If you've not experienced this automotive enigma, as many of us haven't according to trusted surveys, I thought it apposite to give this Normaphoto the attention it deserves. It was taken 6 years ago from the VW Van on Highway 101:
This was a tremendous personal boon. My own name benefited : Geo. which, sans central vowel, is just "Go". I never knew if I was to start some uncertain something or just leave.
I may be mistaken about chronology but I do know my grammar and spelling. Also, the photo should be useful to others who come to this planet from rural cosmological extremes.
I don't think aliens would stay more than 30 minutes..
ReplyDeleteDear JACKIESUE, I suspect they were here somewhat longer in order to settle themselves into our imaginations.
DeleteYour VW gets better milage than mine did. Of course your's was longer, apparently better for space travel. Also curious, before lower case court, was he EE Cummings?
ReplyDeleteGood question, dear Tom. Just pulled 2 books from my kitchen shelves, "the enormous room" and "100 selected poems of e.e. cummings". Whatever upper case he used before WW1 was pretty much abandoned. I recommend "enormous room" but emphasize his poetry in the other book, especially "i sing of Olaf glad and big". He seemed to reserve upper case for characters he admired. There was no lower case ruling equal to that distinction.
DeleteFor me, it was also a good thing (the discovery/adoption of 'e's', I was getting sick and tired of 'Mik'. My surname was fine, but the combination of the two prompted other dwellers to make jokes about potatoes and beer. Excellent cliff notes post on the evolution of our names and language. Hope you and yours are well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike! Nglish is a tricky languaj. Our philological studies have produced tons of words and meanings, which are strangely reduced to a couple profanities when we stub a toe. Language is very close to magic.
DeleteI've been reading "The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson. He states that in Hawaiian creole the expression "I bin go store go buy shirt" means he bought a shirt while a failed trip would be expressed "I bin go store for buy shirt." I don't think the addition of the "e" would have helped either of the errands. (Just to further confuse the issue)
ReplyDeleteBruce, scriptural study of Babel Tower has convinced me that, when it fell, human language was indeed confounded. Welsh got all the consonants and the vowels fled to Hawaii --except for "e". Good thing too.
DeleteAn astute observation. I give you an e for excellence.
DeleteInteresting. That must be the reason I constantly have to go back to insert the e's I omitted while typing. And Of course my name would be like a calf bellowing for its mother... Mma.
ReplyDeleteDear Emma, your comment reminds me of something valuable: When we moved from the city to the sticks we had 1000 acres of pasture across our road, thick with cattle. Their lowing was soothing, mainly, but sometimes funny. Our kids --little at the time-- would tell Norma the cows were calling her. Mma! Mma!
DeleteWhat a photo! Was it taken at the end of a tunnel or are you just really skilled at photoshop?? I enjoyed your thoughts on e's and E's and snickered juvenilely at Great Prehistoric Vowel Movement :)
ReplyDeleteHow is your broken nose coming along? Are the bruises fading somewhat?
0_Jenny, I don't use photoshop. This is a product of Windows File Explorer. Yes, it began as a Normaphoto nearing the south end of the Marin-San Francisco tunnel, but I added stars to the top and sides. Then came whitish puffs and smears to the blue sky and a sign. Nowhere near so precise as Photoshop, but fun.
DeleteNose returned to the correct side of my head and bruises receded in deference to my normal color. Vowels functional. Hope you're doing well too!
You did a good job - it is very evocative of the Earth from space. And I'm glad to hear you are healing. I'm doing better than I was - thank you for asking.
DeleteMy pleasure. "Doing better" includes doing our best. and having fun, even just writings and reading here. You and I can do our bests. Deal?
DeleteDeal, indeed, friend Geo.
DeleteIn my initial inspection of the sign (in small form on my phone) I was SURE the errant “e” was a smiling sun image.... it was not until I saw the image larger that I was able to ascertain the prehistory variant. Yet l, in my head.... the lyric.... “Good day sunshine....” had already permeated my psyche due to my nearly prehistory visual non-acuity.
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco
Dear Prof, That favorite song from the ("Revolver?") album is still a welcome visitor in my head too. It was the SPACE AGE! As photo shows, we approached from the north. Trajectories east or west took travelers dangerously close to the Sun --unless they went at night.
DeleteYes.... “Revolver”.... to my manner of thinking.... their best of a huge body of excellent work. “Tomorrow Never Knows” is perhaps my favorite from the album.
DeleteQuite the interesting photo. The prospective makes you wonder if the VW is coming from a tunnel, OR if that little white car is headed for Earth (and all it's blue oceans) from space.
ReplyDeleteDear Juli, Your wonderings are accurate. Lanes are well-marked. Left one takes you in from outer space. Right one merges with The Road To Mandalay. Middle lane led us to the Golden Gate Bridge. All 3 are lovely drives.
Delete"I never knew if I was to start some uncertain something or just leave" - oh Geo., thank you for that insight in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteI decided "to start some uncertain something" - the price is high and nerve-racking but it makes me feel alive (jumping between Berlin, Bavaria and the Netherlands).
As I finally got Internet in Bavaria now I am able to come back to Earth - hope she welcomes me.
Norma's photo is wonderful - and your blog as always a great source for giving my brain something to think about. Thank you! XXX
Dear Britta, Please excuse my tardy response --I've been unwell. Improving though, enough to celebrate your return "to Earth". The world (and I) will always welcome you as time goes by. Here's looking at you, kid.
DeleteDear sweet Geo. It is no surprise that hospitality to non-earthlings is so readily apparent in your neck of the woods. I have no doubt that if you and Norma encountered an ET walking (Skipping? Hopping" Slithering...?) through your neighborhood, you'd invite him in for a glass of wine (or Milk of Magnesia... whatever his pleasure may be...) and chat a spell. Together, you'd solve all the enigmas of the universe.
ReplyDeleteMe? I'm so doggone happy, my feet are barely touching (E)arth. Certainly not something I expected or sought, but for some reason, the universe chose to bless me. Dunno why, but I'm beyond grateful. And I remain grateful for the wonderful people... like you... who've been such a welcome part of my life through blogging. Yep, no doubt about it. My cup runneth over. (Where's the mop???)
Take care, dude. Love & hugs to you and Norma.
Susan, Dear Susan, your strength and stability amaze me. Whatever human resource supplies that resource is, to me, still a mystery. When I was 10, my father died. Mother went back to college to update her teaching credential for California. She'd taught in Oklahoma. It took two years. She still ran the house and I did my chores. 20 years later she met a man on a stairway from a gangplank to a ship in Alaska. It broke away from the hull. They talked together, hanging by their hands until rescued. They traveled together affectionately ever-
Deleteafterward. Universe sometime puts comfort and love in our paths. another reason I consider the Universe conscious.
I think JackieSue is right, Aliens might come for a visit but an extended stay, I doubt it. They're probably just ensuring we don't find a way to get to and then mess up their Planets like we have ours?
ReplyDeleteA distinct possibility, Dawn, as I survey surrounding dry fields for celebratory fireworks fiascos.
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