This is Jasper, otherwise known as the dude! He has been featured in my blog before. My friend's daughter sent him up from Halifax to be with my friend during a terrible illness. That was a gift of love.  Jasper has done his job.
So the fact that Jasper's favourite perch when he isn't outside teasing the dogs next door who are behind an electric invisible fence is on the family laptop is no surprise. This is a very smart cat. He knows a warm spot when he feels one.

However, it doesn't matter to Jasper whether the computer is closed or open. When my friend went to use her computer she realized with horror that yes, Jasper had been sitting on it and now the screen was upside down to the keyboard. Everything was a mirror image.
       My friend's husband shrugged and said: "Now you've done it!" The object of the comment was left in doubt.
       One could explain how my friend solved the problem but suffice it to say that she had help from expert relatives. What did she do? Why she pressed Control/Alt/Up Arrow of course which reversed the action Jasper had taken when he pressed Control/Alt/Down Arrow!



 A Stop Gap whilst I gather my thoughts!

I was visiting last night. A young teacher commented on the fact that in her school, the teachers did not make eye contact in the halls.

The matter of the teachers walking in the hallway not making eye contact triggered something in me. One has to be really careful about nostalgia…it creeps in and the realism is lost.

But I think the difference is in modern leadership models there seems to be a fear of sharing! Teachers should acknowledge each other in the hallways. That’s a model for students. As a staff we met often, squabbled often, disagreed often…but we felt valued…and we could laugh as I did last night at the differences.

Because of all the rules and paper work and whatever, administration doesn’t have time for the teachers and teachers have become the bottom feeders…

When I left teaching, I left because I could, because the stuff outside the classroom became too much to handle, because I had to a great extent lost my freedom…and my identity outside the classroom.

The students at John Rennie knew that although we had very different personalities and agendas, the staff knew and supported each other. We made eye contact in the halls no matter what! And we made eye contact with the students even if we didn’t know them…we were a part of the same community.

 

This is just to say that I have survived the worst and am still in one piece. "The worst" is so relative! I survived that which I have been waiting for - the crash of my beloved computer...facilitated by dropping it on the floor! And within two hours, I am up and running and found this blog! I was afraid I had lost my blog! I hadn't!

And my mother's words ring out: This too will pass!

I've been thinking of Joan lately. Joan was a really neat lady who died much too young. I realize that I do believe in the presence of people who have left. Am I being euphemistic? No...that's the way I think of them. They pass by on occasion and I don't know whether I generate the energy or they generate the energy but they pass by.

In going through my photos I thought of Joan. She had a condition or experience known as synestheia. A neurological condition that mixes up the five senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and vision. People with this condition may hear colors and see sounds.  The example I always remember is that of a blue buzz...
    Joan had this from a very early age but was told that she shouldn't speak of it because it seemed like a disease. I think of it as a gift.
Joan was an artist with a passion for calligraphy. She named her son, Theo, a Van Gogh connection which isn't surprising when one thinks of his art...
                 And when I looked up Van Gogh, I found the following. Van Gogh too was said to experience synestheia.
                 "Van Gogh did not paint what he saw with his eyes. He painted what he felt with his eyes."
                  And another entry: French compose Oliver Messiaen experienced synestheia. According to Simon Rattle, conductor Andre Previn once asked the complase about a rehearsal performance of Tarangulila. Messaen confusingly replied, "Just play it a little more orangey-green."
                  There's where I want to reach up or out and ask Joan, "What do you think?"

Why not? Yesterday it was green berries...today...the obvious!

I was with a group last night. We are of an age where we are dealing with or have dealt with aging parents. I have a line up of three friends who are to tell me when I should go into a seniors' home. One is a knock over - I would ask her first. (Is it time yet?) She's just too nice. Alas, the other two are not so easy! And unfortunately they have gotten together to discuss me...or so they say...
The problem is that any of  us who have been through the situation know that it is important to make such a decision before we have to.
I just found this email bit...

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, "How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?"
"Well," he said, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub."
"Oh, I understand," I said. "A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."
"No" he said. "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

Yupp! More green berries! That's the theme for today. I see all these people walking around with devices sitting on their ears...blue rays? And they are all talking. And I wonder if they are actually talking to anyone or just pretending to be popular. They could be...talking to the air. I think they should talk to their dog or the baby they are walking...that's what I think...

But then if I had one of those devices I would want it as a recorder. So many thoughts float through my head and I have trouble catching them...they were absolutely brilliant at that moment...but...they are gone! All gone

Or perhaps there could be a telephone answering service to catch stray thoughts...that would be neat!

Observation of the day  - nothing profound- just an excuse to show these pictures which I like. One knows whether one's cat is ill or simply under the weather with the Friskie Temptations test. My cat is simply under the weather!