Triple Orgasm

            On Thursday morning I planned on going downtown to renew my health card but first I thought I’d call up St George Dental to see if I could combine my student Green Shield dental insurance with my coverage from Ontario Works. The receptionist didn’t even know what Ontario Works is. When I asked to speak with someone more knowledgeable I was on hold for ten minutes. I got someone that spoke better English but she didn’t know what Ontario Works is either. After I explained that it was social assistance she told me that this was a private clinic and they didn’t really help people on welfare. She named Smile City as an alternative for me but that’s my old dentist and I don’t want to go to them because they had originally treated me for two years and allowed me to pay entirely through my insurance. But when they told me that I would have to suddenly start paying on top of my insurance it didn’t seem fair. Even if I can’t find a dentist that’s entirely free anymore I would rather pay someone else than Smile City.

            While looking online for a discount dentist I found the site of the U of T Dental Clinic. This clinic uses student dentists so I figured it must be cheap, free or at least covered by my insurance and so I thought I’d check them out after finishing at Service Ontario.

            I headed out a little after 11:00. After locking my bike in front of 777 Bay Street I was walking towards the building when a Native woman approached me and asked, “Did you know that there's such a thing as a triple orgasm?” I answered that I hadn’t personally experienced one. She said, “I just had one today, and he gave it to me!” She pointed at the smiling Black guy who had been walking but stopped about five meters south of us to wait for her. I raised my arm towards him in an informal salute and called out, "Congratulations!" He toasted me with his tall can of beer and we went our separate ways.

            I was only thinking of my own orgasms when I said I’d never experienced a triple orgasm. I guess I could say just as well as him that I have “given” different women triple orgasms or more at one time or another.

            There was a line-up of about ten people for the reception at Services Ontario but the line moved fairly quickly. I’d brought the letter that OHIP had sent me and indicated that when he asked me for something with my address on it. He said, “We don’t accept our own mail”. I had anticipated that possibility and brought a couple of other envelopes along. I showed him my deposit statement from Ontario Works but hadn’t opened it. He told me I’d have to, open it and tell him what’s inside. He gave me a small slip of paper with C1045 printed on it and told me that it would be about an hour and fifteen minute wait. I found a seat in the crowded waiting area.

            I did a French grammar exercise that I’d brought with me on distinguishing between futur simple and futur proche. After that I wrote about my encounter with the multi-orgasmic indigenous woman. I'd brought a book but I was too tired to read and so I just sat and watched the slip numbers and their corresponding booth numbers appear on the screens as the pleasant automatic female voice announced them.

            After about an hour an elderly woman who I think had just renewed her drivers licence came over to my bench, gave me a pleasant hello and put her purse down on the seat beside me. She stood there for a couple of minutes getting her things together and then she said to me, “I hope you don’t have much longer to wait”. I assured her that I thought my number was coming up soon. She said, “Jolly good! Well, have a very nice rest of your day!” I returned the wish to her.

            After another fifteen minutes my ass was getting sore and I had to get up and pace a bit for ten minutes. My total wait was a little over an hour and a half. It didn’t take long to get my picture taken. I’m surprised that my old picture from five years ago has me still wearing a ponytail. It seems much longer that I’ve had short hair.

            I rode north to Elm Street until I realized that Elm Street is not north of College and then I turned around to go to Elm Street just north of Dundas. The U of T Dental Clinic is at 101 Elm. They have a big waiting area and a very long reception area. The woman that I asked about the price of services seemed annoyed and indicated that such things were usually done on the phone. I was shocked and disappointed that they don't take insurance and that they charge $80 for initial x-rays and screening and then at the next appointment it costs $51 for oral diagnosis. Subsequent fees depend upon the treatment. I protested that that did not seem cheap at all to me. She said they are 30% cheaper than regular clinics. Regular rich people’s clinics maybe! I've never paid anything for dental x-rays except for maybe in the late 90s when I had my inheritance from my father and I didn’t think about money. But in the last 25 years any x-rays I’ve had were covered by insurance. The receptionist advised me that if I could get it cheaper somewhere I should go there. What an asshole attitude. Here is an institution that depends on the University of Toronto for its very existence and yet it does not even acknowledge a responsibility to provide a service for the community that gives it life. They should at least accept the insurance that U of T students pay for along with their student fees.

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought two pints of strawberries and a pack of ground beef.

            I had a slice of ham with mustard for lunch and took a late siesta.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            I roasted four frozen chicken legs and after an hour and a half the kitchen filled up with smoke so I had to open all the windows. They turned out fine though and I had one with a potato, half a carrot and some gravy while watching an episode of Star Trek Discovery.

            Spoiler alert!
            Discovery detects another signal, which usually indicates the eventual brief appearance of the Red Angel. Dr. Burnham, who is the Red Angel, said last episode that she has nothing to do with the signals. It is possible that they are caused by another unknown time travelling entity. The signal is coming from the Klingon monastery planet where Ash left the albino Klingon son he had with L’Rell. It turns out that the monastery is also the place where the Klingons protect the time crystals. Since either L’Rell or Ash going to the planet would endanger the Klingon Empire, Captain Pike volunteers to go because they need a time crystal to fight Control.

            Meanwhile Discovery has detected a Section 31 ship that reported its position to Star Fleet ten minutes late when they tend to do it every hour precisely. Michael goes to investigate but Spock insists on coming with her. Around the Section 31 ship they find the dead bodies of its crew floating in space, but one of them is alive. They beam him aboard and it turns out to be Gant, who served on the same ship as Michael before Discovery. Gant recounts how Control took over the ship and caused all living crewmembers to be sucked into space. Michael and Spock want to investigate and Gant reluctantly agrees to help them. Once on the ship though it turns out that Gant has been taken over by Control and this is all a trap to take control of Michael. Gant is almost impossible to kill and from his bodies a stream of Control nanobytes come crawling towards Michael. At the last minute Spock manages to stop them by magnetizing the floor.

            Pike arrives on the monastery planet and convinces the guardians to let him try to take one of the crystals. His guide turns out to be the son of Ash and L’Rell, who was just a baby a few weeks ago but is now an adult. Time works differently for those that guard the time crystals. Pike touches one of the crystals and is shown a horrible future. His guide warns him that if he takes the crystal the future that he saw will be set. He takes it anyway.

            I find the concept of time crystals added to Star Trek annoying. Usually Star Trek has plausible science behind its plots but time crystals seem more like something one might find in a fantasy story.