Remember the Fuchsia

I went down the hall yesterday to retrieve a document I had hoped (usually forlornly so this was a pleasant surprise) to print and was greeted with what, for the printer, was the equivalent of a Shakespearean soliloquy in the message box on the front. "Magenta cartridge is in need of immediate attention; check #2 paper tray as well." I very much liked that "as well" touch of humanity; almost as if there were a tiny person in the machine sending an SOS to the world.

The more I thought about it the less the message surprised me. I would have NO idea how many words the machine prints every day from a bout a dozen users some, believe it or not, even more prolix than I. It stands to reason a few of the words would be retained in the buffer someplace and reserved for the printer's use to deploy as needed. For instance when the magenta cartridge is in need of attention.

That's why I had to use that title today, circumstances insisted upon it. Besides, who doesn't like Nektar? Can you have a written rhetorical question? And is that a second one right there? And speaking of something else entirely, exactly which color is magenta and where does it show up on the color wheel? More imponderables.

Fell across a great article if you are related to me by blood, especially if you're a son or a brother of mine. We don't live in the Ozarks so you can only be one or the other not and the other. I was diagnosed a diabetic about a decade ago, perhaps even a little longer. And I just heard at least two people thinking "that explains a lot" which is not only hurtful but also less than correct. Politically and otherwise.

I'm very fortunate in that I'm not on insulin but have reasonably decent control on the disease through diet, exercise and medication. For some of the Kenny men, beyond the three original founding partners of the firm, Grandpa is semi-mythical as he had shuffled off this mortal coil before many of us were born but I don't recall in my life, or his (now that I think about it) his ever being diagnosed as a diabetic but a lot of the tell-tale signs of the illness were evident with him, but he wasn't a fan of doctors so a diagnosis would have been very unlikely. If you're keeping track at home, calling people a Polish thief is not one of the symptoms of diabetes.

As the first male child, chronologically, to cross all the bridges (so far (and no, that isn't a Chris Christie joke, though thanks for the thought), I tend to fret for my siblings first (it's in the job description for oldest child, you can look it up) and then for my own children. This type of hard-won knowledge will at some point down the line result in a 'breakthrough' that was a decade or more in coming and will be of some use and more value to the sons of the brothers though not so much the brothers themselves.

And that's all good as "You are me and that's the way it's always been, you are me."
-bill kenny