Random Jottings
Dec. 16th, 2002 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanA cold gray day, spitting snow from the east by afternoon, with comparatively small results in the end.
I went to the clinic, so agitated that instead of picking up my book about the history of the theater that I'm reading as research for my novel, I grabbed another book of the same size that turned out to be what I fondly call my Stuff Grammar Book -- it's Curme's. I was much bemused when I pulled it from my knapsack in the waiting room, having checked in and not, mercifully, been interrogated yet again about my finances.
Oh, well, I thought, I bet there are a lot of things in here that you don't know. There were, too. My favorite was the discovery that -le and -er are called frequentative suffixes, and refer to repeated activity. So to crackle is to crack over and over again, and to flicker is to flick over and over again. I just love that.
My blood pressure was 162 over 90. This is not stellar, but since when they gave up on me and sent me over to Nephrology it was consistently running 180 over 120, they were not much fussed, especially when I could report that my home readings were far lower.
I decided to let them give me a flu shot, queried extensively the necessity of having a mammogram every single year, and decided to put off the argument about the colonoscopy. (There's no particular reason for me to have one except that I am about to turn fifty.) I do like my nurse practiticioner enormously.
The wind was so bitter when I got out that I cancelled my tentative plans to do some sort of holiday shopping, and came home on the bus.
Red beans and rice with cornbread for supper. The rice was very dry for some reason. I forgot to tell David and Lydy about the frequentative suffixes, but we somehow had an interesting conversation even without this fascinating prop.
I did remember to tell Raphael about them later, and then forgot to tell Eric even though we actually had two tolerably lengthy and very satisfying conversations, interrupted by his getting another call. I'm sure this all says something, but I have no idea what.
In other news, I heroically scrubbed the upstairs bathtub -- never mind how long it had been since the last scrubbing -- and put up new shower curtains, vowing as ever not to let these get so dirty that tossing them is the only option.
My cat is bored. Bored, bored, bored. Last week's balmy weather probably made him feel that he had finally gotten through to me about Doing Something about Winter Weather, but now I've screwed up again. When he is bored he races up and down the house, yelling, and periodically leaps up to the nearest windowsill and paws insistently at the glass. He will, at least, also play with toys that he disdains during the Cat-Walking season.
I got a Christmas card from my best friend in seventh through ninth grade. I really must write to her.
Pamela
I went to the clinic, so agitated that instead of picking up my book about the history of the theater that I'm reading as research for my novel, I grabbed another book of the same size that turned out to be what I fondly call my Stuff Grammar Book -- it's Curme's. I was much bemused when I pulled it from my knapsack in the waiting room, having checked in and not, mercifully, been interrogated yet again about my finances.
Oh, well, I thought, I bet there are a lot of things in here that you don't know. There were, too. My favorite was the discovery that -le and -er are called frequentative suffixes, and refer to repeated activity. So to crackle is to crack over and over again, and to flicker is to flick over and over again. I just love that.
My blood pressure was 162 over 90. This is not stellar, but since when they gave up on me and sent me over to Nephrology it was consistently running 180 over 120, they were not much fussed, especially when I could report that my home readings were far lower.
I decided to let them give me a flu shot, queried extensively the necessity of having a mammogram every single year, and decided to put off the argument about the colonoscopy. (There's no particular reason for me to have one except that I am about to turn fifty.) I do like my nurse practiticioner enormously.
The wind was so bitter when I got out that I cancelled my tentative plans to do some sort of holiday shopping, and came home on the bus.
Red beans and rice with cornbread for supper. The rice was very dry for some reason. I forgot to tell David and Lydy about the frequentative suffixes, but we somehow had an interesting conversation even without this fascinating prop.
I did remember to tell Raphael about them later, and then forgot to tell Eric even though we actually had two tolerably lengthy and very satisfying conversations, interrupted by his getting another call. I'm sure this all says something, but I have no idea what.
In other news, I heroically scrubbed the upstairs bathtub -- never mind how long it had been since the last scrubbing -- and put up new shower curtains, vowing as ever not to let these get so dirty that tossing them is the only option.
My cat is bored. Bored, bored, bored. Last week's balmy weather probably made him feel that he had finally gotten through to me about Doing Something about Winter Weather, but now I've screwed up again. When he is bored he races up and down the house, yelling, and periodically leaps up to the nearest windowsill and paws insistently at the glass. He will, at least, also play with toys that he disdains during the Cat-Walking season.
I got a Christmas card from my best friend in seventh through ninth grade. I really must write to her.
Pamela
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no subject
Date: 2002-12-17 05:19 am (UTC)But what about rustle? Hmm. The OED suggests it originally meant the speed of movement rather than all the little noises, and there are the meanings of cattle rustling, and maybe it comes from something like "roust" as in "roust out" over and over. How utterly cool.
All I can offer in return is that duckbilled platypodes have little things in their beaks that can find the shrimp they eat by detecting the electrical impulses given off by the shrimps' nervous systems. Oh, and there are bacteria in uranium mines related to the deep sea vent bacteria but living on uranium. And the German for bags of mixed nuts and raisins is "studentenfodder".
no subject
Date: 2002-12-17 10:51 am (UTC)wriggling with delight
no subject
Date: 2002-12-17 12:59 pm (UTC)Skimmer. Bugger. Chortle. Whistle.
K. [what fun to learn this]
no subject
Date: 2002-12-17 03:02 pm (UTC)NICE word list. I'm sure that some English words that end in -le and -er used to end in something else and merely came to resemble those with genuine frequentative suffixes, but I don't care at the moment.
Pamela
no subject
Date: 2002-12-17 04:46 pm (UTC)