Me, Denis, and about 20,000 other people were at the Staples Center last night for The Who concert. I’ve never been to a concert like this before (does Donnie & Marie count?) and it was LOUD! How do I describe the level of loudness? I could physically feel the thumping of the bass in my chest like it was pounding against my heart. If someone you know goes into cardiac arrest, get them to a rock concert! It’ll snap that puppy right back to life! Once I got my earplugs in, I really enjoyed the music by the two remaining members of The Who, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend. They played their entire rock opera, “Quadrophenia” followed by some of their big hits. The drummer, Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son), was incredible and there were six video screens with fantastic graphics. They also used the screens to play nice tributes to Keith Moon and John Entwistle with their solos integrated into the live music so well it was hard to tell them apart.

We had center floor seats in the 12th row but we didn’t use the seats. Everybody stood for the entire two hours so if you didn’t stand, you could only see the screens. They rocked. Roger was bare chested, swinging the microphone. Pete was doing windmills on the guitar. They’ve still got it! They’re pushing seventy and performed for over two hours. And I was whining about having to stand up. I have a new perspective.

This morning I decided to walk out on our second floor balcony to check the gutters that face the backyard. What I saw was one of our cushions laying on the floor of the balcony and I have no idea how it got there. It’s a 12-inch square patio cushion that looks like it was tossed onto the balcony.  The last time I saw this cushion, it was on a patio chair that sits below the balcony. We have no children and the only people to frequent the backyard (besides the deer, coyotes, and various annoying critters) are the gardeners who are nice guys and would not pull pranks. How did it get there? Is it possible a hawk or owl picked it up and dropped it there? Maybe there was an animal on the cushion and the bird picked up the animal and cushion together, then dropped the cushion? It’s a mystery.

I went back to the gum guy on Thursday. Here’s my problem: If I was having open heart surgery, I don’t want to hear, “We’re going to crack open your chest with a chain saw, pry you open with a huge metal vice, then start slicing up……” No! I don’t need to hear that! All I need to hear is, “You’re not going to die.”  So I get there and am in the chair with the woman who’s about to work on my infected tooth. This time I know not to look at any of the sharp, pointy, metal tools. Then in comes the gum guy, who said hi to me and then started to review my x-ray with the technician, telling her what needs to be done. “You’ll have to use that long blah-blah tool and get way up into this area here – it may take some time – but you’ll have to scrape all of this out. If she needs more numbing, you can give her another injection.” Hello!! I’m right here!! I did not need to hear that.

I thought about making a run for it. Maybe I should ask for a bunch of Advil & Tylenol… not for the pain… I want to get high. Next time (and there will be a next time) I’m bringing my ipod. If I ran things, every dentist’s office would serve wine.