HIATUS

The word of the day for November 4, 2010 is "hiatus"
noun
\hī-ˈā-təs\
Latin, from hiare to yawn — more at YAWN
1. a : a break in or as if in a material object : GAP [the hiatus between the theory and the practice of the party — J. G. Colton] b : a gap or passage in an anatomical part or organ. 2. a : an interruption in time or continuity : BREAK; especially : a period when something (as a program or activity) is suspended or interrupted [after a 5-year hiatus from writing]. b : the occurrence of two vowel sounds without pause or intervening consonantal sound.


It's been way too long since I last wrote. I do hope you all got through the summer well. I've been adjusting to life with Lloyd in a care home. Now that his meds are straightened out, he is adjusting to the home, himself.

It is such a relief to know that someone is always there if he falls, that I don't have to argue or cajole him to take his meds, that I don't have to tell him repeatedly that chocolate is not good for the dog.

The staff at Golden Living of Wichita are competent and cheerful. They're always willing to answer my questions. They listen to what he says, even when his diction is unclear or just incoherent.

Lloyd in the dayroom-taken from the foyer of Golden Living of Wichita.

Our quote for today is from Henry Fielding. (1707–1754), The History of Tom Jones “IV. In Which Is Introduced One of the Pleasantest Barbers That Was Ever Recorded in History, the Barber of Bagdad, or He in Don Quixote, Not Excepted":

“Alas! sir,” answered the shaver [barber], “my father disinherited me for
it. He was a dancing-master; and because I could read before I could dance, he took an aversion to me, and left every farthing among his other children.—Will you please to have your temples—O la! I ask your pardon, I fancy there is hiatus in manuscriptis. I heard you was going to the wars; but I find it was a mistake.”—“Why do you conclude so?” says Jones. “Sure, sir,” answered the barber, “you are too wise a man to carry a broken head thither; for that would be carrying coals to Newcastle.”

;^) Jan

Just a quote today

-

Our quote for the day from a friend of a friend on FaceBook discussing Carrie Vaughn's "plan that is sheer elegance in its simplicity."

Kevin Martin: "A plan so elegant you can dress a weasel in it?"

;^)

-

COVERLET

-

I have been redecorating. The comforter on the bed has gotten threadbare and worn enough that I was thinking of using it as a quilt backing. Then I remembered that quilting means sewing: not one of my favorite activities. I splurged on a new bedspread and pillow shams from Pyramid Collection catalog. (The spread and shams were a "catalog exclusive," which meant I couldn't order it online - that doesn't happen often these days.)

Also, my sister and my daughter both gave me artwork for my birthday this year - a Randal Spangler and a Ruth Thompson, respectively. I had both pictures matted and framed at Michael's to coordinate with a couple of Sandra SanTara gryphon drawings that I have had for several years. A wall hanging from last year's Renaissance Fest is now a window hanging.

Now I need to wash/paint the walls.

Our word of the day for May1, 2010 is "coverlet" - Pronunciation: \ˈkə-vər-lət, -(ˌ)lid\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, alteration of coverlite, from Anglo-French coverlit, from covre (it) covers + lit bed, from Latin lectus c more at lie

Date: 14th century

: bedspread

Our quote for the day is from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616). Don Quixote, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.:

[The traveler's bed], which, though it was made of canvas and coverings of his mules, was much better than the knight’s [Don Quixote's] that only contained four boards roughly planed, placed on two unequal tressels; a flock-bed, which in the thinness seemed rather a quilt, full of pellets, and had not they shown that they were wool, through certain breaches made by antiquity on the tick, a man would by the hardness rather take them to be stones; a pair of sheets made of the skins of targets; a coverlet, whose threads if a man would number, he should not lose one only of the account.

;^)

CORRECTION

-

I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos. They were taken while driving on a fairly busy street. Kids, don't do this at home without adult supervision.

Sometime last autumn, I noticed what I took to be a tarp-shrouded tree in front of a building that I pass several times a week. I assumed that it was a tree that was just a bit too fragile to handle Kansas winters. Because of the conformation, forced-as I thought, by the constraining ropes-I thought of it as a blue ninja tree.

Last week, the tarp was removed. The object of my imagination was reavealed as-a statue of what looks like a Chinese historical figure. I've no idea what the story behind that statue, although the person I saw working on the front lawn might be of Chinese ancestry.

The word of the day for Sunday, April 18, 2010 is "correction" — Pronunciation: \kə-ˈrek-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 : the action or an instance of correcting: as a : AMENDMENT, RECTIFICATION b : REBUKE, PUNISHMENT c : a bringing into conformity with a standard d : NEUTRALIZATION, COUNTERACTION [correction of acidity].
2 : a decline in market price or business activity following and counteracting a rise.
3 a : something substituted in place of what is wrong [marking corrections on the students' papers] b : a quantity applied by way of correcting (as for adjustment of an instrument).
4 : the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders through a program involving penal custody, parole, and probation; also : the administration of such treatment as a matter of public policy—usually used in plural.

Our quote for the day is from William Wordsworth (1770–1850), "Michael: A Pastoral Poem":

Would Michael exercise his heart with looks
Of fond correction and reproof bestowed
Upon the Child, if he disturbed the sheep
By catching at their legs, or with his shouts
Scared them, while they lay still beneath the shears.

;^)

-

ANCIENT

-

It's official. My husband's 80th birthday was Friday. I provided cake for the residents and staff of Golden Living. The Golden Gate Bridge is Lloyd's favorite spot. In 1977 he successfully jumped from the south end of the bridge.*

Cyb, Claudia and I went in together to buy him an MP3 player with headphones and a lanyard. (I engraved his name in several places on the case and headphones and stitched his name to the lanyard.)

Claudia brought her son Mitchell with her from Arkansas. On being asked, Lloyd told her that he was sixteen.

Staff put the MP3 player in his bed table at night, so I got it out for him both yesterday and today. He enjoys the music I loaded. I'm going to have to find more 50s and 60s jazz for him.

The word of the day for March 7, 2010 is "ancient" -

Pronunciation: \ˈān(t)-shənt, ˈāŋ(k)-shənt\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English ancien, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *anteanus, from Latin ante before — more at ante-

Date: 14th century

1 : having had an existence of many years
2 : of or relating to a remote period, to a time early in history, or to those living in such a period or time; especially : of or relating to the historical period beginning with the earliest known civilizations and extending to the fall of the western Roman Empire in a.d. 476
3 : having the qualities of age or long existence: as a : venerable b : old-fashioned, antique

Our quote for the day is from Thomas Fuller (1608–1661), Of Marriage.:

They that marry ancient people, merely in expectation to
bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the
halter.

;^)

-

*No big deal - he only jumped from the bridge walkway to the approach walkway!