Unusual Words

Posted on 01/30/2019 by chick

Because one of my favorite books of all time, The Last Legends of Earth by A.A. Attanasio, has such weird words in it, here is an Unusual Words post for you today.

  • tractate: treaty; essay; any book of the Talmud
  • ephemerides: plural of ephemeris
  • ephemeris: table showing positions of a heavenly body on a number of different dates in a regular sequence; or an astronomical almanac containing those tables; or any almanac or calendar
  • dolmen: two or more standing stones with horizontal stone across top (like in Stonehenge); usually regarded as a tomb
  • brindled: gray or tawny with darker streaks or spots
  • fraught: filled (with)
  • peristyle: colonnade surrounding a building or an open space; or an open space (e.g. courtyard) surrounded by a colonnade
  • opaline: opalescent
  • ferine: feral
  • supernal: from on high; heavenly; extremely good
  • talus: ankle bone or sloping mass of rubble at base of cliff, or just a slope
  • farouche: fierce
  • parlous: perilous
  • snuggery (British): a snug place or position, or a comfy room
  • tuff: rock made out of fine volcanic output, fused together by heat
  • pelagic: oceanic
  • orgulous: proud
  • stravaging (chiefly Scottish): roaming
  • And for last, a few beautiful compounds that Attanasio presumably made up: bootjawed, eaglebrowed, silkstone, sparkfly, planetshadows, and rootwoven.
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Danger

Posted on 01/29/2019 by chick

Deja vu’s coming after you.

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Time and the Art of Not Procrastinating

Posted on 01/26/2019 by chick
  • I’ve been working on one of my 30 Must-Read Books, Time and the Art of Living by Robert Grudin. It’s a book on the subject of Time, and it’s a difficult read, as you might expect from a philosophy book written by an English professor on an abstract topic. Time is not something that can gathered into a sample, dissected, and examined under a microscope. But the author did his best to give us a thorough examination of how we experience Time and how to get the most out of it. The book is divided into individual, relatively-short passages. I’ve been attacking the sections randomly and marking each one as I read it. I flagged those that I liked, the ones that seemed worth additional meditation, and/or that I thought might be personally helpful. (Note: I don’t usually approve of writing in books. This one is a softcover from the ’80s, and its pages are foxed and tanned, so it’s already less than pristine.) I’ve made a lot of progress, and I might be able to finish the book this weekend.
  • I’ve tried to read this book before, and I’m so glad that I wrote about my previous attempt. That post contains a cute little snapshot of my life during Livia’s infancy. It is one of those “letters through time” that Grudin was talking about in the quote at the beginning of the post.
  • I have to undecorate the tree this weekend. I don’t want to, but procrastination can really mess things up. As Grudin wrote, “Every time we postpone some necessary event—whether we put off doing the dinner dishes till morning or defer an operation or some difficult labor or study—we do so with the implication that present time is more important than future time. . . . Very often our decision to delay is less a free choice than a semiconscious mechanism—a conspiracy between our reasoning awareness and our native dislike of pain. . . . When we delay something, we simultaneously admit its necessity and refuse to do it. Seen more extensively, habitual delays can clutter our lives, leave us in the annoying position of always having to do yesterday’s chores. Disrespect for the future is a subtly poisonous disrespect for self, and forces us, paradoxically enough, to live in the past.” So true. Better to just get things done and over with.
  • I will also be putting away the Advent calendar today. I’m going to put a list of Christmas ticket ideas into the box with it. Next year, when I open it up, I’ll find that half my work has already been done. That’s what I call “a love letter through time.” 🙂
Posted in Crazy Me, Reading | 1 Comment

Thankful, Happy, Disappointed, Surprised, & Nostalgic

Posted on 01/23/2019 by chick

Today I am feeling . . .

  • Thankful that my work computer is now up-to-date and virus-free. Yesterday the antivirus was malfunctioning so badly that I turned the computer off rather risk a virus running amok on it.
  • Happy to have started work early and accomplished so much.
  • Disappointed that the temperature outside didn’t get high enough to melt the ice off the driveway. I was able to clean the car off, but the driveway is still frozen solid and super slick. It was too dangerous to drive on, so I couldn’t take Livia to her crafting class today.
  • Surprised that my hubby’s storm prep didn’t include buying sand or deicing stuff. Next time I will remind him.
  • Nostalgic for the ’80s. My husband has been listening to ’80s music as he works on the great room. Sometimes I go in there and dance in front of the fireplace.
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Snappy Saying

Posted on 01/22/2019 by chick

“No cuts, no buts, no coconuts.”

Livia says that this is what you tell a kid who tries to cut into line.

Good to know.

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Happy and Warm

Posted on 01/21/2019 by chick

The outdoor weather station says it’s 0.0 degrees outside. The driveway is a sheet of ice, and my car is frozen shut. Unless there’s an emergency, we’re not going anywhere today. But we’ve got books, Netflix, a jigsaw puzzle, and plenty of hot beverages and soup, so we should be able to keep happy and warm. To everyone living in the frigid parts of the world today, I hope you will keep happy and warm, too.

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Last Nerve

Posted on 01/20/2019 by chick

I didn’t know that I had a “last nerve” until I had children and they started dancing on it.

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Grocery Blues

Posted on 01/19/2019 by chick

At the grocery story, plenty of bread and milk, but limited avocado and lime selection, no cilantro, no ground beef, no bone-in chicken thighs, no pork roasts, and not a cart to be had. I think that I will never shop on a Saturday again, impending storm or no.

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Tired

Posted on 01/19/2019 by chick

I am tired. I am always tired, but today I am more tired than usual. Everything feels like a chore right now, even typing these words. So, as soon as I am done with dinner, I’m going upstairs for a date with Netflix.

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Flexitarianism

Posted on 01/18/2019 by chick

A recent article told me that a “flexitarian” diet was the wave of the future. Flexitarianism is the diet that will supposedly keep us all fed in that nebulous future in which the human race somehow manages to avoid mass destruction. Avoiding mass destruction, being an awesome thing which allows a future for my beloved children, is something I’m particularly keen on.

The flexitarian diet is mostly a vegetarian diet, but it doesn’t rule out meat or dairy. I’m cool with that. It’s what I’m already doing anyway. I’m perfectly happy getting most of my protein from nuts, beans, and sometimes eggs. But yeah, I like a burger or a steak from time to time.

So let’s do this. Flexitarianism! It’s the thing!

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