From and Form  

            

            I began typing in high school typing class. On a manual typewriter. One that had the little bell that dinged at the end of the line so you knew you had to zip the carriage back to the right. It made for strong fingers with those keys that squished down about an inch as you typed. The goal was to get up to thirty-five words per minute—without any mistakes. I never met the goal. But. Yes, a bell dinged “but.” I could sling that carriage back with the vigor of a man reaching for a hot dog at a baseball game. Ding-ity-Zing-ity. 

            My mistakes and typos over the years have haunted me. I can read things and since I write them, I apparently read what my mind says and not what my fingers type, so I do not see many mistakes. Not a good habit to have. Recently there is a hic-up in my brain that for some reason I have not been able to overcome. It has to do with the word, “from.” For some stranger than fiction reason every time, and I mean every stinkin’ time, I need to type from, form comes out.
 
            Now if form was not a word, my spell check would highlight it and I would zoom in on the boo-boo and fix it. In this case, form is a real word so spell check is not my friend. In that case, “from” may occasionally stay “form” in my story. Not good form to have from become form. Cha. Cha. Cha.
 
            I have learned how to have my computer read out loud to me. That is supposed to help me to find the mistakes in stories and letters.   It’s a man’s voice and very straight forward and no nonsense. Which I find rather snotty as my stories are written to provoke laughter and frivolity. My computer’s voice is not at all into funny. To hear my stories without emotion is kind of like throwing out a fishing line without any worm on it. It just lays on the water like a dead worm. A very light dead worm at that! 

            Oh there have been other words that I have overcome. Especially ones with those darn apostrophes. It’s and its. What’s up with that? I learned that the ‘s on a word is equal to making a word like it into it’s is like making it “it is.” That is not always the case. At least my spell check knows it’s right when it is supposed to be it’s as a plural of its not an it is! Again. Cha. Cha. Cha. 

            I have to give my English teacher Mrs. Mayes many kudos. A woman of patience who earned every gray hair on her head by the time I graduated! Just look at that line. There are patience-of stamina, patient-of tolerance, and patient-like in a doctor’s patient. Yes, “doctor’s” in that instance has that dang apostrophe! What about gray? Gray or grey? Holy Moses—And no apostrophe on Moses. Unless it is referring to something that he owns then it becomes Moses’.
 
            This “form and from” though has me in its clutches. I thought of something that might put the fix to this one. I sat down and typed “from” maybe a hundred times. Then did the same with “form.” Then sat down to write this story. HA! In typing just the title what do you think happened? Yep. Typed “form” TWICE! Not From and Form. It absolutely came out Form and Form.

I am hopeful though. I over came through and thought. I have learned that spend and speed are two different words. Come and coma should not be mixed up, ever. Oh and ever and never. Yikes and dikes. There are so many of these silly mix-ups that this little bump of form and from will also work its way through the channels of dikes and dams I seem to be floating down through though. 
I just hope that as a reader I can be forgiving as my readers might be to me when a typo is discovered. The tip of the typo though is just a form of coming from where its author has a thought and the words come faster than the fingers can keep up. Again and lastly. Cha. Cha. Cha. 

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka Nevada. Contact her at itybytrina@yahoo.com or Trina Machacek HC 62 Box 62101 Eureka, Nevada 89316