Two weeks? Really?
I have lots of subjects to write about. I just need to get my sadly atrophied blog muscles back in shape. Much like I am doing with my real muscles. Yes, that is one of the subjects.
OK, my blogging muscles are shaky and burning now. Must rest.
Well, here we are again. It has been over a year since my last real post. The mix is still Odd, and I still like it that way.
Some of you have kept somewhat up to date via facebook, but here is the year in brief…
So now we live in a different place with different creatures. The new place is on the edge of the Cumberland plateau which makes for stunning scenery. We still live on a farm of sorts, but the maintenance is much less intensive.
I have been spending as many days as I can hunting, which here means much, much walking and very, very little shooting, but is still very addicting.
I love my job – great boss, great team, fun work.
At church I lead a small group bible study for the High School ministry, help with set builds, and run sound for the kids’ services.
MDW is busier than a one armed paper-hanger and the kids are growing like weeds and they are all still the greatest joy God has placed in my life.
Now that you are all caught up, we shall see if I can get back in the blogging groove. Who knows, I may even play the WWC again from time to time.
A few photos for the road…
From our vacation
From hunting in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area
The fog in my head, that is.
I have missed you all and cannot begin to express how much the notes you left while I was gone meant to me. I am just now beginning to peek back into the blog-o-sphere and am amazed at how much catching up I have to do. I mean, geeze, I am gone for a moth and Tink goes and gets engaged!
OK, for those of you who have been wondering and (thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou) praying for us…
MDW is a little better. She had a weekly infusion of iron for 4 weeks after her hospital stay. Now we wait a month and get her blood checked again. We pray that her anemia will be under control. If not, it is probably bone marrow biopsy time.
Bissie has a grade 2 urinary tract reflux. In laymans terms that means the flow reverses from her bladder back to her kidneys. The treatment at this point is to keep her on antibiotics until she grows out of it. She will have to be monitored periodically by a nephrologist to make sure there is no kidney damage.
We are still in the same house. Our landlord redeemed the foreclosure with less than a minute to spare before the auction was scheduled to start. We suspect we will be moving sometime soon, but don’t know when.
For the month I was gone I don’t think I even looked at a blog – mine or anybody else’s – much less posted or commented. It just seemed like too much work to even think about. I did check email and did read comments on my old blog posts (again thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou) and occasionally said “Hi!” on Google talk (“Hi, Kelli!”). But the fog was really, really, really thick.
For the last month or so I also seemed to loose all interest in the camera. I knew I liked photography but had less than zero interest in picking up the camera. I have begun taking a few pictures again. I guess that is a positive thing.
Java had nine puppies last month. This was a planned breeding. We will keep some for livestock guardians (not chain dogs, just family farm dogs that have dog houses near the other critters) and the others are mostly spoken for by friends who know and love the Bean.
Deer season has begun. That means I am taking an hour or so here and there to go sit still and quiet in the woods. That is definitely a good thing for me. And venison is very tasty, too.
So, here I am. Nothing deep today. I suppose a blogging comeback has to start with a single post. We’ll se if this is it.
Tink is getting married!?!?!?!?! Holy cow! What else have I missed?
Bissie
The latest on Bissie is that the last test identified a Grade 2 Urinary Reflux, which (simplified version) means that when her bladder is full the pressure forces the urine back up into her kidney (Owww!).
This is good news in the sense that we now have a better sense of what is going on, and that there is not an immediate thereat to her long term health.
The not so good news is that kidney backpressure HURTS! it is why kidney stones suck so badly. For you mothers who have never experienced a kidney stone, think labor with no breaks between contractions. Thankfully she doesn’t seem to be hurting all the time. But activity makes it worse, and inactivity is less than inviting to my Bissie.
In the long run, the treatments for these reflux cases can mean anything from “watch and wait” to surgical intervention. I am hoping for a version of the former if it won’t mean constant pain, because the condition ususally resolves on its own with age.
Currently we are scheduling one more test to look for scarring and getting an appointment with a good pediatric nephrologist at DC Children’s.
WWC
For the time being, Tink has agreed to take over as the host of WWC. She made me promise that it was only a temporary gig until I start blogging regularly. So please go over to Pickled Beef and show her the same kind support you have shown me. But play nice lest you get sporked.
…and around, and around, and around.
That’s where I am these days . Around.
Busy days abound. Life is full of things I “must do” – too many things that I “must do”. And too many of those “must do” things are self imposed.
Blogging has become a duty instead of a diversion. To some degree, so has photography. So… I am taking a step or two back to decide what I want to enjoy in my life in addition to the real “have-to”s.
I’m not quitting, just slowing down and pacing myself. I regard many of the readers here as friends. Most of the “regulars” in fact. I hate the idea of people “knocking on my door”, getting no answer, and leaving sad. I hope you will all still come by from time to time and say hi. If I am not here, please leave me a note. I read every comment on any post that you leave. And I appreciate them all – unless you are trying to sell the rest of my readers some kind of manhood enhancing herbal juju.
I’ll still be around from time to time to comment. I’ll still be haunting Flickr. And I’ll even post every now and then. Just a couple of nights ago as we sat in the Emergency Room parking lot waiting for Bissie and MDW, Caleb said, “I think you should blog this. I wish you would start blogging again.”
OK, Caleb. Here you go.
About two weeks ago, Bissie was hospitalized for several days with a kidney infection. She is so stoic that she hadn’t reported any pain from the bladder infection that had to have been there for days or weeks before. When she finally complained of tiredness and pain in her back and side we took her to the doctor. A positive urinalysis and a fever were enough to send her to the ER in an ambulance.
She was released after several days of IV fluids and antibiotics with instructions to continue the antibiotics and drink lots of liquids. She was OK for a few days, but then started to have pain again.
Sunday night, she couldn’t stand up straight, so back to the ER we went.
Temperature – normal
Urinalysis – completely clean
Blood work – clean
White blood cell count – normal
Abdominal Sonogram – normal
Abdominal CT scan – normal
Doctor – conscientious, thorough… and very, very confused
Patient – still in pain
They released her late Monday morning, well hydrated with instructions to stay in bed and take Advil regularly. She has one more test today and then… Who knows?
This is not good for my stress level or sleep habits.
Please pray for Bissie and her Doctors.
And blogging time was the giver.
Travel
Work
County Fair Week
Farm business
Pachamanca party
Fortieth Birthday
Busy times, folks. Busy but very good. I just need to catch my breath – maybe this weekend – then I will write more again.
I have been uploading photos on Flickr – some good ones from the fair. Stay tuned.
Tagged by: Tink
Use ONE WORD for each answer.
Yourself: Complex
Your Spouse: Beautiful
Your Hair: Hah
Your Mother: Determined
Your Father: Wise
Your Favorite Item: Camera
Your Dream Last Night: Confusing
Your Favorite Drink: Adrenaline
Your Dream Car: HMMWV
Your Dream Home: Farm
The Room You Are In: Cube
Your Fear: Bereavement
Where You Want To Be In Ten Years: Farming
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Family
You’re Not: Organized
One of Your Wish List Items: Camera
The Last Thing You Did: Uploaded
You Are Wearing: Boots
Your Favorite Weather: Spring
Your Favorite Book: Fantasy
Last Thing You Ate: Cereal
Your Life: Good
Your Mood: Hopeful
Your Best Friend: Wife
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Thinking
Your Car: Messy
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Typing
Relationship Status: Permanent
What Is On Your TV: Nothing
What Is The Weather Like: Muggy
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: Recently
I tag… whoever wants to play.
Blogging from the terminal at Dallas-Fort Worth airport. And No, Ern, it is not free.
See my Father’s Day present? I am so excited I keep having to suppress inappropriate “SQUEEE”s of joy. What a joy it is to have a camera that does all the things I have been wishing my camera would do.
I think my head might explode with unexpressed excitement.
“Odd Facts” is the top search engine hit for my site nearly every day. Odd, huh? So, in response to your questions, here they are.
CK wants to know…
…if I have any superpowers. No, I am more like Batman – all my abilities stem from gadgets, research, and an innate but subtle tendency toward sneakiness and theatrics.
…what at least two of my bad habits are. What bad habits? Wait, how did she know? In addition to the afore mentioned tendency to procrastinate, I also tend to leave messes for MDW to clean up. I also tend to go to sleep AND wake up later than I should.
…if I (and my family) really as normal and well-adjusted as we seem? Hmmm. Well, I’m not really sure how “normal and well-adjusted” we really seem to be. I suppose in general we are despite the quirks we all have. As to how this is accomplished, I would honestly say only by the Grace of a Good God.
Mom Underground wants to know, because of the title of my last post, if I actually LIKE musicals. She is making the (large, though understandable) assumption that I actually meant that title to be a reference to a musical. In fact, I only vaguely associated that phrase with music at all. In truth I have no clue what musical it might come from.
I have what an acquaintance once referred to as a “lint roller brain”. I think I probably once saw a version of whatever musical the title came from and the first line of the song got stuck on the lint roller – only to roll back around as I typed the title.
In general, though (to answer the question) I am not repelled by musicals as a genre. I liked Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and The Sound of Music, so I suppose I’d say I like good musicals, particularly the older ones.
Reciprocal Questions
Sorry they are late. I had to finish up preparing for a software demonstration yesterday.
T
1. Have you home schooled all of your kids from the start?
2. Did you experience resistance to the idea of homeschooling from family, friends, or your kids?
3. What did you do before you took up the mantle of Mom/Teacher/Domestic Engineer?
4. With all of those brothers, is Pink a tomboy or a girly-girl? Do you encourage or discourage her in this?
5. What is a “poochie tree”?
Susan
1. How did you and Shaun meet. And was he already properly bald?
2. What will you say when you meet KT’s first serious boyfriend?
3. Did you ever get your gutters cleaned?
4. Do you like living in the great North Wet? And would you choose to move there again if given a choice?
CK
1. If you had it to do over, what (if anything) would you change about your career path?
2. If you had to move out of your area, to where would you want to move?
3. What three bloggers would you most like to meet in real life (in addition to MDW and myself, of course).
Tink
1. Do you find it easier to make friends with men or women? Why?
2. If you had to move away from Florida, to where would you want to move? (assuming that you could find a job and house without too much trouble)
3. If you could get and care for another animal – but not a dog, cat, bird or fish – what would it be. Why?
4. Why did you start smoking again? When are you going to quit?
5. What advice would you give to the father of a brand new baby girl? (assume married and first child)
Mom Underground
1. Are you the secret driving force behind Mr. Underground’s, ah… unique fashion? Or does he come by it naturally?
2. Have you always lived on the tundra in Wisconsin?
3. Do you like being the only lady in the house? or would you want to add a little girl to the Underground?
Weekend Words Challenge
The weekend words for this week are Familiar and Unknown.
Have fun!
Spamikos
My akismet spam filter caught almost 300 spam comments in two days last week. Given that it has caught 1400 in the entire life of this blog (on WordPress anyway) that is a huge number. Probably 90% of them were from Greek first names. Go figure.
Weekend Words
The words are Balance and Parallel. My photos will be up after lunch.
Did you say the words?
One year ago yesterday, I wrote a post subtitled How We Start Again. I had created my blogspot blog a year before that but had only posted sporadically – mainly picture posts. But it was “in only” – I was writing but not reading; speaking to the ether. In short… boring.
In January of last year, for some reason I actually started reading blogs. I don’t know what started me reading, but Cat was the first, I think, and then T of the Crazy*ass Family. Then followed Tink, Mom Underground, Suzanne, William, KTP and Doc Ern. I have no real recollection of how I found them, but I am glad I did. When commenting on these blogs I generaly was asked to enter my own blog address. Well… I had one, so I entered it. Then I realized there was nothing to see there, but that was a problem easily solved. So I made my reentry into the world of blogging – this time as an interactive process. The first person to coment on my renewed effort was Lauri of BlogSmith. I was comunicating and loved it.
For the last year I have continued that interaction – with varying degrees of regularity. I have made some wonderful friends. Read some wonderful writing. Said a few sad “goodbye”s and a couple of happy “welcome back”s. We took some great pictures and sharred them with each other. I (almost) made it through NaBloPoMo and made some more great friends.
This past month has been the rockiest of my new blogging life. The muse has been silent. I have been busy. Life and the holidays have happened. Lots of reasons contributing to the result – a very, very sparse blog and a somewhat irrational sense of guilt. I was letting my friends down by not writing and I felt bad about it. At times like this the old cave-man reactions kick in pretty strong (hide under the rock) and I avoided even thinking about blogging – which meant not reading either, which made me feel even worse.
Blah. Ick. *sticks own head in the water trough* Deep sigh.
So…. 222 posts later, I am going back a year. Starting again. It will take me a while to catch up on your lives, I am sure. I will start posting the WWC again and, though I don’t promise I’ll have pictures every week, I plan to enjoy yours regularly. I’ll start following my bloglines again, though I may trim it back a bit. And, even if I can’t think of something deep or funny to write, I guess my friends will be happy just to hear what I made for dinner or what Sweets-O said to make me laugh last night.
So, here’s to another 222. Last year was an E Ticket ride. Thanks for being there. Thanks for being patient. Thanks for being friends.
NOTES: The water in the trough is frozen – very cold for head dunking. And – showing my age – how many of you knew what an “E Ticket” ride was?
All that remains is a burlap sack, his cute little miniature light saber and the spirit of NaBloPoMo.
It has been an interesting experience.
It was mostly fun. At times it was quite demanding. I made some new friends. I got some new ideas. Maybe even learned a little more about me.
I almost made it, too. I missed one day – the twenty-fifth – after whacking myself in the face with the recoil of a shotgun, and another – the twenty-ninth – out of shear absentmindedness.
This was an experiment for me in concentrated blogging. I don’t mean applying mental concentration (though there was some of that, too). I mean taking a dilute substance and concentrating it; distilling it; intensifying it. The results of the experiment were – again, for me – mixed.
I have said before that the most significant thing about blogging for me is the communication. The conversation and relationship that it engenders with my readers. In conversation with people I am comfortable with, there are pauses. Every silence need not be filled with words. I found myself frustrated at times this month by forcing myself to try and communicate when I had nothing to say.
MDW also became frustrated at times that, out of self imposed obligation, I was taking time to blog that might ordinarily be allotted to family time or sleep. Perhaps after this month I will blog more regularly, but I can almost guarantee that it will not be daily.
That said, I was pleased that, both through the NaBloPoMo community and through a simple increase in traffic, I had the opportunity to get to know several new bloggers. MarillaAnne and Renaissance Man and Clare’s Dad, Crunchy and Kari and Sari, Mary and Molly I encountered by seeking out others in the challenge. SQT and Angie, Gracey and Kelli, Mocha and Coffeespaz and Atypical I met through the additional visibility of more frequent posting and commenting. All have become regulars on my blogging rounds. All, to some degree, have become friends.
I learned about AT and followed him through the ordeal of losing BJ, his wife and the mother his two young boys.
I entered into alliance with MarillaAnne – promising as her allied blogger to help her promote and support World Vision in their efforts to assist the people, especially children, who were hard hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I will also be seeking my own alliances with others (as soon as I sort out what exactly to propose).
I promised to answer some questions about me that I have not yet addressed. Rest assured that I will. I am a story teller and I love the conversations we have after I say, “The End”. The end of NaBloPoMo means the end of mandatory posts, but perhaps also means the start of better ones.
I s’pose we’ll see. Stay tuned. And maybe that little green guy with the pointy ears floating above the banister will shut up and let us talk.
Well, last night my post came in at 12:42 am. So I suppose I am officially out of the running with NaBloPoMo. But I figure I have come this far, I might as well finish the course.
So now I have a banadaged face and a minor shiner. I have a freezer packed with venison. I have posted (again) for the day. And I am whipped. Happy, but whipped.
So I am going to bed. Marilla, I have neither forgotten nor forsaken the alliance – I have just been overrun. Sorry. I hope to get the intro up on Tuesday.
I’ve been invited to guest post! First time that’s ever happened.
The Fantasy and Science Fiction Lovers Blog was started by SQT and she has invited several other lovers of SF&F to post. I posted there today on my favorite publisher. I am quite pleased to have been included in the discussion of a genre that I really enjoy.
Today was mostly family time.
Did some wiring. Chased some goats (time for worming shots). Fixed some fence. Hooked up a VCR. Just a bunch of little things that needed to be done.I pulled my back chasing the goats, so I got to just hang out with the kids a bit, too.
Some weekends it is hard to get my brain engaged for inteligent/thoughtful writing. I come to the keyboard and realize I have nothing in my head but a bunch of fragments of the day. I am not sure, but I think that might be a good thing.
Two things happened today that caused me to ponder.
The first thing that made me think about this was a reply I got to an email. I sent out an email to all the bloggers that I “know” about the Weekend Words Challenge, but I neglected to refer to myself as The Odd Mix. One blogger replied with a very politely worded email saying that she did not “know” me and would I please take her off my list.
The second was much sadder. AT at AtomicTumor has been writing for the last three weeks about the ordeal he has been in. His wife, the mother of their two small boys, is in a coma resulting from a massive systemic infection. Yesterday she seemed to be heading toward possible recovery. Last night she had a major stroke. Today she died.
My heart breaks for AT who has lost his love. My heart breaks for his sons who have lost their mother. And it breaks as if I knew them well, for I have been getting to know them for two weeks, though they don’t know me.
So here’s the question. What does it mean when I say I know you?
I do not mean to “know of”; nor, of course, do I mean “to know in the biblical sense”. I would say I know of many people that I do not know. And, sadly, many people are known carnally without really being known personally. I suppose a better term for the subject of my musing might be “to be acquainted with” – but I’m not even sure of that.
Does it mean I have shaken your hand or spent many hours in your presence? Does it mean I possess factual or subjective information about you? Must I recognize your appearance to know you? Or must I ken your thoughts instead. Need I know your name? Your location? Your lineage?
Must you know me in return? Can I know a person without being known. I do not have the answer – maybe there isn’t a clear one.
I think when I was young it was easier to say that I knew someone. I could know my neighbor, or a schoolmate, or a relative. I would know them by seeing them and speaking to them. Telephone calls were expensive enough that they were rarely used outside our local area. Certainly I could send a letter around the world – but only if I already knew someone to send it to. I still don’t think I could have given a clear definition of “knowing someone”, but it was much easier to say who I knew and who I didn’t.
Now all of that has changed. I still know my neighbors (or could). I still know my family (I think). I still know a couple of my classmates.
But then there is you.
You know where I was born. You know my children’s names and faces and loves. You know the story of my great romance and many of the infirmities of my body and soul.
I have traded parenting advice with you, recipes with you, and dreams with you. I have cried for you and laughed for you. Shared my faith with a few of you.
Some of you speak to me daily and you express care for my well being and that of my loved ones. You applaud me in my successes and encourage my through my down times.
How could I not be said to know you and you me. We are friends. And friends despite the fact that, in all of my blogroll links and my bloglines subscriptions there is precisely one blogger I have met face to face (Hi, Cat! *waves*).
Some of you, I am sure, have never told me you are there – yet I would still say you know me as well or better than many people I see every day. Effectively I have been talking to you most every day. And there are blogs I frequent, people I have never or only rarely communicated with, whom I have come to know fairly well, too.
So again I come back to when do I say I know you? What do you think?
Anyhow, “Hi there! It’s nice to know you.”
No less busy, but much better
At least I have my meds on board this week.
As if I wasn’t busy enough… I have decided to participate in the NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month – festivities. Basically, I am going to post at least once every day for the next 30 days. I may not post anything earth shattering – but I will post something.
Happy Birthday, Odd Son!
Caleb turned ten years old on Sunday. We postponed his “big party” until next week, but had a breakfast party for the family. Instead of cake we put his candles into doughnuts.
It was an all around very good day in a very good weekend.
Caleb’s favorite present came from Grandpa R. – a scale model of a yellow Hummer H2.
Thanks, Grandpa.
UPDATE: Grrrrrr. I hit publish; it said published; I believed it was published… It lied. Now it is publiushed – just in time to wave bye-bye to another week.
I am worn out. This weekend kicked my but and I am now gearing up for the next one. *sigh* Well, at least it was fun and the upcoming one promisses to be fun as well. So here, a day late, is my WWC submission.
Delicate:
Delicate light; delicate holding for kittens; and delicate teasing of a calendar challenged friend.
Intense:
Uhhh… yeah. Missed this one. But I am intensely proud of my kids.
One more blog
My youngest child now has her very own blog as well as her older siblings.
Who stole my week!?!?!
Alright. Somebody had better fess up, ’cause last I knew it was Monday and I was posting my WWC pictures. Now here it is Friday and I am late putting up the new words – which are Delicate and Intense, by the way – and I would like to know where the three days in the middle went to!
Another Casualty
“Nunuf” of F&W cas closed her doors, packed up her bags, popped smoke, and bugged out. The sploggers claim another victim. The Odd Son was more than a little distressed by this but, in the end, Nunuf reassured him that she was not leaving for good and that she would let us know when she was back.
Blog Spawn
All of my kids are jumping on the blog band-wagon. We homeschool our kids, and we are always on the lookout for opportunities to teach through life. Reading opportunities are fairly easy to find, but sometimes encouraging regular writing practice is a bit more problematic. So I was delighted when Gabriella and Bissie expressed an interest in having a blog like their big brother. So I built blogs for each of them on wordpress (and imported Caleb’s old blogger blog) and you should start seeing – should you care to look – at least fairly regular updates on The Odd Son, Sunshine Smiles, and Bissie’s World. Of course, I am now being hounded unmercifully – if understandably – by one particulat three year old as to where “My blog” is. Never fear, ‘Sweets, it is comming soon.
I think “This Little Pig’s BBQ” might be a good name. What do you think, Tink?
A Warm Welcome
Yesterday I got an unexpected comment. Snookie just started a blog and stopped by to say, “Hello!”. She is a very special young lady who is an important part of the Odd Farm. She is also a talented photographer and it looks like she may join us in the WWC. Hurray! She jumped right in on the meme bandwagon, too.
Go see her and say “Hi”. Go on… I’ll wait.
…
Welcome back.
A Sad Farewell
I found out from Tink yesterday that MammaTulip is folding up her tent and moving on. This is a terrible shame, as she is a wonderful writer whom I have been reading since I really began blogging. She has been driven to do this by a bunch of thieving sploggers who are using her content – without her consent – on a for-profit site. What a crying shame.
In addition to being irked and saddened by the loss of one of my favorite reads, I am deeply concerned than these scum bags will drive away others that I enjoy. How sad that the actions of a few scofflaws can threaten the stability of a wonderful community.
Bonus Pics
Sentinel
Council at the Gate
Weekend Words Challenge
Keeping close to the loose theme of this post, this week’s words are going to be Hello and Goodbye. OK, get snapping.
You, too, Snookie. 😉 Homework is due Monday. And ‘Liese says, “You’re fuzzy!”
When I was in the Army, I spent several fun filled months in the east African nation – if you could even call it a nation – of Somalia. Among their other unique quirks, the Somali adults are by and large addicted to a drug called Kaat or Kaht. It is a stimulant something on the order of chugging a grande espresso and chain smoking a pack of Camels.
But that’s not what this post is about. Nope. It is about something far more addictive. Something more insidious. Something that is sometimes harder to find, but much easier to afford.
I am talking about the hysterically funny Desperate Working Momma, also known as Cat. Her writing is outstanding, but her video posts? Hello! They should carry a surgeon general’s warning for Oxygen deprivation due to intense laughter and Sugar-Free No-Fear energy drink inhalation.
Last week she posted a public service announcement on the vile habit of public restroom cell phone use – her best PSA yet, in my opinion. I thought it was so funny I had my wife watch it. Then my kids got hold of it. Disaster.
On Thursday, they were sitting all in a row on the gate watching Annshh work with the horses. Over and over again they regaled her with such delectable lines as, “It’s where you put your BUMMMM! And do your BID-NESSS!” or “If you park yourself in the stall next to me and decide to take that call!?!?!? I will FLUSH! Maybe even twice!” So funny to watch! But now I have a problem.
I will never be able to take them into polite company again for fear that they will tell some stranger about putting their bumm and doing bidness. Thanks, Cat. Thanks allot. 😉
Now I need to go check my podcasts to see if I can get a fix of Cat.
I don’t ususally pay much attention to the search terms used to find my blog other than to note that the top search term is always “odd facts”. Today, just for grins, I ran down the list and found these:
“sugar and manure mix saying“
I cannot even imagine why those would be mixed, much less talked about.
“pomegranate hummus”
Ewwwwwww! No!
“does block parmesan cheese go bad?”
If you have had it long enough to ask… throw it away!
“ear swollen shut and filled with puss”
Go. To. The. Doctor!
“shortest word ever”
Um… I?
“how much does a miniature horse poop”
Lots! Just… Lots!
OK. Now you have your answers. Please return to your regularly scheduled activities. Thank you!
I’m so excited I could pop! And I’m gonna tell you why… after I post my WWC pictures. 😉
The words are Beauty and Beholder.
beauty
beholder
*humming tunelessly* hmmmm-hmmm-hmmmmmmm-hmm-hmmmmmmmm….
OK. Enough suspense already ’cause I just can’t stand it any longer. For the very first time I got a blog award! Me – for this post! Mom of Sweetie presented me with the July Perfect Post Award! She even got a waiver for it because it was actually posted on the last day in June!*
As I’ve said before, I write primarily to communicate my thoughts and feelings, rather than to vent. In other words, I write to connect to you, my readers, on both an emotional and intellectual level. Sometimes I wonder if I am really making that connection. To find that I have been able to do that in a way meaningful enough to be given an award is really thrilling!
When I read her post last night early this morning I had to really, really, really resist the temptation to go roust MDW out of bed and have her read it right then and there. I coudn’t sleep for another hour. An award! My blog! Woo Hooo! OK. where’s my paper bag… breathe… I’m better now, thanks.
Thank you, Mom of Sweetie! You really made my day.
*I think that is the most exclamation point sodden paragraph I have ever written
Or “The one where OddMix gets char-broiled by his email.”
There are no double standards!
Nope. There is no standard at all. If there are two “standards” for the same thing then they aren’t standard. There is one standard size for a soccer ball and net. There is one standard length for a meter and mass in a gram. There is one standard length for a football field, weight for a golf ball, term for a political office.
It is certainly possible, however, for a standard to be applied or enforced inequitably. The standard of “one citizen, one vote” was certainly enforced unequally in favor of various groups throughout our history. There is no doubt that the standards of property ownership, treatment in the workplace, and human rights have also been abridged in favor of some to the detriment of others.
In centuries past, a standard was a flag. Typically carried into battle with the leader of a force, it provided an anchor in the chaos of combat. When one lost one’s self in the general dissolution of the mêlée one could look up and move to the standard. It was visible. It was concrete. And it was identifiable. It was a touch point upon which order was formed.
In medicine there are standards by which our health is evaluated. There is a standard temperature – 98.6 F. There is a standard for healthy blood pressure – 120/70 mmHg. There are standards for blood chemistry and bone density and infant growth. We acknowledge that these standards need not be applied with rigidity. However, they are no less standards for their lenient application.
With ambiguity of standards comes confusion. If two battle standards looked the same, a soldier would not know to which he should rally. When my doctor says I should have a BP of 120/80 and another says 115/70, I don’t know which I should shoot for. If one side in a soccer match only had to defend a lacrosse goal, all semblance of fairness – of justice – would go right out the window.
One of the functions of a civilized society – exercised in law, tradition, and social mores – is the establishment and equitable application of behavioral standards. Standards can be applied with leniency – mercy given. But even the degree of mercy offered should be, within the ability of society to make it so, standard! Continue reading
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The Odd Mix 