Autumn & Otherwise

Our friend JoNelle, who lives in upstate New York, told us she was scraping ice of the windows of her car by the fifteenth of September. It only made sense that we had our first frost last week in this little burg. It didn’t require scraping from anything, and it rained the following night, but it was a little kick in the backside that said “the year is ending! Hurry! Hurry!” Suddenly all the things we’ve been thinking we’ll get to “eventually” have a flavor and feeling of urgency.

It’s almost November – and we had so many things we thought we’d be done with by now! For one thing, on paper, D. is supposed to march at the University’s December commencement, but of course that isn’t happening. We are instead tying up loose ends – settling with the Council after receiving our paperwork from the University, “officially” submitting the dissertation/thesis after receiving paperwork from the University; filling out the last of our paperwork for the visa extensions after we’ve gotten an appointment with the University… (sensing a theme here?) The Home Office faithfully promises that we’ll get our passports and new visas back in a month, but we’ll believe all claims when we see them. Meanwhile, no holiday plans in place yet, but we’ll let those of us who are interested know something as soon as we do.

Meanwhile, we continue to learn new things!

And now it’s time for Drew’s Phrase Du Jour:

(You laugh, but occasionally Drew actually writes these up on the whiteboard at D’s work. He’s here to edify, people.)

The phrase D. heard was: I’m going to grass you up as the clype.
Translation: I’m going to rat you out as the snitch.
Clype: To inform on. A person who informs on others. A grass. A yopper. (Of course you know what a yopper is. It’s a clype or a grass. Didna I just tell ya?)

A fine Ayrshire phrase D. learned recently was “Gadsa boak.”
Gadsa: a portmanteau which means “gives us a”
Boak: a Scots vernacular word meaning dry heaves or vomiting.
Thus, gadsa boak means “you make me sick.” (In Glasgow parlance, gadsa might be replaced with “giesa.”) This phrase is often shortened to “gads.”
You are now duly edified.

What are we going to do when we no longer have these Vernacular Translation moments? Although, the fact is, anywhere we go outside of our home state, there are words and phrases which briefly bemuse us, and there are tons of people cheerfully mangling and rehashing English and its compatriot languages all around the world. It will probably never end.

Meanwhile, the wheel of life continues to turn. Congratulations to Thor & Helga who have had brought forth their firstborn, and to our friend Jules, who looks to be three minutes away from an event such as this. Autumn babies are great, because they give you a perfect excuse to stay home and bundle up and have quiet visits from friends. Doesn’t that sound great? – good food, friends dropping by, music, a warm house? We love autumn, and we’ll take any excuse for bundling up that we can get.

D. walks home of an evening, and smells the peat fires burning. It is cold and damp these days, but we are, so far, in good spirits. Lots of books and early bedtimes, and far too early of rising, for T., anyway, as she tries to get in an hour of exercise before the day begins, but our endorphins are happy, are moods are pretty good, we’ve got our sunlight lamps on, and we’re doing all right.

We’ll leave you with some of the beauty surrounding us these days:

YES. That is snow on the Campsie Fells (Or the Ochil Hills. Not sure).

Pax.