Treason of Words

I've only ever really worn two bits of what might be considered jewelry : a watch of some sort, since middle school at least, and a wedding band, for most of the time since about the turn of the century. Neither, however, sports any actual jewels. I've recently added another piece to my daily parure : Crafted of titanium, to match my watch and ring, the top bears my name and the eye-catching red Star of Life, along with eight syllables that have come to be more worrisome than anything so terse and explicable as mere "brain surgery." Malignant Hyperthermia , sensibly abbreviated MH, is a rather logical nomenclature for the condition. It's malignant , i.e., potentially deadly; a thermia , a condition concerning temperature; that temperature being hyper- , in this case meaning elevated . It's plain to see, then, that with this condition, I could somehow get hot enough to endanger my life; to be specific, when anesthetized with certain gasses. Which I of course di...

  [caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="720"] By the mantle at Stonebench.[/caption] To Our Familiar Friends & Friendly Family: A year cannot help but look frantic in retrospect, dozens of important events and scores of only somewhat less vital ones all clamoring for mention in the space of a few hundred words. Contrary to last year's message, we kicked off the year in Plano instead of Austin, the first of many changes-of-plan. The primary object of our discretionary time and treasure has been the new dependent we took under our wing last spring, the recently christened Stonebench, aka 1905 Rainy Meadows Dr. Spring Break brought the first Big Project . Master-izing the guest bath didn't sound so hard, but the plans went from walling off the second door, to replacing all the doors in the hall, to remodeling the hall completely. We made it over the finish line just in time to rest before work the next day. Other such endeavors ...

As a result of the many intertwining strands of fun, obligation, entertainment and pain currently afoot in our lives, this is late by a month now. I'm determined, however, to get this up before the next holiday, so I'll be brief (too late, I know). As Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, we made the rounds Halloween week. On Tuesday, I picked Christina up from work, where we changed into costume in the Teachers' Lounge before darting out to the car. [caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Before our failed attempt at sneaking out undetected.[/caption] We were not quite fast enough to avoid being spotted by one of her students, who later noted that I had shut my cape in the door. Quite embarrassing, but, then, my garments generally hew much closer to my form than that. The Zeta Game Night consisted primarily of Bingo, Chips and Dip. I was much better at the Chips & Dip than I was at Bingo. Being both the youngest and male-est p...

We've expanded our legion of carved pumpkin-like hollow foam decorations by 75% this year, fielding seven such orange lanterns. The grizzly creations line the path from the sidewalk to our door, in such shapes as a vague impression of a human skull, an angry cyclops, an unnatural abomination wrought by the new Prometheus, a kittycat, and a trio of traditionally styled faces displaying the expressions Happy, Angry, and Scared Shitless. The great shame, though, is that while they are to be lit from within by the latest in flickery LED technology, they will also be lit from without by the latest in motion-sensing, mood-killing, bright-ass floodlights from not one, but at least FOUR sources that I can think of. Safety factor: eleventy-bajillion; Spooky quotient: zero. It does make me a bit sad for the kiddoes who won't know the tinge of terror from walking up a long, dark drive, with only the hint of a lit pumpkin or two to suggest that there might be candy to be had at the door, a...

Friday was reserved. From months out, the fifth of September was claimed, set aside for a special event due to the receipt of an adorable postcard bearing the likenesses of our friends Monique and Nathan, a young couple we know through Christina's role as Monique's Undergraduate Adviser in Zeta Phi Beta. They planned, at long last, to wed. Certainly, they were already hitched in the eyes of the state (and Facebook), but before friends, family, and the church? Not so much. Rather than tie the knot locally, Galveston was the destination wedding's destination. We'd never been to the island, and so planned to make a weekend of it, staying an extra night to see the sights, and taking advantage of a deal from Southwest Airlines that made spending the time and gas money it'd take to drive there seem like sheer folly. As the date neared, complications arose. The wedding was canceled, for one. A glance at Christina told me that this was not sufficient reason to also cancel o...

Madam Speaker, Mister Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow cephalids: It had been a year since my last MRI, and in the strange way of memory, the noisiness of the tube had become exaggerated in my mind. This time, I almost managed to snooze through it, the rhythmic buzzing and knocking and whirring lulling me into drowsiness. But, then, I can sleep almost anywhere, especially when I'm bereft of anything to hold my attention. A week later, this past Monday, m'lady and I met with Dr Stovall to compare and contrast the new with the old. It seems that in the intervening year, my meningiomic mind mite has been busy. Although I've experienced no change in symptoms (yay, carbamzapine!), I'm carrying around even more non-brain material in my head. It's now approaching a size that raises concern, having grown along all axes. It would seem that now is the time to act, or at least, to plan. The preferred treatment is surgical removal. While it ...

I wrote this up for the company newsletter; we're trying to recruit members for our chapter of Toastmasters. It'll be interesting to see if this attracts anyone. The promotional literature for Toastmasters generally presents a litany of reasons for joining up: there's the appeal to the shy, that they might become more confident; the paean to enhanced leadership skills; and always the promise of camaraderie and bonhomie. While worthy reasons to explore our bold, competent and amicable group, they don't capture the opportunity Toastmasters offers that caught my eye. I've not been shy in front of an audience in decades, being an officer lacks appeal, and being gregarious has never been a personal goal. What I was seeking, although I didn't realize it, was a place to give a speech. Backing up a bit: I was a competitive debater and speaker back in my school days. Adult life, though, doesn't have much to offer in terms of opportunities to exercise rhetoric and ora...