Officially winter is just around the corner, but here in Memphis I am afraid that someone might have forgotten to inform the weather that it is still fall. True, it never really gets that cold in Memphis, at least not compared to the weather that much of the northern US and Canada have (not to mention Siberia!), but for bein’ down south it sure has had a bit of a chill. Fortunately it has not been too windy, however we sure ’nuff have had a breeze ’round these here parts. I ‘member an ol’ timer tellin’ me that sometimes the wind sure ’nuff is lazy. That’s right folks, its too lazy to go ’round ya so it just goes strait through ya leav’n you chilled to the bone in the process. In any case, Memphis was experiencing a wonderful Indian Summer with temperatures in the 70s and even 80s until a week ago. Last Friday the temperature dropped steadily from the mid 70s down to the upper 50s by the time I went to bed, and Saturday morning I woke up to a freezing, thats right, it was below freezing with the trusty thermometer diplaying a mere 26 degrees. Talk about a bit of a shock, nice weather one day, only to be surprised by the cold (did I mention that 26 feel quite cold compared to 75?). Since then the weather has been fluctuating, actually getting almost warm enough not to need a jacket a few of the afternoons and usually getting down in the mid to lower 30s by night. Today a bright sun was shining in a clear blue sky, but I understand why they say “the day dawned clear and cold” because I don’t think it ever got out of the 30s today. Right now it is down to a measly 25 degrees and the thermometer is still dropping. I do have to admit though, there is something invigorating about winter weather, something enjoyable about bundling up in a coat and walking briskly in the stiff breeze so that it is warm inside the coat, your breath comes out in big white puffs, and the cold air makes your cheeks and ears tingle. Just don’t stand still when the weather is like this, at least not if you don’t enjoy a lazy wind.

Now I know that dentists don’t have too much in common with winter – unless both of them strike fear and dread into your heart. But for me, I really don’t mind either one and so I don’t see that they have too much in common. I sure can’t say that most of the dentists that I know are cold, because they have been some of the warmest and friendliest kind of folk you would want to meet. So what do these two have in common in this little discussion? Well, that is actually easy to explain since I was talking primarily about today. You see, I am indeed guilty of neglecting my teeth. I think I can just about count on one hand the number of times that I have been to a dentist (that is about to change by the looks of things). It has been over 5 years since my shadow last crossed the threshold of a dentist office, and even then I started to get some dental work done that I never completed because first my dentist moved and then I went off to Kentucky for school. So here I find myself, knowing that I have a few untreated cavities, knowing that neglecting my teeth is not helping them in the long run, and walking past the dental clinic that is associated with the Dental School here at UT every time I go to or come back from class. So finally one day I was visiting with a friend of mine who is a third year dental student, and he told me that if I wanted to wait a month or two I could be one of his patients. One of the advantages of this is that I can get the work done at some seriously discounted rates! So today was the day to go get a screening and general workup done. As I guessed, I do need some work done, seems I have several cavities, most of them small, they are what they called the “ideal” size, just large enough to detect, not big enough to cause any problems. A few of the others are a bit larger, seems they would like to work on those first. Anyway, we made a discovery today (yes I did say we, I spotted it first on the xray, but they had to tell me exactly what the abnormality was because I could not figure it out), it turns out that my top left canine tooth is actually still a baby tooth. The permanent tooth is impacted underneath of it. It turns out that if I leave it alone there is a chance that sometime in the next few months or years it is likely that the baby tooth will fall out, the impacted tooth will damage the tooth on one side of it, and I could end up with a big gap, so… I guess I will probably go to the orthodontist since they say it is a simple procedure to fix the tooth. Now you know more about my teeth and dental history than what you ever figured you wanted to know, but that about summarizes the nonscholastic part of my day!

Ok, so I am not physically running around like a chicken with my head cut off, it just feels like it some times. Actually, this past week went fairly well for me. I did find myself wrapped up in the busyness of school (and everything else – including working on planning a trip to Haiti over my December break from classes). I finally took a few minutes tonight to try and set up my xanga page in a manner that seems to me to be a bit more aesthetically pleasing… what do you think?

As I mentioned, it is easy for me to get wrapped up in doing “stuff”; legitimate stuff to be sure, but how easily I lose my focus! I long for my life to be a part of fulfilling the verse that I placed in the header; that my life would contribute to putting Christ in the primary place! I believe that it is fitting for every child of God to strive to bring honor and glory to Christ in all that he/she does. I press towards this, and by the grace of God my life will become more and more a continuous act of worship.

In case you are wondering, yes, my thoughts in this entry are a bit scattered, but if you are taking time to read this then I hope you don’t mind a little rambling. But since I talked about hither I will also tell you about yon. I meet with a CMDA (Christian Medical & Dental Association) small group for a Bible study on Monday nights. We have been going through a curriculum that was written by a local Christian Dr. here in Memphis. We currently have only one lesson left in the series we have been doing, so we are beginning to discuss what we want to do next. There are 5 guys (besides myself) that meet together in this group, and we have had numbers of profitable discussions. It seems that missions have been an underlying theme of all of our studies, even starting with the night that we first gathered together just to become acquainted with each other. In any case, I hope that these meetings are helping each of the guys to grow, to take their walk with God seriously, to consider that this vile world is not a friend to grace, and to press on as good soldiers for Christ.

The hour is growing later, and I have not yet figured out how to have 36 hour days so I will stop writing here.