My
handwriting used to be pretty good.
Oh,
it was personalized. For one thing, it was almost always exclusively
capital letters. But the form was good and for the most part really
clean.
I
have no idea when all of that got thrown out the window and my
handwriting became almost unreadable.
Now
the problem is that I like to make quick notes about things. Essay
ideas and thoughts on projects. And I quickly learned that just
writing down one or two words doesn’t help. Watch…
wine bottle picture
What
the heck is that? “wine bottle picture”? Did someone draw a picture
of a wine bottle I liked? Why would I want to write about that?
It’s on a sheet of scratch pad paper with a few other notes. Perhaps
I was I talking about those slightly melted and flattened bottles
that are around as art pieces, but I have no clue since I didn’t
expand the idea.
wine bottle picture
That’s
all it says, and I’m at a loss.
I
have another sheet of paper, and I am not kidding since it’s right
on the desk next to me, along with the wine bottle note, that
says…
Dinos
Facebook depression
Context
There
is a short line between the three subjects, so I know I was trying
to capture three sperate thoughts. I can kind of figure out a
few ideas that might easily spring from the Facebook thing. But
dinos and context? Wow. Just wow.
Point
is, these are older notes, and I learned long ago that if I really
have a decent idea, when I can I need to give myself a bit more
so I can quickly recognize the idea and the direction I wanted
to move. Consider…
Syracuse
A
note like that could be a ton of different things. The city. The
weather. It’s where I went to school. That’s three good ones with
a lot of variety right there. Didn’t even mention The Great New
York State Fair, which means there are plenty of other places
to go. Just saying Syracuse might as well be a one-word note that
says blue… or left… or sneakers. But if I write just a few more
words…
Syracuse laughs foot snow Florida stopped overnight frost
Eight
words, but you can already see where a much more complete idea
is taking shape.
All
of that in place as a bit of reference material for you, I actually
started this effort with concerns about the quality of my handwriting,
and here’s why…
The
sizes of trash compactors & theirs is wrong and Stop &
Shop compactor bags geography of Africa
That’s
the best I can translate, and I looked at it for about thirty
minutes to get that. And here’s the thing… I have zero clue if
the word compactor is correct. I have two words, about the same
length, and I can sort of make out “compa” starting one and what
appears to be “pactor” ending the other, and they look like they
could be the same word except one has an s at the end. So, sure,
word must be compactor.
Why
would I guess that?
Well,
Stop & Shop is more or less a Rhode Island grocery store chain.
Then
there are my parents, with a unique trash compactor in their house
that always causes them some troubles. The unique part and troubles
part are the big thing to understand here, since apparently when
they purchased it they selected a model they felt fairly good
about as it seemed to be correct for meeting their needs and also
easily fit into the space they had selected for it in some new
kitchen cabinets. Pretty much as soon as it was installed, not
only was that model discontinued, that size was discontinued in
any possible alternate model as well. So, they can’t replace it
without tearing apart the kitchen cabinets. Repairing it isn’t
easy. Somehow, they’ve nursed it through more than thirty years
of service. Planned obsolescence be damned, the company discontinuing
the line entirely was more of a good luck folks obscene gesture
letter.
So…
trash compactor sizes and Stop & Shop and wrong bags and such?
I can actually almost match that up with something. How the hell
the geography of Africa joins the party, well, that is a mystery.
And, strange as my thinking may be, I’m actually really interested
in learning the connection.
The
problem is, about half of the words—I told you, I spent time considering
them and trying to flush them out—really aren’t legible. I’m guessing.
I have other scraps of paper where I can’t make out any words
I wrote down.
And
so, dear reader, I appreciate that you stopped in to read another
essay of mine. Thanks for that. And I promise you, as soon as
I figure out what nightgown Banana Republic wind direction rubber
gloves nail polish remover is trying to tell me, I’ll be back
with a bit more for you.