The Pencil

It's funny how something as mundane as a simple pencil became so important to me.







I bought the pencil when we first moved to Small Town, USA, 17 years ago. DS2 was 14 and DD was only 12. The first few months we drove back to our former town most weekends, as we knew people there, and did not know anyone here.







Soon the novelty of driving 6 hours a weekend grew old and we began to stick around town. This tiny town, however, held no excitement for us, so we often went to Nearby Larger City to shop and look around. It held museums, minor league baseball games, and actual malls with non-discount store venues.







There was a favorite store we often haunted that sold art supplies. The store is still in the city but has changed location. One day I spotted this pencil and it was love at first sight. The knurled grip, the boxy construction, and the .5 leading all led to a desire for an intimate relationship.







I was an IS director at that time, and precise pencils are de rigueur in that field. I integrated the new pencil into my life and enjoyed using it. From the first moment I used it, it felt right, it had a look I liked (I really like white) and it immediately became My Pencil.







I have used My Pencil every day since. Until. On Wednesday, January 9, I lost it.







I had been using it near the computer that morning. When my friend stopped by to meet with me for Middle School Band stuff, I went to grab My Pencil from the computer area, and it was --- GONE. At the time, I just picked up a Black Warrior, my favorite wooden pencil, but no comparison, really, to the real thing. After she left, however, I turned the room upside down searching for it.







DH understood the magnitude of the loss and helped me look. We expanded the search to the kitchen, and eventually to the whole house. In the ensuing days, we would catch each other lifting chair cushions, digging around the furniture crevices, opening drawers and frowning. We both knew -- we were searching for it.







Within a week or two, I could not last. I began an online search for a replacement. Koh-i-Noor Rapidomatic 0.5. By definition, it is white. The 0.7 is green, and the 1.0 is red.







It's been discontinued. They still make the larger formats but have stopped producing the .5. I even called a vendor who called the manufacturer -- no pencils. I called a 2nd vendor in case the first one was lying. No pencil.







So I compared all the prices and ordered a .7. I received it within a day or two and have been using it since.







Using the .7 has not been as satisfactory as I had thought it would be. Sure, it has the knurled grip, the hexagonal body, the responsive click. But it's a .7. And it just reminds me of the pencil I still sorely missed. The. Pencil. It was sort of like losing your husband and marrying his brother. It just wasn't the same.







Today I had a busy morning. Dog to groomer. Zoom to elementary school for photo shoot. Came home to get a few things done before lunch at City Hall.







DH asked me if I had a few minutes. Sure, I said. He took me into the LR and began going through some of our antique books. I was polite but impatient. "Where is all this going?" I wondered.







Finally, he said, "Let's go to your appointment book and check out our schedule."







"Ah," I thought. "He's going to ask me for a date." (That wasn't it. Am I on drugs to think such a thing?)







We walked to my book and I picked up my pencil from its customary place in the book at Today. I looked at him expectantly.







He burst into gales of laughter. Pointed. I looked down. There. In my hand. Was.



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My. Pencil.



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I laughed.



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I cried.



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I hugged him with such ferocity.



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My pencil.



My pencil!!!



MY PENCIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...And While I'm At It...

If I'm posting the artwork of the children, I need to include the ingenious flash cards my DS2 made for his neice, my GD4.

GD4 lives in NYC with her mom and her dad, my DS1, who has been patiently teaching her the periodic chart of elements since, well, since her birth. Even before she could say, "May I have an apple, please?" she could recite the first 11 elements.

So DS2 made her flashcards of key items, one for each letter of the alphabet. Here are the first 4.

Cool Veg Info

I was cruising one of my old favorite websites, http://www.organizedhome.com/, this morning. Wow, it has changed quite a bit since I have been there. It now has a section on Green Living, and of course I scooted right over there. It included the following info, which I already knew, but you may not. Here it is:

Go meatless once a week. If you're not already practicing a vegetarian
diet, consider cutting back on the amount of meat in you consume. As Frances
Moore Lappé pointed out in her bestselling book, Diet for a Small Planet, livestock production absorbs sixteen pounds of grain and soy feed for every pound of meat that actually gets to the plate. Each calorie of animal protein requires 78 calories of fossil fuels to produce, and irrigation directly associated with livestock production (including feeds) amounts to about half of all the consumed water in the United States.
Give meatless substitutes like Boca Burgers a try, or scan vegetarian recipes
for healthy and earth-friendly meal ideas.

Kids' Take on Chinese New Year

My DIL is just the best mom around. When we returned from the trip into DC, she encouraged the little ones to draw a pic of their experience. Here are the best efforts from my two awesome grandsons.



















This is actually a portion of the next drawing. The paper was legal-sized and the scanner was letter-sized. This depicts GS1 at the vendor booth on the street, selecting his Ninja Sword for purchase.

This is the remainder of his picture, showing the people holding the dragon for the parade. I love how he captured the antennae. The dragons actually did have antennae, although it is not necessarily something I would have imagined. All the pictures were drawn from memory, without any photos around to help them remember.

This is GS2's drawing. One of the more magnificent dragons was, in fact, yellow. The people who supported it had only their legs visible -- their heads were hidden in the costume. I love the way he picked up on this. Also, this particular dragon was led by a costumed man waving a shiny ball, sort of like a pet toy for dragons. He noticed this, too. In case you are reading-impaired, the caption says, "The Yellow Dragon Attack."

Happy New Year

Before heading out to Chinatown today, we were wise enough to check the weather forecast. It predicted winds at 20 to 40mph and bitter cold temperatures.
We looked outside. It was a balmy 51 degrees, sun shining, birds singing.
We did not believe the forecast.
At the last minute, DH talked me into taking my coat. I did not take the lining nor my gloves.
We froze our ***** off.

We arrived about 2 hours before the parade began. We stopped into a small Chinese restaurant right on the route and ate. Four kids, four adults. It was a tiny, narrow alley of a restaurant, 2 steps down from the sidewalk. Several tables were occupied by Chinese -- a very good sign! We ordered a simple lunch -- egg rolls, soup and shrimp fried rice for all. Immediate hot tea.

We ate til we were full -- all eight of us -- and split the $40 tab down the middle. Cheap, good, filling meal. We proceeded outside to stake our tiny piece of real estate at the yellow tape, right at the street.

As we waited, we saw and heard people as they excitedly awaited the parade. Many languages. Color and smells and loud firecrackers assaulted our senses. And, of course, the bitter cold.

DS2 has sewn a fleece bag for DGD's stroller. It snaps into the seat back of the stroller and hangs down for her legs and feet to keep them warm. Ingenious. He even built in buttonholes for her seat belt to come through. She had on a dress, pants, a heavy coat, a hat, her hood, gloves, the leg sack, and a blanket, and cried because of the cold.

The dragons bob and weave and dance to drums beat by cold and smiling people.

I really like this NY celebration much, much better than our traditional NY celebrations. For one thing, children are included. It's held in the middle of the day. It's wholesome. It's not centered around alcohol. No one dressed up. That is, no one, bought expensive outfits. No champagne. It was a family-centered and wholesome event.

I remarked that I was glad it was so cold -- we will always remember it. I was lying!

Memories

My dear sweet MIL emailed this to us today with this message:

Don't want to diminish Little One's outstanding accomplishment, just want to
document the importance of environment.

Well. The signature on the certificate is Miss Lois Smith, and DH began a journey down Memory Lane.

Miss Lois wore me out in the 8th grade. I sat on the front row, facing the chalkboard and Jan Bigham had a triangle cloth on her head. (I asked DH if it was a bubushka, and he said, "Yeah, probably.")

I put it on my head with that triangle pointing straight up. Like a cone. Miss Lois looked at me and said, "That's it." She gimme a paddling right there in front of the class. I remember her paddle -- it was smooth. I bent over and pow-pow-pow I counted them out as she gave them. Fifteen whacks. When she was done I just sat down and we had class.

And I remember one day we were in lunch line. Jack Collins was cutting up bad. Jack always was a cutup. Well, he was cutting up really bad and Miss Lois pulled him out of line and paddled him right then and there. What she didn't know was he had some Fire Chiefs in his back pocket. Well, his butt started smoking bad and Jack was hopping around, trying to get those Fire Chiefs out of his pocket. Miss Lois stood there with Miss Billie Grizzle, laughing.

ICE Could Save Your Life

This article came with our car insurance bill, and I had never seen it before. I am sharing it here for those I love to read and follow.

ICE could save your life.

In an emergency, every second counts, right? But if you're unconscious, how can you tell emergency personnel imporant information that could save your life?

Just put ICE on your cellphone. ICE is an acronym for In Case of Emergency. By using ICE, along with the phone number of your emergency contact, you have provided an important tool to assist emergency personnel if you are incapacitated.

You personal emergency contact's job is to provide the following information to identified emergency personnel:

• Full name
• Address
• Birth date
• Primary physician
• Blood type and allergies
• Relevant medical history

If you do not own or keep a cellphone with you on a regular basis, carry a card that lists all of your important information.

The Department of Homeland Security has a form you can download at http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/family_communications_plan.pdf

WOW!

I have just wasted about an hour of my life scrolling back through old blog entries. It's all there -- the stove, the accident, the park, the neighborhood, Halloween, Christmases, birthdays, LO, her school, her sports, her activities, random societal observations, and of course, riding the trash truck.
I just can't believe I have been blogging for three years. I started at the New Year of 2005. Last year was my lightest blog year with an average of 5 posts per month.
I will try to do better this year. Which is better: to write only when there is something to write about, or to write more frequently?
Maybe I should aspire to be busier, so that I will have interesting blog fodder more often, so that I can write more frequently.

Irony of all Ironies

My DS1 called yesterday and we had a delightful chat. I love to hear about his life in NYC, his babies, and his beautiful wife. He was remarking on the cost of living in NYC and mentioned costs at WalMart are even higher there than in other geographic areas.
I replied that I have finally, finally QUIT going to Wally world after years of being torn between my ethical responsibility and my allegiance to the family budget. I googled "The High Cost of Low Prices" in the fall and watched the movie online.
I had read the reviews of the book 3 years ago or so, and was horrified to learn about the fecal matter in the dense salmon "farms" where they get their fish. I already had an idea of the closure of small family-owned businesses due to the Monster.
Yet watching the film made me determined NOT to support this monster. It was compelling to see how many hard-working, undereducated people have to rely on Medicaid for their health insurance because WM pays them so little and charges so much for the health benefits. In effect, we, the taxpayers, are paying WalMart's employees' health insurance. Not just a few folks -- it's in the thousands in each state.
It was compelling to see and hear the fellow who was hired to ensure that safe and healthy employment practices are being honored in the 3rd world factories where WM buys all its textile products. When he reported non-compliance, his reports were ignored. Naively thinking there was a lapse in communication, he persisted until he was ultimately fired.
It was compelling to see the Machine at work when hourly employees attempt to unionize.
It was compelling to hear the story of the enterprising young black woman who applied for a promotion and was overlooked in favor of a lesser-qualified white male. When she asked her supervisor if she had been denied the promotion because she was female, or because she was black, he replied, "Well 2 out of 2 ain't bad."
So I have not been back. Yes, they are cheap. But I despise them, their exploitation of the poor who have few alternatives but to work there, and their disregard for What is Right.

Here is the irony. Little One came home victorious from school yesterday. She got an actual, physical, prize for having won 2nd place in the Science Fair.

A $10 gift card to WalMart.

Science Fair Project

Little One has aspired to participate in the Science Fair for years. She has had ideas, but never the initiative to follow through, despite her dear Nana's careful prodding.



This year a project was required.



We have books on Science Fair projects, refer to Dear Nana above, and she looked through for inspiration. One project appealed to her: showing movie clips to subjects and record how often they blink according to various emotions indicated in the movies.



She intended to perform this very project until the grading matrix came home and indicated "originality" counted as a large portion of the project.



She adapted the experiement to a similar one: have subjects listen to clips of different genres of music, and rate their liking of the various clips. Record their blink rates as they listen and see if they blink more or less for music they like or dislike.



Her hypothesis was that they would blink less for songs they liked. The results showed that they blinked less for songs they rated as medium -- neither liked nor disliked. We found out later you get extra points if your hypothesis is wrong.





We found out last night she placed 2nd. Her gf got first. CONGRATULATIONS LITTLE ONE!