High voltage adventure

Driving into Charlotte, NC on a beautiful day last month, I had a major scare. No, it wasn't anxiety at the thought of flying in a big jet for the first time since the age of 10. I was positively excited about that. I was headed for New York City to meet my brothers, Mark and Matthew, for the first time. But as I neared the airport, my wife Debbie at my side and our friend Brenda in the back seat, I suddenly experienced a wave of nerve activity in the right side of my face. It felt like an electrical charge zipping back and forth across my upper and lower lip. It just kept on buzzing, and then the tip of my right index finger began to feel numb. I thought, "I'm having a stroke!" As I prepared to pull off the interstate and tell Debbie what was happening, it occurred to me that I had a bad tooth on that side. It could be an abscess, and that was why the nerves were going haywire. That was bad enough, but not quite as high on the panic scale as a stroke!
Well, the strange feeling dissipated, and I was relieved that my much-anticipated journey would not be cancelled due to an emergency hospital visit. I boarded the plane, and the actual flight took only an hour and a half. I landed at JFK Airport before Debbie and Brenda were halfway back home.
I met Mark, Matthew, and their mother, Laura, and we spent a few hours in the early morning getting to know each other. My Latino brothers speak more English than I speak Spanish, but there were times when Laura was called upon to translate a word or phrase.
As we headed north and then east to Providence, where Mark's son was set to graduate from Brown University on Saturday, we searched for a place to eat in the Bronx. Matthew was driving the rental car which, by the way, had a North Carolina license plate. Looking around, driving through an unfamiliar city, we got lost for a short time and were even pulled over by one of "New York's Finest." Although the officer was stern and said something about the need for using "common sense" as he informed Matthew that he had just driven through a red light, my brother was able to squirm his way out of a costly ticket.
My electrical charge soon returned, not quite as high a voltage as when it first hit me, but after we found a place that offered sub sandwiches at about 3 a.m., I had a difficult time eating due to the buzzing sensation and bit my lip a time or two. Other than that, though, I never experienced any pain. Matthew graciously offered to take me to a hospital if the need ever arose, but it didn't. So we continued our early morning adventure and finally made it to the hotel outside of Providence. It was about 8:00 in the morning when we all went to bed...

(To be continued in a later post)