You've been warned

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Well you are back so, shame on you. I tried to warn you once before so now I will just assume you have accepted the risk of brainwarpage by reading again.

I love reading John's posts. They are so logical and organized and seem to stick to one point. If you have ever talked to me you will know that I do not operate in the same way. I tend to wander all over the place at times and love to do lots of different things. My blog posts will, probably, go the same way.

So much time and so little things to talk about - wait a minute, reverse that.

A friend of mine, when he heard that I was doing this blog, asked if I was actually doing it or if my hygienist was doing it and I just came in at the end to say hi. That one made me laugh even though it does present an interesting quandry as a dentist. The healthier I keep my patients the less they see what I do and the less they are aware of me. Any thoughts? What perception to people have of the dentist, I mean we are not "real doctors" anyway - right.



I showed that video to my 8 year old over the weekend and he just laughed and laughed. I love that sound.

So I finished my Leo Tolstoy biography on Friday. If you don't know, Tolstoy was a Russian writer, thinker, theologian, quasi-anarchist nut-job from the late 19th century. His most famous work is War and Peace (or as it was originally entitled, 'War - what is it good for') I was struck by how neurotic he was and I must admit it made me feel better about myself. He was a brilliant mind and yet a horrible parent and husband. He is now widely thought of as the greatest novelist of all time - what would you rather be: anonymous and happy or famous and miserable. I like my anonymity (as I write on the AGD blog - I also like my irony).

The voices are pretty quiet this morning. Probably because I was in for 2 emergency procedures over the weekend. I can go months without even a phone call over the weekend then hit one like this past weekend where I am in the office on Saturday and Sunday. So you know, I live 3 blocks from my office. I love it, I get to be a neighborhood dentist and see my patients at the grocery store, church, on the bike trails. But it also makes it hard to say no or put off a procedure until Monday.

Not that I am bitter but you do realize that I am both a KC Royals fan and a KC Chiefs fan. The fact that I am still alive on Monday should be impressive by itself.

As I mentioned above, I am a FB junkie. That said, I am careful in who I allow as a FB friend. I do not friend patients or staff. I figure there are some things that I just don't want others to see or know about me and I know there are things that I don't want to know about them. I know some dentists who don't have that same restriction - if you do FB or Myspace (which is so 2006) how do you handle that issue? As we become more and more digital we lose more and more privacy. What amazes me is that we are so willing to give this up. I see people all the time posting that they are going on a 2 week vacation or that their husband/wife/parents are out of town. Why do I think people care?? Moreover, why do I want to let people know when I am out of town?

One upside of FB is that I can stay in contact with some dentists around the country and not feel so alone. If you are not a dentist and reading this blog, it can be a lonely profession. I am in solo private practice, it is nice to be able to vent/commiserate with a peer. To try to eliminate the post - please don't tell me about how Dentaltown can do the same thing. I am aware of Dentaltown and the Jonesian devotion it inspires in its members. I am not talking about a study club, I am talking about just letting off steam with some friends. That is what FB lets this husband, father of 3 solo-practitioner, small business owner do in his "spare" time.

Well I have crosswords to do, bills to pay and, if I have time, some patients to say hi to after their hygiene appointments so I better put the voices to bed. Have a great week.

ric