Thoughts

It has been some time since I have written on this blog. To say that I was busy would, at best, be a lame excuse for not keeping up with the blog. I have feel strongly on a certain issue and I wish to express my opinions on such.

The topic dejour is 'handedness.' For years I have worked in the trades. I was a senior mechanic for the LDS church in the Greater Chicago area. During that time I became aware of doors and how they swing one way or another. This swinging of the door is called left or right handed. If it sounds confusing- it is. So rather then bore my ever wide ranging audience with a detailed description of handedness I will move into the topic of plumbing- which I also did in another lifetime. Unfortunately for me, the easily confused, plumbing required one to know right and left as well. The phrase "righty tighty, lefty loosy" comes to mind. It refers to the direction that something will turn. Without going to a sink do you know which side the hot water and the cold water are on?

While working in Chicago one of our plumbing vendors used a plumber by the name of Pat. Pat was a union plumber and not what one would think of as a stereotypical plumber. Not fat, no rear cleavage, and was sober when he came to the job. He had apprenticed as a plumber with a larger firm in Chicago and one of his journey men that he worked for always would take a card out of his pocket, look at it, and place it back in his pocket. The apprentices had no idea what the card was and curiosity was rampant. Unfortunately this master plumber died and his funeral was attended by a number of the plumbers that he had trained throughout the years. Curiosity won out as following the funeral a number of his former apprentices approached his widow and asked if she might have known what was on the card that he kept referring to as he worked. The widow reached into her purse and said "do you mean this card?" She drew out of her purse the well worn 3 x 5 card that was so familiar to all of the plumbers. They, in unison, nodded their collective heads as the widow handed the card to Pat. As he peered at the card he started to laugh. The other plumbers were very eager at this point to see what pearls of wisdom that the master plumber was passing on to his plumbing posterity. Pat turned to face the other young plumbers and read the back of the card- "Hot left side, cold right side."

I digress though. Nicknames are plenty for those who may be a left hander. Names like 'lefty,' 'southpaw,' or one we used in softball a lot (definitively not PC) 'hooker.' I am sure that there a number of others out there.

So why all this in bringing up handedness? Well my curiosity has gotten to the best of me as I have watched my loyal canine over the past few years and the thought came up- 'are dogs right pawed or left pawed?' Should I affectionately call her 'southpaw' because she is a dog and she does have paws? Maybe this is why my dog is receiving counseling from our favorite therapist.


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