my life has not been the same.

I returned to the dentist 3 times. The first time, I had a lot of discomfort in my mouth and I told the dentist that my crown felt like someone had crammed a wad of gum in there. He made some adjustments but they didn’t help. Then he put me on a short interval of prednisone.

This still didn’t help. My mouth felt dry, gritty and my tongue was burning on the left side. I also had pain in the area of the root canal work that was done which is weird as the nerves were taken out. Each time I went back, the dentist would make an adjustment until finally he said “I don’t know what’s wrong.” I’m going to refer you to a specialist. And he did.

The specialist was an oral and maxillofacial dentist. This specialist told me that my salivary gland was blocked on the left side. He gave me some “tips,” ie suck on lemon drops and drink lots of water with lemon juice. This was supposed to encourage my gland to open up so that surgery was not needed. It didn’t work.

I called and made my second appointment with him. He was very nice. He was prepared to do a small surgery on my gland when I arrived. As soon as he stuck a small instrument in my mouth, a small piece of white matter popped out of the gland hole. He said it was very tiny.

I had one more follow-up appointment with him and the gland was flowing with saliva just like it was supposed to.

Looking back, I believe the gland was blocked by the dental work that was done in my mouth. The dentist did not use a dam which is a thin piece of latex that is placed over the tooth/teeth that is being worked on. My previous dentist always used a dam but I never thought to ask them to put one on as I am always nervous when I go to the dentist office. The dam prevents “stuff” from going all over the inside of your mouth while the dentist is drilling.

I wish I could say that this is the end of the story, but it’s not. I continued to have the burning sensation on my tongue along with the feeling of something gritty leaking from the root canal area.

Stay tuned as the rest of the story gets even more interesting.

Crisp autumn days have finally convinced us to start a fire in our fireplace.

After months of gearing up for this event (the first time we’ve owned a house with a wood fireplace) we are finally enjoying the fruit of our labors.

It’s pretty. And warm. The roaring fire seems fitted for a house that sits on a treed lot. Nature makes its way indoors.

The sun is slowly going down. This day has been good. And I feel thankful.

Angry Birds is a game where you launch cartoon birds at green pigs. It’s very popular and recently surpassed the 500,000 download mark on cell phones, iPads, etc.

People are playing this game a LOT. A recent quote in the IT World Magazine really astounded me:

“Angry Birds Fans around the world have so far played a total of 200,000 years of Angry Birds, with 300 million minutes of playing time daily. Moreover, more than 266 billion levels of Angry Birds have been played, with 400 billion birds launched into action, and over 44 billion Stars collected in the process.”

I remember when I first encountered the game — my family was playing it on their cell phones. I started to play it but the redundancy of the game and the constant “need” to reach the next level made me quit. Thankfully!

I can’t imagine that all these people have so much time to, uh, waste? Entertainment is one thing — addiction is something else.

To add to the “fun,” there are now plush toys, games, etc. for additional enjoyment.

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