Fire!

After work and swimming laps, I stopped by the library on my way home.  I wanted to pick up some books.  This month it's my turn to present books to read and we usually pass around a copy of the book.  I'm too cheap to buy them so I borrow them from the library.  As I drove up to the library, I saw smoke in the grass at the edge of the driveway.  A car was parked there and some teens were outside.  I parked my car and looked again and this time I could see flames.  The teens were trying to stomp the fire out but it looked like it was getting away from them.  I told the librarian that the grass on the other side of the driveway was on fire.  To my surprise, she said, "Again?"  She scurried to tell other people while I went to get my books.  As I left the library I could see the kids had kept the fire from spreading.  I could also see that the prairie area between the lanes was blackened and smouldering.  That must be where the fire had burned earlier.  The high winds and the dry air might have pushed some smouldering ashes across the lane and into dry leaves on the other side.  What a wild day.  This warm air and windy weather is getting a little spooky. 

Wrinkles

I knew I would get wrinkles when I got old.  I expected that.  I was told about the "laugh lines" and "crow's feet."  I knew to expect a turkey neck someday.  But no one told me about the thigh wrinkles.  Good lord.  My advice?  If you choose to do a yoga move called "downward dog,"  either wear long pants or wait until after dark and keep the lights off.

4D

Today I heard about 4D ultrasounds.  Someone I know has a daughter with a high risk pregnancy.  Every month she has a 4D ultrasound.  This future grandmother told us how amazing the  images she saw in the 4D ultrasound.  She even got a movie burned on a DVD of her granddaughter who is due to be born in February.  Strange, not?  I didn't even know we had four dimensions. One dimension (like a line) I can understand. Two dimensions (like the surface of a sphere) I can get.  Three dimensions (like the space inside a cube) I can get.  But four dimensions?  The future grandmother said the fourth dimension is the images are given in real time.  She said it's like looking inside right at the baby. She could see that her skull hasn't grown together yet.  She could see her little upper lip so clearly she knew the baby would not have a cleft palate.  She said the images were a little spooky to see.  And that got me to thinking.  I had an ultrasound once.  I guess my ultrasound (almost 23 years ago) would be considered a 2D ultrasound.  At first I couldn't see anything at all but suddenly I could see a head and a body when the technician pointed them out.  I could see little eyes.  The baby was laying facing the camera on it's left side.  It's head was on the right side of the screen.   As I watched in amazement, the baby raised it's right arm and pulled it's hand toward it's head and moved it back and forth.  My baby WAS WAVING AT ME!  Waving like it was in a parade.  I started to giggle with joy and we lost the picture.  But it was a very happy moment and a foreshadowing of the vibrant, gregarious offspring I was to have. 

Walnut Season

Landscape boulder or squirrel work station?

I've been hearing this sound in my yard and my parent's yard.  It goes "screech screech screech" and sounds like rocks rubbed on a grater.  It's not a pretty sound.  It's the sound of squrrel teeth breaking into walnut shells.  Now I've tried to open walnut shells.  Each shell takes at least 5 blows from a hammer.  They are not easy to open.  So I have to admire the squirrel's ability.  Just imagine how strong those squirrel teeth are.  If the squirrels couldn't wear down their teeth with walnuts, they would probably be saber-toothed squirrels.  The squirrels use my landscape boulder as a work station.  The top of the rock is littered with walnut husks and shells.  They also use my front cement sidewalk.  I try to keep the husks swept away because they stain the cement.  But it's an impossible task because squirrels open new walnuts every day.  I guess it's just "walnut season."  It will pass just like the holiday season, Girl Scout cookie season, and rhubarb season.

Improve Your Karma

I signed up with bethematch.com last week.  They sent me a kit with three swabs.  I rubbed the swabs on the inside of my cheeks and mailed them back.  If you meet basic health criteria (which even I could meet), you could be a bone marrow donor.  Look it up.  You might want to participate.  You could be the one to save a life.

Pumpernickel

Last night I had some Greek garbanzo bean stew and pumpernickel bread for supper.  As I chewed my dark break, I started thinking about the name pumpernickel.  "Pumpernickel," I thought to myself, "Pump or nickel.  Pumper. Nick. El.  I should google that."  Later I did google the origin of the word pumpernickel.  Much to my surprise, the answer is gross.  Pumper is the German word for fart.  Like "Achoo" sounds like the sound, pumper sounds like a fart in Germany.  Nickel is the name for devil.  So pumpernickel is devil's fart bread.  Basically they thought the stuff was nearly inedible and gave you gas.  If I had known what pumpernickel meant, I don't think I would have purchased it.  What other foreign foods am I buying that I should be concerned about?

Nice Lady

A lady about my age and driving a rusted mini-van approached me today as I was getting ready to put on my motorcycle helmet outside the fitness club.  She said, "I had to drive over here to applaud you.  You got guts."

I assumed she was applauding my motorcycle use so I said, "Thank you.  It's actually a lot of fun."

"I am sure it is," she said as she drove away.

Such a nice lady!