Single Spacing and Waiting Games

Much to my chagrin I recently learned that the proper structure for writing is a single space after a period. It has been for many years, but I was taught the double-space method. At first I didn't believe it. That's even how my daughter was taught in school, and she's in her early twenties. It seems that teachers are as much in the dark as I was. Maybe you don't believe me, and that's fine. We're allowed our skepticism. If you really want to know, then I suggest you look up typographical style manuals and read what they have to say on the subject.

Why the confusion, you ask? Where did this double space come from? Well, it has a lot to do with typewriters when they were first coming into use. They used exactly the same width for each letter and space, so a double-space after a period became common to differentiate from odd spacing within the words themselves, such as with skinny letters like 'i' and 'l'. After a while typewriters were made that narrowed the spacing for skinny letter, and with computers it's the same thing. An 'i' doesn't use up as much width as an 'm', as you tell just by comparing those two letters on this page.  Courier is apparently the only font that really uses the old spacing, and it's Times New Roman that publishers and agents generally want manuscripts submitted in.

Now I find myself having to break the habits of a lifetime, and feeling really stupid about it. Oh, I was smug, you can believe that. I thought other people were doing it wrong if they didn't double-space. It takes a constant, conscious effort, and vigilance, to prevent the second hit on the space bar. Usually my thumb does it automatically, without any thought on my part. Since I've gotten back into my writing in a rather big way, I've finally done proper research into these things to be sure that what I submit is in the preferred format. I've looked up novel formatting, the proper structure of a title page, you name it, but never once did it occur to me that double-spacing was wrong. I found out about it from a daily writing prompt Tweet that I follow, which led me to further articles on the subject.


I think it's time I took a more serious look at grammar and punctuation, now.  I'm not too bad with it, but like anything there's always room for improvement. I guess I'll be studying those style pages in my giant dictionary.

As for the visit to the vet, Stimpy is on antibiotics for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully that will make him well again. If not, we're looking at something more serious that has no cure. We're presuming a kidney infection at the moment, but it still might turn out to be cancer. He's been sick for some time, and hasn't died, which I would think he'd have done by now if it was cancer, but there's no certainty. I'm still worried.

My vet is working with me to keep costs down, while still doing what's best for him. After all, delaying x-rays or ultrasound won't make much difference if it does turn out to be cancer. So, we'll wait and see. She said it should only be a few days before I notice that he's better, if the antibiotics are actually working. Because his symptoms have been intermittent, however, it may be a week before we can be sure. She'll be checking in with me next week.

Haven't heard from my ex yet, which isn't really a surprise, but it still concerns me. Of course, I've been worried about him for as long as I've know him. There was always something. He's more than a little bit self-destructive. That was probably one of the things that exhausted me so much when we were still together. It wasn't just emotional drama from fighting, but also the constant drama of worrying. I hate drama. I still get some drama just from being friends with him, but it's nowhere near as bad now that his impact on my own life is lessened. The level of intensity isn't quite the same.

I haven't had much sleep the last couple of days. Worrying about Stimpy, making sure he's eating, dealing with financial stresses, and just trying to pull everything together have ended with the result of poor sleep, and too little of it. Even Pepper has been worse than usual. He's been rather aggressive lately, and when he's playing he's gotten really rough with both Stimpy and one of the cats.

You'd think the cat, who outweighs him by about 13 pounds, would be able to defend himself, but apparently that's not the case. Pepper chomps on his ear and won't let go. With Stimpy he clamps onto his neck, and Stimpy starts making a yelping/squeaking sound and then I have to pry Pepper's jaws apart. It's a good thing they aren't usually left alone together. The last time my daughter and I both had to go somewhere at the same time, we put Pepper in my bedroom and left Stimpy out with the cats. They're more trustworthy in that respect than Pepper is.

I don't cage my ferrets. I don't even own a cage anymore. If I had to work outside the house, I probably would, and I'd probably cage them side by side, but in separate cages. They could still sniff at each other and lie side by side, but they wouldn't be able to bite through the bars. I knew when I brought Pepper into my apartment a couple of years ago, that he was far more aggressive than Stimpy, so none of this is a surprise.

He's calmed considerably since I've had him, even though he's not neutered yet. We're extremely gentle with our animals, so they've gentled on their own. If I ever saw someone hit their ferret I would go through the roof. It's not something you can do without hurting them. The worst thing they've received at my hands is to be scruffed (grabbed by the loose skin at the back of the neck like the mothers do), which just calms them usually. There's no pain. It's what the vet does. I think it has the effect of regressing them. Pepper will get a 'time-out' in my bedroom if he's being mean to the others, and that's about it. Occasionally exasperation will creep into my tone, however.

Speaking of naughty little ferrets, Stimpy has decided he does not like the taste of his medication, so he's fighting me on it. For the time being I have to get my daughter to help with it, but he may get used to it after a couple of days. He's had other medications, and it usually only took once or twice before he relaxed with it.

It does have the added benefit of forcing him to drink and eat right after he gets it. I assume he's trying to do whatever he can to get the taste out of his mouth. Eating more means a healthier immune system, and he won't be so weak and listless in general. Hey, whatever works. He gets his meds every 12 hours, so I just gave him the second dose a few minutes ago. I hope I'm not just fooling myself when I try to tell myself it's likely a kidney infection. Denial of the truth doesn't make it any less true. It just makes you blind.