Aaron Ewer
Aaron Ewers thoughts about everything

The past week I have been watching the cost of gas creep lower and lower. Thank God we have a little relief from the cost of transportation!

I hate to say it out loud and put a hex on the situation, but we have seen the price of gas drop from over $4.09 per gallon last month down in the “Land of Excess” where I work, to $3.19 per gallon at the little BP station down the road from my house. There is a price difference of over 12 cents per gallon between the stations at the highway exit by my house to the cheaper stations about 2 miles from the highway in the neighborhood shopping areas. It pays to check with Gas Buddy online before heading out for a fill up.

I would love to see the price get down below $3.00 again. That would make a huge difference in my household budget. Too late to resurrect the vacation plans we had to cancel, but at least we can get back and forth to work with a little less pain to the wallet again.

Back to school means shelling out the big bucks for school supplies, plus in this area the kids all have to wear clothes that meet the county’s strict uniform guidelines. There was a lot of controversy about implementing a school uniform policy, but it worked out OK last year.

Most of the schools have an approved list of school supplies for each grade, and they provide these lists to the local Wal-Marts and Targets about 3 weeks before the first day of school so parents can take advantage of the tax-free weekend shop around the different stores for special prices and sales.

The school supplies lists are very specific, often including the only acceptable brand usually offering no explanation for things like “two folders, one red and one black” or “backpacks with one pocket and no wheels.”

On the list I’m working with, the kids are required to bring three boxes of 24 count Crayola brand crayons. We are not allowed to put our child’s name on them, as evidently all crayons are put into a community sharing box for all the children to share amongst themselves. What?!?! If everyone is “sharing” then why am I sending three boxes at the start of the school year? For the bussed in kids to “share” my kids stuff? If that’s what they plan, why hide behind this list and not just come out and say they want me to provide free crayons for two other kids in the class?

Evidently, not all the supplies are to be “shared” and these items are to be labeled with our child’s first and last name before sending them to the school. There were no further instructions as to what type of labeling is required. In my house, labeling means using a DYMO Labelmaker and printing out the name on the different color tapes that come with the machine. I worry that I’ll use the wrong color tape and meet with the teacher’s immediate disapproval, resulting in a bias against my child for the entire school year.

Perhaps if I donate one of the labelmakers to the class we will be forgiven? They are so handy to have for so many things around the house and office, I bet the teacher’s would appreciate having one in the classroom to label the items for children who’s parents neglected to put labels on their supplies, plus they can label items within the classroom to help stay organized. Well, that’s the plan then.

Sitting at a stoplight down in the Land of Excess, all of a sudden there was a lurch forward as somebody ran into the back end of my SUV. I was at a complete stop and the guy behind was slowing but I have no idea why he rammed into me.

Jumped out and ran to the back to look at the bumper and see if there was any damage. Thankfully, I have a trailer hitch and heavy duty bumper on mine and there was not even a tiny dent on my vehicle. But the other guy’s entire front grill had collapsed and popped loose. Lucky his airbags didn’t go off. Even luckier, neither of us was hurt.

Bad news for people in the news business. This past week a lot of the big publishers have fired or laid off a big chunk of their staffs.

The USA Today organization announced that they were eliminating 1,500 jobs. The Chicago Tribune let go 600 people, and The Tennessean laid off around 500 people.

Not only are they slashing payroll and passing other expenses on to their vendors and independent contractors, now they are raising the price of the daily newspapers, too. The daily Tennessean has cost 50 cents for years and it’s much cheaper if you subscribe. However, next month the single copy price will increase to 75 cents. I wonder if these changes will chase away more readers and actually contribute to their demise?

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.