Aaron Ewer

I wonder who came up with the idea of a tooth fairy and how did the word get out? I was told, as a child of maybe 5 years old, that when my “baby teeth” fell out I should put the tooth under my pillow. While I was sleeping, the Tooth Fairy would visit my bedroom and take my tooth, replacing it with a shiny new quarter. I thought that a quarter for my tooth was a pretty good deal, as I could then buy popsicles from the Good Humor van that circled my neighborhood every summer evening.

I looked forward to losing my baby teeth, as not only did I get money out of the event, but I soon had a mouth full of “grown up teeth.” This was not the case for my younger brother, though. Losing his baby teeth was a bad thing, as we soon discovered that he had no grown up teeth along the top of his jaw on both sides in the back to take their place. We blamed the “Evil Tooth Fairy” for cursing his grown up teeth, but it was a genetic problem that my brother dealt with throughout childhood.

In today’s world, people without teeth have options, such as dentures and tooth implants. Advances in dentistry have made dental implants available to a lot of people who need reconstructive surgery to replace teeth or take the place of missing teeth. The implant involves placing metal anchors into the jawbone. Once the anchors fuse with the bone, the oral surgeon places a prosthetic tooth, made from ceramic materials like those used for crowns, over the anchor for a very natural and permanent tooth. Although success is not guaranteed, this process has helped thousands of people dealing with tooth loss and missing teeth.

I happened across a web site explaining the whole process and it has a section of FAQs that was very informative. Although my brother is not a kid anymore, he is still a candidate for the dental implants and I bookmarked the web site so I could share the information and link with him next time we chat online. I think you are never too old to appreciate having a nice smile.

We had a regional manager’s meeting this week which is something I always look forward to because it gives us face time with all the regional managers. You can get a lot more done with people are face to face instead of trading emails or voice mail messages. They men are always on the go and put in such long hectic days that it is really hard to reach any of them on the first try.

The managers from the west coast were really pumped up - they have been the most successful the first two quarters of the year. The guys from the midwest are hot on their trail.

I haven’t seen Bob since before Christmas and although he looks good, I did a double take and realized that he looks unusually good. Then I realized, he’s had a little work done. It’s not really obvious to the casual observer, but since I’ve worked closely with Bob for over 10 years, I could tell when I looked closely and its really for the better. When we had some time alone I asked him about it and he was glad to tell me about it. Bob found a top notch plastic surgeon and had his nose fixed. The technical term is rhinoplasty. He said he was only out of commission for about 4 days and that he only regrets he hadn’t done it sooner.

So that has me thinking about the same thing. I’ve heard about a great facial plastic surgeon in Cincinnati, Dr. Donath, and since that’s just a short drive from here, it would be worth finding a few things for the wife to do in Cincinnati while I have the surgery done and hang out in a nice hotel for a few days during the recovery. I found him easily by searching for Cincinnati Rhinoplasty and read Dr. Donath’s website to check him out. I guess the next step is to just call his office and make an appointment for a consultation before making any further plans.

The worst summer in my life was the one I fought cancer. I was diagnosed in June and was told that I needed immediate intensive treatments to have even a chance of surviving the rest of the year. It seemed like everything stopped, frozen while I endured an awful regime of daily trips to the hospital for radiation treatments. The entire summer evaporated into days and nights of huge humming medical machinery and lots of puking, sweating and fainting. I lost over 40 pounds and almost died from that, but I beat the cancer. I owe my life to a group of most excellent doctors, medical technicians and nurses, and also to my parents for stepping up and helping me with my daily life and obligations over those horrible, debilitating months.

If you have an opportunity to help someone facing a serious or terminal illness, even the smallest gesture of care and concern will mean a lot to them. Don’t be afraid to step up and offer an ear, a shoulder, a back or a ride - anything you can do to help them get through the day will mean so much.

It seems like this year my allergies have lasted weeks longer than usual. I’ve been sneezing and having sinus headaches ever since the temperatures hit 60 degrees. I’ve always been sensitive to tree pollen, but now I’m concerned that there are other things in the air that bother me, too.

My son has suggested getting an air purifier for the house, and after going through one more box of allergy pills I have to agree with him that it is worth a try. He found a website that gives ratings of air purifiers and we took a look at it tonight to try to decide which one would best suit our needs.

An air purifier would help with my allergies and also help reduce the sensitivity to the smoke that wafts upstairs occasionally when my son has friends over in the family room who smoke in the house - even though we keep asking them not to. So every once in a while smelling smoke in the house is an issue and a purifier would take care of that for me, too.

Last weekend was a holiday for most people but I had to work all three days, so it wasn’t much of a holiday for me. I did donate to the veterans group selling poppies at the Kroger and I watched fireworks Sunday night courtesy of the lake’s water park, so I had a little bit of celebration. Didn’t get to take advantage of any of the Memorial Day sales at the stores - actually didn’t even get to read the newspaper to see what was on sale until yesterday.

So this weekend we’re going to go shopping and do all the honey-do list items that we can cram into two days. I’ve already checked the internet for discount coupons and my favorite site had some great deals. With the price of gas at $3.85 a gallon, we’re looking harder for ways to save money on other purchases and coupons are an easy way to save with just a little forethought.

We have to buy a baby gift for the new little nephew. Right off I found discount code promotions from Fisher Price, TikeTech, Safety 1st, Kiddopotamus, Evenflo and Kidsline and we’ll be giving that top priority on Saturday morning. The hospitals send new mothers home so quickly now that it is hardly worth ordering flowers for the mother, but I wanted to send something to my sister-in-law on the good chance that they will deliver the flowers this afternoon or at the latest tomorrow morning before she heads home with the baby.

We have to do a lot of yard work on Sunday - there’s little chance of rain and the weeds have taken over parts of the lawn. I’ll get some gardening and lawn care supplies and tackle those chores Sunday morning. If all goes well, I can be finished in time to throw some steaks on the grill and settle down for the NASCAR race in Dover with a couple of cold ones. Or, if the yard work takes too long, we’ll still have the steaks but we’ll cozy up on the couch to watch some movies to wind down.