What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Mr A Lawrence]

It's the little things.....

 

[Tamworthbay]

Funny thing, couple years back I went to the dentist here for routine check-up and gave the complaint that one of my lower molars would occasionally be a little sore. He poked a bit and discovered the tooth above had worn through the enamel on the lower one and it was beginning to work it's way down. Decision was made there to clean it up and fill it full of wob.

Out comes the stainless steel syringe with the big eye hoops that would look more at home on a turkey baster, and the large needle with a big kink in. He explains the best way to go about this will be to inject anaesthetic at the back of my mouth to numb the right side of my lower jaw.

(Since then I researched; this method is standard practice, called the Gow-Gates lower mandibular block and it works because there's a big nerve that comes up behind the jaw and splits off into 3 main branches. One goes up your cheek, the other to your top teeth, the other to the jaw and injecting there numbs the entire nerve making the side of your face numb).

So, in goes the needle and he squeezes the plunger in, sets everything down and tells me to sit back and he'll be back in fifteen minutes. I'm laying back and I can feel warmth running down my back, down my legs and it feels like I'm laying on a cloud.

Dentist comes back a while later, I'm staring at the speaker grille in the ceiling and he asks me if my jaw is numb. I tell him no, not really but he says we'll make a start of it. In goes the drill and I nearly jump out of the chair as the crashing electric feeling jolt of pain roots itself firmly into my tooth.

He decides at this point perhaps I wasn't telling him nonsense about the anesthesia having not taken hold. He puts the needle again carefully and squeezes the plunger. Again, the warm feeling down my back and down my legs. I tell him it feels warm. He agrees that it can, and buggers off again for a while.

Ten minutes of watching the trees outside and he returns. Asks if my jaw is numb. I whistle the first bar of Dixie at him. He looks slightly perplexed and decides on a third round of lidocaine. In goes the needle, expertly and again the sensation of floating on a warm cloud.. ten minutes pass and he returns, my jaw is still not numb.

At this point we are at the maximum injection allowance for the anaesthetic so he admits defeat. My wife leads me out, puts me in the passenger seat of the truck and goes back in to sort the paperwork out. When she comes out in told I was having a conversation with my reflection in the wing mirror. I don't recall much else from that day but, after doing a bunch of research it appears that in about 2.5% of the population, the main vein in the jaw decides to grow around the front of the nerves, rather than to the back, well out of the way.

What my dentist had done was find a vein and give me a rather concentrated three-course IV of lidocaine. Needless to say I was quite stoned and slept the rest of the day...

My dentist back home had heard of the oddity that is the veins going the wrong way and instead did the many-stabs approach on and around the tooth. That successfully had me pfhrobolblerrbrbbl and the filling went just fine...

I can smile about it now but I'll be honest. Anaesthetic almost directly to the heart isn't an inviting thought.

The main thing is I can grin about it BECOS I ARE NOT NORMAL.

Phil

I was laughing and cringing in equal measure at that, but it does sum up why I only go when I absolutely can’t avoid it.

[Hendry]

It is a reason to use the handbrake at lights. If you're holding your foot on the brake you're always going to lose a quarter of a second finding the biting point and then swapping feet, so either balance on the clutch (applicable to hire cars, or your own vehicle that isn't long for this world anyway) or use the handbrake so you can be ready on the pedals.

 

Learning light sequences helps too, so you can be rolling on red to cross the line on amber and into the distance on green

 

(I used to go full dragstrip with my Polo, hold it on the handbrake with the revs high and the clutch just below biting. Stopped doing that when I twisted a driveshaft in half)

My tactic is to sit in neutral with foot on brake for a while, roughly guesstimate when the lights will be changing. Change into first gear, bring up the bite and then swap other foot from brake the accelerator but try to avoid too many revs, also even better when it’s flat enough to be able to sit at lights with the handbrake off and no feet on any pedal so it’s not obvious from brake lights you’ve come off the brake pedal.

 

I try to avoid rolling over the line or too many revs so it’s not obvious I’m planning to beat them off the lights because I’m always worried with 140bhp and 270Nm of torque at my disposal I’ll get beaten, and I hate trying to beat someone off the lights and getting a showing up, so I make it look as if I’m not trying, so they don’t try either, catch them off guard and away I go.

 

I must admit to being a bit of a dick where I even if I’m in the lane others want to beat me off the line to get into I pull away quick to stay in front, and if I have a car which has similar power alongside who matches me, I never give in, even if we are neck and neck I will make them have to pull in behind me or whatever.

[dollywobbler]

My tactic is to sit in neutral with foot on brake for a while, roughly guesstimate when the lights will be changing. Change into first gear, bring up the bite and then swap other foot from brake the accelerator but try to avoid too many revs...

 

Or you could just use the handbrake?

[Guest Hooli]

Anyone would think that's what a handbrake is designed for.

[Pillock]

Handbrakes make for better drag starts anyway. But I knew talk of sitting on the brakes would make a light illuminate in Dollywobbler's house and he's be along shortly

 

(Presumably a red light, at eye level)

[Coprolalia]

Heidel's collection thread from the other side of Finland! New record

[Tamworthbay]

Or buy an auto, perfect for the two foot traffic light Grand Prix.

[Guest Hooli]

Handbrake works in autos too.

[Tamworthbay]

Don’t need it though, hand is for turning the radio up loud

[Guest Hooli]

Steering wheel controls...

[Tamworthbay]

That work on their own? Mind control? you still need a hand to do it.

[andy18s]

Now this is what the electric handbrake was invented for......

[willswitchengage]

http://www.cbrd.co.uk/photo/c-roads

 

Never actually seen a 'C' road before but apparently they do exist everywhere in our road signs!

[Tamworthbay]

Now this is what the electric handbrake was invented for......

But you would still be pressing the button, putting the clutch in and out and cursing thirty seconds after the lights had gone green.

[beko1987]

I'm loving having a handbrake I'm not scared of using! Into N handbrake up and relax for me. Unless I'm about to race, then it's clutch bite point, 2.3l5/3k revs, then glf on amber!

 

If I know I'm moving off in less than 5 or so seconds I will just hold it on the clutch though, usually on the bypass, if I see a few cars in front brake lights go off and they move forward I just stay as I am, if not then handbrake.

[andy18s]

But you would still be pressing the button, putting the clutch in and out and cursing thirty seconds after the lights had gone green.

Don't you just drive off and the ebrake self releases?

That's how it works on the Disco 3....

[Tamworthbay]

Don't you just drive off and the ebrake self releases?

That's how it works on the Disco 3....

Only had it on a shitty Meriva courtesy car and it was a bloody nightmare. You had to have your foot on the brake and the clutch depressed and then it would think about releasing it it if felt like doing so. Utter pile of crap.

[Timewaster]

I will begrudgingly admit that the handbrake in a hired meriva I had actually worked okay.

I still hated it though.

[andy18s]

Only had it on a shitty Meriva courtesy car and it was a bloody nightmare. You had to have your foot on the brake and the clutch depressed and then it would think about releasing it it if felt like doing so. Utter pile of crap.

Ah...

[DeeJay]

[FakeConcern]

Or you could just use the handbrake?

Try it in an XM!

 

Oh you have!

[Guest Hooli]

 

Blows Can'ardly?

[FakeConcern]

That time of year

 

[steveo3002]

^ did you check your shitter?

[AlabamaShrimp]

That time of year

 

Eggnogg.jpg

That's is one fancy looking chair. Is it a super special one, old or anything?

[spike60]

Merc GL?

[richardmorris]

Merc GL?

Yes, or ML, but I think it’s a trick question if you look again at the photo.

[spike60]

Too subtle for me, if you draw a big red ring round something that's what I look at.

[anonymous user]

That's is one fancy looking chair. Is it a super special one, old or anything?

It's looks like it's Reitveld chair, a sort of three dimensional Mondrian, I suspect it's more for looking at than sitting on, I like it.