birthday, son

Happy Birthday to You

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Today is the Son’s 21st birthday. It sure doesn’t seem that long ago that he came into our lives. Seems like only yesterday he was a small helpless bundle that fit in the palm of my hand and the crook of my arm. Now he’s well over 6 feet tall and a young man.

Last I heard, he and his buddies were off to do a bar trawl at midnight followed by a day of festivities today. It is amusing the changes brought on by changes in liquor laws. When L and I were younglings, the 21st birthday wasn’t celebrated big time. Why? Well, the primary reason was that the Vietnam War had driven the drinking age down to 18. (The infamous “if you are old enough to die for your country, you are certainly old enough to drink in it” line of reasoning.) So it was the 18th birthday that was the big celebration. I suspect that celebrating the 21st leads to a bit more maturity and restraint than the old 18th birthday parties. I can only hope. {*grin*}

The last couple of years have seen the Son mature and becoming more responsible and adult. So rather than merely being of age to drink, he has truly become a young adult.

Happy Birthday – I’m proud of you.

In honor of the occasion, I think the Beatles’ Birthday lyrics are fitting:

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

Yes we’re going to a party party
Yes we’re going to a party party
Yes we’re going to a party party

I would like you to dance (Birthday)
Take a cha-cha-cha-chance (Birthday)
I would like you to dance (Birthday)
Dance

I would like you to dance (Birthday)
Take a cha-cha-cha-chance (Birthday)
I would like you to dance (Birthday)
Dance

You say it’s your birthday
Well it’s my birthday too, yeah
You say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

language, weather

The Right Words

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Do you ever struggle to find the right words to convey what you mean without it sounding wrong? I do and it can be so frustrating. It is amazing how many phrases can be technically and linguistically correct but sound completely wrong when used in conversation. I find it especially hard to give someone directions to perform a set of tasks without sounding either pedantic or like a control freak.

I am the type of person that might utter a phrase like “‘Preparation H’ sounds like a tax form, but is really a medical ointment. Either way, it’s a pain in the ass.” I truly appreciate the word play and double meanings implicit in such a phrase. I am also prone to misinterpretation of intent – primarily because of my deep seated sarcastic nature. Thus if I tell L that I “love her legs,” it is likely to be interpreted as a criticism rather that the loving compliment intended. So I have to work hard and curtail a lot of my normal volubility or else convince Molly to let me share her doggy space with her.

I often wonder if languages other than English suffer from this problem. Is the problem due to the polyglot nature of the English language, allowing shadings of meaning well beyond the strict intent? Do languages like German with a stricter organization and tighter constraints on structure have the same problem? Is sarcasm different or harder to misinterpret in other languages? Inquiring minds want to know.

Now with that out of the way, back to reality. Remember that it was in the 80s on Saturday and then snowed on Sunday? Well today it was warm and windy, so of course there were wild fires in the area being pushed along by the wind. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings. {*grin*}

Well, off to get some more real work done.

als, weather

Maudlin Thoughts

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It was 82 degrees in the shade Saturday. Sunday it snowed. Welcome to spring on the high plains. Molly spend much of Sunday cowering at my feet as the thunder accompanying the snow bothered her sensitive constitution. {*grin*}

While it was snowing, L went to visit her friend and former business partner who lives on a farm/ranch about 20 miles from here. L’s friend was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) a while ago. When L is down from the mountains she goes to visit (when her friend is able) and bring food to put in the freezer. Her friend has faced the invariably fatal disease with amazing heart and grace. It is hard to imagine just how hard it must be for her.

L’s friend is now at the point where she has a feeding tube and is on a respirator and depends on an eye-tracking and blink computer to do much.  Yet she still keeps on. She wants so much to see her kids grow up (she has a boy aged ~15 and twin girls aged ~13), but knows that it is a wish that will not be fulfilled. For me it is even harder to see how it has impacted her husband as he tries to farm and run the ranch and spend as much time as possible with her and help the kids deal with it. He was always a happy go lucky guy, but now the smile and spirit slips when he thinks no one is looking. I sometimes see him at the grocery store and it looks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. I am not sure that I could handle it anywhere near as well as he has.

Rather than think sad thoughts about the impending end, I prefer to remember the miracle that is their marriage. She was an international business lawyer who happened to be in the area on a shotgun hunting trip. The trip was on what was to become her future husband’s land. They met, courted and fell in love in their late 30s/early 40s. She changed her practice to move out here and they had kids. The fairy tale they neither one thought they would have became their reality.

I remember one evening when we were out at their place for a dinner party. To say that L’s friend was often a bit disorganized about social occasions would be an understatement. Thus I can remember treading my way in the dark to the grill to cook, all the while being rubbed and attacked by the herd of pygmy goats running wild in the yard, while the others were getting everything else in the house ready hours after the planned time. There is nothing quite like standing in the dark, lit only by the grill, and feeling the fur and tongues of little goats on your legs and wondering if they were really goats or were they skunks? Yet the food was superb, the conversation better and the evening memorable. What more could one ask for?

jokes

World’s Oldest Jokes

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Reuters reported a few years ago on the world’s oldest jokes. The bathroom humor involved in the jokes dating back to 1900 BC prove that the human sense of humor has not gotten better in nearly 4000 years.

How bad are the old saws? Well …

The first joke comes from ancient Sumeria circa 1900 BC:

Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.

I’m sure you could come up with a slight rewording that you heard before you completed high school. Proves that really bad humor has been with us a long time.

Leaving aside some Pharaoh and nearly nude nubile women jokes from the 1600 BC era, you might wonder about the jokes of relatively modern ancient cultures. Well, the Anglo-Saxon’s from the 10th century left behind this bawdy question and answer joke:

Question – What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?Answer – A key.

I think I heard that one before I was out of grade school. How about you?

sleep, tv, weather

Euphoria!

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Last night was one of those nights when the phase of moon and the barometric pressure and … all came together to make sleeping an euphoric experience. I can’t tell you how rare it is any more when the sinuses are clear and the aches and pains are gone and laying down is so pleasant. It was great.

Of course, I have been paying for the glorious night of sleep with an itchy nose all day. That might be because of the combined thunder and snow and rain storm that has dropped in today. It has gone from sunny and clear to thundering and raining to snow flurries and back to thunder and rain and then sunny again in the space of a couple of hours. Spring must really and truly be afoot.

The weather, especially the thunder, means that Molly the wonder dog has been Molly the trembling ball of nerves, trying to crawl into my lap all day. Once the thunder fully recedes into the distance, she’ll collapse on the floor of my office and sleep for a few hours. (In fact, she is asleep now.) So maybe she’ll have a euphoric sleep as well.

On a completely unrelated note and somewhat related to J. Cosmo’s cryptic comments about J.R. (from Dallas), what is the show or shows that you actually watch as scheduled? Note that tivo or DVR or online viewing via hulu or netflix doesn’t count. I want to know if there is a show or shows you actually watch as and when scheduled by the networks and cable companies. (None is an acceptable answer as well.) I have a deep suspicion that there are very few people who follow program provider’s scheduling whims anymore. but I want to see if I am wrong.

Things Done Right