I can read!!

I am interested in the spread of reading.  I bet you can read.  I hope so since reading opens many doors, especially on topics that don’t interest tons of people.  

I read about Charlemange learning to read.  A medieval scholar, Alcuin, taught the king, who thought it might help if he slept with a book under his pillow.  Maybe it did!

It wasn’t many centuries back that only specialists, maybe like translators today, could read.

I have had classes in Latin, French and a little German but I am only comfortable in English.

Forest fires and air quality

When I was a kid growing up in Maryland, I had not heard of “air quality”.  I have read that parts of England have had poor air quality because of coal plants and industrial processes.  This summer, we have had several occasions to think about air quality and air pollution from forest fire smoke.  This is a dry summer despite having the Great Lake “Superior” across the top of the state and another of five Great Lakes, “Michigan”, running down the east side.  We live in a region of sandy soil that does not retain moisture well.  We have dry fields.

This summer I have used www.airnow.gov which calls for my ZIP postal code and gives me a government-sponsored air quality reading.  Right now, I get a “58” on a scale from 0 to 400, labeled as mildly cautionary.

"When Memory Fades" by Nathaniel Chin, MD

We are reading “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, a specialist in dementia and Alzheimer's. Lynn heard about the book on Wisconsin Public Radio.  It includes very gentle language and is told in a personal experience way. The author’s father developed the problem. The internet says the Alzheimer’s Association reports ⅔ of people over 85 never get the brain problem.  

We had a close relative with dementia.  He lived with it about 2 years and his sister took care of him.   It was not too scary and he never seemed to think his thinking or his first choices were too bad even when they were.

The valuable = sign

Drive.Google.com leads to Google “Drive” which offers free blank pages for typing, and free spreadsheets for money and basic calculation, what we called “arithmetic” in elementary school.  The four basic arithmetic operations are:

Addition  2+2=4         +

Subtraction 6-2=4      -

Multiplication 3*3=9    *

Division 8/2 = 4          /

But in spreadsheets, indicate arithmetic by putting the equal sign first

Addition =2+2

Subtraction =6-2

Multiplication =3*3

Division =8/2

I once heard a college official say that everyone can benefit from using spreadsheets.

That's too much!

My intelligent partner accuses me of playing Daddy Big Bucks in tipping.  I just looked up the median US income in 1950 and now.  I am trying to get my picture and hers updated to the present.

“The average family income in 1950 was about $3,300 per year, while the modern national median household income is approximately $83,730.”

We just conferred and as usual, we did not come to a new agreed-on picture of prices, tipping or appropriate use of funds.

Outage again

We took a short one-night trip.  It was clear that my life and my elderly brain are used to specific activities and locations of tools, as they are at home.  Ah, Home!  We came home and it is nice, indeed.  Then, I glanced at the clock.  The clock face was totally blank.  No juice!  No electricity! No power.  

It just came back, more than an hour earlier than estimated.  Lovely, indeed!

Trip for trip's sake

We took a trip by car north.  We do live in a vacation land of forests, lakes and good scenes.  We just planned on one night and we took that.  

There are so many things that we have at home that are not available easily and handy like we are used to there.  It is a good reminder that we are used to our ways and it is heavy work to suffer modifications.

Blog semi-pause

Modified procedure from usual: I am writing much earlier in the day.  May or may not, be able to write tomorrow.  As always, take unexpected time to consider an online blog or a paper hand-written record of ideas and events from your head and life.  Been fun and valuable in mine and I think it gets more so as one ages.

Voice

You may know Alexa and Siri.  They are mechanical devices, not people. When a potter is deep into clay, it is handy to be able to speak to a “smart” device and have it stay quiet a while or switch stations.  There are other situations where it is preferable to be able to speak rather than take some hand action.  Receptive devices are getting more widespread and their list of abilities is lengthening. Voice depends on transmission and reception.

As a person with poor hearing, I may want my smart speaker to be louder than you do.  I only speak English so I don’t want to have to speak one of the many other languages that exist.  I don’t have wonderful handwriting and I make mistakes every few strokes typing so speaking can be an advantage.  I haven’t tried using a smart speaker in a noisy environment but I suppose it might not work too well.

Look!

I read that male-only gyms are gaining popularity.  I can understand why.  Now, in my mid-80’s, it still happens to me that scantily or tightly dressed female bodies are a distraction.  When I am lifting a heavy weight, I don’t need a gorgeous woman to walk by.  Sure, I have been harnessing my impulses for years and years but it can be nice to get a break.  In a fraction of a second, I can think I am married, she shows no attraction to me, I am much, much too old.