Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ A Bit Scary


In case you haven't found your own scary for the day. (Thanks, Eleanor Roosevelt for the blog fodder!) Here's one.

You all know I'm a little kinked. As in my children think Geek is a term of endearment. And that I can sit through an hour of a mildly amusing movie and not crack up til someone gets hurt. Then I can hardly control my mirth.


My dad may be one of the reasons that I am who I am. My formative years included many of his physical pratfallish feats which no doubt gave me my inclination to laugh when someone gets biffed. One of his other very endearing traits was to blurt out creative, hilarious insults which often included medical jargon. Since my family has been in the medical field for a few generations my dad's use of medical terminology was something he learned at his mother's knee. My grandma's favorite question was "have you had a BM yet today?" Yes. It's true. And "let your mom carry that, she's already had children, and I don't want you to rupture your uterus."


I won't go into the story about the poor boy who died from awful diarrhea after eating too many green apples. (Sorry, I guess I just did.)


Anyhoo. I was one of the only children on the block who knew the word sphincter, let alone had been called one. Flatus was one of dad's favorites. And let's just say it was used fairly often. If you don't know what it is think four letter f-words but not the queen mother. And then think about beans. There you go. That's the one.

Lest you think of my dad sitting in a Lazy Boy and scratching his beer gut while fumigating the house, nope, that's not the guy. He's complex. Very, very professional and quiet. One peering in from the outside would never know that a crazy, funny man lives within. He's also loves to dive into the Bible and find treasures. I love the heavy duty conversations we have. (He also manages to find a lot of medical comparisons within the things that he learns.)

My Word of the Day text was too perfect to ignore the other day. And it sums up a good portion of my dad. I want to share it with you.

af·fla·tus
   /əˈfleɪtəs/ [uh-fley-tuhs] –noun

1.
inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.

2.
divine communication of knowledge.

Origin: Latin afflātus a breathing on, equivalent to af- af- + flā- (stem of flāre to blow ) + -tus suffix of v. action


nuff said?