I am currently undergoing a medicine change and suffering withdrawal symptoms, so errata are all I am capable of de-enigmatizing at the moment. I begin with weather because my powers are under a cloud.
Yesterday, Norma hiked out to a favorite Monterey Pine to photograph fog over the south field. You may recognize the spot because I've used this vista in recent posts. Here's one from
a couple weeks ago :
The scene changes day to day, sometimes hourly, and reminds me Earth is spinning through its weather at 800 miles per hour. We get plunged into mist, blue hours, heavens opening...
...and make incredible progress among the elements just by standing still. It's very Zen. But that's not why I include this in the post. I am trying to lure people in the Midwest and East states into a less agitated meteorological attitude. I know two people who have fallen out of their icy yards back east and got banged up. I just want to remind them there are still places in this great land where the weather stays in the sky. But it's time to discuss pronouns.
Like most well-stocked homes, mine contains an 1898 Annual Compilation of Harper's Round Table, from which I selected this page at random:
We seem to be looking at an early aquanaut in deep-sea gear surrounded by impossible creatures --on all of which it looks like you could really get hurt. It appears some melee or fiasco is in progress. If you're writing or talking about such a disturbance --in which lives may be lost, arrests made and legally actionable outrages incurred-- and you can't spell fiasco or melee, it may be acceptable to substitute other words like taffy-pull or extended-family-reunion (especially if the latter includes lunge-feeding). Or you could just say "it". "It" is a pronoun.
A pronoun is a word you use when you can't remember what or whom you are talking about. It is especially useful in social situations (hello, uh, you) and permits us to avoid small errors as we forge ahead to grand disasters. It is also useful during the psycho-meteorological jumps attendant to discontinuing a medicine to which one is addicted. My only counsel is, lay in your favorite tobacco products and a few bottles of good wine --it's a stormy few days ahead.
It seems that your new medication is powerful stuff. Hope you adjust quickly.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'll be fine. At this age, adjustment is at least second nature to us now. Thanks, kind Emma.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear that your powers are presently under a cloud. Withdrawal symptoms are one of the few unpleasant things that I haven't experienced.
ReplyDeleteThis comment will be brief because I had more bad luck today. I fell on the ice AGAIN and really injured my back - - just to compound the first injury. Worst of all one of the pipes broke (on the house, not me) and all is flooded.
The idea of a "less agitated climate" is sounding better and better........
Jon, a second Fall?! I know you are having muscle spasms from the first fall. Is this more serious? Doc prescribed muscle relaxants for me when I suffered similarly years ago --have you seen someone about this? Sounds like you need a plumber and bed rest. Don't worry about me, I am jumpy but undamaged --more concerned about you. Keep me informed, please.
DeleteIsn't it amazing how the weather can change so fast, sometimes it's cloudy one moment and blue sky the next.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll feel better very soon!
The "Hello, uh, you" made me smile - always awkward situations not to remember somebody's name ;)
Have a great relaxed weekend. No tobacco for me but some good red wine sounds awesome :)
Awkward is the perfect word for those times when memory fails during introductions, Beate. What's almost as maddening is one usually remembers the name a moment later.
DeleteMy best wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteKind Tom, thanks.
DeleteAh, yes, it is hard to stay upright in the east, but eventually this will all melt and we will be on solid ground again.
ReplyDeleteTake care of yourself, Geo, and follow your doctor's advice. I am concerned and hope any reaction you are having to this change in medication will pass quickly and you too will be on solid ground.
Arleen, it's been 3 days and the jumps are subsiding. Take care on stairs and sidewalks!
DeleteMy younger son went through some tough times in what sounds a similar situation. You have the most important and most powerful tools at the ready, a sense of humor and a positive attitude. Best thoughts to you ... T
ReplyDeleteAh, then you know the drill. Am emerging from the thick of it now and still have a wife, so I must have done pretty well.
DeleteGood luck for the changes in medicine. When it comes to literal hiking, I love walking in the fog but one has to be careful not to become lost.
ReplyDeleteNo chance of that, Norma has an uncanny sense of direction. Good thing too. On many road trips I'd literally be lost without her.
DeleteTake care......be kind to yourself......I'm sure you are being well looked after by Norma.
ReplyDeleteThank you Delores. I shall be my old self shortly.
DeleteChanging meds does not sound like fun. Be strong, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of pronouns as a way to avoid spelling difficult words. It's a liberating realization, to be sure.
Squid, pronouns are part of what streamlines language, but I have learned men use them less frequently than women in conversation and text. I suppose it shows we are a more primitive, less intuitive, gender. If humans ever develop esp, men are unlikely to be first to accomplish it.
DeleteSorry you are feeling under the weather, Geo. You are still enigmatic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chicken, but I have cured myself. Consult post after this one and you'll see I restored '71 VW Bus to street legality drive it instead of our car from this century, which has an automatic transmission. Bus has an enigmatic transmission and I feel much better with it.
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