Redneck Sadness

I took my dog to the vet today because I found a knot on his lower jaw. My sisters both said that they were sure it would turn out to just be a sebaceous cyst because it looked similar to a cyst one of their dogs had on his gourd. Well, when the vet tried to aspirate it, it started to bleed instead of have fluid (like from a cyst) come out. FUDGE.

The vet is concerned about it. It could be benign, but she seemed to talk about the possibility of it being benign in less-than-confident tones. The fact that we never noticed this bean-sized "tumor" until recently (as in this past week) could indicate fast growth. That implies a malignancy. I feel like bursting into tears as I write this.

I feel such despair even if it's curable cancer. I had cancer last year. Even though I have insurance -- and I am so thankful that I do! -- it doesn't cover everything. My bills have put me in a tight financial way. If he has cancer or some other crazy illness, I just don't know what I can afford to do. It makes me want to throw up even thinking about it. I am trying not to get too worked up until I know for sure.

Now, I'm not one of those people who treats their dog like a child to fill a maternal/partneral void. My love for my dog is in the redneck/country vein. This beast has been a faithful companion and joy to me. Did you ever read Where the Red Fern Grows? Have you seen Old Yeller? Now, I don't go hunting with Emmett, but he's my friend in the same way those dogs were friends to their humans. He protects my home. I take care of him, and he takes care of me. I am filled with fear and anxiety that I have reached a place in my life where I won't be able to take care of him.

If you are a prayerful person that doesn't feel stupid about a prayer for an animal, please give Big E a shout out in your next chat with God.

Thanks for listenening. I know that "he's only a dog." I know that a lot of people don't understand the bond between a person and a pet (I'm talking a normal bond, not a "you are my child now" bond). But, it's a special one that I have thoroughly enjoy and hope to keep enjoying for a long, long time.

Pandora Rocks!

I'm rocking out -- some oldies, some Southern Rock, some swing, and some Richard Cheese (you gotta hear this guy to believe it -- not for the faint of heart, though). If you love music, you have got to get this FREE service. I love listening to Pandora. I get to hear so many new artists. I'm putting a feed (below) of my recently bookmarked songs. Visit www.pandora.com to create your own radio stations (again - it's free!). Enjoy.

My Grandfather

My Granddaddy Jackson was an interesting dude. I think he would have qualified as an "eloquent redneck," although he may have taken offense at the word "redneck." Not sure. He was very smart and always had great stories to tell. He talked about science and math a lot. He liked to tell jokes/riddles. He was funny and fun.

Here's where the possible redneck tendencies come in (and I will not frame this in Foxworthy manner! I can't stand those freaking jokes!):

He always sat around the house with just his jeans on and no shirt.

He would wear my Aunt Cathy's old tennis shoes with the toes cut out -- "why not get all the use out of the shoes possible?" was his thought.

At home, he would wear a rope for a belt. Now, doesn't that just conjure up images of freaking Jethro Clampett! Ha! He had a saying, too: "I wear a rope around my waist so I can drop my pants most anyplace." LOL!

He had a wood-burning stove in the house and one on the carport that he used for heating AND cooking.

I was thinking about him this weekend. He passed away several years ago. I miss his crazy ways. Don't get me wrong with the things I pointed out above. He was smart. He was a war veteran (Purple Heart -- almost died if it weren't for his friend, Leon, insisting that my grandfather be taken to hospital. The others wanted to leave him for dead.). He was a college graduate. He loved knowledge and learning. And, he knew how to dress and behave outside the house. I think it's neat that we got to know the real, unedited man.

Me, Myself, and I

We all seem to screw this up: correct usage of "me," "myself," and "I." I screw it up from time to time, but that doesn't stop me from having a pet peeve about it. Let's get to it.

"I" is a pronoun used to refer to one's self, obviously. It's the "nominative form" meaning it is the form of a pronoun that should be used as the subject of a sentence.

"Me" is an object pronoun. You use it as a direct object, indirect object, and object of a preposition.

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun meaning that it refers back to the subject of the sentence. It is NOT a substitute for "I" or "Me."

Now that I have explained the usage of each, I'm ready to start griping about my misuse pet peeves. (I encourage you to double check my definitions above. I did double check what I wrote by consulting Bartleby.com, but it's always good to do your own research.).

Using I instead of Me

I think this comes from a desire to sound intellectual and the confusion from the crazy rules of usage of the nominative form with "be" verbs (you say "It is I" not "It is me," for example.) So, here are some examples of the incorrect usage followed by the correct usage:

"Between you and I" is wrong. The correct usage of the first-person pronoun is "between you and me." I is a subject (nominative) pronoun. "Between" is a preposition. That means that the correct case/form to follow "between" is "me." Me serves as an object pronoun. Same is true if you said "this is from Sam and I." When you drop "Sam and," the statement becomes "This is from I." That's obviously wrong. If you can drop part of the compound object (not sure that this is the correct nomenclature, but you are welcome to nail me on that) and the sentence sounds wrong, then it probably is.

Using Myself instead of Me or I

This irks me more than most other misuses of any other word in the English language. Myself is a reflexive pronoun meaning you only use it to talk about things that you are doing to yourself. It makes me insane when people write statements in the vein of "if you have a question, please ask myself." Only I can ask myself anything. Only I can see myself. Just like only YOU can ask YOURSELF, and only SHE can make HERSELF learn grammar rules. A person rarely says, "Suzy, go ask himself what himself thinks of the new document." That's just ignorant.

OK. I'm done griping for the evening. Good night!

Yeah. Yea.

Everybody makes a typo now and then. And, it's OK if you aren't the world's best speller. That's why God created dictionaries and spell check. If you are ignoring every time a red line shows up under a word, then you are letting misspellings go out on your blog/other electronic documents.

Not all words that are used incorrectly are due to misspelling, of course. Sometimes we simply use the wrong words, but they are spelled correctly. We don't realize our own error! Today I would like to look at two English words that we savage on an ever-increasing basis: Yeah and Yea.

Yeah is defined as an informal or nonstandard way to say "yes." It is pronounced as yě'ə, yā'ə, yā'ə (click here to understand the symbols for pronunciation). Yeh and yah are often used by folks when they mean "yeah." I see the red lines under these spellings, so I know they are wrong. If you check online dictionaries (Bartleby.com has a good one), you will see they don't have them as entries.

Yea is defined as an affirmative exclamation or cheer. We often use it as a way to express excitement. The pronunciation is yā. YOU DO NOT SPELL THIS AS YAY. YAY is incorrect.

Now, a lot of people use these two correct spellings incorrectly. They write "yea" when they mean "yeah." Both mean "yes/affirmative," but the tone for each is a bit different. Yeah is informal while yea could be very formal sounding depending on the context. A person can sound like a passage out of the King James Bible when they write "yea."

Eat, O friends; drink,
yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Or, a person ends up sounding like they are cheering for everything when they use "yea" instead of "yeah."

Yea, I went to the market.

When has it ever been so exciting to go to the store that you would say "yea" instead of "yeah" when asked if you went?

Good luck with yeah and yea!