A note from Brent:

It is starting to cool off here in the desert. The temperatures have been only getting up into the 70s and down into the 40s/50s at night. The dust still floats around like a fog. Fortunately I do not have to work outside, because they have to deal with it constantly.

I am starting to see more patients during the day. The word is getting out that I am here and people are taking advantage of the chance to get a cleaning (yippy skippy a cleaning) my favorite part of dentistry. I did get a more challenging case yesterday. A patient had a crown placed before she came. It was one of her front lateral teeth on top. The tooth had gone through some extensive dentistry before it came to me and to me it is a non-restorable tooth, but out here there are not the materials to fix a problem like that so I had to improvise. I drilled out some of the filling material from the root canal that had been done down about 5 mm. Then I bonded a piece of paper clip into the crown and cemented it back in place where I had made the hole. That seemed to work pretty well. She came back and I tried to move it and it would not move so we are going to see how long that will last.

I finished reading a book called "the Undaunted" last night. It was about the some of the pioneers that settled down near the four corners area. It was a pretty good book about one how these people from Yorkshire became converted and what they had to go through as a pioneer company to make their new settlements. Sounds pretty tough to me. I am glad that I did not have to go through that time period. Those were some tough people back then.

So Halloween is coming up in a little while. I am going to go as an army guy and carry a 9 mm around all the time. Then I will fix all the peoples halloween candy teeth because the are pulling there crowns out with the sticky pieces (happened this week). Sound like a good idea? How about you guys what are you going to go as? Dad probably as one of the Spanish conquestadores (not sure if that is spelled right). Mom as the wild cowgirl that tamed the west with her trusty sidekick Teddy. Suzanne as as Aspen tree hugger. Gerratt as the quick draw master with his .22 cal pea shooter. Lisa as the zoo keeper in charge of 3 wild animals. Cooper as the youngest taxi driver who will help you buckle your seat belt so he can drive fast. Mercedes as a princess of course, but which one will be the suprise. Lincoln as CPT smiley so that he can show off his new upper teeth.

Well, Love you all and hope things are great back in the states. It is a wonderful place to be. We really need to appreciate how beautiful it is. Yes, there are retards who govern it, but hopefully someday there will be somebody able to fix some of the problems.

A paper clip? Really? Who are you, MacGyver?