N is for No Pencil

N is for No Pencil

or Multiplying Negatives

I was in Mrs. Weekly's sixth grade math class and we were learning for the first time that when you multiply two negative numbers, you get a positive one. This was a concept I just couldn't wrap my head around. How in the world could two negatives make a positive? I questioned the teacher endlessly and her explanations never made sense to me.

Then one evening I asked my sister, Martha, how could you get a positive number when you multiplied two negatives. Without missing a beat, she simply said, "I don't have no pencil. Do I have a pencil or not?"

I thought about it for a couple of minutes, and then it was all crystal clear. She didn't have no pencil, so she must have a pencil. So that's how two negatives could become a positive. So simple.

Martha had a knack for saying just the right thing to make sense to me.  She seemed to speak my language, so I often went to her when I had a question about something. And she never disappointed.

Did you ever have someone who could explain things that made sense to you? Someone who spoke your language?

M is for Malignant

M is for Malignant

Ward has a malignant tumor. Or in other words, Ward, my husband, has cancer. Those are hard words to hear and hard words to say. But with an early diagnosis, the future looks bright. Right now we are in a round of doctors' appointments trying to determine what is the best course of treatment. Luckily, he has options.

Life is always changing. You just never know which direction it is going to go.

Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge 2016

L is for Listening

L is for Listening

Do you think you're a good listener? I used to think I was because I was always ready to lend a sympathetic ear to someone who needed it. But am I actually listening or am I thinking about what I'm going to say? Well, upon examination, I realized I'm thinking my own thoughts as much as I am listening to the other person. I started to consider this after a conversation I was in recently.

Is she really listening? Or thinking about
what she's going to say?

Ward and I were at a doctor's appointment to discuss various issues. We had talked beforehand about some questions we wanted to ask. The appointment was going along well (not a doctor who rushed, yea!) and Ward asked about one of the things he had been wondering. The doctor answered the question, but didn't give the information that Ward was looking for. I waited a minute for Ward to do a follow-up and when he didn't, I jumped in.

Later, I asked Ward why he didn't follow-up and he said, "I was trying to hear everything the doctor had to say without thinking about what I was going to say next. I was going to clarify things. I just hadn't yet." Hmmm. That was exactly what I had been doing--thinking about what I was going to say next instead of giving my full attention to the doctor. That's why I was ready to jump in before Ward. In my thinking ahead, I wonder how much I missed.

After that, I started to pay attention to the way I listened. I found that most of the time, when a person was only partially through what they were saying, I was already thinking about what I was going to say next.  There always seemed to be a thought triggered by one of their comments. Sometimes, I was so interested in saying what I was thinking, I had to bring the conversation back to a former topic so I could say it.

Now I knew that my mind wandered sometimes and I wasn't always a good listener. There were certain topics of discussion (say, economics or often told family stores, for example) where my mind wandered every time they come up. However, I didn't realize how much I was thinking about what I wanted to say, instead of real listening much of the time.

I think, to some degree, everyone does some partial listening. Perhaps there's a gender component to it. In general, studies have shown that women are more verbal and want more social connections than men. So thinking ahead may be a way for females to keep the conversation and connection going. There's probably more than one PhD dissertation out there on the subject, but I'll have to research that another time. Now it's time to think about the letter M.

How good of a listener are you?

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K is for Kitchen Window

K is for Kitchen Window or

Where I did a Second Look from this week.

Well, actually I did go outside this week for a Second Look, but I also did a fair amount of looking through my kitchen window because of the weather. It has been cold, windy, and wet including some snow. Despite the more winter-like weather, everything is continuing to green-up. In fact, we cut the back forty last week, and the front of the yard could also use it's first cut. Maybe when it stops raining we can get to it.

Here are some things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Bleeding hearts

Bluebird pair. The bluebird nest continues to grow.

Tufted-Titmouse. Notice the bolt that Ward installed on the suet feeder. The squirrels had gotten into the habit of opening the door and carrying the entire cake off--even after we wired it shut. So far, they haven't been able to open this arrangement.

The peach tree blossoms are almost gone.

The woodpeckers have started on a new tree this year.

House sparrow

Spring wildflowers (otherwise know as weeds in some places). Dandelion, violets, dead nettle, chickweed, ground ivy.

Turkey vulture

Sunrise out the Kitchen window.

J is for Japan

J is for Japan

and Just doing the best I could.

Himeji, famous for its castle, is where we
had our spaghetti dinner.

Several years ago, Miss Landers was living in Japan and Ward and I went to visit her. Before our trip, she sent us literature* on almost every subject that would pertain to our visit. From broad subjects like religions to practical ones on how to ride the trains and use chopsticks. We studied them all and practiced what we needed.

We finally got to put all of our new knowledge to use when we arrived in Japan.  Miss Landers was a great tour guide. She took us to tourist places in cities as well as personal homes in villages. She was well integrated into the Japanese culture and gave us experiences of what the country was really like.

A few days into the trip, Ward and I decided that we were confident enough to strike out on our own. We wandered the streets of the small town we were in looking for a place to eat. I was hoping to find something that catered to tourists where I might have a chance to eat something other than fish and rice because fish is not my favorite food. Luckily, it was common to have a picture menu posted in the window of a restaurant. When I saw a picture of spaghetti on one of the menus, I decided that this was the place.

I ordered spaghetti and was relieved to see it was pretty traditional--tomato sauce with noodles. I immediately dove in showing my best chopstick skills which I had honed by practicing for months. In fact, I was kind of  proud how I was handling the long noodles. Well, pride goeth before a fall, they say. And this time they were right..

One of many pages of chopstick
instructions I practiced.

At one point during the meal, I looked around and the entire staff of the restaurant was standing behind me and smiling. When they saw me looking, they quickly handed me a fork. Apparently, I was not looking like a chopstick pro I thought I was. Instead, I was the entertainment for the evening. Oh, well.

We had a few more adventures on our trip that I'll tell you about another time. But now it's time to think about the letter K.

*This trip was before you could go on the Internet and find everything you need.