We Fill in the Blanks
I write notes three times weekly in my limping Spanish for Yolanda, not because I won’t see her, but because I probably won’t remember by then what I need to tell her. She has asked me to order more vacuum cleaner bags from the states. I use the words I know, and tonight the word for vacuum has escaped my memory. So I leave this note on the kitchen island, taped to a filter I’ve found in the laundry room:
“Is this the bag for the machine for clean the floor?”
Es este la bolsa para la machina para limpiar el piso?
Then, taped to the stove top:
I’m sorry, Yolanda, but a potato broke in my oven and it is very bad! I worked for one hour and a half but it is still bad now.”
Lo siento, Yolanda, pero una papa romper in me estufa y es mui malo! Trabajo por una hora media pero es malo ahora.
A potato broke in my oven? I don’t know the word for exploded, but I think it must put a bit of levity into her morning to try to interpret what I have said.
Later, she will go home and report today’s pleasure. “The senora? Today she broke a potato in the oven. She tried to clean it for awhile, then went to write another poem.”
There will be no rancor in her statement, for the humor of the unlearned words that still stand between our total comprehension of each other will be gentled by the total understanding that compensates for those lost words.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Handwritten.” When was the last time you wrote something by hand? What was it?
Now, go HERE to read the poem based on this essay that I have written for dVerse Poets on Sept. 11, 2018!
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
You provided my morning chuckle.
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All those times you’ve been so admiring of my rapid fire Spanish? Now you know the truth about exactly what I am saying! As Jim Collums once said, “Judy, were you aware of the fact that you are speaking perfectly horrible Spanish?” My answer, ‘Yes, well, Jim, at least I’m speaking it!”
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That is so precious. Funny how at times our minds go blank….my favorite saying is “you know, that thingy……” My daughter thinks that is funny. Haha
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I know. It is scary when the mind just goes blank. Reassuring that it seems to happen to everyone after sixty. It’s not that I can’t think things out clearly. Just that I can’t necessarily do so and “remember” at the same time! I can’t talk while looking for a turnoff or I’ll miss it every time!
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You can still walk and chew gum at the same time? When I forget something I go back to where the thought bulb lit up, usually comes back. I write a thought for a blog by hand or list for the market, can rarely read it after it gets cold.
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Haha excellent! Despite having lived in England for the last 14 years and having lost most of my accent, with me it is usually coming out with some decidedly Scottish word that no-one has ever heard of! Apparently skelf doesn’t transfer to English (splinter) – haha.
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Skelf sounds like some sort of fish to me. I’d love to know the derivation. “Splinter” kind of sounds like it is a sliver of something split off something else, doesn’t it? Skelf sounds more substantial. More round. Ah, words.
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This is wonderful! My favorite type of post is a little ‘snap shot’ of ordinary life…and the funny things that creep in, even when we try to keep things organized! 😀
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Mine, too. Makes us feel part of something bigger!
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Well done on learning Spanish! Sorry about the potato breaking!
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ha. I was dieting anyway, but 1/3 of a potato when it is your only meal of the day is a big disappointment! I worked off more calories than that just trying to clean the oven!
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I would so love to have household help! We have cleaners who come through once a month for two hours and it costs a fortune! In South Africa it was such a blessing to have household help! Well done on your dieting! I am trying to do the same 🙂
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I can imagine the scene when potato breaks. Good to have help. I am fortunate to have household help.
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I know. It is so wonderful. I could never afford it in the states.
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A friend asked why I didn’t take a picture of the inside of the oven after it had exploded. Can’t believe I didn’t. I was too busy trying to get the worst up before it baked on!!! But, I have tried in vain to get my rack assembly reinstalled. It is one of those very complicated sliding systems with tracks. Impossible to figure out.
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This sounds like a wonderful relationship!
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Reblogged this on lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown and commented:
The dVerse Poets prompt today is to take something we’ve written on September 11 of another year and to take a word or idea from that piece and write a new piece. Here is my Sept. 11 essay from 2015 that I am going to draw from.
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