"hand, hand, finger, thumb...."

 My west coast brother informed me earlier today that it is "What if Cats and Dogs had Opposable Thumbs Day/"  While my wonder spouse and I have had pets in the past, we don't now, but we do get plenty of entertainment value from the squirrels who frequent our bird feeders.

After witnessing one remarkable (and fairly chubby) squirrel perched on a feeder that we thought was completely out of reach, because it had a large squirrel guard protecting it, and was far away from every tree and bush, we began to wonder if squirrels have opposable thumbs.  It could explain some of their amazing gymnastics. So of course I did a little research. 

It turns out they do, kind of.  Squirrels have four long fingers and claws on each paw plus a small stiff digit - a vestigal or pseudo-opposable 'thumb.'  It's actually called a pollex. 

I wonder??? Could it be that our squirrels are a little more evolved than most?  If we could trap one (just catch and release for observation purposes of course, not for stew) I bet we would see that they have nice long pollexes.  It would explain so much.

good old stuff...

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "Old Stuff Day." Since I am now in my 81st year, it will come as no surprise that I have accumulated an abundance of old stuff.  Even after downsizing twice and having an estate sale I still have old stuff.

But sometimes old stuff isn't all that bad.  Last year one of my granddaughters saw a sweater I had pulled out of the closet, thinking I might donate it.  She declared it "vintage" and asked if she could have it.  Of course I said yes, and gave her two more besides.

Just this week the same granddaughter told me that she is still using a handmade blanket that my west coast sister-in-law made for me over 40 years ago.  I had let her take it to college.  She and her boyfriend spread it out on the floor to relax on while eating popcorn and watching TV.  Just what it was made for.  

And even better, thinking about old things, yesterday my wonder spouse and I delivered an old but still beautiful maple rocking chair to my grandson and his very expectant wife.  The baby is due any time now and it gives me a happy glow to think about him being rocked to sleep in the same rocker in which my mother rocked me and my younger brothers to sleep.  I also put a lot of rocking miles on that chair when my babies came along.

Isn't it good that some old stuff just gets better with age?  

What's in a name?

 My westcoast brother has informed me that today is "Namesake Day."

By defination, a namesake is a person or thing that has the same name as another. There is a line in Psalm 23 (King James Version) "He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake."

I've always enjoyed hearing people's stories of how they were named. I was named after my mother's father's favorite sister.  I always liked that story except for the part where she died when she was 12 years old.

Sometimes people get a little carried away with certain names. For example my brother, first husband and son were all named Tom or some variation of that name.  My second husband has the same name as his brother-in-law and nephew.  It can get confusing at family gatherings.

Names and naming practices change with the years.  When my son was born we named him Thomas and called him Tommy.  Interestingly, my first husband's legal name was Tommy and a cousin of mine born the same year had the legal name of Jimmy,  I think it was a fad at that time.  My father was named after his father, but with three middle names added.  These were the names of his three uncles.  Happily. my west coast brother was able to name two of his sons from that pool of names.  

I clearly remember a day when I was in our front yard with baby Tommy and a neighbor lady I didn't know well, while pushing her baby in a stroller, stopped and asked me what my baby's name was.  When I told her it was Tommy, she responded "Oh, that's a very common name."  I then asked her what her baby's name was and she said "Jason."  I laugh at this now because all through his school years my Tommy, later Thomas, was the only Thomas in his class while there were always three or four Jasons.  I guess it was a popular name in 1971.

My advice, name your children with care.  If all goes well, they are going to be stuck with that name for a long long time.