Holiday Guest

 It was great having Boom home for a few days over Christmas.  And those electronic gadgets are great for keeping in touch when he's DeepInnaHarta.  But i/we like these devices better when he's elsewhere.  Far elsewhere, as opposed to, he's on one floor and we and device on the other floor.
From DeepInnaHarta, they help us keep in touch, as opposed to.....

Old Photo Shows Autism Example


  i recognize autistic symptoms in all sorts of places:
  • an advice column letter in which the woman describes her trying brother in law, who monopolized conversations on his pet topics and wouldn't engage on other topics at all.
  • a novel in which one of the the characters sure sounds to me like someone with autism.
  • people describing their undiagnosed kid to me.

Today i came across an old post of mine
and realized it showed Max doing a very autistic type thing: climbing inside something, having something touching all around.

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday: The Train! The Train!

  When i was a kid, it seemed that we couldn't go anywhere without waiting for a train.
  i kinda liked trains, but it wasn't any big deal.  
  Max of course loves trains,

What i've Learned about The Cane


  In his "Introductory" to Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis  carefully explains that his book is not written because he knows his subject so well, but because he, like his audience, is a beginner. 
 
  So, in that spirit, i share some tips about using this contraption.

The Ruth Project: Part 1


 

Seeds: From Another Garden

   i think this project actually began last November. Eva Etzioni-Halevy's novels in our local library may have been its genesis.

   Actually it was the not-Ruth novel, The Song of Hannah, that i read first. It upended all i had been taught about Hannah, Elkanah's the barren wife.  Wasn't she the first, older wife? And Peninnah the sharp-tongued, the second, younger wife, mother of Elkanah's children?

   Well, yes, to some of the assumptions. Peninnah has the children, she makes Hannah's life miserable (but maybe Hannah would've been miserable without Peninnah's needling? i can totally see Peninnah's "needling" as an attempt to say Hannah had the better lot in life.)

   Etzioni-Halevy's novel turns the situation on its head. She depicts Hannah, at her best friend Pninah's wedding, determining to also marry the attractive groom.

   The The Garden of Ruth had a similarly unsuspected premise: 

Now all is said & done. . . .

  Yeah right.  Anyway, the election is over.
  It's been weird in lots of ways.  Congratualations to the hard work of volunteers to get people to the polls.  Which led to another weirdness:  as i was struggling to get ready & out the door, a volunteer called me to remind me to vote.
  Seems like most everyone i voted for lost.  Not surprising, considering my fondness for 3rd parties, and things in general.
  i was mainly sad that the candidate whom i perceived as slinging the most mud - first - won his race.
  But i've never really had a major candidate i supported win.  There were lots whom i thought would, in office, be the ruin of us all.  And everyone was better than i expected.
  May it be so this time also.

Election Day

  Lots of us disagree about a lot of things.  We may not disagree about as much as the media has fanned us to think we do.
  Even if you can't decide which candidate might be "the lesser of two evils," get out there & vote. 
 There's lots of other offices to fill, and some of us have issues, judges, or school boards to vote for or against.
  Make sure you count.

Event of Possible Interest

MyFriendSharon is the mom of three young people with autism. She came across a typing trainer and finds that the typing really helps her nonverbal one to communicate.  If that sounds interesting to you, you may wish to attend her event this Thursday or just contact her to find out more. 

Wordless Wednesday: Color-Coded Colors

Three kinds of grey colored pencils.  The untaped one is a different brand; the taped ones are Prismacolor Premieres.
  Without the tape, it's easy to tell which Prismas are darker or lighter than the others.

Wordless Wednesday: Curious Graffiti

Graffiti on a bridge handrail: "I'm not hard to find!!"
Boom: I don't care for most graffiti you see on the road, but every now and then something interesting pops up. Is this art, or an ephemeral message permanently placed?

computer stuff

  MyGuy tells me that what i lost in the crash will probably remain lost.  Which includes medical notes for 5-10 years, as well as all the images and a lot of the text for my Ruth project.  But there's a printout of a lot of it, and all my handwritten notes are still here.
  At least they were until yesterday.  i typed up more at the library, and recycled the pages before leaving.  Hopefully they really are saved onto my flash drive.
  Reminds me of this bit on nonhumorous humor:
      Three things are certain  Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred.   With searching comes loss      And the presence of absence:     "My Novel" not found. 
  And we have a little progress here.  Tonight MyGuy presented me with a laptop (at one point i knew its provenance), in my usual spot on the computer desk.  He's loaded basics of our accounts*.  i spent most of the last two hours continuing to set up personalize, and catch up with the last two weeks of mail in the trapped account.
  And i am more convinced than before that i really really don't like working on a laptop.  Am i hardcore PC?

* his, mine, and Max's.  There were also his admin account, Boom's (sorry), and one no one seemed to have the hang of, which was for me and MyGuy plus Boom to discuss household maintenance, etc.

Ancient Mythology Comes to Me

  The Sphinx is a character that appears in many ancient mythologies, as well as famous and not so famous statues.
  One famous incarnation

Wordless Wednesday: Same Place, Different Years

This is one of the WWII photos, i suspect sent to my injured dad by a buddy .  It could be a photo i took in Rome, overlooking the Forum.   Turns out the shot isn't identical, possibly not even from the same vantage point, but this looks extremely familiar.
One of my shots, 1976: from the same balcony?

Computer Woes

  It's gone, a fatal crash.  MyGuy doesn't think anything can be done. 
  Except move on, resign myself to having lost six years+ of files and photos, &, well, move on.
  It's not like i'm the first this has happened to.
  Good thing i do draft posts. 

Seen Around the County

   This morning Max and i were headed to the tutor's.  i saw a personalized license plate something like this: 
  Since i've been pointing personalized plates out to Max, i described and explained it to him.  i doubt he got it, because he didn't see the plate (traffic moved) and i couldn't write it down, but i loved the abbreviated spelling and joke.
  Or is it a joke?  The day before, i'd seen a person wearing a Tshirt proudly proclaiming that the individual is fueled by coffee.
  Cute.  As Sergeant Schultz would say, "Jolly joke."
  Or is it a joke?  Can it be a joke AND reality?