Perambulating Wasps and Nonagenarian Mothers

~~ Letters From My Sister ~~

From my most recent letter from Barbara, dated Monday, August 7, 2017:

"...In Mom's little kitchen window, between the glass & the screen, is a perfect spiderweb.  It's been there for a while, & I've never seen a spider on it, so it may be abandoned, but I wonder what that spider was thinking when it built there. How much business could that web ever have seen? The window is almost never opened, & the screen seems to be intact.  

"The other kitchen window frequently hosts perambulating wasps on the inside of its screen. They travel endlessly, up & down, up & down, up & down, now and then moving into a large circle, in case there is something more to see that way.  Maybe they're looking for the way back out, but I'd think wasps would be better oriented than that.  Whatever little tear in the screen gave them admittance should have been mapped on the way in, shouldn't it?  I thought insects were pretty good with maps.  I would understand if they built nests between the screen & glass, as that would be a nice, safe place; they don't.  

"Continuing around the kitchen, and carrying this subject to a ridiculous extreme, wasps did build nests between the kitchen door & its storm door.  When is the storm door propped open long enough for wasps to scout the location, & then (presumably) dart in & out with nest-building material & no one sees it? They have to lay eggs, & don't they put something in each cell for the larvae to eat?  Paralyzed caterpillars, and so forth?  And all the time, we're going in & out through the door, & no one notices.

"This has so far been an odd letter, hasn't it?"

And then follows bits of family and pet-related news before she brings it full-circle (no pun intended) back to the insects.

"Mom is up & stirring now.  She's taken her pills & is ready for her coffee.  She's been doing her exercises better & walking around the house on the porches, out the back door & around to the front, then back down the ramp and around the corner & up the steps to the back door again, & then repeat.  (Now that I think of it, I wonder if those wasps walking up & down the window screen are just taking their constitutionals, after all.)

"For what it's worth, this odd letter has flowed along very nicely;...I hope you like odd letters."

I DO like odd letters. These are exactly the types of letters I so look forward to getting from my sister, who still takes the time to hand write or type out a letter to me and put it in the mail.  I really need to get on with my project of sharing bits and pieces from her letters (see tab above) on a regular basis.

Casting Shadows in Opposite Directions....

NaBloPoMo Post #23

Letters From My Sister

 

Have you ever had a metaphysical discussion prompted by the learning of a new word?

Sometimes Barbara likes to share new words with me, like in this letter from November 8 of this year: 

"Let us say that the circle below [see image to the left]* is the earth, and that the line across it is the equator. You are here.

 "Someone else is standing on the same meridian, but across the equator. At noon, your shadows will fall in opposite directions, which brings me to the point.

"There is a word for that.

"This business of casting shadows in opposite directions is ANTISCIAN, as are the people casting them. (an-TEE-shәn)  I am ashamed to confess that I had never felt the need for such a word, but now that I know there is one, I'm glad...."

 We have long enjoyed sharing new words with one another, being logophiles of longstanding. Origins of words fascinate us, and because Barbara does not use a computer (more on that in a later post), she has at times sent me a word she has run across that she can't find enough information about the old-fashioned way. Or she'll have me look up the history of various spellings or uses of a word. She keeps me on my toes!

She goes on to say in the letter:

"...I like it better than the more common antipodal, at least metaphorically. Where is the relevance of being poles apart, when you may have been cast there, willy-nilly, by birth, or cataclysm, or some other interpersonal institution?  On the other hand, it sounds more meaningful to actively cast your shadow, (vote, influence, evil superpowers, etc.,) in a contrary and perhaps unexpected direction.  Of course, that's only my opinion...which doesn't substantially weaken my position."

You should have been around when we used to make up sentences in Latin and mail them to one another for the other to translate! It was a very good practice exercise!

I like it when I get little line drawings from Barbara included in her letters. And I love the cards she makes herself and sends to me. I'll share more of those as well as time goes on.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Shall I add in a bit of personal news? There isn't much, except that Thomas went for a follow up visit, the second since his surgery. The bone is healing and is still aligned right, but the surgeon wants him to stay off work for at least another three weeks, possibly four. {sigh}  We are learning what it is going to be like when he retires in a few years. 

I'm REALLY enjoying doing NaBloPoMo this year!!

~ ~ Lori 

*When quoting a letter, anything I type in brackets [ ] and/or in a different color will denote a personal comment from me. :)