What I Learned in November: 2014

1. We act like social media is a giant time suck, but it can prove to be priceless in ways we don't anticipate. When I posted my Dad's formal military portrait on Facebook, in honor of Veterans Day, I never imagined I would learn so much about him from my friends. My Dad never talks much about his time served in Vietnam (I know exactly three stories related to his service, in addition to the fact that he was stationed in Yakima, which he enjoyed quite a bit, before being deployed, and that after his return, my Gram once tried to wake him by touching his arm, which startled him and he nearly took her down as a reflex). But it was fascinating to me to learn some additional details about which Infantry division he was in and what some of the various uniform decorations tell about his service.

2. Kitchen trivia, thanks to the October 2014 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine: Carrots were not always orange. Apparently, back in the sixteenth century, some Dutch scientists crossbred several yellow varieties and ended up with the orange color we eat now. Before the orange carrots came to be, the common popular colors were yellow, red, and purple!

3. When I drive, I appear to only notice one side of the road. I say this, because I only recently noticed that the road I take to the library has storage units across from the cemetery. The storage units, according to T, have been there for a while. I guess my eye is always drawn toward the cemetery? (Wow, that makes it sound like I don't actually look where I'm driving. I promise that isn't true.)


Every month, Chatting at the Sky shares what she learned. Big things and little things. Life lessons from the serious to the silly. I've decided I want to participate. Just another means of capturing who am I along this broken little road called life.