Motivating movie

We watched "Hope Springs" with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.  Rarely has a movie gripped me so strongly.   It happens that I am simultaneously reading "Psychoanalysis: An Impossible Profession" by Janet Malcolm.  I haven't gotten very far in the book but, like the movie, it discusses mental problems, their recognition and detection and attempts to help an afflicted mind. Our second child showed much promise but was bothered by brain disease and died at age 45 after 20 years of instability and debilitating hallucinations.

"Breakfast" and being helpful

My first grade classroom was right next to the principal's office.  Our school did not have a public speaking system installed then so when the office needed to get a message to a given classroom teacher, a secretary would duck her head into the first grade next door.  That was a signal to me to stop what I was doing, go to the principal's office and deliver a note, sometimes up a floor to a classroom.  I was honored to be the reliable messenger and I usually understood the lesson I was temporarily leaving.  

However, one day the teacher had just said that the word "breakfast" was interesting when a secretary's head appeared.  I got up and did a delivery but for years, I wondered what the teacher had said about the word "breakfast".   Later, I figured that she said when I eat 'break-fast', I am breaking the fast of the nighttime.

Good performance!

I know the day of the week and the full date!  It may be hard to believe but it is true.  Well, that is according to the Gregorian calendar and all.  What's more, I know where I can check to see if I am right.  It isn't easy when the days are similar but the date keeps changing AND the day of the week keeps changing.

Making pottery

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9FXuVnUA2aH34mu46

Link to Lynn working in her pottery area.

Saturday breakfast

On Saturdays, especially if we are not away, we sometimes have pastries for breakfast.  We usually have a glass of milk, a banana and coffee, too.  But it is the pastries that stand out: the taste, the consistency, and of course, the high sugar content.  We have several sources: bakeries, convenience stores but we started with Dunkin' Donuts and they are still quite good.  Lynn said she didn't want too much squishy filling and only one and a half pieces.  I looked up to see what was open before 7 AM and found there is a store closer than my usual one.  The drive there and back was magical.  A soft, lovely snowfall.  Chocolate-filled Bismarks and a half of a chocolate iced doughnut.  No dunking from either of us.

Pain perdu and look-up-itis

Who started carrying a handkerchief?

Who first made French toast?

These and other pressing questions were investigated with search engines and artificial intelligence at our house this morning.

There is some danger that we will have endless questions and starve from physical neglect, all because of electricity, the internet and current possibilities.  Maybe you should wear a mask to try to avoid look-up-itis.

Books on relations with animals

I think Lynn read "The Soul of an Octopus" before any of these others.  I read Sy Montgomery's book on hummingbirds aloud.  Amazon told me about Spencer Quinn's books about a smart fictitious dog that works with a private detective.  My all-male book club suggested "Fox and I" by Catherine Raven and I have almost finished it aloud.

I don't feel that I have had a close relation with any animal ever.  We did have a couple of dogs over time in my growing up years and a couple of cats.  We have had a couple of dogs in our married life and some cats.  None of them did much to me or for me.

“No events today"

The message "No events today" popped up on a calendar of events that came on my computer.  Of course, whether there are or are not events depends in part on what counts as an event.  It helped me to read Walter Isaacson's biography "Steve Jobs" to understand Apple, Microsoft and other participants in today's digital business.  I have read many times that starting and maintaining a business, like many other activities, is difficult.  There is competition, business laws and laws governing being an employer.  Isaacson wrote that Jobs wanted to control the process of designing, manufacturing, selling and relations with customers as they used Apple products, from beginning to end.  

When I see "No events today", it appears on the calendar that comes with Windows.  I prefer the Google apps in many cases since it is fairly easy for me to see the same content I create in Google apps on several different devices - my Apple phone, my Windows operating system on this computer, my Apple iPad.  It is fairly easy for my wife and I to cooperate with calendar events that affect us both with Google apps. I find that it helps to stay aware of where programs and apps come from.  I actually find that zero days have literally "no events", given my habits, my family and my country.

The rules

Ladies:  Be nice

Men:     Be tall

Walking pens

I sometimes make notes in our living room.  I like to use ballpoint pens since the writing lasts long. Pencil lasts, too and I never find that it has smeared too much.  Still, I like pens.  I am surprised at how easily and unconsciously I can not only carry a note over to our office but how I can manage to bring the pen I used along with it, too.  Then, later, I want to make another note but no pen!  I had a pen but it managed to walk down the hall into the office. Durn pen!