In my haste to get started on this blog yesterday, I somehow managed to miscount the days- twice!! So, in actuality, the 120th day will fall on Nov. 28th instead of the 29th. Initially when I made that discovery at 4 o'clock this morning, I was truly upset.I had been very excited that the numbers matched for days and chart squares; I thought it would be so perfect to finish the chart on the anniversary of Kenny's death; but then I got to thinking that I would just have to do something a little bit different on the final day. Which turns out to be very fitting because Kenny was a different kind of a person. He was quirky and exceedingly kind, with the oddest sense of humor. He was the most loving and lovable character most people would ever meet. Unfortunately, what made him special and unique also made him feel out of place. During his early teens he struggled to be accepted and fit in; in addition, there were only a few peers who liked him for who he was-he was cruelly bullied in Jr.High and had to be taken out of school for his own protection. That's when his self image really began to deteriorate. Thankfully, he had a few friends and a couple of them were his best friends till the end. Likely, they are reading this- you know who you are and I am eternally grateful that you were Kenny's friends. He loved you both very much!<3
Kenny and chemistry-] Kenny didn't particularly like school; however, he was always good at it. He learned quickly and kept up with his homework, which made him do well. Extremely well, but he wasn't the kind of guy who made a big deal about it. In fact, he didn't care too much for the recognition. I remember more than once he received awards for being on the Honor Roll in elementary school and he didn't even bother to tell me he was receiving an award, so I didn't get to be there for the award ceremony. One time I got upset with him for not informing me and his response was "it's no big deal". That must have been 5th grade.
Anyway, Kenny's love of chemistry began in high school. By the time he graduated, he had taken every chemistry class that Bullard High had to offer; including AP and Honors classes. Personally, I think Kenny's love of chemistry was highly influenced by Mrs. Lindley. He enjoyed her chemistry classes so much he wanted to take them all. He thought she was a supreme teacher and she made sense to him, fostering a desire for Kenny to learn all he could on the subject. Mrs.Lindley was one of his all time favorite teacher, in the top three for sure. When he went on to FCC he took a chem class every semester, but he was highly disappointed with the teachers.Never-the-less Chemistry was his chosen major. He had the brain for it- I, on the other hand managed to get an undergraduate degree in Child and Family Science without ever taking a chemistry class in my life. Ha-ha! Of course, if I had taken a class, Kenny would have been my tutor. :)
Random stuff-] As I wrote earlier, Kenny was a quirky kind of a guy. He was always coming up with strange stuff to do. One of those things was what I call 'random item of the day'. It just started out of the blue with Kenny taking a spatula to school and leaving it on his desk in every class.( I think it was his junior year of high school) It went on from there- he took a different house item every day-> a few spatulas, a sauce pot, cat toys, glitter balls, a mesh metal ? and !. It became a game in the morning-him looking for something to take to school. I would ask him "What's the random item of the day?" and we would laugh. Some of his teachers would allow him to keep the item on his desk and some wouldn't. Either way, he became known for taking something new to school every day. It went on for months and his classmates would eagerly await for whatever it turned out to be. I'm sure some of them remember better than I do the things he took, but I will try to come up with a list in the future.
After Kenny passed on, his best friend Ben took the cat toy to Mr. Fisher's room to be kept there in remembrance of Kenny. I was very touched by this gesture...Mr. Fisher is also in the top three favorite teachers so when he asked if he could keep one of the random items in his classroom Ben chose the cat toy with the spring holding a ball- it was one of the most popular items. The students played with more than the cat ever did!
As a way of honoring 'random item of the day' I thought I would choose a random topic and write about Kenny's connection with that. I hope I can come up with something everyday~ Yikes!!! Today's topic was the preceding Random stuff.
Lastly for today is element of the day: Day 2
#80) Hg- Mercury (Liquid)
Discovered in Antiquity. A stable metal, not reacting with air, water, most acids and most bases. Used for streetlights and advertising lights, fungicides, pesticides, batteries, caustic soda and chlorine production, catalysts, electrical equipment and silent electrical switches, also used wherever a heavy liquid is needed, such as barometers or thermometers.
Occurs rarely as native "quicksilver". Most mercury is recovered from cinnabar (mercury sulfide), mined in Russia, Mexico, Spain, and Algeria.
-all information taken directly from the Periodic Table
Well, that's all for now~ until tomorrow...
as Kenny would say "PEACE"
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