First, a rant

Totally off my usual subjects, but you readers are just not going to believe this one.

The husband calls home every evening, and we look forward to his calls. It's the time when I get to relay my days' events, he complains how tired he is, and jointly commiserate the time we spend apart.

He rarely complains about the aches and pains of the physical labor-even though I know he suffers occasionally. So it came as a bit of a surprise to have him mention that he had a bit of a toothache over the weekend. Two nights ago he says it's been bothering him for a week (aiyee!) and it's pretty painful. Last night he says he needs to see a dentist and get the tooth pulled, and he needs me to get an appointment for him, asap. The tooth has broken and at least half the filling is gone and he is eating ibuprofen like candy.

He sounds terrible, obviously in a lot of pain, so this morning I set myself the task. The first call was to his dentist. All three dentists are gone this weekend, period. I called the other dentists he mentioned to me-no luck.

And so it went. 45 or 50 phone calls, not one dentist in the Mat Su Valley this weekend. A bunch of them have either left or merged into other clinics, as their phone numbers are no good. I even called Mat Su Regional Hospital, and exhausted the list they faxed to me. Flipping through the MTA book, I happen to notice a listing for the Anchorage Dental Society and called there in desperation. The nice lady called me back, giving me five more names and numbers to call.

Guess what? With a population of what? 400,000 people, there is not one dentist available this weekend.

Really. I have made well over 60 phone calls this morning, trying to find someone to help my husband, and there is no one available until Tuesday morning. When, of course, he can see his own dentist.

Gotta love living in Alaska!