Weather for the next few days in the Tries: 

Sunshine with Winds tomorrow! Sunshine! All week!!!

April is National Poetry Month. Support your local poets. Buy their books. (I have some (hint. hint.) available from your favorite bookseller or me.)

Also, I am the featured poet on Quill & Parchment this month with at least 4 poems posted, and they have a good review of  REFLECTIONS: Life, the River, and Beyond. Available through Amazon only (though your favorite bookseller can order it for you). Marking the Hours is available wherever fine books are sold 😉 If you like shorter books, and longer history, check out Blood on the Ground. (See My Books above for descriptions).

Didja Know I’m Dyslexic?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that a. I don’t ‘do’ numbers and b., I often write a correctly spelled word, but it’s not the right word. And I claim to be a word person. Yeah. Write!

As an adult in a fun job with a stressful, very stressful, management, I discovered I’m dyslexic. I was also dyslexic as a kid, but hid it, didn’t know it, and nobody else caught it. Obviously, I’m not seriously dyslexic, but I am dyslexic.

Remember the old game we used to play as kids, where the class would form a circle and the teacher would whisper a word to the student on her left, that student would turn and whisper the word to the next, and on we’d go until back to the teacher. IT WAS NEVER the same word all around the room. Why? One answer may be a form of dyslexia. You say “policeman” I hear it, and then say, “cop” to the next person someone else may hear my word and say “copper” and so it goes. A form of dyslexia.

If I’m in a hurry, I’ll use the word that sounds right, but isn’t. I want six cups of flower in my cake mix. Of course I do. I here you sniggering. When I was a kid and pulled some of those stunts, the teachers told me I was in too much of a hurry. They were right, but also not.

If I’m really stressed, I also stutter. Another manifestation of dyslexia. Many people who stutter are dyslexic, and if they can get the dyslexia under control, the stuttering goes away or is greatly diminished. I imagine it’s because they learn to slow down. There are singers who stutter, but sing beautifully. They slow down, they breathe deeply, they are comfortable singing.

And, I’m numbers dyslexic. When I was in the stressful job years ago, I had to maintain a log of work as it came in. A simple, sequential log. So, I one day I wrote in the logbook, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55 and went on about my business. No one caught it for several weeks. I got fired for that. Fired from the job, not the company. It was that job that brought my dyslexia to the fore. The other day I had an appointment with the Tax Man for 1.00pm. I wrote it in my calendar. I wrote it on the folder with all my tax stuff and showed up promptly at 10.00am for my appointment. I don’t do numbers. Now you know why.

Do you remember the old Stephen J Cannell tv shows? He created or co-created something like 40 shows, and many (most? all?) of the intros showed him at the IBM Selectric typewriter typing madly and the pages flying out. In an interview I caught one time, he was asked what he was typing. He laughed and said just letters, he was too dyslexic to be turned lose on a typewriter for real. Wikipedia says this, “Cannell was dyslexic, and was a spokesman on the subject. According to an episode of Paul Harvey‘s The Rest of the Story, Cannell frequently had to dictate ideas or even complete scripts with the help of his personal secretary Grace Curcio, an employee of 20 years. Following Grace’s retirement in 2003, Kathy Ezso became his editor and executive assistant. He discussed his experiences as a dyslexic in the 2009 documentary Dislecksia: The Movie.

Cannell wrote on a typewriter, an IBM Selectric, when not dictating to an assistant, and only used a computer for research purposes.^[10]”   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_J._Cannell

I have learned many writers, and other creative and intelligent people are dyslexic. I think Marlon Brando was. That’s why, I think, he never read a script and was such a fine method actor. Perhaps some of that creativity comes from the creative ways we’ve learned to deal with it through our lifetimes. I am fortunate, mine is mild, but the more stressed I become, the more noticeable it is.

So, the next time I write something that makes you smile because I obviously know better, but must have been in a hurry, well, now you know why. And I’m in good company, too.

Here are two shots of a feather from a Canada goose. I used the 25x macro lens on my phone.

Entertainment:

Netflix: Still watching 100 Days My Prince

Books: For full reviews, please go to: http://lenoragood.blogspot.com

I am a tad over half way through Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents —by Isabel Wilkerson. Two things are “wrong” with this book: 1. It’s an Oprah’s Book Club book, and I’ve never read one of those I liked and 2. It’s a hardback book and when I fall asleep it falls and hurts. As to 1., Oprah said in an interview I saw once that she would NEVER recommend a happy book (maybe she meant novels?). While this one isn’t happy, it’s fascinating, and well worth the read and isn’t a novel. As to 2., I read in bed. I’ve done that since I was a kidlet. My favorite place to read, but sometimes when I fall asleep reading, the book falls and conks me in the face. And hurts. Life’s rough, sometimes.

Education:

I’m on the fifth and last module of the iPhone Photography Academy classes. If you have an iPhone, any model, I strongly recommend you look into the class. If you have an Android, I urge you to check out your brand and see if they have something equivalent. I bet they do. 

I also bought Luminar4, the photo editing software mentioned last week. That will take a bit of education to use, too. But I’m looking forward to learning it. I wanted PaintShop Pro, but it won’t work with Mac.

New Year’s Resolution:

Remember, I started writing a poem each day Anu Garg & Company published a new word? I kept it up for 3 months, and then something happened, and I went about two weeks without writing anything creative. Still, I went 3 months. That’s 2 months 28 days longer than I’ve ever gone before;-)

Remember, you’re not getting your shot/s to keep YOU safe from Covid-19, you’re getting it to keep your family, friends, and neighbors safe! 

Have a fantastically wonderful week. See you next Monday 😉

Auntie Lenora and Sammy Brave Dog!