I love writers who paint with words. I used to encourage my 1st and 2nd graders to do this and they actually became quite good at it.

Years ago I read a treatise from a few educators in California, whose plan it was…

“To teach only the most most basic of vocabulary as it was not necessary to have more than one word for red.”

It is mind numbing to contemplate. Where would we be without ruby, wine, or crimson? Each of these can bring to mind items which are exactly described by these colors. Yet, the lack of imagination those educators would put upon us would leave us all with an 8 box of Crayola colors.

Test yourself by imagining Renoir if he only had red, orange, blue, green, purple, yellow, brown, and black? Oh, sorry Renoir, you only have eight colors to chose from and you aren’t allowed to mix them. You needn’t be an artist to envision how your efforts at illustration would be limited.

I do get discouraged with the product of the last thirty years of our educational system, when I see that many of the 18 to 30 year olds will write reviews on a book they didn’t finish. Their main complaint ? “The book was too wordy” or “The author spent too much time on describing the setting; it was boring,” They are the very ones who want illustrated novels and/or to watch the movie instead.

Can this be corrected for the future of our progeny? Am I a rebel to rage against a system that produces this mass of unimaginative and under-educated people who will replace me when I die?

Perhaps, but it needs to be said.

an OOPS and a notice..

This was supposed to publish on Sunday, my error. And please also note that my profile has suddenly disappeared! Was it something I said??? (probably) I’m not going to take this post back, that would be confusing, but I will be rewriting my profile and try to get it done by Sunday. 😀

“What if the joke comes to life and nobody gets it?”

I was at CT Garven’s the other day buying feed and seed for my chickens and geese. To say that the cost of feed has gone up would be an understatement. About fourteen years ago, when I first began keeping chickens and geese, the cost of a 50 lb. bag of feed was only about $8.00 and scratch was a bit less. At the time of the post, the cost of feed was just under $19.00 (currently 26.00), and the scratch was about $16.00 Amazingly, the current price on scratch has dropped to $14.00 per 50 lb bag!

It used to be that when one referred to the cost of something being negligible, or the wages of a job being too low, you would refer to them as being “Chicken Scratch” or alternately “Chicken Feed.” Apparently, this statement has become outdated.

Anyway, back to the feed store. When the lady behind the counter rang up the total of my purchase, $35.00 and some change, I was in shock to say the least! But chickens and geese gotta eat.

So I opened my purse to pay the clerk and out flew a moth!

I began to laugh, which garnered strange looks from her and the other clerk behind the counter, which meant I had some explaining to do.

I proceeded to tell them about the joke of the moth flying out of your wallet, or purse in my case, symbolizing being poor or broke. They just stared. I looked at the lady in front of me and thought, “She must be my age, how come she doesn’t remember that one?” So I payed and left.

I guessed I was showing my age. Still, being curious I went searching to find out if the symbol was regional, or perhaps tied to the depression era. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is the joke alive and well, but you can even purchase wallets with moth designs on them!

So why didn’t they get it?

~*~

And now for the quasi-updated, but mostly almost a year old news…

Since you last heard from me I’ve had a total knee replacement. On October 3rd of last year.

Please be advised, that if the surgeon tells you it will take about a year to fully heal; believe him.

Things I did not expect with the surgery? That the straining of moving/hobbling along, in the early days would, put stress on my lower back, hips and my (sorta) good R. knee. That my hip bursitis from 30 years ago is BACK. My other doc informed me during that time, that my spine has “a bit of” stenosis. Now I know the surgery hasn’t caused this, but it surely hasn’t helped. Oh yes, and it is possible for your newly repaired L. knee to leave you one quarter inch taller on your left side which, bizarrely, you really can feel. I now have a 1/4 inch heel lift in the shoe of the R. foot. It’s made a significant improvement in my pain level.

Another surprise was not being able to sit in a chair at my computer for even fifteen to twenty minutes, and forget about the sewing machine. What! No quilting?

Once about four or five months back; I sat at the computer trying to get through the email tsunami in my inbox and lost track of time… An hour later I tried to get up and couldn’t. Sitting here on the office chair, I hadn’t realized that the wheels allowed me to push forward bending my knees, with the air conditioning blowing on them. They were locked into a frozen bend. I hollered and Bob came in to ~~assist~~ rescue me to a standing position, then helped me to the other room to sit in the recliner. It was bad.

It remains that my (sorta) good knee needs replacing too.

Hell may freeze before that comes to pass.