Monday, January 18, 2021

Three to Catherine in Paris (cistercian numerals)

That envelope yesterday, the one to Atlanta, GA -- took 6 weeks and 6 days to arrive. Michael let me know that it had just arrived. So, if you are missing mail or if things you sent have not arrived, I think we can assume that there is still some backed-up mail yet to be delivered.

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Catherine sent a lovely Halloween envelope in 2019. It ended up in a stack of mail that needed responses. But, that stack just kept growing. Finally, on Nov 29, 2020, I made a vow. I was not going to bed until I made it all the way through the stack. It was a Sunday. I churned out a ton of envelopes. The orange envelope and the gold wreath were inside the candy cane. Catherine had also sent some other lovely envelopes with very special stamps -- so, I owed her more than just one envelope. The bonus of sending two inside the third was so that I could put non-international stamps, since they were not going through the mail.

So, did I make it through the stack? I think I had 4 to go and it was so dark and I was so tired, I just got ready for bed and when I crawled into bed, it was 6:30 pm -- oooops. That's a bit early, even for me. It made for a terrible night, because I fell asleep and then spent a couple hours from 1-3 wide awake.

Note to self. Look at the clock. In addition to not knowing what day of the week it is, even knowing the hour is getting to be a challenge. Although, I am writing this on Nov 30th. Who knows. Maybe by mid-January we will be coming out of our situation.
 

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No rant today -- just this very cool numbering system that Chuck sent to me. 

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with the BigHelpfulBrother (a math major) about the Roman numerals and arabic numbers. For as clever as they were, Romans had a pretty lame way of numbering. And then there is zero. I say zero is a number. BHB doesn't exactly agree with me. I think he calls it a placeholder. But, I have to be right. Empty space has to be as important as the things taking up space. How could we survive if we didn't have the nothingness in between the stuff. Nothingness absolutely deserves to be including as one of the units used to count and measure.

So, BHB, did you already know about the Cistercian numbering system?

Isn't it lovely?

I sorta wanna figure it out - but will refrain for the time being.

Link to more info about Cistercian numerals




1 comment:

  1. I think I have seen it before -- probably in one of my 'history of mathematics' reads. -BHB-

    ReplyDelete