Dentists, Eye Doctors and Electricians

I went to see the local optometrist a couple weeks ago as my eyes have been bothering me of late.  It was like going back in time to when I was a kid and got my first glasses.  His equipment consisted of an eye chart and a box full of different lenses with which he tried unsuccessfully to correct my left eye vision.  I will be going to Dnipropetrovsk next month to a specialist with more up to date equipment.  I miss Dr Robertson's high tech office in Regina.


Yesterday, Tanya and Lena went to Dnipropetrovsk on the minibus and I went to the Dentist.  Tanya went to collect a shipment of flowers that was supposed to have arrived in late March.  Lena went to "help" her.  Good thing as they came back with both of them loaded with bedding plants and such from the big flower market in Dnipro.  We may need to buy more land shortly.

Andrei said that Dr Tretiak was an excellent dentist and I think I agree.  At least his equipment was modern.  Not totally high tech like Dr Weiss in Regina who looked after my teeth for about 25 years but recognizable.  And one of his techs spoke a bit of English which helped

I had my teeth cleaned last week.  That took 30 minutes and involved removing the tartar build up.  I didn't specify whitening or it might have taken longer and my teeth wouldn't still be yellow. Live and learn.  Anyhow yesterday was to repair a tooth that broke about two years ago. Split down the middle, leaving I'm guessing only filling and root.

Another 30 minute job.  No freezing.  Scared the life out of me, waiting for the drill to hit raw nerve but it didn't and it sure speeds things up and is a lot less painful afterward.  He chiseled out the bad stuff, packed it full of Redi-Mix, cured it with UV light and got out the angle grinder.  Even dentists have angle grinders in Ukraine! Shaped the top of the tooth, gave me a piece of carbon paper to bite on to check the match.  Perfect on first try.  And I'm on my way.  $50.00.

Today was one of Tanya's kind of days.  First she had all these flowers to plant.  Roman and Sergei came at 8:00 to finish the floor in my workshop and the tech showed up to install the AC in my office (which we bought last February when it was cheap).  The tech is the same guy who installed our upstairs bedroom AC a couple years ago.  He knows his stuff and really looks the part - he could do TV commercials in his green bib overalls with yellow trim.

But he got on the wrong side of Tanya by saying there wouldn't be much dust and then drilling a 2" hole through 12" of cindercrete blocks and getting dust all over our books and the floor.  And the electric cord from the inside unit hung down the wall and didn't look nice.  Then mid-afternoon, just as the boys finished the floor, the building shop brought another 10 bags of cement.  Instead of telling the delivery crew to put the bags inside, Roman headed for the shower and they stacked the bags outside. When Tanya saw it you could hear her all the way to P'yatikhatki.  I just keep my head down and try to look invisible.

But Lena came in the afternoon to help plant to flowers, tidy up the yard and clean up the dust.  Tanya phoned our electrician friends Dymr and Volodya - who, as it turned out, were working a couple blocks from our house.  they were here in 20 minutes and fixed up the electric cord so it looks like part of the trim moulding.  I made a nice supper of veggies, cheese and tea which was all either of us wanted.  Now she is all happy again. I am too.

Tanya said she totally agreed with (May-B) "All men are dumb".  Not exactly what she said at age 15 when she came home and slammed the door so hard the pictures fell off the living room wall.  "All men are scum", I believe was the expression. But close enough.