When all else fails, ride a horse. The goal today was simply to keep busy so that I would not be thinking about the plastic in my mouth. I did keep busy – I alternated riding and running and walking Raudi 10 miles, which I discovered is the distance to the end of Buffalo Mine Road.

It was not her favorite ride – when we do this trek, she acts like I am taking her to the house of doom. Behind every tree (at least in her mind) lurks a predator, one that will eat her and then pick out its teeth with her bones. It’s always been this way, though in the past she would spook, in an attempt to unseat me and run home. Knock on wood, it seems like those days are over.

At one point she stopped and put her neck up and her ears forward. I got off, for I feared being tossed. Her eyes were bulging. But, she was not chuffing. If she were chuffing, it would mean that a bear was close by. I just told her to get over it and she moved on.

Yep, less time spent thinking about the retainer and how it feels. It does not hurt, it just feels like my teeth are encased in plastic. Duhh. The worst thing of all is that I can’t eat with these so-called trays in my mouth. I have to remove them. And they do not come out easily. I have to use the equivalent of a dental crowbar to get them out. And doing this hurts.

Apple tree

I am also trying not to think about the fact that my teeth are going to be encased in plastic for another six months. That’s a long time. I’ll be done with this right before Christmas, which is if the world is not blown to smithereens in the meantime. The world is on perilous ground right now because the bad angels are duking it out. Now when they get tired, the good angels will step back in and tend to that which is now tattered.

What, I wondered today, if the world goes under and the dentist goes under and I am not able to finish the retainer sequence? I will, I suspect, then have permanently crooked teeth. But this may then be the least of my concerns. I will most likely be concerned about the Alaska infrastructure, and what we might end up doing if it collapses. For sure, we’d be screwed in that we would no longer be able to purchase bananas. I think that it is quite remarkable that we are now able to purchase bananas, and that they are able to ship them here and that they are affordable.

Well, the garden is going in – Pete’s been tending to it as I’ve been tending to horses. He grafted branches onto an apple tree that had been damaged by voles. And he has been planting the seedlings. Good man, that Pete.

Next: 131. 5/1/18: A Conversation with the Grrrls