CASUALTY

Dan from Slapinions comments that today's word should be "slacker" because I haven't posted for a week. Well, I haven't even been on line for a few days because I haven't been slacking. There were 112 e-mails in my in-box this morning. I have been packing for a weekend trip, getting Halloween bags ready for Trick-or-Treaters, taking my husband's car to be serviced, and accompanying himself to the doctor—not in that order. Oh, and also getting my husband out of the basement after he fell down the stairs.

On the way out to the car for the doctor appointment, Lloyd caught his foot in the dog gate sectioning off the back entry from the kitchen. He landed on his hip in the entryway, but momentum carried him down the stairs more or less head-first on his back. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Fortunately, he did not break anything, and we got to the doctor's in time for the appointment. Dr. Buth is quite pleased with Lloyd's blood sugar A1C, blood pressure, weight (down another 8 lbs in the past 3 mos) and other signs. He suggested that we pack Lloyd in ice for potential bruising & start him on the heating pad Saturday. (Fat chance, we'll be in the car all day Saturday.) And this morning, Lloyd didn't even remember that he'd taken a tumble until I reminded him.

The word of the day for October 16, 2008 is "casualty" — Pronunciation: \ˈka-zhəl-tē, ˈkazh-wəl-, ˈka-zhə-wəl-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ca·su·al·ties
Date: 15th century
1 archaic : chance , fortune [losses that befall them by mere casualty — Sir Walter Raleigh]. 2: serious or fatal accident : disaster. 3 a: a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action. b: a person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed : victim [the ex-senator was a casualty of the last election].

Our quote for the day is from

Nature, hating art and pains,
Baulks and baffles plotting brains;
Casualty and Surprise
Are the apples of her eyes;
But she dearly loves the poor
And, by marvel of her own,
Strikes the loud pretender down.

;^) Jan