Yippee

I'm picking up my tickets for Peru on Friday. I'm also getting my yellow fever shot and oral typhoid meds that same day.

It looks like a couple of days in Lima followed by 5 days in Arequipa, 8 days in Cuzco and 6 in Iquitos before flying home. I might nix the Iquitos leg if I find Cuzco interesting enough to warrant a few extra days. I haven't allowed any time for a Nazca visit, although I could always fit that in by nixing Iquitos. We'll see what happens when in Peru. I'm excited.

Peru

I'm off to Peru in just over 10 weeks. I'll provide more details just as soon as I have the time.

Another one bites the dust

Another cat died yesterday. This one was killed by a car in he street in front of the house. She was about 14 months old. We're running out of places to bury them all.

Life and death

One of the cats died on Friday afternoon. When I say died, I mean that I had her put to sleep. She was 17 1/2 and I'd had her since she was 5 weeks old. She had developed a bacterial infection of her heart and was experiencing great difficulty in doing anything and was undoubtedly suffering. After 3 very expensive days at the vet's office, I had no choice. The vet and his staff were kind and considerate. Now she sleeps "the big sleep" as Chandler would say.

The Academy Awards are on TV as I write, but I loathe the self-congratulatory sycophancy that is Hollywood and I won't be watching it.

I just had a thought...

and I don't get many, so this is special.

If my blog is called Nomad, how come I don't write about my travels?

Getting my teeth into some more

90 minutes in the chair at the orthodontist left me with new braces - upper and lower. I'm not happy about it, but after the amount of money spent, I really want to have straight teeth. At least I'm on the home stretch. Within 12 months it sould all be over. Wish me luck.

Getting my teeth into it

About 3.5 years ago I decided to get my teeth straightened. This was an unusual decision since my teeth were perceived to be straight by my friends and family. I took a trip to the orthodontist and after several hundred dollars of X-rays and moulds I was shown a reconstruction of my mouth. My teeth were slightly crooked and i was biting "crown to crown." On went the braces and 36 months, actually 35 months, 3 weeks and 4 days, and $5500 later off they came to reveal straight and slightly yellow teeth. Why yellow? Braces prevent proper cleaning, but after a couple of weeks of hard scrubbing my dazzling smile returned.

Then, on a visit to the dentist to have some older fillings taken care of, the orthodontist, whose office is around the corner, was called to give his opinion. I was given the bad news. Some of my teeth had moved and stabilized in new positions. To correct for this natural adjustment I would need new braces for 6-12 months. This would allow all my other teeth to be adjusted in such a manner as to "fit" with the movers. I agreed to this proceedure and the new metalwork goes on next Wednesday. So, if anybody reading this should have the pleasure of meeting me before October of '05, be prepared to meet Mr. Metalmouth.

Fair warning