Make Inferences

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was confused by my son's second grade math homework this afternoon. He's been doing a unit that uses surveys as the basis for problem solving: 7 children voted for cats. 5 children voted for dogs. How many more children voted for cats than for dogs? Simple enough.

4 children voted for both dogs and cats. 3 children voted for none. Here's where I lost my way. Does that mean four voted for cats and four for dogs? Or four cast a vote for "both"? Or that four children cast two votes?

I know, I'm probably just over-thinking this, but the way the question was phrased left me confused!

Left

I've been researching and compiling a list of email addresses — hundreds of email addresses — using Google. (It's a freelance assignment.) Mostly, it's mundane. More often than not, I can't find an email address. Often, I'll find that someone has changed jobs, as the list I'm using for reference was compiled a few years ago.

I've just found an entry for someone who has died.
She was killed in an automobile accident a few months ago. She was 38 years old, and left two daughters behind. Traces of her professional career remain, and will remain, for the forseeable future, should anyone have reason to look for them.

I couldn't find her email address.

No Borders Here

Borders is one of those retailers that I'll go to only if I have a really, really good reason to do so — I've just had far too many poor experiences with them. (I try to avoid Best Buy, too, for the same reasons.)

But a 30% discount was tempting enough to get me to try again, so off I went to Borders the other day. This one was close enough that it wouldn't have been a disappointment if the item I was looking for wasn't available, though the web site said it probably was. (Take it from me — never, ever trust the web site if you're checking to see if a product is in stock.)

And it was. But I had neglected to notice that the price of the item from a Borders retail store was about $15 higher than the price of the item purchased from the web site — which more or less negated the 30% discount. (You can find the price of the item at retail when you check to see if it's available in a given store, but it's in tiny little type, so you tend not to notice it. I didn't.)

And that's why I usually shop at Barnes and Noble, instead.

(Extra points if you recognize the reference in the title of this post. It's a favorite album.)

Visceral

We have friends with a son, about a year younger than my seven-year-old, who is also Autistic. Unlike my son, his symptoms are very different, his struggles much more significant. His pediatrician (who is also our pediatrician, and who specializes in the treatment of pediatric Autistic Spectrum Disorders) has characterized him as "living in the now." Everything is about his immediate needs. His behavior primarily driven by the second of the three human brains, the Dog Brain.

You know, I often feel that way — driven by impulse. For someone who spends far too much time inside of his own head, I think I'm keenly in touch with my Dog Brain.

Medicine

It took a month, but I finally made an appointment to see the Doctor. Even after I regained my strength, the symptoms never entirely went away, and I thought it worth checking just to make sure I haven't done something worse to myself.

I have to get an X-Ray next week. And I've been prescribed some pills. I'm often wary of taking medicine, vaguely unsettled and suspicious that it really isn't necessary. I could probably do without, but I was told it would be therapeutic, so we'll give it a try.

Shorn

I've been thinking of doing this for a long, long time — it's just taken me this long to find the courage to go through with it.

A particular pattern of male pattern baldness runs through the men in my Father's side of the family. I watched my Father half-heartedly struggle against it, though I never thought all that much (or worried all that much) about it, even as the hair at the top of my head thinned out as the years passed. I've come to prefer wearing my hair short, anyway (it felt more comfortable that way), and I suppose this was just the next logical step. (I let my seven-year-old do some of it.)

I'm finding it strangely comfortable — even liberating.

Second Day

My son has his first full day in the Second Grade today. (Yesterday was a short sort of meet-your-teacher day.) He's starting off this year with the larger, mainstream class. And you know, I haven't once been worried about how he'll do.