On the Subject of Speaking Clearly

I thought it would be fun to write in larger letters... :) So much easier to read for us older folks!!

I have decided that I speak the way I think.  We all know that is not like everyone else!!

Yesterday Jessica and I took a trip to Tyler, which is one of our neighboring towns.  We had little baby Adleigh with us.  I had to run back into the house to get her little jacket, and it took me a while to find it.  I told Jessica I had found it on the "twirly chair".  If you are a member of my family, you would know what I meant.  If you were not, you would be wondering, what is a "twirly chair".  We have two barstools at our kitchen "island/bar".  They twirl.  I call them the twirly chairs, always have.  Why I can't be a grown up and call them barstools, I don't know, but I don't.  Maybe "twirly chair" just sounds more fun!!

All while the kids were growing up and of course still we call hair "ponytail holders"....TWISTIES.....to us that's what they are.  There is not another person around here anywhere that calls them that.  If my girls were to ask a friend if they had a twistie they would stare and say a what??  Ohhhh you mean a ponytail or a scrunchie......

Apparently we make up lots of our own words in the Dison household.

Jessica and I were discussing this phenomenon yesterday on our trip, which brought up several stories where someone didn't understand either me or someone else because of how they spoke.

We had a dear couple who were great friends and we enjoyed going to their house and playing cards.  The husband was an avid fisherman, and at that time we lived in a log cabin on Lake Jacksonville.  He asked us where we lived.  I tried to tell him.  I finally drew him a map of how to get there.  I said..."see, you go around here, and we live at the bottom of Lake Jacksonville".  He started laughing, and I had no idea why, because to me it made perfect sense.  You drive around and around the lake road, and you would reach the far side from where he was.  He asked me again where we lived, and I said...."the bottom of Lake Jacksonville"....he was laughing hysterically and after asking me and finally repeating what I had told him very slowly....I realized how something that makes perfect sense to me because I know what I meant, does not necessarily translate the same way  to another person.  :) We did NOT live at the BOTTOM of Lake Jacksonville....however if you are holding the map up and down to me we did live on the bottom side.....HA!! 

This predicament also came up with one of our employees on one of the ranches we worked on.  We were all pretty much in our early to mid twenties on this ranch.  The guys seemed to find all sorts of things to get into weekly!!  There was one time where one of them could not get the dump truck to start.  He had the bright idea to "jump it off" with our bulldozer.  Apparently something went awry, and the bulldozers battery exploded, and the employee had some battery acid hit him in the face and a got a little in his eyes.  To make sure every precaution was taken, he was taken to the ER, treated, and was fine.  It came time to call the workers comp people.  He thought he would call from our house.  I was listening as he talked to the lady.  He called her and when she asked him what happened...this is what he said....."I was trying to jump the dump truck with the bulldozer and I got hurt".  She on the other end, I'm sure, was picturing an Evil Kneivel sort of event and was like whaaatt??  You did whaaaat??  It took a while to explain what he meant.  Once again, what makes perfect sense to you may not make sense to anyone else but you!! 

I've always loved this little story as well, so as I sign off for the day , I will leave it with you. 

Woman without her man is nothing

October 12, 2004

in Laugh often...

An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.
The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is nothing.”