The Value of a Thumb

Amazing how you don't realize how important EVERY body part is until one is out of commission.  (Seems like there is a spiritual application there...)

I'm having to type this a little more slowly than usual, because every space bar push must be done with my left thumb--which I never use for that.  But my right thumb is useless right now.

Last night as I was getting out of Mom and Dad's car, I managed to slam the door on my thumb.  Don't ask how it happened--I don't know.  It hurt like crazy, but I had already said goodbye to them, so didn't let on.  "Just get in the house; just get in the house and get it under cold water."  But once in the garage, I could see that it was pouring blood.  The "just bruised" thumb was a seriously lacerated one.  Oh, it's bruised, too.  All the way through.  But the gash at the base of the nail is not pretty.  I needed half a Lortab to get the throbbing to stop enough to sleep.

Even though I'm left-handed, there is still much that is difficult to do.  I have found out that it's almost impossible to put rings on a left hand without using the right thumb.  Or lock a deadbolt door.  Or put on or take off certain articles of clothing.  Or pass out test papers in a classroom.  Or tear lettuce for a salad.  Or take the little plastic cover off of a bowl of fruit (the kind you buy in a four-pack for lunches).  I felt a little silly having to ask for help at lunch today.  Thank goodness I had my dad to help me unload some packages and chauffeur me around today (since Mike had to use my car, which is another matter).

I will spare you a picture.  At least until it looks a little better.

Friday's Fave Five - 2/14/14

Link to Friday's Fave Five blog.

1. Safety and no loss of power during the snowstorm.  Mike had to go into work each day and he got there and home safely each day as well.

2. Four great days off because of the storm--and the possibility of not having to make them all up due to a bill going through the state legislature!

3. Daughter got home safely before the storm hit and was able to be with us here for the week, rather than alone at her house at college.  All her roommates had gone home, and if she had lost power she had no other way to heat.

4. I went shopping today and got four tops for late winter/spring, for $60.  One of them was originally priced at $56 and another at $48.  But they were marked down; today was 10% off entire purchase, and I had another coupon for 15% off entire purchase that could be used with the other discounts.  Not bad!

5. Two great contacts this week with old teaching friends from my single days.  One has a son who just left to teach overseas and I was able to help her with the free chatting program we use to communicate with Andrew.  And the other had some information about some former students as well as just some good catch-up about him and his family.  It was so nice to reconnect with both of them.

Snowstorm

Been home now for three days with a big snowstorm.  We didn't get the 8-12 inches that were forecast; it wasn't the "storm of historic proportions" that was talked about; not nearly as many lost power as was expected; however, it has been a lovely L-O-N-G experience.  It's just now stopping; and it's been going on for over 48 hours.  

I have missed Andrew during this time.  There were so many times that a snowstorm meant him and Bryon, and their siblings on both sides, out playing in the snow.

ML came home Monday night--better to be snowed in at home than away at school.

Our feeders have been frantic.  All these birds have been there in the past three days:
Carolina chickadee
tufted titmouse
Carolina wren
pine warbler
song sparrow
chipping sparrow
northern junco
downy woodpecker
red-bellied woodpecker
cardinal
mourning dove
red-winged blackbird
common grackle
hermit thrush (a first for both Mike and me)
American goldfinch
house finch
ruby-crowned kinglet
blue jay
rufous-sided towhee

Snow

Snow in the southeast today--a couple of inches at our house that started melting around noon.  But according to forecasts, that was just the preliminary--it's to get much worse tonight and tomorrow.  I sent Andrew the two pictures on the left, to show him what he is missing here at home.  He sent me the one on the right.  Don't give a hard time about snow to someone who is spending his winter in northern China.

Optimist.. And Longfellow

I asked the class what an "optimist" is (vocabulary).

"Someone who checks your eyes."

I was just told that "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" was written by William Wordsworth Longfellow.

Terra Cotta Soldiers

Andrew's latest venture on his trip--

Objective Case, Second Person Plural

I'm teaching pronouns.  "You" is simple in nominative case and objective case.  It's always "you," whether singular or plural.  However, my southern eighth graders have their own interpretation.

"What's nominative, second person singular? "You."
"What's nominative, second person plural?"   "Y'all!"