Category: Just me

Triple Digit Temps

 

On days this hot, I sometimes reflect on my mom's experiences working in a laundry.

 

One of the plants she worked in was a giant, industrial facility that specialized in uniforms. All summer long, my mom and the other women (at least at the time, this was still very much ‘women’s work’) baked in a giant brick edifice that contained dozens of megamachines. The washers and dryers were vastly oversized and designed to rid work clothes of their odors, stains and wrinkles. 

 

If you’ve ever spent time in a crowded Laundromat or even a self-contained home laundry room, you have some beginning sense of the temperatures laundry machines can generate on a small scale. Now magnify that output while considering the scale of dozens of these megamachines running 10 hours straight. In the summer, in an all brick building, with no external ventilation. 6 days a week.

 

These women worked for just above minimum wage and many of them suffered fainting spells (and worse) from heat exhaustion, dehydration and heat stroke. And unless one of her children fell ill, my mom made her way to this plant every day for years.

 

Eventually, she received a (long overdue) promotion and moved to a different physical facility.  She made a point of insisting that one of the other employees become her assistant, so someone else could leave that plant too.  I’m continually grateful that Mom endured so much to help my dad provide for my sisters and me.

 

And I promise not to whine about the heat today.

 

 

FDO

Christmas Crossing

I haven't written a better Christmas poem yet. So I'll keep celebrating with this one. Merry Christmas.

 

Christmas Crossing

 

It’s Christmas Eve and my wife is napping

At the other end of the couch

Dreaming in a Santa hat

 

Tonight when she wakes

And after tomorrow’s presents

I’ll try my best to remind her

That my life is more complete

Better and more real

Than I could have imagined for myself

 

Her presence animates my life

Not in a slavish sense of duty

But through the constant commitment of love

Densely defined and elaborate

Telling as the Rubicon, broad as the Nile

I have fully crossed over

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2006

 

 

Losing Weight

 

This is the first time in my life when I’ve used a scale on a regular basis. It’s become a tangible measure of success and failure for me. I can already begin seeing why some folks become obsessed with weighing. Every day you get a chance to win something! (Or lose something but I’m a half-full person so I pay much more attention to the victories than the defeats.)

 

I weigh less now than I have at any time since my first term in college. It’s hard to believe now but during the stretch from about Labor Day to Thanksgiving that year I gained 40+ lbs. My whole life seemed to change in those 12 weeks including this radical physical shift. I went from a thin person to a chubby person in one autumn. (I just wrote ‘chubby’. What an odd word. Chubby.) 

 

While I’ve lost weight recently, I haven’t exactly gone from chubby to thin. In the past few months I’ve lost around 25# and it’s peculiar to notice how perceptions of me have changed so quickly. Look, I’m a big guy so it’s not as though I appear sick, drugged or destitute. Still, there’s no question that things are different.

 

Sometimes the differences are about other people- I get more smiles; people flirt with me more often; people seem to think I’m taller than I am (I’m just above 6’ but I’ve had a couple tell me that they thought I was 6’ 3“ in the past few weeks. Weird.) and I’ve had a couple clerks express surprise at my age when they see my photo ID.

 

Other times, the differences are about me- I actually do feel better physically with less knee and back pain; I spend less money and time at restaurants and I don’t have as high a tolerance for alcohol. I suppose those changes are all positive but I wonder what it means that I’m writing this only after having lost some weight. If I gain weight, will I spend this time and energy writing about it? If so, would I make that writing available for anyone to see?  

 

I started writing this post in early November and held off from finishing and posting it because I wondered if the holiday season and cold weather would become my excuses for eating more and exercising less. So far, that hasn’t been the case.  I’d also been worried that I’d begin obsessing over the scale. I think I’ve satisfied myself that the scale is a tool only. My refusal to give it any more power feels like a very good choice.

 

 

FDO

 

PS- Since I started on this post, I’ve had a great new weight loss connection. I am no longer a diabetic! That’s a clinical distinction based on long term blood sugar levels and it doesn't mean I'm planning to change my diet or exercise habits.  I am fortunate enough to have responded well to medicine and I can afford spending the time and money to give myself a better chance at healthfulness. Ultimately, weight loss is not the only important factor in this shift away from diabetes but it is an important one.

 

And a happy one. 

 


 

One Thing I Really Like Is… Serendipity (Part 2)

 

I wrote about serendipity a couple days ago and had another wonderful experience of it today. I stopped at a brewery to sample a few beers and made the acquaintance of two gentlemen who are old friends, Dave and Michal. These two guys happened to have a little space at a table and were friendly when I asked if I could join them.

 

Both men seem like great people and Michal will likely be a helpful professional contact. I have been considering what new textbook to use for US History classes and Michal is almost certainly to be of great assistance in that endeavor.  There's a real possibility that my future students will have a more beneficial classroom experience because of this chance meeting. All just a few steps removed from my choice to pick one table instead of any other. 

 

I really like serendipity. 

 

 

FDO

 

 

One Thing I Really Like Is…Replacement Names

 

NBA Nicknames that Replace Given Names


Here’s the corollary to the original post about nicknames.


The NBA has had a vast number of players whose given names have been virtually replaced by their nicknames. Replaced to the point it would seem more peculiar to use their given name. These are the ones I can think of right now although there are probably many others. I’m not even counting the guys who often have their nicknames used but not always. That means there’s no Bones Barry, no Cat Mobley and no Clyde Frazier here. Even without them, this is an awesome list.


 

Magic Johnson

Pearl Washington

Tree Rollins

Tiny Archibald

Moochie Norris

Bimbo Coles

Muggsy Bogues

Doc Rivers

Spud Webb

Boobie Gibson

Slick Watts

Buck Williams

Mookie Blaylock

Pooh Richardson

Sleepy Floyd

Fat Lever

Cornbread Maxwell

Flip Murray

Rip Hamilton

Speedy Claxton

Truck Robinson

 

Yep, this is quite a list. I repeat myself. I love nicknames.

 

FDO

 

Late Additions:


Fly Williams

Smush Parker

 

One Thing I Really Like Is… Nicknames

 

Nicknames.

 

I love ‘em. It’s probably because I like both pro basketball and pro wrestling but I’m not sure. Nicknames are just fun to me. I have had lots in my own life and there a couple I still hang on to.


I also enjoy giving people nicknames. Now, I’m not like George W. ‘Shrub’ Bush who apparently gives nicknames to everybody. To me, that cheapens the gift. Nicknames are reserved for people I love or at least love spending time with. Nicknames like ‘Nuprin’, ‘Mijo’, ‘Big Daddy’ Kane, ‘Duchess’ and ‘Mr. Incredible’ need to come from a place of love.

 

It’s great when nicknames become so commonly used that they virtually replace given names. Magic Johnson is the most famous example but the NBA is chock full of this phenomenon. This deserves a separate post actually.  

 

Some nicknames are funny even when there’s no context. I mean, I know why Darryl Dawkins is called ‘Chocolate Thunder’ but realistically does it even matter? Isn’t ‘Chocolate Thunder’ always gonna be funny? That could be the name of a movie, breakfast cereal, band, video game or bodily function and it’s still gonna work. Perfect.

 

There are also lots of nicknames that aren’t in common use that really should be. My friend, ABC, calls Eli Manning ‘Baby E’ and it’s perfect. Just look at him. The Anaheim Angels’ Torii Hunter should obviously be nicknamed ‘Big Game’. Obviously!

 

If Mitt Romney wins the GOP Presidential nomination I certainly expect folks on the left to start calling him ‘Glove’. Why wouldn’t they?  

 

Boston Celtics coach Glenn ‘Doc’ Rivers’ son, Austin is a perfect candidate to be ‘Baby Doc’ but no one’s willing to go there. C’mon, they don’t look Haitian so it’s ok, right? 

 

Right?!?

 

FDO

 

 

 

Thoughts on Writing- Nikki Giovanni’s Resignation

 

Resignation 


by Nikki Giovanni

 

I love you

because the Earth turns round the sun

because the North wind blows north

sometimes

because the Pope is Catholic

and most Rabbis Jewish

because winters flow into springs

and the air clears after a storm

because only my love for you

despite the charms of gravity

keeps me from falling off this Earth

into another dimension

I love you

because it is the natural order of things

 

 

This is the first stanza of a poem I anticipate loving forever. My wife and I used this for a reading at our wedding and several years later, I like the poem even more than I did then. Giovanni is not generally perceived as a romantic poet but she has a deep vein of passion within her work that does, at times, take on a specifically romantic form.


Part of what I like so much about Resignation is that Giovanni reminds her reader that being in love should feel absolutely, perfectly normal.

 

I know many folks who don’t buy into Giovanni’s premise. Instead, they feel most comfortable with problematic, difficult and contentious romantic relationships. To an extreme, I know someone who ended a relationship because it wasn’t challenging enough. Things were too smooth for her liking. That’s an almost unbelievable concept to me. If you’re in love with someone, shouldn’t your standard experience with that person be pleasant and enjoyable? Shouldn’t trouble between you be the exception to the rule?

 

In Resignation, Giovanni defines love as the organizing principle of life in an amorous relationship. In the world she creates in this poem, love is the backdrop to how we live and who we are. Perhaps it’s only because I’m a hopeful romantic but I’m convinced that she’s on the right track. Whatever the reason, I’ll go with it. Joyfully.

 

I love you

because it is the natural order of things

 

Indeed.

 

FDO

 

 

One Thing I Don’t Like Is…

 

When I type ‘E’, my computer doesn’t go to ESPN.com automatically. This is not a good sign. Let me explain. 

 

I love sports. I enjoy reading, thinking, watching and even writing about sports. Yet, my computer’s default for ‘E’ is Edline, a Website that I use to update grades, share resources and provide assignments for my students. What the computer is trying to tell me is simply that I use Edline more than I use ESPN. <smh> I repeat: This is not a good sign. 

 

It’ll be great to have Winter Break arrive so I can give ESPN the place of prominence it deserves!

 

 

FDO