Clarity, Healing, & Light Refraction

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Today's grammar lesson is all about when to hyphenate adjectives.

Adjectives are those things that describe a noun.

If the noun is "hotel," the adective would be the word describing it, such as "big" as in a "big hotel." The adjective is "big," and the noun is still "hotel." The noun doesn't change, but the words describing it might, such as that hotel over there that's "yellow." Now I have the "yellow hotel." The word "yellow" is the adjective, and the noun is still "hotel."

Come to think of it...that yellow hotel got five stars on an internet review. That yellow hotel is also a "five-star hotel."

Uh-oh! What's with that hyphen between the words "five" and "star"?

Well.....since you asked....the words "five" and "star" have to work together to describe the hotel. You wouldn't have a "five hotel" or a "star hotel." Although a star hotel sounds like an dreamy experience, I'm still talking about that hotel over there, the yellow one with the five-star rating.

You did it again.... You used a hyphen.

Of course....that's because the words "five" and "star" have to work together to describe the hotel. The words can't stand alone and make any sense. Think of the hyphen as the words joining hands in a partnership to describe the noun that follows. Some examples would be as follows: five-star hotel, four-star hotel, all-you-can-eat-buffet, middle-aged man, x-ray machine, well-known scientist, grass-fed beef, etc. The adjectives are words joining hands to describe the noun.

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Friday Night

It snowed again today.

The late morning snow came down. all. day. long.

The long day stretched onward with distracted focus.

In between the grading game....how many papers can I grade in an hour?...and the where-will-I-be-next-week-at-this-time game, I played on Duolingo. I've been in the "diamond league" on the language-learning app, but they released a new way to earn points, so the die-hard language learners racked up thousands of points. No longer would my 1200 points in a week cut it. I'd have to play hard to stay in the league. Not that it mattered, but it kept me engaged.

While on Duolingo, I daydreamed.

Duolingo gave me the words I needed to have a grand idea.

Yo necesito una vacaciones a Mexico.

As such, I dreamed of Isla Mujeres. I even checked the prices on a travel app. I can go for a week for under a thousand bucks, hotel and air.

The other times I've gone to Isla, I worked. Grading, reading, and/or building coursework. Before that, while in grad school, my vacations were filled with reading books or writing papers. I remember reading all of Moby Dick on the train ride from St. Louis to Baltimore with my children. Stuff like that.

It's been years since I've had an actual vacation.

Some think my life now is a vacation. That's because Rule # 921 in my life is "Have one adventure every day."

And then I write about my non-gamourous adventures, the oh-no-I'm-broken-down-again-what-am-I-going-to-do stories. However, a glamorous adventure does sound appealing.

For now...

It's a migratory life, and I work hard. Long days. My body aches, and sometimes it feels like my brain bleeds from all the reading.

I might need a vacation.

Like...a real vacation.

Especially after 2023.

Remember the trailer episode?

Remember breaking the leaf springs in the Xterra twenty-five miles down Hole in the Rock Road?

Remember when I learned I didn't have an online teaching job this summer because I'd hit the limit on the number of classes an adjunct could teach at the online university, and I didn't know what to do, so I hastily took on my old garden-merchandising job from Aspen to Glenwood Springs?

It's been a long year.

Back at the old hotel in Escalante, a semi-retired couple told me their strategy for the good life. Early in their marriage, they decided how much risk they were willing to take with things. I don't remember the exact numbers, but let's say it was 70% sensible/rational and 30% risk.

When opportunity and expendable money collided, they had a decision to make.

But they didn't make the decision.

Instead, what they did was draw a letter from a bag. The letter made the decision. If it was an S, it meant do the sensible thing. If they pulled an R, it meant take the risk. They found game pieces for the Scrabble game--seven Ss and three Rs to represent the 70% and the 30%.

I kind of like their style. It sure would help me decide whether or not to take an actual vacation. What are my risk numbers? How much disposable income will I have after leaving this job?

Not much.

I kinda took a mini vacation on Wednesday. I'd only gotten seven hours of sleep combined on Monday and Tuesday nights. By Wednesday morning, my brain felt fried and I just ached all over. The previous afternoon--on Tuesday--the cleaning lady said I looked like I was coming down with something.

But I couldn't take a day off and be quietly sick in my own space. The shop had started working on the RV. They took the doghouse off the interior side of the engine on Monday and started putting parts back into the engine. By eight-thirty, the college students would be crawling around my engine. This wouldn't be conducive to sleep or being quietly sick in my own space.

Since I couldn't sleep, I was at my desk a little after 7 a.m. By 7:30, I'd hatched a plan and emailed a sick notice to my bosses.

Then, I took off for Glenwood Springs and did the hot springs for almost two hours. I stretched out the sore muscles and floated on the hot water. Arms spread out to my sides, I listened as my own steady breathing became part of the underwater churning and pulsing flow of gallons and gallons of hot mineral water.

While soaking in the hot mineral water, I felt every muscle relax. The sun felt warm on my face and arms. Intermittent gusts of chilly mountain air blew across the pool, and the rising steam swirled in its current.

For short moments, I wished for my camera as so many great photo opportunities existed in the misty steam and ripples of sunlight. But this was a day for me. I didn't want to maintain the security of a cellphone in a wet, public space. Besides, people kind of look at you funny when you're not taking the typical tourist pics: toes in the water, sunshine reflected in sunglasses, etc. These are great shots, I'm not knocking them. But....what I was seeing that morning looked different. It wasn't a selfie day. It was a day for something undefined but needed. A sort-of-sick-and-sort-of-tired-and-really-needing-rejuvenation day.

If I could have taken one pic, it would have been the pic I saw after fully submerging in the water and then relaxing at the far eastern edge of the pool. As I'd mentioned earlier, the steam from the combination of hot water and cold air gave the place a metaphysical feel, kind of like being caught in a storybook and being aware you're only a character while some greater purpose unfolds.

Across the pool, to the south and through the rising, swirling steam...

Two pillars of dancing light shot outward from the pool in parallel precision. These parallel bodies of dancing light punctated the rising steam. What are they? Studying the beams of light through the swirling mist, it's clear the light is from the sunlight hitting the water and reflecting off the underside of the two support rails leading into the pool.

Now, with people sitting on either side of these rails, I didn't want to be creepy, but somehow I needed to see what that light looks like from the underside. Does it still reflect if the position changes?

I'm doing this for science, I told myself, while pushing off from my side of the pool and floating closer.

The people beside the rails looked at me with an apprehensive you're-intruding-on-our-space vibe. Turning from their conversations, the two nearest the rails looked at me.

Not sure if I should explain wanting to see the light from the underside of the rails to these people or not, I drew closer. One of the groups swam away as if I was an approaching shark in the water. The other group moved over.

No explanation necessary.

I settled myself between the rails to look at the underside.

The light under the rails did not reflect. Only the people across the pool could see it. The light refraction shoots off at different angles if perspective is changed. Remembering my old art lessons, I recall that this principle is a "change in perspective."

It's what I needed on Wednesday.

That and warm water and sunshine filled with Vitamin K.

Recently, I've been learning a lot about Vitamin K. It's a vitamin that can cause complications if overused, but it is necessary to the bones absorbing calcium. I learned this from my doctor.

Since I'm working "a real job," I had good insurance this semester. I got lots of tests done. I'm in prime health, but my bones show early osteoporosis.

Yeah.

It's part of getting older. But...now that I know and have a baseline reading... it's something I can target with muscle-building exercise and proper nutrition.

Apparently refined sugar -- yeah, I'm looking at you Chocolate and Black Licorice -- can cause your bones to deteriorate. On Monday I had my final farewell to a bag of Dove chocolates. On Tuesday, I said my farewell to a bag of black licorice. And, on Wednesday, I determined to get serious about my health.

Okay...semi-serious...but I'm really trying.

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Saturday Morning

The cricket and spider are both MIA. The small piece of dog food is still on the floor.