Older than Sliced Bread

I discovered this morning that sliced bread wasn't "invented" until 1928, which means my mother is older than sliced bread.  Makes that "hunnert" thing seem more reasonable, somehow!

This interesting fact was part of a list that someone sent me.  Worth checking out!  It puts "time" in a weird perspective.  (E.g., did you know that there were wooly mammoths on earth when the pyramids were being constructed?   Not in the same place, of course, but they existed simultaneously.)

Speaking of pyramids, the last book I read, "Sphinx," by Robin Cook was an interesting book.  It's a mystery novel, of course, but there was a lot of Egyptian history in it.  The heroin talks a lot about Howard Carter's book about finding Tutenkamen's tomb and when I worked at Logos last week, I found a copy of Carter's book.  I leaped on it and started reading and then realized I wasn't really interested in what he wrote, but it was interesting to look at all the pictures.

The main thing I got from that book is that I never want to go to Egypt.   Between the oppressive heat and the claustrophobic experiences inside the pyramids, it has zero appeal for me, even if Viking is still hosting cruises in that part of the world (there are no Ukrainian cruises in the latest brochure).

If this entry seems a bit disjointed, it's because it was that kind of a day.   My mother called, frantic, because she was out of toilet paper.  I can understand...she had no substitute to use, since she never has paper towels and she was out of Kleenex too.  Fortunately, I had planned to drop a package of TP off today anyway, since I'd done a TP assessment and figured that by today she would be out.

While waiting for the best time to leave, I designed some return address labels.   Just what I don't need are return address labels, but I'm now writing to Bri and Lacey every Monday (this week Tuesday) because I want to establish that pattern and hope that when they are old enough maybe they will write back.  That is years off, so I have lots of time to get the routine established.  I got this idea from my cousin Kathy, who wanted to make a bond with her grandson, who lives in Iowa.  She said she never knew if he received the letters or liked them, but she kept on writing them until the day she died.

I try to write in words simple enough for Bri to try to read and I always include a little something for each of the girls (they each get their own envelope).  I've been using Pixar stamps for the letters and looking through my thousands of free return address labels from charitable organization I never contribute to that won't stop sending me labels to find something "cute."  But I thought it would be fun for the girls if I personalized the labels for them, so this is what I designed, using their favorite cartoon characters from Frozen.

When I finally left the house, I had several errands to run, but made Atria my first stop.  When I opened the trunk to get out the toilet paper I bought at Costco last week, I discovered I had not, in fact, bought toilet paper, but paper towels.  However, I had two boxes of Kleenex with me, so I dropped those off to tide her over until I could get to another store to get toilet paper by the end of the day.

We had a nice visit and she laughed when I told her she was older than sliced bread, though that did open the door for half an hour of wondering if she's going to make it to hunnert.  But that was OK.  I expected it and seeing her laugh so heartily was worth it. It's nice to find funny things to laugh about these days.

I left her to go do my patriotic duty.  They say this election had the lowest turnout ever and our precinct certainly would not contradict that.   It was mid-afternoon when I voted.  I was the only person in the voting room and and on the page where I signed in the only other signature on the page  was Walt's.  

I was not a very informed voter, I must admit, and most of my decisions were made last minute, driving by Shelly and Ellen's house and looking at the signs they had posted in front!  They examine candidates so carefully I knew that even if I had taken the time to study, I still would not have the same amount of background information they did.

After I left the polling place, I had packages to mail at the post office. It was more complicated than it should have been due to a train that blocked all the access to the road to the post office.  I was probably there 10 minutes.

While there I thought about what an instant gratification society we have come.   In the grand scope of things 10 minutes is nothing, but it seemed like an eternity today.  It's not that I was in any sort of hurry or anything, but it irritated me to have to sit there for ten whole minutes.  (If I had remembered to bring my iPod so I could listen to my audio book, I would have been less irritated.)

After mailing the packages, I went to CVS to get toilet paper, batteries for my fan (which is invaluable to me as summer temps begin to hit), more 4x6 enveloopes to send oversized things to the girls (I am sending Bri "Froggy" books which are designed for beginning readers...I found a set of 10 at Logos and am sending her 2 at a time)

Finally I went back to Atria and dropped off the toilet paper.  She should be set for a few weeks now.  We visited a bit more and then I came home, fully intending to cook dinner, but making the best realization--there were enough leftovers to make a dinner and I didn't have to cook at all.

After dinner we watched the PBS Special, The American Experience, 1964, which was like re-living our time on the UC Berkeley campus.  There was Mario Savio on the police car again, and the students filing in to occupy Sproul Hall, and the campaign for Johnson v. Goldwater, when "Scientists and Engineers for Johnson" was formed (and my boss and I were both very active with that group).  I told Walt is seemed like a million years ago, and yete it seemed like yesterday.  The perception of passing time is definitely interesting, if you think about it.