Mother and I visit the Indiana Medical History Museum in Naptown

At one time, 1800 folks lived at Central State, including "difficult women" brought by their husbands. Seeing a doctor what: once an hour once a month? The therapy was "moral"--gardening and insulin shock, not lobotomy. Today, the grounds include the pathology lab , retirement home for police horses, city storage buildings, medicinal plant garden, and wide open empty space. A lot has changed in 100 years. After our visit, we went to Mug 'n Bun for homemade root beer and onion rings. "Eat however you want!" #3 of 1200+ restaurants in Indianapolis, say some. Fabulous brew, rings not so much.

Magic Number

Ah, my magic number, marking an escape from the corporate world. What is it!? I need your advice.

World Saxophone Quartet

Now here's quite the school convocation....I''m impressed. As I recall, we had the country's fastest typist. At the time. 

 

 

Even more Moondog

Try this. Minimalist, avant, I like it....

Volcano Travel

From the NYT: "The British actor John Cleese, finding himself stranded in Oslo, hired a Mercedes taxi to take him the 932 miles from Oslo to Brussels, where he hoped to get a train to London, said one of his agents, Dean Whitbread. Three drivers took turns at the wheel, stopping only for bathroom breaks and a ferry crossing, said Mr. Whitbread; the fare came to about $5,000." Now that's a road trip. I still want to go to Iceland sometime.

Two nights ago this word came to me while I was *asleep*: synecdoche. sin-eck-doche. syn-ek-da-kee. Don't think I'd heard it ever, and no, I hadn't seen the Charlie Kaufman film of the same name by any stretch. I learned this on further research. "To receive, understand. A part of speech by which a part is put for the whole (50 sail for 50 ships), the whole for a part, the species for the genus, the genus for the species, the name of the material for the thing made." Makes my head hurt. Last night, all the dreams were of loss, water, compaction, unanswerable phones, lost luggage, flirting, buying oddities (jalapeno cotton candy)...and running from mean squirrels. Rise and shine!

Some say the Wii fitness games can be hazardous to adults, but generally not this way: Dale in Berkeley was Wii bowling, wound 'er up, let go, and accidentally threw the controller through the 46-inch TV. Well, of course it was accidental. If someone had to do it, the kids were glad it was her and not them. ThatTV is dead for good.

This week's work projects involved 60 hours of wrangling with words, Word, crashes, and recoveries. My nature isn't used to it. The body still can do it, kinda, and even a little yoga helps. But one deadline's done, and 3 days at the Holiday Inn 60 seconds from my office, courtesy Priceline, soothed the back-and-forth travel. (Yes, it did, but too bad it was spring break on 1 floor.) Best lines of all, in the middle of the crunch: "You're wonderful." "Can I get you a latte." "Did you know your extension is the first three notes of Three Blind Mice?" (No, I did not know that.) Now, back to marigold planting and watching dust motes float in the sun.

On Being Prepared

H dreamed that California experienced an 8.2 shaker. Though I'm being selfish to say so, I hope that we DON'T have a big earthquake here--we're not prepared at all. I'm thinking the following would help instill a sense of security for the 5 of us in the immediate compound, however false that sense might be or assuming that we could all make it to the compound: 50 gallons of water, 50 cans of tuna cat food, 50 cans of tuna people food,  50 rice-in-foil packs (like Indian food), 50 monster-lo-carb energy drinks (double size),  20 chocolate bars, a case of generic beer with the word BEER on the can (even a bottle of vodka + seltzer, in case cocktails seem therapeutic),  20 boxes of vegetable stock, 10 bags of dried fruit, 10 bags of trail mix, self-winding flashlights, a swiss army knife, a pad of paper, some pencils, a bottle of aspirin, lots of clean underwear, a book on identifying edible weeds. Am I forgetting anything? Heck, that might even be enough to barter with. Throw in 20 pounds of flour and a few packets of yeast, for a wood-burning oven pit? I'm assuming bedding will be accessible somehow. And R will have her nurse bag with the good stuff. What about guns 'n ammo, my spouse wondered.

On Being Handy

This morning I am off to look for baskets and hinges, if I ever get dressed. Maybe a new Kitchenaid mixer--or not. The expensive one I bought for B a few years ago broke during my watch, when I was making calzone dough. Apparently, I learned on the inet, this is a common problem when making doughs, and I don't know if I have the energy to try to fix it (here's a funny story about a woman who did). Just knead the dang dough yourself is a point of view I may return to. I managed to half-fix the vacuum because I don't really feel like spending  $400 on a new one (eg, it works well enough on a certain setting but the high-power carpet thing is spotty, but we only have 1 carpet so that's OK).