Words and Connections
Fair Warning: I'm wearing my teacher hat now and the lesson today is on often-mangled words or pronunciations.
First I'll have to confess having (silently at least) mispronounced "extant" all these years. The emphasis is on the first syllable. I didn't know that till I heard it in yesterday's sermon and looked it up afterward. It means "still in existence," as in the case of an ancient Bible text, for example.
On the other hand, I did also look up Byzantine and found that I had been pronouncing it right all along. The first syllable sounds like the first syllable of business.
A pair of words that has often confused me is this one: interment/internment. "Interment" usually happens in a cemetery and "internment" usually happens in a prison. One letter makes a big difference. The longer word is associated with the shorter duration--of bodies residing in specific locations.
I often hear tract and track confused when reference is made to the human body. We have a digestive and respiratory tract. Only in severe digestive distress does that tract resemble a race track where moving along toward the "finish line" happens at an accelerated pace. Don't make me laugh by talking about anyone's digestive track. The image is funny and an appropriately sober response might elude me.
*****************
When I arrived at Shane and Dorcas' house this morning to take care of the boys while Dorcas went to town, Carson was eating breakfast. I noted that and asked Tristan if he already finished his breakfast. His answer: "Well, I had toast but I didn't have any protein yet and I'm still hungry."
He had apparently been offered an egg and had declined. His surprised mother renewed the offer and prepared an egg for him in short order.
Shane is on a Choice Books trip to PA. Tristan told me that this time he would be gone only one night. Last time he was gone three nights. They like this much better.
***************
Here's my status post on Facebook today:
You know you're in a small-town post office when the postmaster offers you some of the peonies he cut at home and brought to the post office in a bucket. Yay for the Partridge postmaster! He made my day.
More than 40 people like this--probably as much as I do.
****************
I so love the surprising connections that sometimes happen in the course of living life. Three such have happened this week.
Last week while we were working in the demonstration garden, one of the Master Gardeners introduced me to J----- J------, telling me that she (JJ) grew up in Africa. It turned out that my cousins M and S, who have lived in Ethiopia for many years, knew JJ's brother very well. They lived near each other in Ethiopia. Two Master Gardener's connecting at HCC via Ethiopia is pretty amazing.
***************
"Sheila's" has been mentioned often among Master Gardeners as the best place to buy plants from K-State's Prairie Star Annuals list. These are plants that have been carefully trialed all over Kansas, and they have thrived. I had gathered that Sheila's was somewhere about an hour northeast of here. Yesterday when I finally set about trying to figure out how to get to Sheila's, I suddenly remembered a young single Holdeman lady I had befriended a number of years ago at a grower's meeting in Wichita. She had just started a plants business and I almost remembered that her name was Sheila. I began to wonder if this was one and the same person.
Everything I learned on the internet about "Sheila's" sounded Holdeman--the Galva address, the Wedel last name, the location on a farm in the country and having begun originally by cleaning out a shed on the farm and then adding greenhouses. Her family and many friends had helped her. Today I asked Pam (extension agent) if Sheila was Mennonite and she said yes. Her business name is Sheila's Garden Market. Tomorrow I want to drive over there. I've invited my Dad to ride along, and he wants to do so. I don't know if I'll see Sheila, but if I do it will be fun to chat.
**************
When I sent the Master Gardener profile written by Jim Potter to my extended family, my brother Myron mentioned that their children had learned to play chess from Jim. He had met every week with a number of homeschoolers in the area while he was a school resource officer for the Reno County Sheriff Department.
Steve and Evelyn M.'s children were also in that group. I don't know who else, except that I believe Brandon N. was present too, although he was not homeschooled.
Today when I saw Jim I mentioned that my nephews were in the chess group, and he spoke of that time together as having been a great pleasure.
He had spoken at Pilgrim high school also at some point. Ray Delahoy's children attended at the time, and that provided an easy connection since Ray was also with the county sheriff department.
So many connections we didn't know about earlier.
First I'll have to confess having (silently at least) mispronounced "extant" all these years. The emphasis is on the first syllable. I didn't know that till I heard it in yesterday's sermon and looked it up afterward. It means "still in existence," as in the case of an ancient Bible text, for example.
On the other hand, I did also look up Byzantine and found that I had been pronouncing it right all along. The first syllable sounds like the first syllable of business.
A pair of words that has often confused me is this one: interment/internment. "Interment" usually happens in a cemetery and "internment" usually happens in a prison. One letter makes a big difference. The longer word is associated with the shorter duration--of bodies residing in specific locations.
I often hear tract and track confused when reference is made to the human body. We have a digestive and respiratory tract. Only in severe digestive distress does that tract resemble a race track where moving along toward the "finish line" happens at an accelerated pace. Don't make me laugh by talking about anyone's digestive track. The image is funny and an appropriately sober response might elude me.
*****************
When I arrived at Shane and Dorcas' house this morning to take care of the boys while Dorcas went to town, Carson was eating breakfast. I noted that and asked Tristan if he already finished his breakfast. His answer: "Well, I had toast but I didn't have any protein yet and I'm still hungry."
He had apparently been offered an egg and had declined. His surprised mother renewed the offer and prepared an egg for him in short order.
Shane is on a Choice Books trip to PA. Tristan told me that this time he would be gone only one night. Last time he was gone three nights. They like this much better.
***************
Here's my status post on Facebook today:
You know you're in a small-town post office when the postmaster offers you some of the peonies he cut at home and brought to the post office in a bucket. Yay for the Partridge postmaster! He made my day.
More than 40 people like this--probably as much as I do.
****************
I so love the surprising connections that sometimes happen in the course of living life. Three such have happened this week.
Last week while we were working in the demonstration garden, one of the Master Gardeners introduced me to J----- J------, telling me that she (JJ) grew up in Africa. It turned out that my cousins M and S, who have lived in Ethiopia for many years, knew JJ's brother very well. They lived near each other in Ethiopia. Two Master Gardener's connecting at HCC via Ethiopia is pretty amazing.
***************
"Sheila's" has been mentioned often among Master Gardeners as the best place to buy plants from K-State's Prairie Star Annuals list. These are plants that have been carefully trialed all over Kansas, and they have thrived. I had gathered that Sheila's was somewhere about an hour northeast of here. Yesterday when I finally set about trying to figure out how to get to Sheila's, I suddenly remembered a young single Holdeman lady I had befriended a number of years ago at a grower's meeting in Wichita. She had just started a plants business and I almost remembered that her name was Sheila. I began to wonder if this was one and the same person.
Everything I learned on the internet about "Sheila's" sounded Holdeman--the Galva address, the Wedel last name, the location on a farm in the country and having begun originally by cleaning out a shed on the farm and then adding greenhouses. Her family and many friends had helped her. Today I asked Pam (extension agent) if Sheila was Mennonite and she said yes. Her business name is Sheila's Garden Market. Tomorrow I want to drive over there. I've invited my Dad to ride along, and he wants to do so. I don't know if I'll see Sheila, but if I do it will be fun to chat.
**************
When I sent the Master Gardener profile written by Jim Potter to my extended family, my brother Myron mentioned that their children had learned to play chess from Jim. He had met every week with a number of homeschoolers in the area while he was a school resource officer for the Reno County Sheriff Department.
Steve and Evelyn M.'s children were also in that group. I don't know who else, except that I believe Brandon N. was present too, although he was not homeschooled.
Today when I saw Jim I mentioned that my nephews were in the chess group, and he spoke of that time together as having been a great pleasure.
He had spoken at Pilgrim high school also at some point. Ray Delahoy's children attended at the time, and that provided an easy connection since Ray was also with the county sheriff department.
So many connections we didn't know about earlier.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
9:00 PM
2 Comments:
In that same small-town office, one morning when Dad was getting their and my mail, the substitute post master told him, "Some of the Budgets came but Linda's didn't." --Linda
By
Anonymous, at 5/10/2016
Sergeant Potter was our Officer Friendly back when I was in third grade, all of 26 years ago. It was always exciting to have him visit our classroom. Sounds like he's invested in a lot of children over the years.
By
Maria, at 5/12/2016
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