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?)
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: DisconnectThat 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.
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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.
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
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.
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
Blogger seems to have changed things up since the last time I was there. Halfway down there was a list of my most-visited posts. I was amazed at how many times some of them have been viewed.
(I can't find the author of this. If you know please pass on the information.)
I had spent an hour in the bank with my dad because he had to transfer some money. While we were waiting for the banker I said, "Dad, why don't we activate your internet banking?"
'Why would I do that?' he asked.
'Well, then you won't have to spend an hour here for things like transfers. You can even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!"
He asked, "If I do that, I won't have to step out of the house?"
"Yes!" I said. "Amazon delivers everything."
His answer left me tongue-tied. He said:
"Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends. I have chatted with the staff who know me well. I like to come to the bank. I have enough time; it is the physical touch that I crave.
"Two years ago, I got sick. The owner from the produce market came to see me, sat by my bedside, and cried. When your mom fell down a few days back on her morning walk, our grocer saw her and immediately got his car to rush her home because he knows where I live.
"Would I have that human touch if I did everything online? Why would I want everything delivered to me and force me to interact with just my computer? I like to know the person that I'm dealing with and not just the seller. It creates bonds of relationships. Does Amazon deliver all this as well?'
Spend time with people, not with devices.
The goal is to start at the first frame and walk along reading the pages. However, I'm usually scurrying into the building for a fitness class and don't take the time. Today, thanks to light traffic I had a couple extra minutes and did exactly what the installers intended.
After crossing the street from the parking lot I doubled back to the start of the walk. (The frames are covered in glass, and it was hard to get a good photo without a reflection, but I did my best.)
The last frame said another story will be coming soon. I can't wait to see
what it is.
I was going through the latest batch of spam and deleting the comments, but got carried away and deleted an actual comment by an actual person who reads here. I was horrified, because I knew there was no way to undo the mistake.
Or was there?
I started poking around on the internet and came up with an interesting solution. I have my Blogger settings configured so that when someone leave a comment I receive an email that lets me know who left it (their name and URL), on which post, what they said, and the date they said it. I also have my blog's settings such that anyone, including anonymous users, can leave a comment.
Undoing my mistake was relatively easy. I opened the post with the missing comment and chose to comment with a name/URL. Instead of using my own information I added the lost commenter's name and blog address, copied and pasted the comment as received via email, then hit Publish.
Seconds later the information appeared on the post. The time stamp wasn't correct, but I doubt anyone would notice.
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A normal trip to Chicago would take somewhere between 5-5
1/2 hours. We added three hours to that, because we hopped on and off the
Interstate to search out things that were originally on Route 66.
Many of the cities we stopped at had banners or signs:
During our trip we visited quaint restaurants and had some good local food:
In every city we stopped to see the attractions our guidebook pointed out. Some of them included:
Thursday morning we left town shortly after breakfast, and except for a bathroom break and stop for lunch drove straight through. It was good to get the first glimpse of the top of the Gateway Arch-that meant we were almost home.
In two weeks I will hear from the researchers, who will let me know if they're interested in me participating in a longer term study. I have no idea what will happen. I'm keeping the Route 66 guidebook and map, just in case. We just scratched the surface of Route 66 things to see. If I do end up making additional trips to Chicago I want to pick a new set of experiences.
Five years ago: Revamping Lamps
In honor of the day I made this post 😁. I also made time to read all of the posts that showed up in my reader, then visited each site and left a comment.
The Video Fest website describes their mission as "Bringing the joy of cat videos to the masses and raising money for cats in need". At each city they partner with local shelters and donate a portion of the ticket sales to them. In St. Louis the shelter was Tenth Life (which is the organization we foster for).
It was held at the
Hi-Pointe Theater, which dates from the 1920s and is the oldest continuously operating
single-screen movie theater in the St. Louis area. Tony and I got there right
when the doors opened, but there were already several groups of people ahead
of us. The event was great for people watching. I love cats, but don't feel
the need to wear cat-themed clothing or headbands with attached cat ears like
many people who came into the theater. One 20-something young lady even had a
huge stuffed cat tail attached to the waistband of her jeans!
Right on time the house lights dimmed. After a series of vintage ads and PSAs about theater etiquette there were several coming attractions trailers before the main event. The Video Fest was a compilation reel of cat videos, all made and submitted by cat lovers, which were grouped by theme-drama, adventure, comedy, documentary, and musicals. Except for the documentaries most of the videos were very short (less than a minute). The audience laughed, groaned, and 'awwed' as one through the event.
All too soon the ending credits came up and the event was over.
Five years ago today: Tasty Tasting Menu Meal
This morning when we rolled out of bed Hubby Tony and I had been married for one additional year. Forty-four years ago we said I Do and started our life together.
We had a great time celebrating the day. The first official activity was to head to the the Fox Theater box office. I think we're some of the few people who haven't seen the musical Hamilton live, but now we have tickets for it in early September.
On the way down to the Fox we stopped in the Central West End. I always enjoy walking around the historic neighborhood and looking at the mansions. It was starting to heat up, but we chose the streets with most shade and it wasn't too bad.
After getting the tickets we came home to recharge, then headed out for errands and lunch. Earlier in the week a new restaurant opened a couple of miles from our house. Porano is a fast-casual place operated by Gerard Craft, a local chef who has won multiple awards, including the James Beard Foundation Best Chef-Midwest in 2015. We have been to several of Craft's other restaurants and all have been outstanding.
After looking at the menu online, I knew I knew my meal would include farro (which hardly ever shows up at restaurants). My 'build your own' bowl contained a layer of the grain and topped with pulled pork, red sauce, sweet peppers, and Parmesan cheese. Tony chose a Mediterranean pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, tofu, green olives, and slivered almonds. We added a salad to share.
While we were ordering I casually mentioned to the cashier we were celebrating our anniversary. The manager was standing there, and near the end of our meal he came over to the table and asked if we would like a cookie or gelato pop on him. We both chose gelato. It was a lovely end to the meal.
After the morning full excitement we headed home. The baseball Cardinals were in Chicago and had a day game against the Cubs. Tony turned on the TV and we settled in. However, offensively it was all Cubs and I quickly lost interest.
I wasn't planning on cooking dinner on this special day. Fortunately, the American Greetings website informed me that the modern gift for a 44th anniversary is groceries, which I interpreted to mean that a frozen pizza worked. Tony put the meal together.
