Wanna watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat?

I cook my moose roast tomorrow. Still undecided what to accompany the dish with. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find flying squirrel nowadays?

Honestly, I am not so sure about the moose, if I will like the taste, although it is said to resemble elk, which I love. 

Did you know that it is illegal to buy moose meat in this country? It has to be given to you by the person who harvested it. My friend shoots a moose every year up in Alaska. It feeds his family for the entire year. Moose and caribou, which is much leaner.

He says that it is his favorite meat. I bet I will like it. It is a very clean and organic meat, no hormones or preservatives, eats a very clean willow diet.

I am told that many people find it gamy. To fight this I will be soaking it in milk for a few hours prior to roasting. This is said to neutralize the wild taste. Some people don't like lamb, I love it so I don't think there will be a problem with moose.

We don't normally have milk at home. We haven't really drank it for a decade or three. I told Leslie I needed a pint and she brought home a half gallon. She said it was on sale and cheaper than the pint. Said to soak my moose and then pour the rest down the drain. Screw that, I said. I am going to buy some cereal. We have not had dry cereal in our house for even longer than the milk. She told me to knock myself out.

Now this led to my predicament. What to buy? My all time favorite was frosted flakes but I also went through an early sugar pops and captain crunch phase, who didn't? Liked cheerios, rice krispies and corn and rice chex. 

Hated raisin bran, fruit loops, chocula, shredded wheat, lucky charms, sugar smacks, any of that stuff. Ate grape nuts but there were times it was like chewing on gravel. I decided to nose around the grocery outlet and bought an on sale box of honeynut cheerios this morning. Not quite the bang of frosted flakes, which I used to eat dry out of the box but also less guilt. Looking forward to a nice bowl.

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I am a very loyal person. I believe in long friendships and professional relationships, ones that stand the test of time. I have prejudices, like every honest person, only I admit to mine and one of them is that I believe in old doctors. Ones that are not quite so cocksure and who have made a few mistakes in their time. Don't really trust the young ones, not sure why.

But old doctors also eventually get too old or worse and that is the conundrum I am now faced with. I have had the same G.P. since 1977 or 8 and I can't see him anymore. He has been put out to the farm of some boutique or concierge medicine company and can no longer see me.

Seymour and I have been through so much, he found my cancer initially in 1985, saw me through a myriad of ailments, but it just doesn't work any more, for either of us. I asked my new cardiologist, who I really like, to recommend three doctors and she did. I see the first one Monday, just to get a feel for him. Young guy. Osteopath. Sort of strange to me. But his reviews are good and he is highly recommended. We will see.

My dentist retired last year after 60 years of practice here. Eyes and ears are giving out. I didn't flow with the guy he sold his practice to and now he too is retired. Ron was a beauty, would come in on a Sunday out of his grove in his blue jeans and work on me when I had a rare emergency, on his own. Did missionary dentistry in remote Polynesia in his early days where you were taught to function by yourself, no excuses.

I will never find another Ron, I know that. He was very concerned with not overcharging his patients, many of whom were not wealthy. Anyway it has been ten months since my last cleaning and I was way overdue.

I went to see Leslie's dentist, a really nice lady, the other day. When I tried to schedule a cleaning the staff said that because I had one bleeding area that was a six I would need a double deep cleaning schedule, close to eight hundred bucks.

I was flummoxed. I have always had one small area that was a six. I asked if I could just get a regular cleaning and they said no, not after a deep cleaning diagnosis. I have never paid over a hundred and thirty bucks for a cleaning and I demurred. I finally tracked down my old hygienist, with help of my friend Beth and got a regular cleaning this morning at Stewart's old practice, where he is now working.

Haimish has been cleaning my teeth for about thirty years or so and said everything looked same as ever. Teeth were smooth, few required planing. Cost about a hundred bucks. He asked if I was on blood thinners and I said yes and he said that was the reason for the minor bleed. Saved about seven hundred bucks I would say. Feels great to have clean teeth again.

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One of the young new dentists at the practice came in to inspect my mouth.  Nice guy. Saw a couple spots he wants to keep an eye on, and a small cavity under an old amalgam filling. Thinks I will need a crown, eventually, but was not pressuring me. I winced at the $1700 price tag and he said that he might be able to do something on account of my "senior citizen" status.

"What?"

Honest to god, I have never been addressed like that. This was a first for me. Why you young whippersnapper, I'll show you senior citizen. But hey, I guess it happens to everybody. If you are not getting older, you are dead. Simple as that.

Punk kids...