All posts by Dona

On the Eve of Mole Day

Humor, ,

Did you know that tomorrow is Mole Day? Well, I didn’t, but because I get cced on some emails that are sent by my kids’ teachers, I know now. Whew, almost missed it!

Apparently Mole Day was started in 1991 by a high school chemistry teacher from Wisconsin.  They are weird in Wisconsin!

I don’t know what a mole is — really. I gather it is a unit of measurement used in chemistry. Because my high school counselor advised me to not take chemistry since I was going to be an elementary school teacher, I didn’t take chemistry and therefore didn’t learn about moles. I read the notes and watched the PowerPoint slides that my son’s chemistry teacher has online but I don’t get it. I skimmed the Wikipedia entries about moles and mole day and I don’t get it. Something to do with 1023. And a crown.

I’m thinking of rereading Wind in the Willows — after all, it is the year of the Rat so Mole Day 2008 should be Wind in the Willows themed.

So, how will you celebrate Mole Day?

Suburban wilderness

Musings, The Great Outdoors

So last night was bookgroup. This month’s book was The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. It’s good, although I’m not quite finished with it yet.

This month’s meeting was in Kensington at Karen’s house and I thought I knew how to get to her house, but I ended up parking several blocks away. Luckily I ran into another member, also wandering around the neighborhood, wondering where the house was. We finally found it and all was good.

While I was wandering around the neighborhood alone I disturbed a rabbit who scampered across the road. I also thought I saw a larger animal on the other side of a hedge in someone’s side yard. I first thought it was a dog, but it didn’t bark and seemed almost ghostlike in its movements. I dismissed it as my imagination or maybe a large scrap of paper being blown by the strong breeze.

After the meeting as I drove down a side street, back to the main road that would take me home, a large animal crossed in front of me and this time I could not dismiss it as paper or my imagination. I think it was a small deer. Then, back on Cedar Lane, the main drag through this part of Kensington, a red fox crossed in front of me and ran into the trees.

Now that I think about it — I’m not surprised to see wildlife in Kensington. After all, Rock Creek Park runs along the western and southern boundries of this town, and I was within blocks of it when I saw the animals. Still, it was an unusual thing for me to see. I still wonder what the apparation was that I saw before book group.

Mr. Monk fixes my drainpipe

Musings, People

A few weeks ago we realized our sink was leaking. Dean tried his darnedest to fix it, but finally admitted that he wasn’t equipped for major plumbing repair, so he called a plumber (incidentally the day plumbers were taken into the surreal realm).

The plumber arrived early for his 4:30 scheduled appointment. I was working in the attic and didn’t hear the doorbell ring, which turns out to be broken too. Anyway, I ran downstairs and opened the door to John the Plumber. Even though John had done work for us before, I was taken aback when I saw him. I expected a man in a work clothes — perhaps with his name sewn on the pocket. What I opened the door to was a man, impeccably dressed in a button down denim shirt and dress slacks. He didn’t say he was the plumber, but I let him in anyway because I was fairly certain that Adrian Monk was standing in front of me. Granted, this man was dressed casually for Mr. Monk, but in every other respect, he was Adrian Monk.

He took a look at the problem, diagnosed it within seconds (I could almost hear him saying. “Here’s the thing,” and “Here’s what happened.”) His work area was neat and when he left the kitchen was cleaner than before he got there.

I figure that since the TV program, Monk, is on vacation, his character is moonilghting as a plumber. Stranger things have happened.