Listening to: Meat Loaf- Bat Out of Hell
Reading: The Reef Nora Roberts
Weather: 60 and sunny
Trivia:Who was the first to make candy?
Man's sweet tooth was first satisfied by the ancient Egyptians during the XX Dynasty's New Kingdom around 1000 B.C. Not having any sugar to work with (it wouldn't arrive in the region for quite some time) Egyptian confectioners began with honey, altering its flavor by adding dashes of herbs, nuts, spices, and the juices of fruits. Much thought, experimentation, and sampling by family and friends went into the production of each new candy. Sweets were an extremely prized commodity, and a talented
candy-maker was an important man in the community.
Cool word: gaffer [n. GAF-ur]
To Americans, a gaffer is a lighting technician on a movie or TV set. To someone from England, a gaffer is an old man, a rustic (a simple country person), or a boss, foreman, or supervisor. The American meaning emerged from the British meanings. The word originally appeared in the late 1500s, when it was a respectful title for an old man. It was a combined contraction of grandfather and godfather that evolved together with gammer, a similar word for an old woman that was derived from grandmother and godmother. When gaffer began to be applied to the oldest man in a work crew, it shifted to the sense of the foreman or boss. Americans extended the word to apply to any professional workers with seniority, and the movie industry narrowed the focus to just those on the lighting crew, while other American usages disappeared.
Weird Horoscope
ARIES
Earlier in the year up to June you had some very expansive plans for the future which were connected to making more your natural talents and abilities, you wanted to expand your activities and range of contacts, to paint your life on a broader canvas. Reality seems to have been getting in the way recently but now you can revisit some of these dreams and do something about them over the next four months.
That horoscope is just too weird. It is exactly where I was in June, and I was so determined to get out of my current job and into a field that could make me feel more creative and useful. It’s also true that reality has gotten in the way and that I’ve given up on those ideas to a large extent. Every once in a while I have a burst of longing to get out of where I am, but the demands of the job don’t afford me any time to do something about it.
Or perhaps I’m just paralyzed with indecision. I do need to figure out how to fix this. I just don’t know where to start.
The kids at school are so wound up about Halloween that very little is getting accomplished. The teachers know enough to just roll with the punches for the next two days and no one tries to do anything that’s too involved. Concentration levels are at low tide.
In some ways this is good for me, as I was able to spend time in my office getting paperwork done. I’ve had three parent meetings in the last two days, two of which generated preliminary testing paperwork, which amounts to eight forms that need to be filled out. The third generated an educational plan, which is a whole other set of forms and information about the student.
I get swallowed by paperwork. And of course the fact that my computer is inaccessible until they get me a computer cart makes things even worse. They want everything done immediately, but don’t provide a ways to accomplish that.
At least the principal did spring for the computer cart and it will arrive in a couple of weeks. Figures they’d be out of stock on the model I needed.
I'm looking forward to playing hooky tomorrow, even if it is just to wait for the squirrel squadron to arrive. Of course I'll be up until God-knows-when tonight trying to clear a path for them to be able to work. Guess I'll finally put the summer clothes away. That should reduce the structure that I've come to know at Mt. Wishing’s Clothing substantially.
I have hopes that I’ll actually be productive and get things accomplished around here, but I don’t want to make any unrealistic predictions.
I haven’t done a thing about Halloween cards for my family either. I usually go to my brother’s house to help with the trick-or-treaters, but my brother is actually going to be home this Halloween, so I’m not needed. I may go over anyways just to check out Keith and Matilda’s costumes. Matilda is really looking forward to this one, as she’s going to be Dorothy and even has Toto in a little basket.
I’ll have to wait to see how I feel about things come Sunday.
Off to see if I can knock down that mountain. (I'd hum a little Anthony Newley here for inspiration, but he was building a mountain. Perhaps a verse or two of Joshua fit the battle..?)
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