Monday, July 11, 2005
Three Accidents and Some Music
It was an interesting drive out to my Mom's yesterday. Of course, it often is a mini-adventure. It seems like whenever you drive, walk or bike a lot, you're going to see some happenings.
I was headed down the hill to get on to the freeway on ramp and I noticed that the cars in the Twin Cities bound lane were stopped. The other lane wasn't so I kept going. The traffic was heavy, I had to get onto the freeway carefully. In the other side there were flashing lights, three lanes of cars stopped and pulled over to allow several fire trucks and ambulances to get through. As I waited for the traffic to break enough to get onto the freeway, I saw a person lying on the grass along the side of the road. His/her legs were bent, small, frail and very white some people in uniforms were bending over him/her.
It was pretty awful and reminded me of one time when I was walking home from work. There was a dreadful "thump" and a boy of about 12 or 14 or so went flying across the road on the pavement. Several passerbys and I raced to his side to keep the traffic from running him over. Blood was coming from his ears and he was shivering, I took off my heavy sweater and covered him up. A nurse who had just gotten off duty from a 12-hour shift took control and told us not to move him (we weren't going to, actually, but he was still in the middle of the road). She used her pager to call an ambulance. A couple of men and I took flashlights and stood in the road steering the traffic around the boy until the ambulance came, loaded him up and took him away. The nurse found his wallet on the road with his ID in it and somehow got his parent's phone number and called them to tell them which hospital the boy was being taken.
I never did find out if he was OK and never got my sweater back either, of course. The nurse said he had a head injury and some broken ribs, I hope he recovered. But it was so wonderful how total strangers stepped in to help. I think of that boy when I see an accident like today with all the emergency personnel rushing to help someone. It's very comforting to know they are there.
Well, I had crossed the Bong Bridge over the Bay, driven the tediously long, slow (speed limit 35 mph, enforced) through Superior, exited the freeway and was well on my way to my Mom's when all the traffic had to stop again. It was another accident, several cars on the side of the road, police waving us on slowly.
The really weird thing was on my way BACK from my Mom's the traffic was all stopped again in that very same spot--this was hours later! A semi truck with a load of hay had dropped bales all over the road! A sweating, red-faced woman of about her mid-30's and several boys were throwing the bales into a pickup truck.
The temperatures up at my house and also at my Mom's were in the mid-90's yesterday and it's supposed to get that warm today again. It was so hot and humid that the roads were hazy. Duluth only got up to about 85 or so and Superior only to 74 degrees F. It's the lake-effect that acts like air conditioning.
While driving to and fro Wisconsin I listened to my "new" CD by Deep Purple, a band from the late 1970's with hits "Smoke on the Water" and "Woman from Tokyo" still great music! I love the long indulgent guitar pieces. I'm going to listen it (part) of it again on my way to work this morning.
from my E-mail
"Our Crazy Language An oldie, but favorite... "
Did you know that "verb" is a noun?
How can you look up words in a dictionary if you can't spell them?
If a word is misspelled in a dictionary, how would we ever know?
If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren't two houses hice?
If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?
If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
If you've read a book, you can reread it. But wouldn't this also mean that you would have to "member" somebody in order to remember them?
In Chinese, why are the words for crisis and opportunity the same?
Is it a coincidence that the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable?
Is there another word for a synonym?
Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllabic"?
What is another word for "thesaurus"?
Where do swear words come from?
Why can't you make another word using all the letters in "anagram"? Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
Why do people use the word "irregardless"?
Why do some people type "cool" as "kewl?"
Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
Why do we say something's out of order when its broken but we never say in of order when it works?
Why does "cleave" mean both split apart and stick together?
Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
Why does flammable and inflammable mean the same thing?
Why does the Chinese ideogram for trouble symbolize two women living under one roof?
Why does X stand for a kiss and O stand for a hug?
Why doesn't "onomatopoeia" sound like what it is?
Why don't we say "why" instead of "how come"?
Why is "crazy man" an insult, while to insert a comma and say "Crazy, man!" is a compliment?
Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites? Why is abbreviation such a long word?
Why is dyslexic so hard to spell?
Why is it so hard to remember how to spell MNEMONIC?
Why is it that no word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple?
Why is it that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
Why is it that we recite at a play and play at a recital?
Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
Why is the plural of goose-geese, and not the plural of moose-meese? Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?
Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Some of these are funny or just plain silly, others I wonder about. Is "gullible" really not in the dictionary, how could that be? I'm going to check! And I've heard the one about "In Chinese the words for crisis and opportunity are the same" so many times in business settings, is it true? Have a great Monday!
I was headed down the hill to get on to the freeway on ramp and I noticed that the cars in the Twin Cities bound lane were stopped. The other lane wasn't so I kept going. The traffic was heavy, I had to get onto the freeway carefully. In the other side there were flashing lights, three lanes of cars stopped and pulled over to allow several fire trucks and ambulances to get through. As I waited for the traffic to break enough to get onto the freeway, I saw a person lying on the grass along the side of the road. His/her legs were bent, small, frail and very white some people in uniforms were bending over him/her.
It was pretty awful and reminded me of one time when I was walking home from work. There was a dreadful "thump" and a boy of about 12 or 14 or so went flying across the road on the pavement. Several passerbys and I raced to his side to keep the traffic from running him over. Blood was coming from his ears and he was shivering, I took off my heavy sweater and covered him up. A nurse who had just gotten off duty from a 12-hour shift took control and told us not to move him (we weren't going to, actually, but he was still in the middle of the road). She used her pager to call an ambulance. A couple of men and I took flashlights and stood in the road steering the traffic around the boy until the ambulance came, loaded him up and took him away. The nurse found his wallet on the road with his ID in it and somehow got his parent's phone number and called them to tell them which hospital the boy was being taken.
I never did find out if he was OK and never got my sweater back either, of course. The nurse said he had a head injury and some broken ribs, I hope he recovered. But it was so wonderful how total strangers stepped in to help. I think of that boy when I see an accident like today with all the emergency personnel rushing to help someone. It's very comforting to know they are there.
Well, I had crossed the Bong Bridge over the Bay, driven the tediously long, slow (speed limit 35 mph, enforced) through Superior, exited the freeway and was well on my way to my Mom's when all the traffic had to stop again. It was another accident, several cars on the side of the road, police waving us on slowly.
The really weird thing was on my way BACK from my Mom's the traffic was all stopped again in that very same spot--this was hours later! A semi truck with a load of hay had dropped bales all over the road! A sweating, red-faced woman of about her mid-30's and several boys were throwing the bales into a pickup truck.
The temperatures up at my house and also at my Mom's were in the mid-90's yesterday and it's supposed to get that warm today again. It was so hot and humid that the roads were hazy. Duluth only got up to about 85 or so and Superior only to 74 degrees F. It's the lake-effect that acts like air conditioning.
While driving to and fro Wisconsin I listened to my "new" CD by Deep Purple, a band from the late 1970's with hits "Smoke on the Water" and "Woman from Tokyo" still great music! I love the long indulgent guitar pieces. I'm going to listen it (part) of it again on my way to work this morning.
from my E-mail
"Our Crazy Language An oldie, but favorite... "
Did you know that "verb" is a noun?
How can you look up words in a dictionary if you can't spell them?
If a word is misspelled in a dictionary, how would we ever know?
If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren't two houses hice?
If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?
If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
If you've read a book, you can reread it. But wouldn't this also mean that you would have to "member" somebody in order to remember them?
In Chinese, why are the words for crisis and opportunity the same?
Is it a coincidence that the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable?
Is there another word for a synonym?
Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllabic"?
What is another word for "thesaurus"?
Where do swear words come from?
Why can't you make another word using all the letters in "anagram"? Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
Why do people use the word "irregardless"?
Why do some people type "cool" as "kewl?"
Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
Why do we say something's out of order when its broken but we never say in of order when it works?
Why does "cleave" mean both split apart and stick together?
Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
Why does flammable and inflammable mean the same thing?
Why does the Chinese ideogram for trouble symbolize two women living under one roof?
Why does X stand for a kiss and O stand for a hug?
Why doesn't "onomatopoeia" sound like what it is?
Why don't we say "why" instead of "how come"?
Why is "crazy man" an insult, while to insert a comma and say "Crazy, man!" is a compliment?
Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites? Why is abbreviation such a long word?
Why is dyslexic so hard to spell?
Why is it so hard to remember how to spell MNEMONIC?
Why is it that no word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple?
Why is it that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
Why is it that we recite at a play and play at a recital?
Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
Why is the plural of goose-geese, and not the plural of moose-meese? Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?
Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Some of these are funny or just plain silly, others I wonder about. Is "gullible" really not in the dictionary, how could that be? I'm going to check! And I've heard the one about "In Chinese the words for crisis and opportunity are the same" so many times in business settings, is it true? Have a great Monday!
