Time, wastage of. In three acts.

I. How much of a kickback are these guys getting?

At Jo's last checkup her dentist strongly urged me to take her to the orthodontist for a consultation. It's obvious that five years of thumbsucking have deformed her bite. But I've researched this and every source I've checked says that nothing can or should be done about it until her permanent teeth come in. Still, after futzing around for a couple of months I made an appointment with the ortho. The only one in this area code that takes our insurance is a good 20-minute drive away (which sounds like nothing but around here, we are used to getting everywhere in 5 or 10 minutes).

So today I stop working an hour and a half early, pick up Jo, drive her all the way to the ortho's office, and eventually see the Doogie Howserish practitioner. He spends about two minutes looking at Jo's mouth and then informs me that there is nothing he can or should do until her six-year molars come in. I ask you. Wouldn't the regular dentist be aware of this fact? Why then would he refer my five-year-old to a specialist who, even if he thought that giving her an appliance to correct her habit and her bite was indicated, could not do so because she does not yet have the teeth to anchor it to? What was the point in spending two hours of my day in this manner?

III. Welcome to bureaucracy

I filled out registration forms for kindergarten back in February and turned them in. Why then am I invited to a spaghetti dinner next week, at which I am advised to "pick up registration materials"? Is this like when you give all your information to one customer service representative, and then they transfer you to someone else, who says "let me just get your file up on my screen" and then asks you all the same questions all over again?

III. Police blotter = neverending source of amusement.

"Disturbance, police were dispatched to the 900 block of ABC Road, where a caller reported hearing screaming coming from the house. Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered that the homeowner was yelling at the navigational system in his 2008 BMW."

I don't know whether to be disturbed by this flagrant misuse of police officer time, or relieved that this is the best the newspaper could come up with for the blotter, or amused at the subtle dig of including the car's luxury pedigree.