Scars

I was thinking about scars and how many I have, wondering if I could remember where each came from.  When I was young, it seemed everyone had that little circle on their upper left arm that indicated they'd been vaccinated against small pox, a horrendous disease that has now been eradicated.  This scar seemed okay because everyone had it.  

My second noticeable scar was in the center of my forehead, the result of chicken pox.  This must have been during first or second grade.  Still nothing traumatic for me.  

But then in fifth grade, I was in the bath tub while my mom was filling the glass fish bowl.  The bottom broke out of the bowl.  A jagged piece of glass made a large gash on the back of my left hand.  This required several stitches and now marked me as being "different."  This is when I started noticing scars that other people had and how ugly they were...and how ugly I now was, also.  Later I thought I'd never find anyone who would marry me because my left hand...the one with the ring finger...was disfigured. 

But I managed to marry.  Then came divorce scars that seemed invisible on the outside. 

In my 20s I got down to serious scars—surgery—female problems.  The only thing that kept me from feeling grotesque was that these scars were in covered up places.  Nobody else could see them, so I otherwise remained "cute".

A new marriage erased some of those emotional scars.  Everything was great when the baby arrived and until the second divorce a few years later.

Another surgery and another surgery.  The scars were accumulating.  Many of my surgeries involved removing "spare parts," still with scars that could be covered up.  And it took me three-and-a-half decades to realize all these "ugly" people I've seen with scars must have a sad history with pain and suffering involved in the receipt of theirs.

Another marriage, more surgeries, more scars, and another divorce.

Finally, in my 50s, for over a decade, I found "The One."  Love struck stronger and more powerful than ever before.   Love for someone who was unavailable.  It's been ripping at my heart so long there's now a hole there that will never heal...and never have a visible scar.  I suffered all of that excruciating pain with no healing.  The hole in my heart is where I need a scar the most.

One Name, Two Names, Three Names, Four Names

As parents become more and more desperate in naming their newborns, might I suggest using four names rather than three.

It seems to me that naming a child is of control. First parents started mutilating the spelling of a name. Look at Britany, Brittanee, Brittaney, Brittani, Brittanie, Brittanni, Brittannie, Brittanny, Brittenee, Britteney, Brittenie, Britteny, Brittiney, Brittiny, Bryttany, Britanny, Brittknee, Britknee, and Britianee.

In an attempt to provide a unique name, parents have become desperate enough to resort to using names of fruits, numbers, action heroes, and electronic devices. Do you really want to be able to say, "My best friend's name is Fruitcake," knowing it's not a nickname?

I have a theory that requires a little review of the past and I think I have a basis for using four names.

Centuries ago, between 500 and 700 Slavic tribes settled in central and eastern Europe. I imagine these settlements as being large family groups that formed small communities where people had only one name, like John, Mildred, Standish, or Willow. Quite possibly, each was the only one in the area with that name, therefore, only one name was necessary. There were occasions where a child named Peter might be identified as John's son, or Peter Johnson. So a second name became common. If a person traveled from where they were born to another location they might be known as the person from that city. Remember Helen of Troy. Or they could take on an identity associated with their occupation, like Baker, Blacksmith, Gardner, Farmer, or Weaver. So Willow the Weaver turns into Willow Weaver.

Another family might be associated with their surroundings, like Johnson who lived in the white house, or Johnson White. There could be Lily Cook, Philip de Wike, Ned Shepherd, or thousands of other combinations. Passing a given name down through generations created the numbering, as in Thomas Weeks, IV.

With two names, a person could feel unique and be identified by friends and described by acquaintances.

Eventually, as the population grew, duplicate names were found, but this was still okay as long and most of society was immobile.

When women from prominent families married, they wanted to remain known as part of their parent's family. So, Mary Goldsmith didn't just become Mary Baker, she called herself Mary Goldsmith Baker. And the use of three names was established. Or maybe three names came of MaryJo Black becoming Mary Jo Black.

Or could it have been when brothers James Witherspoon and John Witherspoon both named their sons after their father Thomas? One became Thomas James Witherspoon and the other was known as Thomas John Witherspoon.

Currently, there are over 2 million Thomas Witherspoons just in the United States. How does one tell them apart? As the world population continues to increase, I recommend we start using four names for our children.

We don't have to go as far as the Royals: Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge. All that and it still doesn't tell you William belongs to the Royal Family of Windsor (although he doesn't have an official last name) and is a descendant of William the Conqueror. For his military service, he uses the name William Wales and if a surname is used, it's Mountbatten-Windsor. How confusing is that?

Shall we name the next girl Rachael Olivia Savannah Ells and we can call her ROSE for short?

Why Blog?

One of the reasons I decided to blog again and encouraged my friend Sara ( http://GrannaSez.blogspot.com/ ) to do so, also, is that I'm tired of reading cryptic non-sentences in Facebook.

The misuse of homonyms (typos aside) makes a reader think the person writing is either dumb or illiterate. If this keeps up, I don't know how today's youth will communicate. There's a great list of homonyms here: http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html . They should be reviewed!

Some schools have opted not to teach cursive writing. If today's youth can't write, how are they going to read my hand written notes? The notes will be in a "font" the youth won't recognize.

Will they be able to write a complete sentence with capitalization and punctuation? Only time will tell. I pity the historians two-hundred years from now, trying to decipher some bit encrypted text that appears to be a conversation.

Don't get me started on the photos where everyone is sticking out their tongues, looking stupid.

A Has Been

During my lifetime I have worked at being...

• a student
• a U.S.P.S letter carrier
• an engineering assistant on A-7 jets
• an accounting clerk
• an executive assistant for a large company Corporate Operations Controller
• a chemical technician on a solar energy project
• a software designer for missile systems, image processing, toll tags, software telephony for mobile systems, and a web designer
• finally a college graduate
• a cruise travel agent
• a database designer
• a friend

I have Volunteered as...

• a Girl Scout leader
• a Girl Scout leader trainer
• a church choir member, building committee member and secretary, a church newsletter publisher
• a voluntary homeowner association secretary and HOA newsletter publisher
• a gatherer and coordinator for high school classmates communication and reunion planner

My Hobbies and other interests include...

• swimming
• sewing
• cooking, baking, candy making
• macrame
• crocheting
• tatting
• bead and jewelry making
• jigsaw puzzles
• cards, board games, sudoku, crossword puzzles
• dogs and cats
• writing stories and poems

None of this has helped me—as a large, older, female—find a job with a large company with benefits. Many of these things I no longer do, but I could. There are classes I have taken that I never had the opportunity to use their knowledge.  Yet, even that is not what makes me a has been.

The fact that no one else recognizes or appreciates any of the skills and talents that I worked hard to acquire, that lack of acknowledgment is what makes me a has been.

Senior Moments

I had what I thought might be a senior moment.

It occurred to me around 8:00 PM the other night that it was probably one of the last low temperature evenings until the end of summer. I also remembered I had a rump roast in the freezer that needed to be, well, roasted—with potatoes and carrots. Cooking now, the oven would warm the house at a time that it was needed. Knowing this would take a long time to cook, starting at a low temperature since the beef was frozen solid, I planned to eat my supper a little after midnight. I won't mention here that I'm on a really weird sleep schedule.

So I unwrapped the roast, washed it, put it into my pot, covered it, and slid it into a 300° oven.

Once I could pierce the meat without difficulty, I added the potatoes and carrots, and cooked it another hour. When I could smell the delicious aroma after a third hour, I turned the temperature up to 375° until it was done

It was 1:00 AM by the time I got the gravy made and dished up a plate of sliced beef—well done for me—and a couple of spoonfuls of veggies.

When I sat down to eat, thoroughly enjoying every bite of the perfect meal, I noticed no sign of carrots on my plate. Although I could taste the flavor of them in the meat and potatoes, I started questioning myself as to whether I had put them in the pot to begin with. There should have been some little orangey signs on the potatoes even if I didn't get any in my spoonfuls. I wondered, if one cooks carrots long enough will they just dissipate into the liquid?

THAT was my almost senior moment. I got up to look at the remaining veggies in the kitchen and voila, there were the little baby carrot culprits.

This wasn't the first time I've seriously questioned myself. My first senior moment was when I went to the freezer in the garage to get a half gallon of Blue Bell ice cream. I was so disappointed when I couldn't find any because I was sure there were two half gallons in there. After a couple of hours of running the scenario through my mind, trying to recall when I might have eaten a whole gallon of French Vanilla (2 half gallons), I decided to take another look and found them way in the back of the freezer behind several dozen packages of homemade tamales.

I think I'd have fewer senior moments if I'd just quit remembering I'm getting older.

The Gap

In the wee hours of the morning, yet another session reviewing my imperfections in my 5X magnifying mirror has taken place. Since I have allergies and rub my eyes a lot, I’ve always thought that was the cause of the obvious gap in my eyelashes at the center front of my right eyelid. For 50+ years I’ve tried to make my eyelashes curved, lush and lengthy with mascara and that awkward curling tool, to no avail. As of my recent exam, a new discovery has been made. That perfection is impossible because my right eyelid has a cowlick at the lash line, thus explaining the 50-year gap!

Blackberries and Other Fruit

I question the value of the new ultimate toys for babies...Blackberry PDAs and/or cell phones. Where do I start? Most babies can't control their bladders, much less purposely push buttons or understand what the button's function is. If any parent is disillusioned enough to think their child is that special, they need their head examined.

It's all just another marketing ploy to sell more junk to keep the kids busy and deter them from developing the reading and writing communication skills to get them through life, the muscle tone to run and play, and the motor mobility to write with a pencil or pen. What will we call this new genre of couch potatoes, fruitcakes?

To top it off, as fast as technology is developing, by the time the baby's learning capacity is worthy of conquering the operation of a real Blackberry, the functionality will be obsolete, or the company out of business.

Scene It?

Have you been to a movie lately? They've almost managed to ruin this once-fun experience for us. The industry used to produce scenes in brilliant Technicolor with panoramic views, where stunning, fabulously talented actors and actresses were wholesome looking, and often did their own stunt-work as the story developed into something worth our time.

Now when we see a film, the scenes are dark and shadowed with muted colors, and we’re lucky to recognize an actor beneath the massive costumes and makeup. That’s only if you can find them amongst the tediously time-consuming graphic art and fast-moving scenes. In most of these shows, 'loud' substitutes for music.

Give me the good old days with a plot, a fantastic sound track, and a character performance that doesn’t mimic the actor’s own personality.

24

Does it bother anyone besides myself that using the term 24/7 is either redundant or incomplete?  Doesn't 24 cover it all?  Oh, does that include Sunday?  Of course!  If it didn't, I'd say EXCEPT Sunday.

Okay, you want the 7 on there anyway.  That's incomplete.  Do you mean every MONTH, or maybe not July?  Perhaps you should use 24/7/12.  Or, every DAY?  24/7/365(366)!  It can get confusing.

This irritates me 24!

Minty

I’m still not convinced that mankind is responsible for the current global warming, but I know we are responsible for stripping the Earth of it’s resources. With all the talk this past Earth Day (April 22) of ways to protect the environment, I was trying to enumerate the efforts I make. I don’t consider myself “Mother Earth Green”, but instead, as one actress called herself, I’m “Minty”.



Much of being green includes recycling and reuse. I love the idea of “Free” wind and solar power, and recently learned of a power project in Scotland to take advantage of the ocean tides.

I think we should encourage the use of bioplastic harvested from the starch stored in plant sugars to create a clear plastic, called polylactic acid, or PLA. Unfortunately, the use of foods for fuel or other innovative resources increases the cost of food.

Try to list 5 (or more) things YOU do to protect the environment. Maybe the rest of us can adopt them, too. Here are mine.

1. I put as little as possible down the garbage disposal. Everything that goes down the sink eventually has to be removed from our drinking water supply.


2. Reusing wrapping paper for gifts is an easy and reasonable thing to do, as well as re-gifting something you can’t use. Along the same lines is saving packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and air pillows to use in the next package you mail.


3. I plan the route for the errands I run so I’m driving the least amount of miles. A little off topic, I also try to shop in my own community so that my tax dollars (city and county) stay local, too.


4. The load I carry in my car is kept to minimum so I’m not burning more gas than necessary. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to reduce my personal load.


5. Recycling electronics is easy, saves our landfill and keeps lead out of the ground.


6. I don’t let the water run while brushing my teeth.


7. I do full laundry loads whenever possible. At other times, I’m lucky to have settings on my washing machine for less water for smaller loads.


8. I avoid fast food that has over packaging and creates mountains of trash.


9. When I bought the house I’m in now, city ordinances required water saving commodes that use the 1.6-gallon flush rather than the normal 5-gallon flush. These are quite annoying at times, but claim to save 550 gallons per year per person. I would have much preferred the “dual flush” commode option with two buttons on top so you can be selective on water use.


10. Something I’ve done since the beginning of the age of computers, with coversheets for each printout, is to put them in a pile with blank sides up, and use them as scratch paper.

The following are some generally known ways to save power and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

1. Each degree the heat is turned down saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree air conditioning is raised saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. Changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, can save about 2,000 pounds of CO2 a year.


2. Cook with a slow cooker or a toaster oven (or even a solar oven!) to reduce electrical use from kitchen appliances. For a meal that requires one hour to cook in an electric oven, and which uses 2.7 pounds of CO2, a crock pot uses 0.9 pounds of CO2 for seven hours, a toaster oven takes 1.3 pounds of C02 for 50 minutes, and a microwave only 0.5 pounds of CO2 for 15 minutes of cooking. A solar cooker requires NO CO2!


3. Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.


4. Switch to cold water washing and save 80 percent on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save 700 pounds of CO2 a year.


5. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use.   (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)


I like the knowledge that unplugging unused chargers and appliances will save electricity. It’s something I have partially done, but need to re-survey my home for culprits. “They” say that unplugging appliances and electronics that glow could save $200 a year in electrical use.



6. Turn off the lights when not in use to reduce direct lighting energy use by 45 percent. Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (that can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.


7. Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of CO2 a year.


I do not like the little twisted CFL bulbs for two reasons. First, I cannot see in dim light, which is what most of the CFLs pretending to be regular light bulbs are. The long tube fluorescent lights seem to be “brighter” that the corkscrew shape, perhaps because they are spread out. I do like that type in the kitchen and bathroom. Second, disposal of the mercury in CFLs creates a new hazard.



8. Wrap water heaters in insulation and save 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year. Insulate hot water pipes.


9. Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car.


10. Keep tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon saved also saves 20 pounds of CO2 emissions.

Ridiculous Division

I've wondered about the reasons the United States continues to be segregated and think I've pinpointed one of them. I'm getting somewhat tired of people complaining that segregation is alive and well in the U.S.A., all the while declaring themselves to be some kind of dash-American...Mexican-American, Afro-American, Italian-American, Asian-American. Isn't this part of the reason there is segregation? And are these people trying to separate themselves based on the color of their skin or on the location of their ancestry centuries ago? How many generations of blood-mixing does it take before one is forced to declare them self just American because all the dashes won't fit on a page?

It's as ridiculous as dividing groups based on the color of their eyes or their hair. Would that mean when someone ages and their hair turns gray or falls out, they have to declare they are part of a different group?

If we stopped this hyphenating of America and all declared to be American, wouldn't this go a long way toward uniting us.

I'm an American! And proud of it.

Freedom of Speech

Since we are a country that values freedom of speech, we should be able to say anything we want. I’m personally offended that special groups of people declare certain words offensive and strive to reduce my right to say them. Won't the dictionary eventually run out of acceptable words? But, along these same lines, if we want others to pay attention to our thoughts and opinions, we might want to make some effort to say them diplomatically, in a non-offensive manner.

I always thought it would be much more powerful to have the skill to use the English language to cut a person down or raise someone up, rather than having every other word be an obscenity. I consider the use of foul language to be a strong lack of intelligence. If we don’t care what others think about us and our opinions, and we spout off, we should be prepared for the consequences.

Let's Celebrate!

I recently discovered that there’s actually a publication called a “Retail Promotion Calendar” that is used to target people to try to part them from their money. In addition to the traditional holidays, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, some of the less personal, yet interesting listed are:
     January 14 - Organize Your Home Day
     May 11 - Eat What You Want Day
     June 1 - Donut Day
     October 22 - National Nut Day  (I’m not sure if that’s the
          food or the person!)
     December 5 - National Bathtub Party Day


There’s a whole week for some things:
     November 23-29 National Game and Puzzle Week


Some of the events get an entire month, such as:
     January - Clean Up Your Computer Month
     February - Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
     July - National Ice Cream Month (One of my favorites!)


I may be calling on a few of my friends to help me celebrate some of these, after all.

Trade Skills

Recently, I've been enthusiastic about baking, sewing, tatting, and beading, and spent a lot of time at craft and hobby stores getting supplies to get started. In the past, I've crocheted, needle pointed, cross stitched, quilted, done macramé, learned cake decorating and unsuccessfully tried knitting and whittling.  

While funneling too much money into supplying and setting up my new projects, I wondered when all these things that used to be a way of life...one's daily work or a trade skill...became hobbies and crafts. Creating most of these resulting products was usually the woman's responsibility.  Some, like cooking, sewing, knitting, and quilting, were for survival.  Others were to make a drab life enjoyable by decorating one's surroundings.

I can't imagine spinning my own yarn or thread, or weaving my own fabric (as boring as one of my design's would be).  The possibility of having only one or two needles scares me because it's so easy to loose them.  My stomach turns at the thought of food prepared without my collection of spices from around the world and the convenience of my electric oven.

Then there's the whole range of outdoor tasks that have become hobbies like fishing, hunting, and gardening.

I'm glad I live in a time that I can do these things for fun and relaxation.  And when the spirit moves me rather than for survival.

No Go Logo

My favorite part of clothing from the ‘50s and ‘60s is the lack of logos and advertising. It seems that once the Nike swoosh was designed in the early ‘70s to put on their shoes, we were doomed to be walking advertisements for everything from clothing to cars to beer to sports. Not only that, but we had to pay EXTRA to do this advertising for these companies.

This has always annoyed me, so I have tried to select clothing without this annoying "feature". Okay, so I don’t care a whole lot about fashion. My goal has always been to wear something comfortable. Give me the good old Madras plaids, huarache sandals, Keds, home sewn dresses, hip hugger pants, and mini skirts!

To Snooze or Not to Snooze

As a female who’s lived with a man in the house, it’s become annoyingly obvious that a man can be asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow while while I often become irritated that I’m not asleep three-quarters of an hour later...even when I’m physically exhausted. During that time, I wonder why.

I’ve heard that females can multitask more issues and make decisions faster than a male, therefore, we are constantly considering issues, making decisions, and planning ahead. It must take more time to shut down these processing systems and let our minds clear for sleep to take over.

Have You Been Mooned?

In one of my spaced out modes, I was thinking about the moons of Jupiter and trying to recall the name of any of them. While Jupiter has 63 moons, there are 4 major orbs with names that might be mentioned in a grade school science class: Io, Europa, Calisto, and Ganymede. Similarly Mars has 2: Phobos and Deimos; Saturn has 31, the largest being Pan, Atlas, and Prometheus; Uranus has 27, the largest: Cordellia and Ophelia; and Neptune has 13, the 4 largest being Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galate.

This brings us to Earth. We have one moon. But for all the science and astronomy classes I’ve taken in school, I couldn’t come up with the name of our moon. Do you know what it is? After much searching on the internet, I found the name “Luna”, but then all further reference to it was “The Moon”! Does that mean instead of mooning someone, we should (or shouldn’t) be lunaing them?

The Glass

I've figured out the answer to the age old question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?"

I think it depends upon what's in the glass. If the glass contains something I really like, such as a vanilla milk shake, a great cup of hot chocolate, or fresh squeezed orange juice, I might say it's half empty, because I'd be disappointed there wasn't more left. If my glass still had some of that nasty stuff I have to drink before a colonoscopy or the barium mixture before an upper GI, I'd say it was half full because I wouldn't be looking forward to drinking the rest.

But then I would fail the optimist/pessimist test that seems to have the opposite meaning. Half full means I'm an optimist, while half empty is a pessimistic point of view.

So either way, I can't win, unless it's a vanilla milk shake. I'm happy any time I'm drinking that!

WHTELG?

Where Has The English Language Gone? I think the English language is being acronymed out of comprehension. Acronyms are running rampant on the lips of young and old alike during the beginning of the third millennium. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of young who can tell the meanings of acronyms that became prevalent when the older populace was younger.

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter of words or from word parts. The term initialism was first used in printed material in 1899 and originally described as abbreviations formed from initials, without reference to pronunciation. The word acronym was first printed in 1943. Alphabetism is a term for abbreviations pronounced as the names of letters. But, has the practice of shortening words and terms become out of control?

Businesses and the military are full of initialism. What is this sentence really saying?

“Neither the FBI nor CIA had any intel about the ICBM confrontation reported by ABC, CBS, and NBC.”

Without the shortened options, we’d write:

“Neither the Federal Bureau of Investigation nor Central Intelligence Agency had any intelligence about the intercontinental ballistic missile confrontation reported by American Broadcasting Channel, Columbia Broadcasting System and National Broadcasting Company.”

We don’t even know the origins or some of the acronyms that make words. Who knew the word golf is derived from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden"? And the term laser comes from the research results of "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation".

There are so many shortened words and phrases that it’s difficult to keep up. In addition to learning the meanings of some acronyms, we now must know the subject or field of reference to apply that definition. For example, IBM might be the acronym for the electronics company, International Business Machines, or reference an intercontinental ballistics missile (which is also abbreviated ICBM).

And we not only have America On Line, AOL, but that acronym is further reduced from AOL Instant Message to AIM. Misunderstanding is so common that the acronym or initials need to be redefined by adding one of the words back in, like RAM (random access memory) memory.

Many young adults can’t tell you what MPG, MSRP, and TTL mean when purchasing a vehicle. With new Internet terminology, most are totally clueless. HTML (hyper text mark up), URL (uniform resource locator), CSS (cascading style sheet), and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) are equivalent to foreign words.

Text messaging is totally obliterating the spelling, punctuation, and grammar talents required for a scholastic background. Even in the good old USA (United States of America)!

Heaven help us with homophones!

Classmate Friendships

When we attended high school, it was customary for students to sit alphabetically at the same desks everyday. I was wondering recently if there is any relationship between where we sat in school, who our long term friends turned out to be, and how those around us affected our life.

For example, being a “B” last name, my row of desks generally had maybe the “A-J” names, depending on which students were in that particular class. The next row beside mine might have been between “J” and “O”, so I was exposed to about the first half of the alphabet on a daily basis and not necessarily to those at the end.

In addition, being at the beginning of the alphabet, I only had neighbors on one side of my row of desks, while those in the middle had two sides. What chance did a shy person have in developing friendships with exposure to half the classmates that most had proximity to?

This thought may only apply to students who did not grow up in one area, and were around each other for more than four years. There is also an exception for friendships created with neighbors, new or old, or with those whose parents were friends.

So my questions are:

1. Do you think whom you sat near affected you?

2. Did one person near you make a noticeable impact on your life?

3. Do you feel being allowed to sit with your friends would have been better?

4. Did someone near you influence your behavior?

5. Did sitting alphabetically improve your social skills?