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Published on January 22, 2004 By JCY In Home & Family
Thursday is one of my favorite days.  That is because I go to Albion in the afternoon.  Hardly anybody bothers me there. The students I see are -- generally speaking -- fairly well put together, don't have crummy insurance that gets in the way of what I am trying to do, and they all get better fairly easily.  Oh, and they seem to appreciate my efforts.  Once a month, I have  training seminar in which I get to act like an expert.  Anyway, today I ended the day feeling fairly relaxed.  I solved the problem of keeping the doors on the new barn open.  The Amish guys had left a couple of spare concrete blocks.  I was able to pick them up with my good arm, and prop the doors open.  Now the horses can get out of the wind.
The person we hired to take care of the horses, whilst we convalesce, is thinking of boarding her horse with us.  That would be pretty neat.  We wouldn't charge her anything, just so long as she helps keep the place clean (i.e. mucks the stalls) and does feeding and grooming while we are away or indisposed.  And it would give Yvonne someone to ride with when I'm at work.

As I am writing this, I feel warm and full and content.  We got a kind of mini-table/tray thingy that makes it easy to eat in bed, so I prepared dinner for Yvonne and she didn't have to get up.  My coworkers left some more food.  In fact, I think they messed up because we got two different dinners.  Some had to go in the freezer.  This largesse reaffirms my faith in humanity.  (Which sometimes is shaken, as illustrated in my political  blog.)  The word "largesse," by the way, is derived from the vulgar Latin word largita, which meant "abundance."  The phrase "vulgar Latin," in this context, refers to the everyday speech of the Roman people, as opposed to literary Latin.   It is a meaning distinct from the modern use of the word "vulgar."  It is derived from the Latin word vulgaris, which meant "of or pertaining to the common people."   The etymology of "common" is rather more convoluted:

common - 13c., from O.Fr. comun, from L. communis "shared by all or many," from L. com- "together" + munia "public duties," those related to munia "office." Alternate etymology is that Fr. got it from P.Gmc. *gamainiz (cf. O.E. gemæne), from PIE *kom-moini "shared by all," from base *moi-, *mei- "change, exchange." Used disparagingly of women and criminals since c.1300. Commons "the third estate of the English people as represented in Parliament" is from 1377. Common sense is 14c., originally the power of uniting mentally the impressions conveyed by the five physical senses, thus "ordinary understanding, without which one is foolish or insane" (L. sensus communis, Gk. koine aisthesis); meaning "good sense" is from 1726. Common pleas is 13c., from Anglo-Fr. communs plets, hearing civil actions by one subject against another as opposed to pleas of the crown.

That's all for now.

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