there was a lot happening, seems like they're in the process of repaving lincoln street. after parking the bike (a construction told me it was okay to park there), i walked down to chinatown a bit to look around. i'd never been to chinatown this early, all the stores and restaurants were still closed. i noticed something "unusual" in that all the china flags had been taken down, and only taiwan flags were flying. return to the dentist office, i walked behind a young man wearing a nice dress shirt and slacks. he ended up going into the same place i was going (later i realized it was doctor chan, i didn't recognize him from before). outside was a large milling machine that looked like a long-necked mechanical monster with tank treads.
i popped into the dental office right at 8am but i should've came in earlier, because they had me fill out a bunch of medical forms. filling out the forms took nearly as long as the x-ray and the consultation! the receptionist was new - a young asian woman. sitting behind her was doctor chan, who seemed like he was just hanging out at his office, chatting with his staff. a mother and daughter went ahead of me. after i gave the receptionist back the filled out forms, a nurse came out to bring me to one of the exam rooms where i left my bag before following her to the panoscan x-ray machine. the results were immediate, as soon as i sat down on the exam chair, the digital x-ray of my entire jaw was displayed on the wall-mounted LCD screen.
doctor chan came wearing a face mask (i guess dentists are still afraid of catching covid). he looked at the x-ray and told me very matter of factly that i didn't need an implant. the reason was the upper tooth i wanted to extract had nothing really on the bottom jaw other than half a portion of another molar. i didn't need an implant because there was already dental opposition for those molars. i could still get an implant - like i wanted that additional tooth for eating - but i didn't need one from a teeth preservation aspect. "i'll be happy take your money," doctor chan told me in his cantonese accented english, "but you don't need an implant." however on my left jaw were two upper molars that one day would require implants, as the bones were receding from an enlarged sinus cavity. doctor chan also told me what steps he'd take if i were to get an implant. first he'd extract my tooth (covered by the insurance), then fill the hole with bone dust. if he left the hole as-is, there wouldn't enough bone to secure the implant. even with the cavity filled and the bone graft successful (after waiting 3-4 months), it still might be be suitable for implanting. he needed 8mm of bone, and i currently have a bit over 9mm, but the margin of error is small. if he requires more bone, he'll have to do a sinus lift - which in itself is another $900 - to create more bone space (another 3-4 months wait). only then could i get the implant. once the implant successfully grafts (another 3-4 months), i can then finally get a crown. he crunched the numbers, it'd cost about $3000 for the implant, not including a sinus lift procedure if necessary, and not including the price of a crown (another $1000, but i think my insurance might cover that cost). he was also admiring the work he did on my last implant from the x-ray. "looks so good, like a brand new implant," he said. i told him i never had a problem with the implant, other than the plug falling out a few months ago. "that always happens," doctor chan said, "usually in 2-3 years. it's just cosmetic, doesn't affect the implant."
so with that i scheduled an appointment to pull the tooth and add the bone graft. even if i end up not doing the implant (per doctor chan's recommendation), it'd be nice to have the cavity filled. however that comes with a caveat: i have 2-3 years to decide if i want to do the implant, otherwise the bone will naturally recede and i'll need to do a sinus lift to add more bone. the extraction was free, but the bone graft would cost $350. i scheduled it for wednesday morning 9am, the sooner i get it done the better. i figured i have the tooth removed (so it'd no longer hurt), try out the missing tooth situation for a while, then decide if i want to do the implant.
i was done by 8:30am. i called my mother to let her know what happened. since i was coming back on wednesday, her request to buy some braised duck could wait until then. instead i went to ming's market to get some asian vegetables for the cafe. outside the milling machine was already in action, stripping off the top layer of asphalt, shooting out the crushed asphalt into a dump truck.
a lot of vegetables were on sale at ming's market: bokchoi for $1.28/lbs., taiwanese cabbage 38¢/lbs., napa cabbage 49¢/lbs., and big fat longans for $2.99/lbs. i finished shopping by 9am and started heading back to cambridge.
i decided to return on the fasting route, which was getting onto the esplanade then crossing onto the longfellow bridge via the appleton bridge. passing by the boston marriott cambridge once again, the bike counter was now in the 400's. boston wasn't the only city repaving its roads; cambridge was repaving hampshire street, as construction workers were in the process of rerouting traffic with cones and getting their construction vehicles ready. somewhere on beacon street, somebody had thrown out a pile of stuff onto the curb, so i stopped to take a look. the first thing that caught my eye was a canon dSLR. i picked that up right away in case the owner had tossed it out in error. it even came with the battery charger nicely tied to the camera with some twine. there was a lot of silkscreen materials and rubber stamps, but i didn't have the capacity to take them all, nor did i want them. there were also some unused film (like for a camera), not sure what i'd do with those (in hindsight, i could've picked them up and gave them to frances' son who's into analog photography). i ended up grabbing a magic mouse (unused), an ipad charger, a small clay pot, a pencil sharpener, some poster putty, a pouch, and some jar labels.
lauryn was still at home when i got back at 9:30am. i was going to wait for her to leave, but i ended up before her, around 9:50am, after my mother told me they were waiting for me to arrive in belmont so we could do a waltham supply run to costco and market basket.
my father didn't believe me when i told him a found a canon dSLR. only in belmont did i get a chance to check what camera it was. a part of me was afraid it might've been a film camera (since all the unused film), but thankful it was digital. it was a canon rebel XS, introduced in july 2008. it also came with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS kit lens, but the lens itself isn't worth very much, and i already have two of them from previous canon cameras. the battery was dead so we plugged it into the charger, the camera doesn't work without the battery.
the canon battery was fully charged so i popped it into the camera. seems like the camera had been off a long time, i had to input all the date info. it came with a 32MB memory card, big enough to take about 24 photos in its largest resolution. there were already photos on the card, taken during the winter of 2019 (1/31st to be exact), in lowell, MA. several photos of people lining up for something, maybe to go to the lowell senior center, or a place called the owl diner. it's all very mysterious. i tried to use one of my memory cards, but they were all too large the camera wouldn't recognize them. finally my father found another 32MB memory card with photos taken from late november 2011 using a samsung digimax S500 camera. i copied the photos onto my computer before reformatting it. only then did the rebel XS have a working memory card. the photo it takes are decent at 10 megapixels. the viewfinder isn't that great, a bit blurry, as well as the low resolution 2.5-inch LCD. this camera does have some features i didn't have with my rebel XT (circa 2005), the camera i was using back in 2008. i used the XT to death before i eventually upgraded to a canon 60D in december 2012. the XS has sensor cleaning and dust delete data detection.
i finished up some leftover barbecue from last night with some rice porridge for breakfast before we finally left before 11am.
firs stop was the waltham costco. we were here primarily for eggs, but left with more than what we intended. i tried out some 32 degrees polo, trying to figure out the proper size before i order some online (cheaper). i checked out sur la table's second generation air fryer, featuring an easy open door that opens from the side (like a microwave) instead of from the top (like an oven). i also got some led light bulbs for my 2nd aunt. i was looking for warm whites, but discovered all they had were these new fancy bulbs with sliders on them that you can adjust the color, from warm white to cool white. that's actually pretty cool ($10 for a pack of 6).
we made it to the waltham market basket by noontime. for some reason they were all out of chicken legs, but my father stocked up on pork for our charsiu. we finally left waltham around 12:30pm, taking the quicker highway route back to cambridge. after dropping off the supplies at the cafe we returned to belmont by 1:30pm.
it was in the car that i learned about paul reubens AKA peewee herman's death at age 70 from cancer. i remember watching peewee's playhouse as a kid (having already seen his live stage show special on HBO). we'd just moved into our current house, and the previous owner left an old massage chair in the basement which my friend kevin and i took turn sitting in while watching the show on saturday mornings. even at that young age i knew there was something subversive about peewee, yet still funny and safe, like a really goofy kid friend, not an adult at all.
back at the house my father pan-fried some wonton for a late lunch.
later we went outside to do some more garden work. my father continued trimming the squash vines, while i dig up some crabgrass from the back lawn before moving onto the front yarn, a seemingly neverending task. i sprayed some mildew-affected squash leaves with neem oil. i harvested two large bitter melons (my parents left them on the vine so i could have the satisfaction of collecting them myself). later i watered the garden, but ended up twist the metal hose mender until it came completely off. my father had to fix it with a plastic hose mender before i could finish watering the raised beds.
my sister came to pick up my mother around that time, to go have spring shabu shabu hot pot with her godmother, leaving my father and i to fend for ourselves. we ended up ordering some food from what da chick, driving out to pick up our order.
we were expecting rain, but some storm clouds manifested themselves, trapping me in belmont. i didn't leave until almost 8pm, by then my moher had already come back.
it'd been such a long day, remember what i did this morning was like remembering what i did yesterday. too tired to blog, i called an early evening and went to bed around 10:30pm.