Who Knew?

Geeks

As I cleaned a closet, I discovered this wall hanging that I kept in my toddler's room in the late 1970's. It is by Dorothy Law Nolte, copyright 1963.  It occurs to me that if children learn what they live, in my family, it has to be computers. If we use the definition of geek to mean one who is obsessed with computers, technology and new media, that's my family.

When I attended college in the Sixties, it was easy to find the smart guys--they carried slide rules, the high tech of the era. For me, the most technology I could find at the time was a manual typewriter or a movie projector that I could thread for high school classes to watch a movie.

When I taught English, it was in the dark ages without a Xerox machine, a word processor, spread sheets, or a calculator. I only had an electric typewriter and purple ditto stencils with a straight edge razor blade for typos. When I calculated grades at the end of a marking period, my husband brought a huge calculator home from his company so I could compute student grades. When personal computers became available, it seemed like a gift from the gods--word processors, spread sheets, calculators, wow! What a concept! Find a need and fill it. 

We bought one of the first personal computers we could find, an Ace Franklin computer with a klunky DOS program to learn and a tiny memory. That was when a floppy drive really meant floppy. Many computers later, it has progressed from being a doorstop to being an antique. That antique still sits in my basement.

Over the years, we have accumulated the latest and greatest technology as we watched the computer age evolve on that rapidly accelerating technology train. Many summers, my husband, my son and I would clutter the dining room table with old computers to tear apart to repair and update the computers that I needed in my high school library. Being in charge of a high school library gave me a perfect opportunity to use all the latest technology for that field.  My dining room table has been used for computer repair more than for eating. It is no small wonder that my son's work is in computers to keep up on the cutting edge of technology.

The torch has been passed. My granddaughter received a toy computer for her second birthday, and she quickly progressed to the adult computers at her home. She likes to play with my computer when she visits and I marvel to see how little ones gravitate to computers, cell phones and digital cameras. They seem to be born with a technology gene. Now she is five and has her own real laptop with her own games, favorite web sites, passwords and the necessary jargon. She says to me, "Grandma, I will copy and paste this drawing that I did on Paint". Last week she couldn't get into her favorite web site and said, "The network is down." Dorothy Law Nolte was right, Children Learn What They Live.

I Am Fragrant

When I see a flower, the first thing I want to do is put my nose to it and sniff. Apparently, that is a common impulse and Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania has responded by showing their visitors which plants are sniff-worthy. Throughout the gardens one can find this little sign that tells you which flowers, as well as plants, have a detectable fragrance. 

 Many of the aromatic plants are commonly used by perfumeries to create the expensive fragrances that we love as much as the bugs that frequent odiferous plants.

  
Longwood Gardens is featuring months of a really classy exhibit of the history, chemistry, and art of creating scents. Not only do they show which plants can be used in perfumes, they have stations to sniff various scents and an opportunity to make your own fragrance. 

Included in the exhibit are some fabulous printed screens to explain the history of perfumes. It has been an art for centuries apparently back to ancient times over 4,000 years.

I love perfumes, but I have to be careful about wearing them because some people have extreme allergies to them and I also happen to be a bug magnet. If I am going to be near someone who doesn't like perfume, I avoid it or if I plan to be outside longer than five minutes, I avoid perfume and choose bug repellent instead. 

Two of my favorite perfumes would be Joy, the fourth most expensive in the world, and Chanel 5 which is the best selling perfume. Everyone has a favorite and that keeps department stores in business. Longwood's exhibit gives visitors the opportunity to try various fragrances and create a unique scent just for yourself.

I like to visit all of the gardens when I visit and I love the water lily gardens that are at their best in the hot summer weather. Photographers have to acquire a tripod permit in order to set up the professional type equipment that many experts like to use. I don't have the expensive equipment I see here, but I manage to take a few nice flower shots with my compact Nikon.

Summer and Progeny

After a day with the grandchildren, we are exhausted and nothing compares to time spent with our two grandchildren.

Our delightful granddaughter just became five years old which makes me feel like Methuselah. We feel extremely fortunate considering that her first five years were a great concern to her parents and all of her family. Her arrival came with a c-section due to a breech birth and a near preemie early birth. Feeding problems were apparent early and determination and persistence by her dedicated mom got her through a very difficult time learning to nurse. She began to thrive in the early years due to breast feeding, but solid feeding problems persisted leading to feeding therapies which continued for several years.

Miss E. began walking at ten months, but speech was a long, overdue process which led to speech therapy for several years. We were very concerned that she would never speak; today, she never stops--music to our ears. After Child Find testing for preschool readiness, OT was also pursued. Today, she is getting ready for all day kindergarten next year with all developmental stages on target for her age. Cheers!! After a year in Montessori school, she's quite the little scholar. At her birthday celebration we heard a very detailed lecture on the finer points of quadrupeds. No memory problems, no speech problems. She can write her name and she has all of her skills ready for kindergarten. Many sight words are in her tool box and reading is on track.

Her energy and enthusiasm for the little things in life are contagious. When she visits my house, we walk about and look at things that she likes and talk about features of things she finds fascinating. She likes my tabletop jewelry cabinet that has little drawers and doors for storing tiny things. I found a small cabinet at a toy store that has similar features for her birthday. It was her favorite present but a close second was the sparkly shoes from Mom and Dad. The girl is wild about shoes, probably the only thing she inherited from me. 

Both Miss E. and her little brother, Mr. M., who is 19 months, are like little sponges looking for input.  Our grandson, unlike his sister, seemed to have no early problems and is eager to take on the world. His sense of adventure borders on the reckless, but he is a happy little camper who always cooperates with directions. He is so cheerful with a smile on his face and I marvel at his calm disposition. It is very rewarding to watch him in self-directed play because the wheels are turning and he seems to have a very specific task in mind when he plays. On their last visit, he awoke from a nap in another room and came to find the family. I like to sit on the floor with the kids so he came to me and curled up on my lap to cuddle for a bit--Grandma melts. Later he took a toy to Grandpa, gave it to him and said "Papa"--putting in those brownie points early. That will be Grandpa's favorite story forever.

The kids love to visit Nana and Papa and we wouldn't have it any other way. Who needs Europe, the South of France, the mountains, or the shore? The best that life has to offer is in the backyard with the grandchildren. 

SAY WHAT?

WTZ4DNR                C-ISLE

LNRIGB                    BUBSTOY

FLAGTR                   YGOSLO

MUMMR                   BNKRGRL

IIMEME                      NAWTY2

WHUTEVR               TCKT2RDE

GLDMYN                  747IFLY

MOPSEY                  GOOFEE



I don't text behind the wheel, but I like to read the texts behind the wheels in front of me. I have spotted all of the above license plates and wished I had my camera. I have learned to keep it handy because anytime I am driving, I usually see several that make me chuckle. Of all of the collections on the web at various sites, this is my favorite: 

This site has a fun collection too:

The Lion

I readily confess to being partial to macho novels. I admit that reading plots that involve fictional characters who are able to solve some of the world's problems (even in a fictional context)  gives me a certain feeling of control and hope that somehow the problems of our country can be managed. I'm not a person who can hide my head in the sand, and say I don't watch TV or read about the news since I can't do anything about the problems, why do I need to know about them? I can't be that Pollyanna about real issues of the world where I live, and I feel we all have an obligation for collective moral outrage when the oceans have been turned into sludge, jobs are disappearing, people are losing homes, and forces from abroad would like nothing better than our total annihilation. When I see the news, I feel helpless. When I read a book, I feel my control issues are pampered, but I'm not naive and I'm not in denial.

 

When I read The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille, ten years ago, I was fascinated by the clever plot published in Oct. 2000. After Sept. 11, 2001, I was really troubled by the issues it raised. It is called fiction, but I feel it is fictionalized non-fiction. The criminal mind on a political, religious, and personal vendetta isn't easy to confront. Fanatics are always dangerous. It is a little like swallowing bitter medicine--it is a real wake-up call. It's not pretty, it's not sweet, but I take my hat off to all those folks involved in the struggle to overcome the kinds of adversaries in this work of fiction that are all too real in the world as we know it today. I am a natural worrier so as I look at the struggles and conflicts in The Lion, I look for the real problems and real solutions to challenges raised. The answers and conclusions I reached are not what I would have thought in 1960. Citizens have to make their peace in their own way with the kind of world we have now. This book continues to raise some important issues that have confronted us in the last ten years. Even so, The Lion is a really fun read.

The Lion's Game has always been on my favorite books list and I wouldn't read the sequel, The Lion, without first reading The Lion's Game. Nelson DeMille has a talent for fast paced drama and a cryptic sense of humor that I needed for comic relief while reading this gut wrenching thriller, The Lion. Plum Island, Nightfall and Wildfire, also had NYPD cop John Corey as a central character who seems to be able to handle chaos with his wisecracking irreverence. I'm a huge fan of the character John Corey and I'll inhale any plot by Nelson DeMille. Highly marketable authors like to leave a cliffhanger to segue to a sequel and Nelson DeMille is no exception. Darn his hide--I hope he doesn't wait ten years for the next one.