Old school dentist fixes me up; shots for my kids

My body keeps deteriorating, which is no news flash since I'm 66 going on 79 in a life of excess. After mashing my toe and wrenching my ankles and knee in a couple of old-guy falls in the house, I bit into a frozen candy bar and one of my back molars crumbled. At first, I thought there was a stone in the candy bar, but I saw the "stone" under a magnifying glass and brilliantly deducted that is was a back tooth. The deduction was assisted by my tongue finding a jagged gap in the back of my mouth, next door to my gold tooth, which my former student Sam has requested when I finish playing the end game. My father-in-law hooked me up with his dentist, a no-nonsense woman who seemed concerned about my ability to pay for treatment. She quoted me a price and I assured her I could pay -- "tien den, tien di" (money comes, money goes), I told her -- and that set her in motion. The office is divided by curtains, and the dentist chatted with my father-in-law while she worked rather rigorously on my mouth. She drilled away some of the remaining tooth and only slipped up a couple of times, touching the nerve. I swear she was distracted by my father-in-law. I returned two days later for the cap, and she used some kind of tool to essentially hammer the cap into place. It was sore for three days. Then she suggested a cleaning and procedure to fill in the many gaps between my gums and teeth caused by my receding gums, apparently yet another sign that the end game is in full swing. The dentist's style is strictly old school. If you don't scream, it doesn't hurt. She put me through cosmetic and cleaning rigors for a good 45 minutes. I came away a little rattled but my teeth look pretty darn good, I must admit. It's been seven or eight years since I've been to a dentist, so I was pleased. It was a bargain as well, costing a little over $100 U.S. Not a lot of money that was very well spent.
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My kids went for routine vaccinations this past week and did very well. The last time we went, Joanna had to be held down by a doctor. This time, she listened to dad, counted to five and said OUCH! during the shot and that was it. I could tell she was sort of proud of herself for how she handled the pain. It was a good-sized needle, by the way. Elijah cried for about two seconds after the shot and that was it. He's big, sweet and tough. Mission accomplished with no issues. We asked about Covid vaccines, but I guess they're for health workers for the time being.  There are still a smattering of cases here, but nothing like the U.S. or Europe.
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Poor Joanna basically got assaulted three times in the past two weeks. A little girl about two started hitting her out of the blue on two separate occasions in a little market near our house. A little boy 2 or 3  she sort of knows from a restaurant where I get take-out grabbed her fingers really hard and started twisting. Joanna yelled "give me back my hand" but the kid wouldn't let go so I intervened briefly to free her up. Then the boy sort of gorilla posed and screamed in front of me to signify how tough he is. The third occasion was simple push and shove stuff at a party. Joanna told the boy to stop pushing her and she ran away from him. My wife was with me for all of the incidents, so there is a witness. I suspect corporal punishment or hitting of some kind at home leads to the aggressive behavior we've encountered here. The mothers just smile or laugh at their kids' unsavory behavior. Joanna isn't aggressive with other kids and she hasn't retaliated yet. She's got the size to retaliate, but we don't want the behavior of a lot of the kids here to influence and rub off on her. I know kids are kids and some of this can be expected, but the random quality of the aggressiveness toward our daughter concerns me. She's a sweet girl, but she'll eventually retaliate and she's big and very strong. We just don't want anything to happen. My wife will be taking her physical again to obtain her U.S. visa and we'll go from there and see what happens.