09/18/03’s illustrious band:

Hebetude

Brought to you by an online dictionary.

Hebetude means mental dullness, the sort one might experience before the first morning mug of tea or after watching network television. It’s the kind of condition in which you can’t remember your own phone number, but it doesn’t matter, because the person you’re trying to tell it to has gone mentally grey as well. When hebetude strikes, getting dressed takes 20 minutes; meetings become staring contests. The word strikes me as a good antonym for attitude; where one refers to dullness, the other refers to being sharp and pointy.

Surprisingly enough, and despite the cloudy skies, I’m not suffering from too much hebetude today. (That’s just my opinion; others may disagree.) I’ve produced some work product, taken part in some fruitful discussions and answered some Trivial Pursuit questions correctly. I was even able to change the radio station in my car without drifting out of my lane, which I can’t always do. Maybe I should have apple crisp for breakfast more often.

On a completely unrelated note, Mother Media wins this year’s Happy First Snow award for having spotted flakes yesterday. In accordance with tradition, she called to tell me about it. I was lying on my couch in shorts and a T-shirt at the time, watching my new Kim Possible video and thinking about firing up the central air to fight the humidity. Snow was the farthest thing from my mind, and not due to hebetude, either; it was still nearly 80 degrees in my house.

Mother Media won the HFS race last year, too, as I recall. Well, maybe I’ll beat her next time. The competition has gotten a little easier; at least Sister-san won’t be calling to crow from her new home in the desert.

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