Yesterday Caitlin’s bathroom got the same better-living-through-industrial-grade-solvent-chemistry that Rebecca’s received the day before. She has a skylight in her shower, something I forget even exists. Nice on a sunny day, but when the morning’s are dark, it’s like letting a piece of the night into your shower.

She restarted guitar lessons with a new teacher, her previous one having retired at the end of last school year. The new teacher is one of those guys whom you see for the first time and figure he’s a musician. Or a serial killer. Or maybe both. Anyway, she seems to like him and his teaching methods, which center around helping her learn to play the music that interests her. She also informed me that she wants an Ovation guitar for her birthday. And I want a month-long vacation in Big Sur. We all want something, sweetheart, that we just don’t get. Disappointment prepares you for real life.

Today was the day I dread every 6 months. It creeps up on me and my mind refuses to acknowledge its presence on my schedule. I wake up and my teeth start to ache and tingle. My gums try to retract into my jaw. I check for any sign of sore throat or cough or sinus congestion that would cause a postponement. But I'm always amazingly healthy and have to face up to... The Teeth Cleaning. The dental hygienist wants to chat, while I just want to get it over with. She'll start off with the Cavitron - some sort of sonic tartar blaster device that must have originated in Lawrence Olivier's demented dentist's dungeon in Marathon Man. When I wince and squirm and tense up to the point that she tells me I have to relax, and I tell I can't because it's too painful, then she'll change to the manual scraper which feels as if it's the many-headed Hydra of dental tools. After a few seconds of that I'll tense up again, and today she told me I needed to take up yoga. I told her I would if it would make teeth hurt less. She was not amused. Now it's only 180 days and counting until my next cleaning. Tick, tick, tick...

Books: Harry Potter. Chapter 3 maybe.

Music: Lots of Warren Zevon music today.

Movies: Clerks. I had forgotten how many funny moments there are in this movie.