This month’s Learned List will be full of irrelevant photos. Not much was photogenic.
- Did you know that only 2% of the population takes the stairs when there is an elevator nearby? I learned this from Michael Easter, the author of The Comfort Crisis.
- The Mineral King Road repairs are in progress.
- I learned (again) that sometimes there are no answers; my viburnum snowball bush is dying for no apparent reason; I also learned that all the websites say the same things, which is a whole lotta nothin’. This is how it looked about 4 years ago (the white flowers on the left).
- I read The Comfort Crisis after hearing the author on a presentation called “America’s Labor Shortage”; one day after I finished it, Mike Rowe interviewed the author. I highly recommend this book.
- The author I am working with on the book about TB taught me two new words: “grok” and see #6. “Grok” is a verb that means “to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.”
- “Tyro” is a noun meaning “a beginner in learning something”.
- Milorganite is a slow release fertilizer that just might solve many of my gardening woes, along with something called “Nitro Humus”. Can’t wait to try them!
- The Frugal Girl mentioned having “titers drawn”: titers are blood draws to test for antibody levels for immunity to things like measles, mumps, rubella, etc. If antibody levels are high enough, you can avoid unnecessary vaccines.
- Sometimes, a person needs to know when to say “When!” I have withdrawn from painting the murals at the big Catholic church until October; they may have to choose another muralist if they don’t want to wait. They contacted me last September, with the idea I would be finished by December of 2022. Perhaps I will be able to finish by December 2023, or perhaps a more hardy soul will be able to tackle this in the heat of summer. (Not this little gray duck.)
- I knew this, but you might find it helpful. A gopher snake resembles a rattlesnake. If you can see the head or the tail, you will see a gopher snake’s head isn’t diamond shaped nor does its tail have a rattle. But the patterns and colors on the body are awfully similar. This is a gopher snake. I have no photos of a ratttler. (Nope, don’t want any either). #10’s photo was gross. Here. Wash your eyes out with this.
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5. Did the author give the source/origin of the verb, “to grok?” Would you like to make this “Things I Learned in May” #11?
It’s from the fiction novel “Strangers in a Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein. “Strange” is a good word to describe this book. But if you like Sci-Fi/Fantasy you may enjoy reading it.
NO to science fiction or fantasy. Big loud NO. But thank you for the reference. The word was so peculiar that I thought it was a typo.
When I read that book, I though, “That’s a strange, made-up word” but then it’s used often throughout the book so it made an impression. Do you grok?
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