Calming

The other morning I stopped by Walmart to pick up some mailing tape. As I walked through the store something seemed different, but it wasn't until I made my way to the back and saw the sign on all of the television screens in the electronics department that I figured out what it was. The piped in music was missing!

I looked at my watch and noticed there were only ten minutes until the time frame was over, so I decided to be there when the changeover happened. It took an extra two minutes; at 10:02 the music came on, and when I passed the electrical department every television was turned on.

I didn't see anyone who looked like they might be benefiting from the extra calm, but when I left I saw a sign that said the hours were intended to be calmer for those with sensory sensitivities, autism, and PTSD. I know many of those conditions are hidden, and I could have been the only non-affected one in the store.

Five years ago: There's A Guy For That

Purple Pepper Picking

The last time I was at the farmer's market they had large bins of green and colored bell peppers. In addition to the everyday red, orange, and yellow varieties I saw some unusual ones. Some of them came home with me.

In my experience, the flavor and texture of most colored peppers is interchangeable, and depends on if they were allowed to completely ripen on the plant or picked early. I have no experience with white or purple varieties. However, I found that the purple ones had thick, crisp flesh and a sweet taste. The white one was crisp, but there wasn't much sweetness to it.

If I ever see another white one I would buy it again and see if it's any different.

Five years ago: Many Hands Make It Fun

In Honor Of Labor Day

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that recognizes the American labor movement. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September.

In the early 2000s, Son Tony went to college at a university three hours northeast of St. Louis. There were two routes that would get us there. One went north and then east; the second took us east and then north.

Whenever I took the north/east route (or came home via that way) I would see a brown tourist sign advertising the presence of the Mother Jones monument at the Mt. Olive exit. I knew that was a left-leaning magazine. The internet was much less robust back then, but I was able to learn that Mother Jones the person had some type of connection to union activity. I always thought about detouring to see the monument, but it was never convenient, and after Son Tony graduated there was little reason to go that direction. 

However, when Hubby Tony made our recent trip to Chicago one of the Route 66 attractions we stopped at was only a couple of miles from that Mother Jones monument. I was able to cross it off of my list of things to visit.

Mary Harris Jones (AKA Mother Jones) was a labor organizer and activist who co-founded the Labor unionist trade union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, collqually named the Wobblies). She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery alongside eight miners who died in the 1898 Battle of Virden mining riot.

We followed the signs that led to the Union Miners Cemetery, parked the car, and walked towards the monument at the back of the cemetery. The monument had an oval bas-relief portrait of Mother Jones flanked by two miners dressed in their work clothes. (One of the miners had a cloth bandana tied around his neck, which was a nice added touch by someone.)

In front of the monument was the grave and tombstone of Mother Jones.

There was no one else in the cemetery, and it was very peaceful. Tony and I read the placards, but we didn't linger. The day was hot and the sun intense.

A Rhythmical Literary Piece

I had forgotten about the delightful poem "Ations" by Shel Silverstein until a Facebook friend posted it on their wall.

Ations

If we meet and I say, “Hi,”

That’s a salutation.

If you ask me how I feel,

That’s a consideration.

If we stop and talk a while,

That’s a conversation.

If we understand each other,

That’s a communication.

If we argue, scream, and fight,

That’s an altercation.

If later we apologize,

That’s reconciliation.

If we help each other home.

That’s a cooperation.

And all these actions added up

Make Civilization.

(And if I say this is a wonderful poem,

Is that exaggeration?)

I Was Probably The Only One Who Didn't Know This

I have quite a bit of technology in my house. Each serves a different purpose.

• The Mac Mini in my office is what I consider my 'main' computer. It's connected to a nice-sized monitor and has a wireless keyboard. All of my important files are saved both to its hard drive and to the cloud.

• My Windows-based laptop is a nightly accessory when I sit on the couch after dinner, allowing me to interact with the blogs I've subscribed to. It also goes on trips with me so I can keep up with all the computer things I usually do at home

• Ostensibly, the Iphone is for making calls, but more often than not is pressed into service for texts, apps, and internet searches.

• The larger screen on the iPad is helpful for reading the online edition of the newspaper with breakfast, and playing online games the rest of the day.

Often I want to compose an email that straddles the line between business and personal. Even if it's a professional message, if I know the person well I sometimes include an emoji. That's easy to do on a phone or tablet, because all you have to do is click on the icon. On bigger devices, not so much.

But I recently learned that there's a way to use shortcuts to have an emoji keyboard pop up on a real computer. On a Mac the sequence of keys is Control + Command + Space. On Windows its Windows logo key + . (period).

Five years ago: Disconnect

The Unwritten Rule

The last thing I did before leaving for a chiropractor appointment this morning was to grab a pair of comfortable white sandals and put them on. In the treatment room the doctor noticed the color of my shoes and asked if I was trying to get extra use out of them before the unofficial end of summer this weekend.

That led to a conversation about the fashion rule about not wearing white after Labor Day in the United States and where it started. By this time his assistant had entered the room, but none of us had an answer to the question. I decided to come home and ask my friend Google if it did. I learned that there was no definitive answer, but several sources provided parts of one.

The Farmer's Almanac had a couple of thoughts. The first was that lightweight fabrics like cotton and linen are neutral-colored in their natural state, and reflect light, so they were cooler in summer heat. Another was that wealthy people were able to vacation in places were light, breezy clothes were appropriate (and have the means to have a second wardrobe when things cooled off). The ability to box up white clothes turned into a sign of sophistication.

Source

Vogue added that those wealthy people had the means to leave the city for ocean or lakeside locations in the summer. In the early 19th century "uniforms" for popular sports like tennis were always white because it hid sweat. It also did not hide dirt, so wearing white was a way of showing you didn't need to do manual labor. When the weather cooled off and the privileged returned to their cities the dirt streets they had to walk on would quickly soil white clothes, and by the time the streets were paved the habit of putting the white away was ingrained.

Source

The folks at Southern Living pointed out that if white clothes are a sign of summer, and Labor Day signaled the end of the season it made sense to put them away and start wearing something more practical.

Camera Roll Curiosities

It's too hot to go outside. Instead I stayed in the air conditioning and went through my phone's photo app looking for interesting ones to post. Here ya go.

• I know this was in an airport, but can't remember which one. The hydration area has a water fountain for everyone, no matter what their size. There's even a bottle filler.

• This sign was posted next to the cash register of a small business. I'm pretty sure it's a joke, but the store was in a very laid-back rural area, so there might be some truth in it.

• This restaurant is serious about their table management. The sign says "They will not seat you until your whole party is present...I'm still waiting for my wife."

•   I've never thought about it this way before, but there's some real truth to the saying.

• But think carefully about what you do with those dirty clothes from your memorable day.

• These two shelf signs were made out of Scrabble tiles. Who wouldn't want to promote Friday?

Coffee Nap

I was recently introduced to the concept of a "coffee nap". It involves drinking a cup of coffee and then taking a 20 minute nap. Some researchers think that the combination is more effective than relying on just coffee or napping by itself.

The theory is that caffeine works by blocking a neurotransmitter called adenosine (aka "tiredness" chamical). It takes 20 minutes for caffeine to enter your bloodstream, so by napping during that window you wake up both restored and stimulated.

An effective coffee nap is most beneficial in the early- to mid-afternoon. That's late enough in the day that the body has built up a supply of adenosine, but early enough that the caffeine won't interfere with nighttime sleeping.

I tested out the coffee nap theory this afternoon. At 1:15 pm I carried my cell phone and afternoon cup of coffee into the bedroom. After I turned on the ceiling fan to circulate the air and the radio to provide a little background noise I got comfortable in bed, slurped the coffee down, and used my phone to set a timer for 20 minutes.

At first I was convinced I wasn't going to fall asleep, but when the timer went off it took me a while to figure out what the noise was and turn it off. Often when I nap it takes me ten minutes to fully wake up and get out of bed, but today there was no wake up period. I was able to hop out of bed and go about my business with extra energy.

Five years ago: Clean, Clean, Clean

I Don't Have What They're Looking For

Two weeks ago Hubby Tony and I traveled to Chicago so I could complete a diagnostic imaging test as part of the Parkinson's Progressive Markers Initiative. After the test was completed, I learned that the initiative would follow up with me in two weeks.

Yesterday, exactly 14 days later, I received a call from one of the research associates. She thanked me for my time and effort, and said that at this time I am not eligible to continue (but that may change as investigators review more data).

This is a double blind study, where individual test results are hidden from both the participant and the researchers. However, the associate did tell me that if the test had discovered something horrible they would have reached out to my doctor.

Even though I won't be traveling to have imaging tests done I am able to participate the study's online portion. I'm not sure exactly how that will work but I've enrolled. I guess I'll find out soon.

Mustard Yellow Thoughts

This week we're having a run of un-August weather. Instead of the normal hot temperatures, it's been cool enough that we've been able to turn off the air conditioner and open up the windows to let Mother Nature in.

The pleasant temperatures have meant that Hubby Tony and I are back to walking outside. Last night we went to the grocery store to purchase a couple of items. We were halfway there when I saw something yellow on a flat-topped fence post.

When I got closer, I saw the yellow thing was a mustard bottle that had words written on it.

When I got right next to the bottle I saw the words were alluding to the biblical Parable of the Mustard Seed, along with the books, chapters, and verses where you can find it.

In case you're not familiar with the parable, it says (Matthew 13:31-32):

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.

It would be interesting to know the bottle's backstory. Who felt compelled to put their sentiments out into the universe, and why did they pick that particular place?

Five years ago today: MLS4TheLou