If you have read the blog entitled "The Washing Machine Fiasco," you know that I am capable of some major mistakes. But, sometimes I win. It would take several wins to make up for the Fiasco, but at least I did win. Actually, I have won a couple of times these past few weeks. Let me relate the good news.
I had noticed a growth beginning under my tongue below the front teeth in that soft part of the mouth. I was somewhat alarmed, but in two days the growth was more like a small worm and sore. Because of its shape, soreness, and how fast the "little worm" was growing, I decided I had better seek some medical assistance instead of riding this one out as I am wont to do. Doctor or dentist? Hmmm. This took some pondering. Actually, I never considered the cost, but the doctor is going to charge me $20 co-pay and since I am below the $1000 deductible, I would have to pay for whatever else the doctor came up with for tests, etc. My doctor likes tests and referrals to the doctor with expertise in that area of concern. More $$$$'s. If, I go to the dentist and he does not know what to do, he will tell me to go to the doctor, I would be out some bucks and still hadn't seen the doctor. This was really getting complicated and the "little worm" was still growing and hurting more and more. Finally, the decision was made to see the dentist. Reason? Well, he hunts chukars with a certain degree of fanaticism, just like I use to when I was his age. The guy is my kind of guy.
So, I just drop in. I was informed that if I would just sit down for a few minutes the dentist would be right back, he was on a run to get his lunch. True to MaryAnne's words he was back in the office within ten minutes. He walks right up to me, in his BSU tee-shirt (gads, my faith and admiration in him was eroding), goes to an end table in the waiting room, picks up that day's Statesman newspaper and shows me a picture of a guy in an emergency room with his face all swollen getting some doctor's diagnosis. He says to me, "You are a much smarter man than this guy in this picture." Wow, my high regards for the dentist returns in spite of his chosen tee-shirt for the day. "You are evidence of a good education." Wow, I am thinking. "This guy chose to go to the emergency room and spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars for the same treatment a dentist could do for a few hundred," says my dentist. "And I am thinking, yeah, right, like your services are not cheap, man."
So, on his lunch hour he puts me in the chair, calls over his assistant on her lunch hour and proceeds to look at my growth. "Oh, yeah," he says, "You have a blocked saliva gland. I can pierce this and let the saliva out and you will be okay." So he pierces. BIG HURT! and says to the assistant, "See that saliva pour out?" She affirms. He gives me about 15 or so Amoxycillan (sp) and says take these, come back Thursday (he only works four days a week). I go back the following Tuesday because every thing is good again. I park and he pulls up beside me in his truck (caught him making the lunch run again). He asks, "Do you need to see me?" "No, I just wanted to tell you that every thing worked out and I wanted to know what I owe you." Now are you ready? He says, "No charge. (I swear I am not making this up) Consider it as my gift to you." Wow, I fellow chukar hunter. We are all such good guys ;) Now, how many of you can say that your dentist did a free evaluation, treatment, and the medicine was on the house? Yep. See, every dog has a good day once in awhile. Long live the chukar hunters!!!!
The second part of the story is that I went in to buy four bags (80 pounds) of bird seed. I see that the price is now $7.49 a bag up from the $5.00 sale price of last week and up from the normal $5.95 price. I said, "Steve, your prices went up." He says well since you were in here trying to buy seed and I was out of the sale price seed, you can have this for $5.00. I had one bag of seed on the counter. I said, "But, Steve, I want to buy four bags. I just brought the one bag over for you to ring up four times. I didn't want to bring all the bags over here." He says, "Oh, that is alright. You can have four bags at five dollars." Hey, that is a ten dollars savings. I told him that when I go through these four bags, I will have fed 400 hundred pounds of seeds to the birds. He was pretty impressed. I think he is a bird lover because his seed price is half of what other stores sell the seed for. I told my wife of the good deal and she chides me and says that I need to pay the full price because Steve has to make money on what he sells. Now, I feel bad because I saved money. Oh, well, she did not get on my case for the free dental care because she once talked the dentist into doing sixteen thousand dollars of implants for four thousand dollars. Now, that is saving money!!!
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