random thoughts – Day 1,139 – (Sunday) – rain and quiet

Last week, I decided to not attend dance class today. Knowing there would be two nights of events this weekend, it seemed unlikely I would be productive today. The foresight and self knowledge paid off. 

The unusually late night on Saturday resulted in sleeping unusually late on Sunday. By the time I woke up, it was 15 minutes past the time I usually leave for class. Getting up at the usual time (7:00) would have meant being too tired and cranky to function. Sleeping until naturally waking up (9:15) made it impossible to get to class on time with the whole time-space continuum thing and still not having the jet packs and ability to teleport that was envisioned (promised) when I was kid.

The day was a slow moving rainy day. Laundry was done on Saturday, which opened the day for maximum relaxation (cough, laziness). Winston slept, alternating between the couch and his living room bed, but he usually does that most of the day most days, anyway. 

A couple hours were invested in Finnish homework which involved reading the chapter we’ve been working on, along with several exercises that weren’t assigned but that we’ll likely cover on class Monday. I like to feel prepared.

Homework - negative verbs.

We’re on the negative questions and answers – “Why do they not ask the teacher?” and “I do not live in Finland.” In Finnish, there is a whole series of conjugations for “not” depending upon who is “not” – I, you, he/she, you (plural), we, they. And it doesn’t stop at “not” – the verb (sitting, laughing, etc.) also has a full conjugation to match the pronoun. It is definitely not boring. 

To add an entertaining element to training the ear to the language, the Finnish crime series Deadwind is now being watched for about the third time. It’s fun recognizing more words and catching the differences between spoken and written Finnish we’ve been told about. Spoken uses shortened versions of a lot of words and numbers. The funny thing is, it’s the words that are already short that get the shortening. Yksi (ook-see, for "one") is spoken as “yks” and minä (mee-nuh for "I") gets shortened to “mä” or dropped altogether. The long words seem to stay long.

Outside, the driveway lake is large and deep and the debate all day has been whether or not to roll the trash and recycle bins through it/around it to the curb for Monday pickup, or to just skip it. The trash bag is barely half-full each week, and the recycling can go six to eight weeks before being full. For now, it’s a no-go, but the situation will be reassessed in the morning.

There was a quick trip to "The Basket" for Winston's weekly roasted chicken, bravely executed without makeup. There was a deli curiosity chosen -- Holstein horseradish cheese. Tomorrow's lunch may include a slice or two of that.