Beneath the Wraps

How many of your elementary school teachers do you remember?   Did you have a favorite?   Least favorite?         I had three different teachers in kindergarten alone.   The names in order were Mrs. Cannon (I don’t remember her at all but had recorded her name in this post ) Miss Nelson (I have no idea what the correct spelling was) and Ms. Wambsley.   I may have liked the first two okay, but hated Ms. Wambsley (I can’t remember for certain if she was a Miss or a Mrs.   I would imagine a Miss as I can’t visualize anyone would purposely pursue a marital relationship with the witch)   I must have mentioned somewhere that she was so horrible that even the parents didn’t care for her or unique methods of teaching – or attempting to rather.         My first-grade teacher was Mrs. Godown I believe.   There were four first grade instructors – each new to the district the year I was in first grade.   They h...

Roland has always told the boys that all businesses consist of product, knowledge or service. Services might include daycare, mowing lawns, yard work, and hotels working as maids, in reservations, waiters, chefs, bellhops, etc. There are also cleaning services and service providers like phone and internet.   Just about every product business has customer service. Service: the action of helping or doing work for someone.       We give service through the church or community.   Some of the service projects we have done through the Church include babysitting, painting, cleaning, and weeding to name a few.   We have also had community service projects that involve sprucing up the park and cleaning up Main Street.   There are community services sponsored by businesses that allow seniors to go to the movies once a month.   There is community service in which hygiene and medicine are taught to the poor.   There is also ser...

Whenever I have watched the Food Network series “Chopped” I think how challenging it would be to make food that is going to please all three judges as they have different opinions about why something is good or bad.   It’s pretty much the same thing with turning in assignments to different instructors.   Some are sticklers for the APA.   Some won’t accept anything written in first person.   Fortunately, I have had many, like me, who prefer the first person to boring textbook narration.           In each class I have had, the instructor has encouraged the students to use the writing center.   Again, there is a huge array of people that have their opinions on what makes for a good assignment and what doesn’t.   Granted, I realize two days work is NOT a lot of time for a proper paper, but I cannot wait until the end of the week for the writing center gets more backed up.   I want to have my paper now. ...

Someone posted this link to facebook yesterday.   Wow. I remember filling sandbags.   I remember standing on state street and looking at the river.   I remember standing there the following year as the Olympic Torch was being passed.   I believe it was Senator Orrin Hatch   running on State Street.   I remember thinking how surreal that was as the path he was on was under water the year prior.   I couldn’t find a picture of the torch being passed on state street, but here is an article that maps out the run.

Our biggest reason for moving to Oregon was so that I could breathe.   I didn’t wish for my family members have to listen to me hack out my lungs or gasp for air – and yet this month has seemed to defeat the purpose.   Yesterday I spent the majority of the day in the emergency room – first the waiting room and then a small section in another room divided by curtains.   I thought Dial-up AOL was the slowest thing ever.   They are speed demons next to Urgent Care.   And Urgent was five times faster than Emergency.   Granted, it was Memorial Day and there was nowhere else to go.   Most of the patients there didn’t seem in bad enough shape to require emergency care.   I heard three or four of them just chatting away as if they were there to socialize.   I clung onto my head so that it wouldn’t roll off or explode.   I suspect I was dehydrated as I had left large evidences of my DNS at different Urgent cares that Google had said were open...

                George Bird passed away the first week of March.   All of his biological children were with him in addition to most of his grandchildren.   I use the word “biological” to set apart those that he physically raised and the countless many who thought of him as a dad or a grandfather as he influenced many and made such a positive impact.           A couple up the street had named their youngest son after him.   The couple’s granddaughter (who lived next door to Birds) refused to believe that George was not her real grandpa.   He had a special bond with many of the neighborhood children.   I, myself, had come to think of him as a second dad.           He and his wife, Peggy (who I will be writing another dash post about) lived across the street from my mom.   They have al...

          It’s been two weeks since I went to the doctor.   I had worked three hours on Thursday which maybe I shouldn’t have.   On Friday I developed a headache that just seemed to get worse with each day of the weekend.   I have never had a hangover before, but I have had brain freeze – which is how I felt when the headache started.   Progressively it got worse and I imagined that is what a hangover must feel like.   Especially yesterday when a sensitive stomach decided to contribute to the pain.           While Roland was delivering his talk in church, I was on our bathroom floor experiencing dry heaves.   Perhaps I was dehydrated.   I gulped some water.   Of course, I threw that up.   I wore myself out throwing up and holding my head and crying because I hurt.   I did manage to make it back to my bed and listen to my deep breathing get softer until I even...

After two weeks of not working, I returned to work yesterday – though it was for only half a day.   I prayed that I would be able to get through the day.   My cough had died down.   Still, I had to change my pants before I had even left the house.          I left the house early to stop by a thrift store as there is a game I would like to get for Jenna – a specific game that I still have not seen and may have to order online.   While there, I looked at dresses and found a light jumper that I thought I could wear.          I had planned on putting keys in my pocket and hooking the walkie-talkie through one of the belt loops but while at the thrift store, I realized that the pants I had changed into did not have pockets.   Frustrating.   I returned home for a lanyard in which I could hang the keys and the walkie-talkie.   Only by the time I returned home, I decided it was war...

I find it interesting that the topic of my last class focused on Medicare and social security.   The topic of my current class has been the brain, stress and this week’s topic on sleep disorders – which I have had my entire life.   Thus I’m making discoveries.   I am also getting the feeling that I need to put my affairs in order and start throwing away mountains of stuff so that Roland and Jenna won’t have to do it in the event I leave this earth.           I’m not saying that death is around the corner.   It just feels like it in some ways.   Perhaps it’s just the side effects of still trying to heal from bronchitis and still coughing and not breathing right.   I was told at the doctor’s office that my breathing was off.   I don’t think it’s the bronchitis that’s to blame.   My breathing has always been off.   I think more off as I age.   My pipes are small and seem to shrink with ...

       I loved creating things.   I would often get kits for gifts and I would go to town making latch punch rugs, polished rocks, turntable paintings, and potholders to name a few.   One of my favorite things was designing bands from really small beads.          I don’t know how old I was when I joined a handcraft club that would send out kits of parts and instructions on how to piece them together.   Usually, I would give them away as gifts.        Now it’s Jenna who likes to keep her hands busy.   She enjoys crafts as I once did.

  Last week I sat with my instructor for the final discussion.  I have been the only student turn out for each live lecture.  I learned a new word I thought I would share this week.   The word is Thanatophobia .  I don’t have it, but I know some people do.  It’s death anxiety.  My instructor said that the older a person is, the less likely he/she will have thanatophobia. I also believe that is true. As I have mentioned before, I hang with a group of friends once a month or so.  Two are in their 70’s.  One is 65 and I am the baby of the group.  Death has been a topic as we have all seen friends pass.  The 65-year-old has a hard time dealing with the idea of death.  She may have thanatophobia.  I will mention it to her the next time we converse about the death subject. 

         Today I took my last of the antibiotic that had been issued Monday.   And I do feel better.   Possibly up to 80%, but I am weak still.   A jaunt out to the mailbox has worn me out.   I have not had much exercise.   Each time I move just an inch (NOT an exaggeration) I end up coughing uncontrollably.   Never in my life have I gone through so many tissues, rolls of toilet paper and bladder pads in such a short time.   I hope to never have to experience this again.             I am grateful that neither Roland nor Jenna has had to endure the same physical pain.   Roland has had a cough and phlegm, but nothing close to where I’ve been.   Jenna has managed to dodge this all together.   Hopefully, it will remain that way.   I think I was sick enough to account for all three of us. I had been scheduled to work four days this week but ended up not working at al...