I told you I wondered about birds a lot. We have bird feeders right outside our back window, so that might have something to do with it. I think we lived here three or four years before they finally started coming to our feeders. Which I thought was pretty strange considering there is nothing behind our house but a big field and beyond the field, a GIANT hole....but I'll leave the hole for another day. And beside our house on one side is woods and an abandoned farm. So you would think there would have been a lot of birds hanging around. I wonder what they were waiting for?
Anyway, looking at birds or any wildlife for that matter gives me a chance to use one of my favorite words. Anthropomorphize. Which means to ascribe human characteristics to things not human. Like birds. My cousin taught that word to me many years ago. I still remember because I thought it was cool to learn such a big word and even cooler to have a name for something I do all the time anyway.
So I think about birds like people. They come in all different shapes and sizes, like people. They have their own special habits unique to their type of bird, kind of like different people groups have different cultures. They live in different types of homes, like people do. They come in different colors and so do we.
One of my favorite observations concerning birds came from watching some wild turkeys. The male was strutting around looking all fancy with his tail all splayed out and thinking he was so special. The female just kept pecking and walking across the field and totally ignored him. But he kept strutting his stuff. Now tell me you haven't seen similar behavior among humans.
Bird courtship behaviors can include...singing, elaborate displays of feathers, building a nest, dancing, preening, and offering food. Need I say more?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Reality check
Sometimes I wonder what I want to be when I grow up.
Then I remember that I am grown up.
What a bummer.
Today was one of those days. It's not that I absolutely hate my job or anything. I am thankful to have a job. But there are so many things I think I might be interested in. I'd like to be one of those picker guys who go around digging in peoples old barns and outbuildings looking for cool stuff to sell. I'd like to be one of those experts on the Antiques Roadshow who know all about old stuff. I'd like to be the person who sets up the displays in museums. I'd like to be on the Jeopardy Clue Crew. I'd like to be a professional organizer. I'd like to be a librarian. I'd like to be a professional volunteer...which I know is not a real job, but I think it would be cool to just be able to have the time to volunteer instead of work.
So, who knows? I guess I just don't want to stop wondering what I will be when I grow up.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Then I remember that I am grown up.
What a bummer.
Today was one of those days. It's not that I absolutely hate my job or anything. I am thankful to have a job. But there are so many things I think I might be interested in. I'd like to be one of those picker guys who go around digging in peoples old barns and outbuildings looking for cool stuff to sell. I'd like to be one of those experts on the Antiques Roadshow who know all about old stuff. I'd like to be the person who sets up the displays in museums. I'd like to be on the Jeopardy Clue Crew. I'd like to be a professional organizer. I'd like to be a librarian. I'd like to be a professional volunteer...which I know is not a real job, but I think it would be cool to just be able to have the time to volunteer instead of work.
So, who knows? I guess I just don't want to stop wondering what I will be when I grow up.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Two for the price of one.
To you my loyal readers. (both of you) No I did not forget to blog nor did I have a day without wondering. I simply fell asleep on the couch last night which rendered me incapable of clearing my head enough to write. That's what happens when I try to stay up past 10:00.
Yesterday we went to the movies to see The King's Speech. I think this may have been the first drama we ever went to see. An entire movie without any shooting or explosions. Imagine. I think Marty felt like he owed this to me. Not that I don't want to see the movies with the shooting and explosions, but on occasion I would like to see something a little more cerebral.
What struck me most about this movie was simply that it made me look at royalty from a different angle. I'm not one to be moonstruck by actors or other famous people. I don't make it a habit to know what is going on in their lives. Actually I think I just have dismissed royalty altogether as spoiled rich people who think themselves better than everyone else. I never really thought about their position from their point of view. The movie made me wonder what it would really be like to live like they do. Sure, all the fancy homes and food and clothes and travel would be nice. But what about not having any real friends or being raised by nannies and governesses? What about not being able to just go out for a walk or to the store? How would it be to be raised to think you really were above the "common man"? How would it be to feel like you really couldn't trust anyone because they are only nice to you so they could get something from you? I just wouldn't want that kind of life.
Romans 13:1 says there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Kings and royalty should have our respect for that reason alone. And maybe they could use a little empathy on our part as well. On the other hand, sometimes a king can be a despicable tyrant who needs to be removed. OK, so I am rambling now...back to the movie. I liked it. And for the record, it was the story of George VI (the current Queen Elizabeth's) father and his problem with stuttering and how he overcame it as well as became king in place of his brother Edward (who famously abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson). Just to clarify...so you don't think the movie was as boring as my blog today.
As for today...this morning in Sunday School someone brought up how the priests used to have bells on their robes and a rope tied to their leg when they went into the Holy of Holies. That way if the bells stopped, they would know the priest was dead and could pull him out. So I wondered if this was the origin of the phrase "with bells on". Possibly, but apparently it's not sure where the phrase came from. At least according to my Google search. There are several possibilities including it referring to sailor's bell bottoms, bells on the collars of harnesses of horses. The latter seems to be the main contender since it would fit the meaning of the phrase best. To be there with bells on implies eagerness. So my guess about the priests robes seems a little off. Oh well, can't learn if you don't wonder.
So all in all, a pretty boring two for the price of one blog about my inane wonderings. Sometimes you get what you paid for.
Yesterday we went to the movies to see The King's Speech. I think this may have been the first drama we ever went to see. An entire movie without any shooting or explosions. Imagine. I think Marty felt like he owed this to me. Not that I don't want to see the movies with the shooting and explosions, but on occasion I would like to see something a little more cerebral.
What struck me most about this movie was simply that it made me look at royalty from a different angle. I'm not one to be moonstruck by actors or other famous people. I don't make it a habit to know what is going on in their lives. Actually I think I just have dismissed royalty altogether as spoiled rich people who think themselves better than everyone else. I never really thought about their position from their point of view. The movie made me wonder what it would really be like to live like they do. Sure, all the fancy homes and food and clothes and travel would be nice. But what about not having any real friends or being raised by nannies and governesses? What about not being able to just go out for a walk or to the store? How would it be to be raised to think you really were above the "common man"? How would it be to feel like you really couldn't trust anyone because they are only nice to you so they could get something from you? I just wouldn't want that kind of life.
Romans 13:1 says there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Kings and royalty should have our respect for that reason alone. And maybe they could use a little empathy on our part as well. On the other hand, sometimes a king can be a despicable tyrant who needs to be removed. OK, so I am rambling now...back to the movie. I liked it. And for the record, it was the story of George VI (the current Queen Elizabeth's) father and his problem with stuttering and how he overcame it as well as became king in place of his brother Edward (who famously abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson). Just to clarify...so you don't think the movie was as boring as my blog today.
As for today...this morning in Sunday School someone brought up how the priests used to have bells on their robes and a rope tied to their leg when they went into the Holy of Holies. That way if the bells stopped, they would know the priest was dead and could pull him out. So I wondered if this was the origin of the phrase "with bells on". Possibly, but apparently it's not sure where the phrase came from. At least according to my Google search. There are several possibilities including it referring to sailor's bell bottoms, bells on the collars of harnesses of horses. The latter seems to be the main contender since it would fit the meaning of the phrase best. To be there with bells on implies eagerness. So my guess about the priests robes seems a little off. Oh well, can't learn if you don't wonder.
So all in all, a pretty boring two for the price of one blog about my inane wonderings. Sometimes you get what you paid for.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Who cooks for you?
When Marty and I were dating, we had a lot of late night drives home. He lived in Butler and I lived in Sharon. It was 40 miles between houses. Considering we saw each other almost every night and didn't drive home until we had watched at least part of Conan...they were definitely moonlight treks. But the interesting thing about driving at that time of night is the programs you can find on the radio. One of our favorites was Coast to Coast with George Noory. Most of the time we couldn't wait until the next day so we could relate what crazy thing we heard.
If you are not familiar with Coast to Coast...well, then I would consider that a good thing. The subject matter could range from UFO's to Sasquatch to the Mothman to psychic predictions or any other crazy out of the ordinary phenomenon. And the best part was how serious these discussions seemed to be.
Now what made me bring this up is owls. I was sitting in my living room tonight looking around and noticing all the owls. I started to wonder about all those owls. I mean, I know how the owl thing got started with us but I just wondered why they were so appealing to me. What is it about owls that I like? They just make me happy. I like their big eyes and the expressions on their faces. I like their feathers. I like the way they sound. So back to Coast to Coast.
I'm trying to tie this all together for you.
One night Marty was driving and listening to Coast to Coast and a guy called in and said that every time he sees an owl, a light goes out. He could be at home watching TV and a nature program would come on with an owl and...a light bulb burns out. He would be at Walmart and see one of those plastic garden owls...and a light would go out. Well we thought this was pretty funny mainly because we thought...how often do you see an owl anyway? Turns out, once we said that...we noticed an owl every day. You just have to be aware and looking for them. They really are everywhere. Then we started buying owls for each other. Then other people noticed we had owls and they started buying them for us. And that is how you end up sitting in your living room looking at owls. Coast to Coast.
Owls have special feathers that help them to fly almost silently. There are over 150 different species of owls. Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees. A barn owl can eat up to 1000 mice in a year. (I need one at my house) An owl can hear a mouse from 60 feet away. Owls have three sets of eyelids.
You can watch an owl here.
And one of the best owl related things to happen to us. After we got married and moved to our new house...one night we heard an owl hooting right outside our bedroom window!!! We still hear it from time to time. It says...hoo, hoohoohoo, hoo.
According to a bird book that I have (all good bird nerds have a bird book or two), some owls say...who, who cooks for you....
Have you seen an owl today?
If you are not familiar with Coast to Coast...well, then I would consider that a good thing. The subject matter could range from UFO's to Sasquatch to the Mothman to psychic predictions or any other crazy out of the ordinary phenomenon. And the best part was how serious these discussions seemed to be.
Now what made me bring this up is owls. I was sitting in my living room tonight looking around and noticing all the owls. I started to wonder about all those owls. I mean, I know how the owl thing got started with us but I just wondered why they were so appealing to me. What is it about owls that I like? They just make me happy. I like their big eyes and the expressions on their faces. I like their feathers. I like the way they sound. So back to Coast to Coast.
I'm trying to tie this all together for you.
One night Marty was driving and listening to Coast to Coast and a guy called in and said that every time he sees an owl, a light goes out. He could be at home watching TV and a nature program would come on with an owl and...a light bulb burns out. He would be at Walmart and see one of those plastic garden owls...and a light would go out. Well we thought this was pretty funny mainly because we thought...how often do you see an owl anyway? Turns out, once we said that...we noticed an owl every day. You just have to be aware and looking for them. They really are everywhere. Then we started buying owls for each other. Then other people noticed we had owls and they started buying them for us. And that is how you end up sitting in your living room looking at owls. Coast to Coast.
Owls have special feathers that help them to fly almost silently. There are over 150 different species of owls. Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees. A barn owl can eat up to 1000 mice in a year. (I need one at my house) An owl can hear a mouse from 60 feet away. Owls have three sets of eyelids.
You can watch an owl here.
And one of the best owl related things to happen to us. After we got married and moved to our new house...one night we heard an owl hooting right outside our bedroom window!!! We still hear it from time to time. It says...hoo, hoohoohoo, hoo.
According to a bird book that I have (all good bird nerds have a bird book or two), some owls say...who, who cooks for you....
Have you seen an owl today?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dream a Little Dream
I work 40 hours a week from home. I sit and stare at the computer all day and read x-ray reports. So you would think that the weather would not effect my work. It did. There are also people who work part time for the company I work for. They code a few hours a night after their regular jobs to earn extra money. Well apparently, several of them did not have to go to their regular jobs due to the big storm across the country. So they logged in and worked during the day since they were home. Good for them, bad for me. I only managed to work 5 hours yesterday because they logged in and took all my work. All this to say...I just worked 11 hours straight to make up for it.
I feel like my eyes might fall out of my head. So I need to keep this short and be off to bed. And I really didn't have time today to wonder much except what diagnosis code to use.
I'm not sure what prompted it, but I did wonder about dreams. I don't usually remember too much of my dreams. Marty is good for remembering unusually long dreams that have lots of things going on. I'm lucky to remember one detail. But the other night I do remember dreaming that I was at my old job at Radiology Associates (which was 1994-2000) and there were 8 patients scheduled for fluoro exams and I only had 4 barium enema bags and for some reason I was unable to do Upper GI's and so I was looking at the schedule and trying to figure out who scheduled that many and why they even scheduled any UGI's when I specifically said that we could no longer do them. So I said I would check with Dr. Allen (who passed away last year) and I went to ask him about the Upper GI's and he walked into another room before I could ask him and I could see him through a frosted glass window but couldn't talk to him. So what does this all mean? I have no idea.
I wonder what dreams are all about. I can't say I've ever had a dream with any particular significance. But some people do. There are important examples of dreams in the Bible. There are recurring themes in dreams that are supposed to mean something...like being chased or falling. Your teeth falling out is supposed to signify anxiety. (I used to have that one frequently). I read that Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own assassination. The inventor of the sewing machine had a dream that solved a problem he had been trying to figure out with his invention. I looked up dreams on Wikipedia and there are a lot of interesting ideas and scientific and psychological theories about dreams. But since I have such a great need to go to sleep and dream right now myself, I will let you read that on your own.
The study of dreams is called oneirology.
Have any crazy dreams you'd like to share?
I feel like my eyes might fall out of my head. So I need to keep this short and be off to bed. And I really didn't have time today to wonder much except what diagnosis code to use.
I'm not sure what prompted it, but I did wonder about dreams. I don't usually remember too much of my dreams. Marty is good for remembering unusually long dreams that have lots of things going on. I'm lucky to remember one detail. But the other night I do remember dreaming that I was at my old job at Radiology Associates (which was 1994-2000) and there were 8 patients scheduled for fluoro exams and I only had 4 barium enema bags and for some reason I was unable to do Upper GI's and so I was looking at the schedule and trying to figure out who scheduled that many and why they even scheduled any UGI's when I specifically said that we could no longer do them. So I said I would check with Dr. Allen (who passed away last year) and I went to ask him about the Upper GI's and he walked into another room before I could ask him and I could see him through a frosted glass window but couldn't talk to him. So what does this all mean? I have no idea.
I wonder what dreams are all about. I can't say I've ever had a dream with any particular significance. But some people do. There are important examples of dreams in the Bible. There are recurring themes in dreams that are supposed to mean something...like being chased or falling. Your teeth falling out is supposed to signify anxiety. (I used to have that one frequently). I read that Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own assassination. The inventor of the sewing machine had a dream that solved a problem he had been trying to figure out with his invention. I looked up dreams on Wikipedia and there are a lot of interesting ideas and scientific and psychological theories about dreams. But since I have such a great need to go to sleep and dream right now myself, I will let you read that on your own.
The study of dreams is called oneirology.
Have any crazy dreams you'd like to share?
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Clutter
I had a frustrating day "at" work today. This has effected my wondering. My mind hasn't been clear enough to just think. Well to think about anything worthwhile anyway.
I wonder if this is why a lot of people go through life without that sense of wonder. Are they too busy trying to get ahead, too busy being obsessed with the next best thing, too busy working to pay for the bigger house and newer car?
Take a deep breath and just wonder about the amazing things in life. Babies, snowflakes, love, sunshine, flowers, trees, chocolate.
What has amazed you today?
I wonder if this is why a lot of people go through life without that sense of wonder. Are they too busy trying to get ahead, too busy being obsessed with the next best thing, too busy working to pay for the bigger house and newer car?
Take a deep breath and just wonder about the amazing things in life. Babies, snowflakes, love, sunshine, flowers, trees, chocolate.
What has amazed you today?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
It's Complicated.
I have to take continuing education tests to keep up my coding certification. Here's an example: What code(s) describe contralateral approach to treat combined SFA, profunda femoral and separate popliteal artery stenoses with angioplasty at all three separate sites, all with 50 percent residual stenoses requiring stent placement at all three sites?
I wonder how things got to be so complicated. Everything that is supposed to be making our lives better is just so complicated. Medicine, technology, transportation, food, communication. It is just all so complex. Even just trying to figure out how to send a bill for a medical procedure takes a lot of thought, not to mention all the complexities of the actual procedure.
The Walmart in Butler doesn't carry the bread we like to buy. Marty and I like to joke about this. We stand in the bread aisle with hands on hips and stomp our foot and say...I can't believe they don't have that bread!...as we stare at about a hundred different kinds of white, wheat, honey wheat, whole wheat, rye, low-fat, multi-grain, sunflower seed, Italian and cinnamon swirl breads. We've talked about it before. How dare we complain when we are offered such variety. Even bread can be complicated. We demand our options.
When the weather is warmer, I have been making my own bread. I was tired of all the additives and unknown substances in store-bought bread (more unnecessary complication) and decided to try to make my own. Flour, yeast, water, oil and salt. And it is really pretty easy. And it is the best bread you could ask for. It is bread in it's simplest form. Bread of life.
Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." So we had to complicate that, too. We have Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Mormons. We've turned Jesus into that bread aisle at Walmart. And if we don't find what we want there, we stomp our feet and complain.
I want Jesus without the man-made additives.
I wonder how things got to be so complicated. Everything that is supposed to be making our lives better is just so complicated. Medicine, technology, transportation, food, communication. It is just all so complex. Even just trying to figure out how to send a bill for a medical procedure takes a lot of thought, not to mention all the complexities of the actual procedure.
The Walmart in Butler doesn't carry the bread we like to buy. Marty and I like to joke about this. We stand in the bread aisle with hands on hips and stomp our foot and say...I can't believe they don't have that bread!...as we stare at about a hundred different kinds of white, wheat, honey wheat, whole wheat, rye, low-fat, multi-grain, sunflower seed, Italian and cinnamon swirl breads. We've talked about it before. How dare we complain when we are offered such variety. Even bread can be complicated. We demand our options.
When the weather is warmer, I have been making my own bread. I was tired of all the additives and unknown substances in store-bought bread (more unnecessary complication) and decided to try to make my own. Flour, yeast, water, oil and salt. And it is really pretty easy. And it is the best bread you could ask for. It is bread in it's simplest form. Bread of life.
Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." So we had to complicate that, too. We have Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Mormons. We've turned Jesus into that bread aisle at Walmart. And if we don't find what we want there, we stomp our feet and complain.
I want Jesus without the man-made additives.
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