DIY Dentistry

Of course I got a temporary crown the day before San Diego Comic-Con. Of course I did.

I knew it was a bit risky—what if I had a throbbing jaw on Thursday morning on the train? What if my jaw was swollen while I was at an outdoor party? But I wanted to get out the silver filling that was pulling away from the tooth. I probably got this silver filling the same year some of my editors were born, when I was a cub at Marvel. The filling had to go, and it was too big for a replacement, so it gets a kind of new hat for my tooth, a crown.

What could go wrong?

Besides everything, plus the possibility of con covid, and my hurt foot I’ve been getting physical therapy for.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today I went by Pitfire Pizza in North Hollywood, just to confirm there is indeed a Daniel Johnston replica mural on the patio. 

 Why? Google didn't want to tell me anything except "Architect Barbara Bestor’s eye-catching design stars a sprawling, light-strung gravel patio and square bar backed with Daniel Johnston’s iconic “Hi, How Are You” frog mural." 

Maybe the idea is to imply this pizza is quirky, hip, outsider cutting-edge. I dunno. Maybe the owner likes Daniel Johnston. Maybe he has indie rock clients. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 I'll have to go back and ask someone official.

At SDCC 2023

Look what happened yesterday! It's for contributions to comics/lifetime achievement.

But Did the Circuits Count?

I found my Fitbit clipped to the bulletin board in the complex laundry room. My Fitbit is now very clean.

Omnibus Injury Update

The physical therapy for the plantar fascia micro-tears felt pretty helpful. I guess? I'm no expert, but the pain has lessened and I got rid of the quack podiatrist's insoles.

I'm back in Burbank now and aiming to go to San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday. I apologize for everyone who thinks I'm lazy--I'm not! (Well, not entirely.) I just have to be careful.

Will I just sit in one place, mostly, and nurse my torn tendon?

Or will I walk too much and be back where I started?

Probably somewhere in-between. But I admit to some anxiety over this.

Someone's Knocking at the Door

She wants to visit me! That’s disconcerting.

Prelude to Invasion

I called the spotted lanternfly police to find out how to eviscerate spotted lanternflies but no one called me back. 

JC is crawling with the things.

Happy Birthday, America

 This is us.

Regrets

Former DC Executive Editor Pat McCallum has departed this mortal coil, and I have a jumble of thoughts to sort through. Some are about Pat. Some are about me, or maybe they’re about Pat, or maybe they’re about our colleagues. Honestly, in moments like these, it can be hard to tell what is self-serving and what is genuinely about the departed. I do know that when I became EIC of DC, I had no idea how much death would be part of my new life. Making the calls to his close collaborators to get them updated ahead of the headlines was hard. Hearing voices cracking was heartbreaking. Hearing my own voice was weird too. All that is about me—much of a person’s loss is about the prism through which an individual experiences the news.

Pat often spoke to me of his dream of getting a dog—a German Shepherd. I hassled him relentlessly about this for a while, sending him links to Petfinder pups, but he wanted to get a house with a yard first, so the big dog wouldn’t have to live in an apartment. Less than half a year after he left the company, a global pandemic kicked in, and then we were all shut-ins, which can’t possibly have helped.

Ouchie

Y'all remember when I had plantar fasciitis after moving all those boxes, and I went to a Burbank podiatrist and got a shot of cortisone, some exercises, some Hoka sneakers, and some fancy custom insoles?

Maybe you don't remember that much detail but anyway, it seemed to get WORSE after doing all that, and the pain migrated and evolved a bit, so I made an appointment with a fancy-schmancy foot doctor in Manhattan, flew East for the July 4th weekend, and got a foot ultrasound and rock star foot guy said...

...I have torn my plantar fascia. His assessment is the cortisone made the pain go away and I then proceeded to walk all the heck over the place and not take it easy (which is true). He also said the custom insoles are basically garbage and the shoes are fine but not any better than other similar (and cheaper) shoes. He gave me a lecture about for-profit medicine and how our very stupid health insurance system incentivizes doctors to do little add-ons to get more money from a visit since most in-network fees are quite small.

And then he assigned me to go to physical therapy until my foot has improved, and said I should toss the custom insoles and get less rigid over-the-counter ones. (I suspect their rigid arches might have exacerbated the situation.)

Today I had my first physical therapy. It was like getting a really intense foot massage, but with homework. And I have to go three more times over the next two weeks before I'm allowed to return to California, then I'll probably have to come back a few weeks later, or maybe I'll be improved enough I can go to a Burbank PT for a while.

In short, I have a doctor's note requiring me to go to Manhattan. Which would be more fun if I didn't also have a doctor's note to take it easy and stay put in my apartment in Jersey City.