Monthly Archives: March 2012

Truth

General, ,

How many times have you seen or heard mention of truth? Of those, how many mentions were about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I bet not many.

Instead, people like to reference a truth, his truth, her truth, their truth. Rarely do they say the truth.

Why do people talk like this? I suspect it is because people like the comforting warm fuzzies their subjective truth offers. Quite often the objective truth feels cold and hard, and who wants that?

Personally, I prefer truth to be on the colder, harder side. I like to know where I stand and how I measure up. Figuring that out is exponentially more difficult when the reference point keeps shifting.

Moles

General, ,

Yesterday morning during my commute to work, the man ahead of me leaned back and went to sleep. As much as anyone can sleep during a mildly bumpy motorcoach ride.

As dawn gradually brightened the interior I noticed a couple moles in the balding spot on his head. I have seen the top of his head some months before, on another sleepy morning commute. But I could not recall whether I had seen moles on his head before. I studied the moles without leaning forward. I wondered, could these moles be melanoma?

It was awkward, but I mentioned the moles to him. He was thankful I told him. He didn’t know he had them and planned to have them checked.

Melanoma

Image from Melanoma article on Wikipedia, accessed 31-Mar-2012

I never knew anyone who had melanoma. Not until last summer, when a fellow bike rider mentioned needing to have some suspicious moles removed. Melanoma, caught early, before it spread. I don’t know her very well, but the admission caught my attention.

A few weeks ago I found out Pamela Hodges had it removed from her leg via her blog, I paint I write. I don’t know Pamela very well, but I used to work with her husband. The admission definitely caught my attention.

Thanks to the unseasonably early spring, I have been able to ride my bike. Part of riding is applying sunscreen. Moles, sunshine, sunscreen, and admissions of having moles removed remind me of Dear 16-year-old Me.

Moles, sunshine, sunscreen, admissions of having moles removed, and Dear 16-year-old-me remind me that I had a blistering sunburn on my back before I was two. This greatly increases my chances of getting melanoma, but so far so good.

Make a habit of checking your skin, all of it. And use sunscreen.

Pieces

General

My five year old son was in the tub last night.

“I don’t want to be here with only three pieces of the family.”

His eleven year old sister has been staying with her cousins this week.

I am not sure when he started referring to family members as pieces. Sometimes the dog is a piece, too. But almost always it is when he is talking about a missing piece.

Breakfast

General, , ,

My usual morning work routine was delayed this morning. I was groggier than usual when I awoke. I took advantage of a little extra sleep by opting for the later commuter bus.

Upon safe delivery to my employer a few hours later, I spotted my brother-in-law’s mother on the way to my desk. We chatted for a few minutes before heading off to our respective destinations. Nice chat.

Then I got wrapped up in checking out my workstation. Monday morning the hard drive failed. Yesterday morning a gentleman from support took it for repair. He was able to copy the contents of the drive to another and return my workstation late in the afternoon. This morning I doubled-checked for any missing or damaged files. All appeared to be as it should.

By then my stomach signaled hunger again, and this time I could not ignore it. I was craving a cranberry-orange scone from Barnes & Noble Café, 400+ sugar-laden calories be damned. My alternate choice was a huge cinnamon roll topped with cinnamon cream cheese icing. Probably tops out at over 500 sugar-laden calories.

Fortunately, to the benefit of my waistline and continued good health, B&N didn’t have any cranberry-orange scones, fresh-baked or otherwise. (And really, if you are going to indulge, do opt for fresh-baked and still hot. You’re welcome.) By the time I paid for my coffee I no longer wanted the scone or roll.

Ultimately, I ended up skipping breakfast altogether. Not a recommended habit, but occasionally is fine.

The peanut butter bacon cheeseburger and fries at lunch made up for the caloric deficit.

Tie

General, , , ,

Today I wore the tie my son chose.

He and I were shopping for clothes one day. Rather, I was shopping for clothes. He was tired and decided to lay down on the sales floor carpet in front of a display of dress shirts.

I found a couple shirts I liked and a tie to match one. Any day you find a nice dress shirt in your size and in a color you like for $4.99 is a good day. Even better when you discover a nice tie to match for a similar price.

My son was still lying on the floor. An occasional shopper would stroll through and raise and eyebrow upon finding him. I kept close watch, so I knew he was safe.

I found a third shirt and another tie. By now my son had regained some strength. He asked if I was done yet. Almost. I suggested he help me find another tie. The sooner I have a matching tie, the sooner we can find mom and sister. That’s all it took.

I found a couple ties, but neither seemed quite right.

The tie my son chose

He took a tie off one of the tables. “You should buy this one, because it looks cool.”

Hmm. Not really a pattern I would have chosen, but it was a perfect match for the shirt.

“Looks good to me. Let’s buy it.”

He gained a definite spring in his step.

Today I wore the tie my son chose. It matches the shirt perfectly. I showed him when I returned home from work.

He did not remember choosing the tie.

More than a spoonful of sugar

General, ,

Let’s go back two or three weeks. Maybe it was four, but surely no more than that. How long ago is of little consequence to the fascinating educational joyride you are about to embark.

I am on my way to lunch, and notice a display table in the employee cafeteria. A sign called to me: how many spoonfuls of sugar in the bottle of Sierra Mist Natural? Closest guess earns a copy of The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook. I’m a bit of a sucker for a good cookbook at no monetary expense to myself, so I’m game.

First things first. (1) What kind of spoon, and (2) how much fluid in the bottle? Teaspoons, and the label says 15.7 fl oz.

After getting lunch and finding a table, I whip out my trusty Windows Phone for a little Internet research and calculation.

How many grams of sugar per teaspoon? I find multiple answers, and see the more reliable sources agree with each other on 12.55g per tablespoon. Good enough. I will multiple my answer by 3 for teaspoons.

How many grams sugar in the bottle? I could have read the label, but didn’t think to do that. Multiple Internet sources agree on 25g per 8 fl oz of Sierra Mist Natural. A little math (15.7oz / 8oz * 25g) yields 49.0625g sugar in the bottle. I’ll round that number in my final answer.

Finishing up, I do the math on 49.0625g / 12.55g per Tbsp * 3 tsp per Tbsp. I stop by the table again, on my way out of the cafeteria, and record my entire answer: 11.73 tsp sugar in a 15.7 fl oz bottle of Sierra Mist Natural.

11.73 tsp is almost 4 Tbsp. For comparison, 4 Tbsp is 1/4 cup. That’s a lot of sugar in one beverage. Oh, the label says 8 fl oz is a serving. But how many people stop at 8? Not many.

Fast forward back to the present.

I received an email telling me I won the cookbook for having the closest guess. I have to smile, because I didn’t guess.

March flowers

General,
March lily

March lily

March showers bring March flowers. Sunny, warm weather doesn’t hurt either. Just a two weeks ago to the day, bulb plants had already had been eagerly springing forth for a few weeks.

The last few days lilies show off their new blooms. What a glorious early spring we are having!

Choosing a theme

General,

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see that this blog is hosted on WordPress.com. I highly recommend the service if you ever want to put your words or photos up for all to see.

As I write this, WordPress.com offers a choice of 175 themes. Certainly one of those can provide a suitably matching canvas to match words and images.

And yet, I cannot decide which theme I think matches best.

Résumés

General,

I reviewed résumés this morning.

I wanted to include “résumé” in my notes back to my boss. Rather than switch keyboard layouts to type the accented letter, I took this as an opportunity for a side trip to Dictionary.com for a quick copy-paste. I don’t need much of an excuse to visit Dictionary.com. This was clearly enough of an excuse.

Entry found on http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/resume, accessed 23-Mar-2012

Hmmm. Picking up where one has left off is interesting, but I want the job seeker’s document. Scroll, scroll. There it is, at “re·su·me2,” a short entry with a link titled “résumé.” I can quickly copy-paste that, and I don’t really need the definition. But the link’s siren sings, and I cannot resist.

Did I mean what?

I hope my boss sends me more résumés to review. I now find them strangely uplifting….

Thanks to all the comment spam I have been receiving for this post, comments have been disabled.

Core

General

Finally, after weeks of battling evening schedules I made it to class. A group class at the health club to work my core.

I didn’t really know what to expect. The only other group classes I have tried, learned to quickly dislike, and give up on were of the aerobic step kind. I don’t know how a person is supposed learn the requisite moves in those classes. Just when I think I’m moving the way everyone else is, the instructor changes it on me. Now I am out of sync again. Can’t we just stick with one movement until my body has it learned? Frustrating.

I was hoping Core would be different. The description I vaguely remember from reading weeks ago didn’t seem to indicate any swooping dance like moves, so that was covered. No, I was more worried I would have to lift embarrassingly light weights. But I was determined to at least try.

Having enough of a treadmill warm up, I checked the clock. Five minutes to go. I didn’t want to be so early that I’d be first, left wondering what I was supposed to do for setup. But I didn’t want to be too late either, in case the room filled to capacity. I should have arrived sooner than five minutes to go.

Looking around there were people at mats with Swiss balls under control in step risers. Can’t get away from the step boards. Everyone also seemed to have medicine balls too. I spied three mat-ball sets without people near me. None of them had a water bottle, towel, or any other sign of being claimed. I chose one.

A woman leaned over. “That’s someone’s spot.”

“Oh, sorry. How about one of those?” gesturing at one of the other two stations.

“They are all taken. You have to get your own mat and ball.”

“Sorry, this is my first time. I didn’t know.” As soon as I said that, it dawned on me that wasn’t entirely true. Of course I knew I’d had to get my own mat and ball. That’s how every class operates. Somehow the surprise at seeing a nearly full room temporarily knocked that bit of common knowledge aside.

The woman scanned the room and pointed. “There is some room in the front corner, over there.”

That didn’t look like enough room to me. But, I thanked her and started weaving my way toward the indicated area.

I said hi to the instructor. I know him. He leads the Sunday afternoon bike rides I plan to frequent again this year. Last Sunday was an awesome ride. I know how to do ride a bike, I have my place in the group. It’s not frustrating like group aerobics.