I saw this on the door to my local polling place today as I went in to cast a ballot in a primary.

I go to drawing class last Tuesday (which is actually an open studio, there is no instruction, so it's a bit untrue to call it class) and am in the parking lot gathering up my supplies as a car pulls in, parking facing me. The driver gets out of the car, has a package under his arm and walks inside.

While leaving his car running.

I'm listening to the Clipse CD (wow, what a surprise) and watch. I suspect the gentleman will be running in, dropping off his stuff and leaving. But a couple of minutes pass and he doesn't reappear. I get out and look in the car. the engine is running, the keys are in the car and there is no one else in the vehicle.

I walk inside and set down my art supplies. And think. And then walk out to see if the car is still there. Yup. I tell the receptionist and she walks out with me to see. Still there, still running.

There are several classes going on, so she says she will ask around. I return to class. I ask during a break what the resolution was. I am told:

"I found him, he was in the photography class. I asked if someone left their car running. He said 'Oh, that's mine.' I ask if he would like to cut if off. He said 'no.'" The receptionist now adds a flourish — a quized, cocked-head look, not unlike that of the dog/His Master's Voice.

"Well," she continued, "with the price of gas what is it is and all, I just thought you might want to turn it off."
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll only be a minute." (This is keeping in mind that it has been 10 minutes already at this point.)

The receptionist gave up and left.

Who does this? I can get maybe that the car is difficult to start. Maybe. But c'mon. Running, in the parking lot, with the key in the ignition? Oy, people.

So I accidentally deleted the entire mog database this afternoon. Oops.

Then I paid 25 bucks to the hosting company to restore the backup they have. It was supposed to be last nights. It was last weeks. Yikes.

But I think all we lost was some comments that may have been made today, but I don't have them floating in my feed reader. The posts from the last week or so might be missing tags or correct timestamps — sorry. Otherwise, we should be good to go.

Also, I am a dumbass.

while my fear of the dentist is certainly nothing earth-shattering, it is new in my life over approximately the last few years.  i think i can pinpoint when i started having the teeth-falling-out/smashed/etc dreams - soon after withnessing a car accident in which i saw one of the drivers open his mouth after impact, only to have his teeth dribble into his lap like a mouthful of tic-tacs.  or at least that's the way i remember it now.

dentophobia is extremely common, and certainly not as exotic as most of the phobias on this list, but that does not do many any good when i break into a cold sweat considering my upcoming back-to-back root canal "retreatment" and fillings.

i am strangely bitter about the fact that neither of these events can be blamed on bad oral hygiene; at least then i'd have to suck it up to take responsibility for my own actions.  but i've had tooth problems since i was a child - something about my the density of my teeth being lower or more porous or something due to a childhood high fever that happened at the same time that i had some kid illness or other.   my dad, of course, recalls nothing of this and for the 83 millionth time i long for my mother to ask questions.  but i digress.

so the fillings are because i have crappy teeth, but the root canal, get this, is because i had a crappy dentist.  how shitty is that?  i had a root canal done when i was about 10 or 11 and basically it was done in such a fashion that it now has to be "fixed" - re-done, basically.  my understanding is that of the 3 roots in my #19 tooth, the jackass only actually did 2 of the 3 roots and left one entirely untouched.  plus of the 2, one he didn't finish entirely.  and thus it is no wonder that i now face very dreaded oral surgery that i am contemplating getting completely xanaxed for.

not even the thought of tripp's old suggestion toward bettering dentistry can calm me at the moment.   although i guess that service  has a gender-bias in it anyway.