Rien d’absurde

Posted on 24 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

I reinforce my limited knowledge of French in unremarkable ways. These include repetitive exposure to bilingual talking-elevators in our Nation’s Capital. After several weeks, I feel that I could call off the floors quite creditably if called upon to do so:

Deuxième étage
Troisième étage

I add to my limited knowledge of French in unexpected ways. These include intermittent exposure to bilingual-cute signs and products created, presumably, by fluently bilingual marketeers. This is how I learn something about the language as she is spoke. Maybe even something that is true.

This past week’s offering? A box of protein bars at Costco.

My six years of junior- and high-school French and my lone year of university French never got to the stage of slightly-profane-but-not-outrageous idioms. It seems a shame. Surely we would have picked up new vocabulary and conversational usage faster and cuter. And that’s rien d’absurde.

 

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged , | 6 Comments

An Also Ran?

Posted on 24 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

No one is against “bringing down costs for Canadians
and helping them get ahead.”
But no one also knows what it means.
– The Hub

Oh my goodness. I quite enjoy many of The Hub’s articles, but I didn’t enjoy this bit:

But no one also knows what it means.

Guys: Get a grip. If you absolutely must have the “also”, you could do this:

No one is against “some slogan.”
But, also, no one knows what it means.

But surely what you really wanted was this:

No one is against “some slogan.”
But no one knows what it means, either.

It’s the “no one” that gets us into trouble here, I think, along with the desire to have the elegance of a parallel construction. They could have done it more simply, for sure.

Everyone agrees with “some slogan”;
but no one really knows what it means.

But, alas, no one also thought of it in time. Such are the joys of publication deadlines.

 

Posted in Feeling Clearly, Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged | 10 Comments

Suitcase Face Again

Posted on 24 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

There’s something about suitcases seen end-on, but angled, and from a slight distance.

I had thought it might be limited to hotel rooms, but it turns out it applies to hospital rooms as well. Or as ill, maybe. Anyway, as we waited for the paperwork that would spring the Big Guy from the Heart Institute, I noticed this rather pouty little guy. A bit blue, maybe, in more ways than one.

He also reminds me of a piece of wall art that my parents brought back from Mexico a few decades ago: a Mayan calendar in green stone, I think, with a distorted face at the centre. A frog? A sun god? Dunno. But he looked a bit like this fellow.

 

Posted in Photos of Faces | Tagged | 4 Comments

Faciem Accidens

Posted on 17 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

I was going to write a thoughtful piece on merging behaviour under different traffic conditions–a subject I’ve had ample exposure to over the last few weeks–and I still might, sometime. This week, though, what life allowed was the discovery of two more accidental faces in hospital bathrooms:

  • One (on an import – my own rain jacket) that reminds me of The Scream or Home Alone.
  • One (on the sink infrastructure) that reminds me of a moose or (rein)deer.

Posted in Laughing Frequently | Tagged | 15 Comments

Magnolia Termina

Posted on 17 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

A few days ago, the magnificent magnolia tree a few blocks from the hospital was already faded and sparse. Today’s cloudbursts will have stripped off any remaining flowers.

The squirrel-beleaguered magnolia in my backyard bloomed almost without me noticing it this year, but I did catch its final moments yesterday. They were magnificent, too.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply | Tagged | 6 Comments

In the Cloud

Posted on 17 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

In my third week of parking in an under-repair and, hence, under-resourced parking system, I know what’s what. As Mary Tyler Moore said, “I’ve been around. Well, maybe not around, but I’ve been nearby.”

If I arrive during daytime visiting hours at the hospital, I wait for at least 30 minutes as cars enter the parkade on a one-out, one-in basis. Waiting in a line of indefinite duration is something I lack the bandwidth for at the moment. OK, then – early it is. But how early?

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Magnolia Stupenda

Posted on 10 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

About four blocks west of the Ottawa Heart Institute, just across an intersection with no traffic controls that pedestrians can use, is an exceedingly old magnolia tree that fills the small front yard of its house. Thirty feet tall? Possibly. Branches down to the ground? Definitely.

I’ve been keeping an eye on it for about 10 days. Here’s how it’s changed in that time, looking left to right.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Flora | Tagged | 10 Comments

Peaches No Ice

Posted on 10 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

There comes a time in a hospital stay when the patient is invited to choose their food for the next day. If you come into the hospital conscious, you’re good to go immediately.  If you come into the hospital unconscious, you must first become conscious and then show that you can swallow without choking or aspirating solids/liquids into your lungs.

After a few days in the Intensive Care Unit, the Big Guy met these criteria and I was helping to fill in a meal form. Right away there was trouble. For breakfast, did he want apple juice or peaches no ice?   I can’t remember the last time I served canned peaches so maybe I’m out of touch, but it seemed like an odd thing to specify. Yeah, we have peaches, but you can’t have them with ice. Why did they feel the need to temper expectations in that way?

And since they did seem to feel this need, why stop there? Why wasn’t it crackers-no-ice? Meatloaf-no-ice? Chocolate-chip-cookie-no-ice?

Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged , | 10 Comments

The Terrible, Horrible

Posted on 03 May 2025 by Isabel Gibson

This sucks.

As the Big Guy wanders in the mental fog that attends the aftermath of cardiac arrest–If you’re lucky!–this is his phrase-of-the-day.

This sucks.

He can’t articulate the pain, confusion, and anxiety that I imagine he feels, but this phrase captures it nicely, I think.

This sucks.

From his perspective it’s hard to argue the point and yet, for those of us who have not been sedated for two days, *this* does not suck.  The day before yesterday sucked. Yesterday sucked. *Today* is a damned good day because the Big Guy is awake and alert.

As I wander the Ottawa Heart Institute’s parking lot, halls, and adjacent neighbourhood, I find more signs that today is a good day. The truth is, the signs were there before I was of any mind to see them. Waiting for me to find my perspective, maybe.

For the next few weeks, I expect to be busy with this latest turn of the road, and not so busy with this blog. If I’m not here, I’ll be somewhere else. Wherever I am, I hope I can remember that even a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day doesn’t totally suck. And even if it does, maybe tomorrow won’t.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Feeling Clearly, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora | Tagged , , , | 28 Comments