Back from my coronation

So, to conclude, I hopefully will have a happier tooth in a couple days, which is the length of time it could take for the desensitizing agent to fully kick in.

At the beginning of 2019, I was due to get ol' #31, my last bottom right molar, crowned. I went in, they grinded for a good long while, and then they gave me a temporary crown. They told me not to chew on it.

I walked down the street to a cafe and got a sandwich and promptly chewed on it. And the crown broke apart like a skittle (at least that's how it felt). Literally, my first bite, as I was leaving, this happened.

I felt so dumb. I spit out the food and called the dentist. They said I could either get a new temporary crown or tough it out while I waited two weeks for the permanent one to arrive. Being smart, I elected to tough it out. And I'm pretty sure that doomed me to a perpetual course of cold-sensitivity.

I can't believe I had this crown for longer than I had my last job. And both of them were causing me substantial--but tolerable--pain. For six years I have been chewing primarily on the left side of my mouth. Yes, I'd use the right, especially after getting crowns on the top that removed my sweetness sensitivity. It would require training, I thought, but I would teach #31 to stop being so sensitive.

Didn't work.

I'd basically resigned myself to feel like this forever. And perhaps I still will. But this candy has given me at least a chance to no longer have sensitivity to cold. Here's hoping.

He did say after one failure of this sort, another detachment is likely, and will likely occur after a shorter period of time. So also there's that; if it turns out it's still sensitive, I'll get another shot at this in a few years.

As for Sheila, I took her into the shop Wednesday, where the shop owner had a very soft dog named Flash(?) who had her vocal cords removed(?) but was very chill after I let her sniff me. Anyway, he drove her around for a couple of minutes and said that the clicking is best described as "old Subaru noises". It was something that could probably be fixed, but it would be cost money and it wouldn't prevent any future problems. I was good to drive her as-is, no worries, as long as the clicking didn't bother me. That was a huge relief.

So I scheduled some service: transmission/differential/brake fluid drain/replace, fixing a coolant pipe (and replacing the fluid), and a new set of spark plugs. The transmission fluid had actually been done relatively recently, and the transmission only has like 55k miles on it, and it's running like butter, but just to be safe I want to work that in there, especially because (I think) it induces a relearning procedure that will prompt the car to learn how I drive.

If I'm lucky, Sheila will last several years and several tens of thousands of miles without major repairs. If I'm very lucky, that'll be 5+ and 50k+. That's what I'm going to shoot for, partly because this car deserves love and partly because I would like to buy my next car after the current tariff regime has disappeared and things have settled down.