I recently read some advice offered to computer users who suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Apparently repeated actions using a mouse can cause various wrist problems and the suggestion was made to get a second mouse and program it to work with the other hand. This way when using the right mouse, for example, causes discomfort, one could just switch to the left mouse.
I have no personal experience with this idea of having two mice but it did make me wonder. If this works for mice would it also work for spice? That is, similar to a mouse user, would having an extra spouse also work the same way. If one had two spice and there was pain associated with one it would then be possible to switch to the other one.
Personally I have been involved with multiple spice, though not thru choice and not at the same time. I firmly believe this experience has contributed to my happiness big time. Perhaps that’s what, “The Spice of Life” really is.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
September 13, 2010
9/13/2010
9/09/2010
FINISH THE SENTENCE
In all the years that I have been posting these blogs I can't recall ever using a blog to exercise my State-granted rights as a teacher. However, there's something I hear so often that I feel compelled to put on my teacher's cap and suggest an alternative.
My teaching background was in the Technology area and I have little formal training or understanding of the rules of grammar. I actually would not recognize an adverb if it came up and shook my hand. None the less, even though my mother never graduated from high school, she always had a keen ear for the English language and constantly, but gently, corrected us. Eventually, without knowing the rules, I became accustomed to hearing things said a certain way and anything else sounded very odd.
This was brought to my mind this morning as I listened to some radio commentator commenting on clothing styles in France. This person said, “The French really do it better than us.”
The way my mother always corrected us was to make us finish the sentence. In this case, the speaker obviously meant, “The French really do it better than us do.” This, of course, sounds ridiculous. By adding the single word “do” we get the true meaning and it becomes obvious that using “us” sounds ignorant.
So why doesn't everyone play the game of “Finish the Sentence”? The missing word is always implied and even little children are then able to know if the word should be “us” or “we” or "I" or "me".
If everyone would just remember to “finish the sentence”, even if it's only in one's mind, we could save a lot of cringing of the type one does when fingernails scratch the chalkboard.
The other one that was a favorite of my mother's was when I would say, “Billy and me are going to the playground.”
My mother would gently say, “If Billy can't go, is me going alone?” Of course, it then became obvious that I should have said, “I” instead of “me.” And this soon became a habit without my ever knowing what modified what. It's not that hard.
Exceptions might be if a person deliberately wants to sound ignorant. Apparently there are a lot of those people around but how they managed to to become employed as professional announcers and scriptwriters is a mystery to me.
The Old Professor
Carmel, California
September 9, 2010
My teaching background was in the Technology area and I have little formal training or understanding of the rules of grammar. I actually would not recognize an adverb if it came up and shook my hand. None the less, even though my mother never graduated from high school, she always had a keen ear for the English language and constantly, but gently, corrected us. Eventually, without knowing the rules, I became accustomed to hearing things said a certain way and anything else sounded very odd.
This was brought to my mind this morning as I listened to some radio commentator commenting on clothing styles in France. This person said, “The French really do it better than us.”
The way my mother always corrected us was to make us finish the sentence. In this case, the speaker obviously meant, “The French really do it better than us do.” This, of course, sounds ridiculous. By adding the single word “do” we get the true meaning and it becomes obvious that using “us” sounds ignorant.
So why doesn't everyone play the game of “Finish the Sentence”? The missing word is always implied and even little children are then able to know if the word should be “us” or “we” or "I" or "me".
If everyone would just remember to “finish the sentence”, even if it's only in one's mind, we could save a lot of cringing of the type one does when fingernails scratch the chalkboard.
The other one that was a favorite of my mother's was when I would say, “Billy and me are going to the playground.”
My mother would gently say, “If Billy can't go, is me going alone?” Of course, it then became obvious that I should have said, “I” instead of “me.” And this soon became a habit without my ever knowing what modified what. It's not that hard.
Exceptions might be if a person deliberately wants to sound ignorant. Apparently there are a lot of those people around but how they managed to to become employed as professional announcers and scriptwriters is a mystery to me.
The Old Professor
Carmel, California
September 9, 2010
9/06/2010
LABOR DAY
I finally managed to look up and see that it’s been almost a month since I posted my previous blog. There is only one reason for that time gap. There has been nothing blogable happening in my life. I suppose that ordinarily that might be construed as a good thing. However, in the US today is a holiday.
The first Monday in September is designated as Labor Day, which is rather a strange name because it actually became a holiday so that people who labor, don’t need to do so on this day. It would suggest that No Labor Day would be a better description.
As it is,, it already cheats a good section of the population -- the retired people. I’ll admit that when I retired the only thing I missed were the holidays when I didn’t need to go to work. I always used to look forward to those days and now I never even have one. It hardly seems fair.
But to all of you who do labor (or labour) and have no need to do so today, don’t let my viewpoint spoil your day.
Have a good one.
The Old Professor
Carmel, California
September 6, 2010
The first Monday in September is designated as Labor Day, which is rather a strange name because it actually became a holiday so that people who labor, don’t need to do so on this day. It would suggest that No Labor Day would be a better description.
As it is,, it already cheats a good section of the population -- the retired people. I’ll admit that when I retired the only thing I missed were the holidays when I didn’t need to go to work. I always used to look forward to those days and now I never even have one. It hardly seems fair.
But to all of you who do labor (or labour) and have no need to do so today, don’t let my viewpoint spoil your day.
Have a good one.
The Old Professor
Carmel, California
September 6, 2010
8/14/2010
PLANS FOR WHEN THE EARTH DIES?
The other day I was watching a television program which described how scientists think the earth was originally formed. It also explained how our planet has a limited life span and eventually will end up being unable to support any life forms much like Mars is said to be today. Before anyone panics, some say this is supposed to happen about 2.3 billion years from now. It is assumed that by then technology will have developed enough so that somehow we will all be able to move to a different planet before “Last Call” and the lights go out forever.
That may work out for most people but I am very certain I won’t be one of the ones moving. First, it will be a very, very long trip inasmuch as our nearest planet is Venus and distance between Earth and Venus varies but the minimum is about 25.5 million miles. That’s much more than any Frequent Flyer Miles plan would cover and, in addition, it would take a very long time and I would rather stay right here and perish with our planet than spend that amount of time with that kid kicking the back of my seat.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
August 14, 2010
That may work out for most people but I am very certain I won’t be one of the ones moving. First, it will be a very, very long trip inasmuch as our nearest planet is Venus and distance between Earth and Venus varies but the minimum is about 25.5 million miles. That’s much more than any Frequent Flyer Miles plan would cover and, in addition, it would take a very long time and I would rather stay right here and perish with our planet than spend that amount of time with that kid kicking the back of my seat.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
August 14, 2010
8/09/2010
TIGER WOODS AND ME
Even if you know nothing about golf you probably have heard of Tiger Woods. Up until recently he was generally conceded to be the best golfer in the world. But then he ran into some problems. It became public knowledge that he had been involved with several rather sordid sexual adventures outside of his marriage. Eventually this led to a divorce and Tiger Woods went into a clinic for the treatment of Sexual Addiction.
After several weeks he returned to the professional golf tour and has been anything but successful. Last week he was in a tournament and finished next to last place. He placed 79th in a field of 80 players. He played in the much same manner that I used to play when I played golf. He couldn't seem to hit the ball straight. If there was some kind of trouble he seemed to find it and when he finally did get the ball on the green he had trouble making it go in the hole.
That's exactly the way I used to play golf before I finally gave up and conceded it just wasn't my game. Any alternative reason for my poor performance never occurred to me. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't somehow related to the fact that I never was a “sexual addict” though that might have been fun.
It's possible.
The Old Professor
Carmel,CA
August 9, 2010
After several weeks he returned to the professional golf tour and has been anything but successful. Last week he was in a tournament and finished next to last place. He placed 79th in a field of 80 players. He played in the much same manner that I used to play when I played golf. He couldn't seem to hit the ball straight. If there was some kind of trouble he seemed to find it and when he finally did get the ball on the green he had trouble making it go in the hole.
That's exactly the way I used to play golf before I finally gave up and conceded it just wasn't my game. Any alternative reason for my poor performance never occurred to me. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't somehow related to the fact that I never was a “sexual addict” though that might have been fun.
It's possible.
The Old Professor
Carmel,CA
August 9, 2010
8/05/2010
TOO MUCH SPARE TIME?
Each morning I read our local newspaper. I find it very interesting to read the Letters to the Editor. I also enjoy, though that may not be the right word, reading the Obituaries or Death Notices. I suppose the reason I check these every morning is that I am pleased when I find my name not there.
Lately an interesting discussion has been raging in the Letters to the Editor section. One man started by strenuously objecting to the obituaries describing a person as having “passed away.” His contention was that people die and they are, therefore, "dead." As he says, “They haven't “passed away” or “gone to their maker” or any other way of describing it. He stresses they are dead and that's all, period.
In spite of the fact that this seems a rather innocuous subject, the debate has raged on for several days. Personally, I see this as an activity for people who have too much time on their hands.
But, in all honesty, I suppose that's what I'm doing right now.
The Old Professor
Carmel. CA
August 8, 2010
Lately an interesting discussion has been raging in the Letters to the Editor section. One man started by strenuously objecting to the obituaries describing a person as having “passed away.” His contention was that people die and they are, therefore, "dead." As he says, “They haven't “passed away” or “gone to their maker” or any other way of describing it. He stresses they are dead and that's all, period.
In spite of the fact that this seems a rather innocuous subject, the debate has raged on for several days. Personally, I see this as an activity for people who have too much time on their hands.
But, in all honesty, I suppose that's what I'm doing right now.
The Old Professor
Carmel. CA
August 8, 2010
7/26/2010
OLD TV SHOWS
As I get older it seems to me that I keep running across things that remind me that being older means I have experienced some things that people who are younger have not. This was recently brought home to me when I ordered a few DVDs that were recordings of older television programs. One order was a collection of, “Best of TV Detectives.” Here I received 150 programs and many of them were programs I used to watch regularly. When they arrived I was delighted and proceeded to watch a few of my favorites. Then it dawned on me. These were OLD programs and considerable different than what we see every day these days.
I started by looking at a series I used to enjoy called “Mr. and Mrs. North”. I recalled that I used to watch this program in the early 1950s and I enjoyed it. But I forgot the changes that have evolved since then.
In 1949 I bought my first television set and I bought the big one. I was cautioned that trying to watch the 7 inch screen would ruin my eyes so I bought the 10 inch size. Of course, it was only black and white and a grainy black and white at that. So the first thing that surprised me was how poor the picture quality was when viewed on my 56 inch, High Definition Color screen.
In addition, it was only half an hour long. In fact, less than that because there were the titles, credits and a couple of commercial announcements. So maybe it was 25 minutes to develop a setting, let the plot unfold, supply the clues and let the detective solve the case. Eventually that type of program expanded to an hour and these days it takes 2 hours to accomplish essentially the same thing.
There was another thing I noticed. I especially noted this when watching James Garner in his old TV series called, “The Rockford Files.” He made 122 of these in the mid 1970s. One of the things I noticed was all the automobiles were so huge then. The sporty car that Rockford drove had a front hood that was longer than my Prius. I looked as though it would house the engine of an ocean liner.
I also was startled by the price of gasoline when some scenes show cars driving past a gas station and the sign advertised 25 cents a gallon. Today our price is thirteen times higher than that. No wonder I drive a small car.
My only point here, if there was one at all, is that technology sneaks up on us and we accept it as normal. Today when I watch a television program I accept the fact that I see a large, sharp picture in realistic colors. I forget that in 1949 we used to huddle around that little TV set watching mediocre shows that we thought were marvelous.
I’m sure that same thing applies to other fields as well and we accept these without thinking too. Maybe we should think about it more and complain about it less.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
July 26, 2010
7/22/2010
CHANGE OF PLANS
I made a rather startling discovery today and it has already had a major influence on my Life Plans. Since I made it into the “Over 80” age group I’ve considered myself very fortunate especially since many (most) of my friends and relatives never made it this far. And, additionally, since I am usually feeling well I saw no reason why I shouldn’t go for 90. However, after this new discovery I am amending my plans. I now have a new goal.
This morning I ran across the Mortality Charts issued by some department of the United States Government. I notice the age with smallest percentage of the population dying is the “Over 100” group.
To me the conclusion is obvious. Since I am now 87 years old I’m going to go for it! It’s a fairly short jump to 100. In fact, I can see 100 from my back porch.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
July 22, 2010
7/21/2010
I RECALL 1943
Since blogging the details of breaking my hip several interesting things have developed. One is my having genuine flashbacks. It seems that repairing a broken hip involves much physical therapy to get ALL the muscles back to working the way they did prior to the break. The physical therapy that I am undergoing often takes me back to 1943 when I went into the US Navy to be trained as an airplane pilot. Even after all these years it is still so very clear in my mind.
The very first thing the Navy felt it needed to do was take a bunch of young, out of shape men and get them into top physical condition as quickly as possible. There was no easy way to do this. The only way was exercise, exercise, exercise. We exercised every muscle in the body including muscles we didn’t even realize we had until they all began to ache. We used to say our hair even ached.
But the aches continued. It was joked that it was easy to spot the newcomers because they all limped and held onto railings when going up stairs. But a strange thing happened. After a period of time the aches went away and the newly found muscle strength was taken for granted.
The same thing happens when one is 87 years old except it takes longer. It’s probably close to impossible to ever get 87 year old muscles to perform as 20 year old muscles but it is possible make them stronger and more flexible. The catch is that it isn’t easy. It takes time and it takes persistence to continue to do things that are very uncomfortable. The body almost literally screams to stop but to get the results it’s important to push on through that.
That’s where I am now. It’s been about 7 weeks and I wish I were back to normal but I am not. I still feel I need to use a cane, partly for safety reasons (not falling again) and partly to ease the moderate pain I experience when walking. I know I won’t live long enough to get back to the condition I was in 67 years ago but luckily, I don’t need to. But I am going to push through the discomfort and the actual pain until I at least get back to where I was. Hopefully I will even get better than that.
The reason I am blogging this is that I have received a few comments and e-mails where individuals wished they could change their own or some loved one’s physical situation. Well, I know for sure it’s possible to improve -- I’ve been doing that. How far I can go is still a question but at least I know that if I continue to work hard I can certainly get to be better than I am now. Anybody who wants to can.
And that can’t be a bad thing.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
July 21, 2010
7/20/2010
PROGRESS, I GUESS
It was May 26, 2010 that a parking bumper jumped up and tripped me causing me to fall and break my right hip. After that was surgically repaired I left the hospital 4 days later and checked into a very nice live-in, rehab facility. 27 days after the fall I was home and for a few days I needed a 4-legged walker to get around, however I soon graduated to only using a cane.
While I was in rehab I had a lovely Physical Therapist named Sherry who prodded me through the various stages. At first I needed a wheel chair but soon she forced me to use a walker and eventually I only needed a cane for assistance. I recall Sherry telling me that someday I was going to get up, walk to another room and remember I had forgotten my cane. As improbable as that seemed at the time, similar things did eventually happen. In fact, I am often heard asking, “Where did I leave my cane?” But this morning I topped that.
I’m almost always awake very early and I like to get up and get going. My partner likes to sleep as late as she possibly can. So I have developed a little morning routine. I usually gather up the clothes I plan to wear, pick up my cane and make my way to the bathroom where I can get dressed without disturbing her. I did that again this morning with one major difference. When I arrived in the bathroom I discovered that I had been carrying my cane as though it might be a baby unable to walk. Not only did I forget that I needed the cane to help my walking, I carried it as unnecessary baggage.
I am pleased because it's only been 55 days ago since the event. Notice I do not refer to it as “the accident” because, to this day, I am positive that concrete bumper attacked me to avenge some act, it imagined I was a party to, which condemns it to a life of just lying there in the parking lot all day. A sad fate I’ll admit but it’s not my fault.
The OldProfessor
Carmel, CA
July 20, 2010
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