Drip, Drip, Drip and Hillary's Nose

My photos this morning were taken two days ago with my cell phone. No way I could take any pictures yesterday without ruining a camera.  

It was that wet, and it stayed that way all day long. 

I tried delivering ZAGS posters to some of the folks on my list.  Had to stuff them under my coat to get them from the car to each home or office, etc. 

Yup, we had a seriously wet day yesterday, but it has stopped this morning, and that is good.  

I saw some hate talk other than politics on Facebook by late afternoon.  Some folks were going stir crazy cuz of the rain while others said they were forming gills and they were ready to escape to some place dry. 

We, in North Idaho, have been pretty spoiled the last couple of years because we haven't endured too many cases of the "days-on-end" drip, drip, drip.  

Showing no mercy with any even tiny sun breaks, yesterday's steady downpour reminded us of the usual weather patterns which we locals have experienced for a lifetime, 'cept over the last couple of comparatively dry years. 

During a portion of the day I had the TV on and worked on indoor projects while listening to the ongoing Presidential debate analysis.  

That said, I want to dispute something I heard and watched during the late afternoon. 

Before disputing or "debunking" I want to issue a disclaimer for anyone with short fuses these days before the election:  my observation is in no way meant to be politically biased.  Instead, it's based totally on personal experience.

During one particular segment, a body language expert was analyzing facial expressions and hand gestures of the candidates during the debate. 

I was casually listening at first but stopped in my tracks when the moderator promised that the body language expert was gonna let us know what Hillary's hand gesture of lightly sweeping her hand across her upper lip and nose area during debate discussion about emails or Wiki-leaks.  

But, then they said we were gonna learn  why she made that hand motion AFTER the commercial break. Gotta be on edge of our seats overflowing with curiosity when those breaks come. 

So, I went on about my business with an ear cocked to the TV so as not to miss this highly enlightening scoop of information. 

After all, while speaking in public, I've swept my hand over my face in the area of my nose a time or two.  

What intricate inner secret message could this telltale act be sending to observers, especially to body language experts????

I was actually getting a little nervous about what aspects of the "inner me"  had been transferred to folks in my audiences over the years----like my students or book lovers. 

So, when the body-language person came back on, I tuned in closely, even standing very near the TV, taking great care NOT to swipe my hand over my face, lest Wiki-leaks was secretly videoing me through my television set. 

Turns out Hilary's action, according to the body language expert, suggested anxiety and possibly guilt.  Well, that make a good story, especially when one considered that she performed this gesture right during the Wiki-leaks discussion.

But wait!  I was standing close enough to the TV to see that Hilary actually had some liquid just below one of her nostrils.  

Could it be?  

Could it possibly be that Hilary's nose was running and that she had tried discreetly----without stopping to reach into her pant suit pocket for a great big wad of Kleenex to wipe away the liquid that had "leaked" from her nostril? 

I looked even closer at my TV screen the next time they showed the gesture, and, sure enough, it was shiny wet under Hilary's nostril. 

The upclose and personal observation took this particular body-language interpreting novice back to some of those times, especially during the years of all those speeches I gave about my books, etc., when suddenly in the middle of my speech, my nose would decide to run.  

It's awkward, at best, when this happens in front of a bunch of people staring right back at you, while you're trying your best to remain poised and perfect and not have to reach in your pocket for that big wad of Kleenex and then dab it over your nose to try to stop that wicked leaking. 

Then, I remembered back a little further when this phenomenon in the midst of public speaking first started dogging me and, in those days, I had not yet learned to put a big wad of Kleenex in my pocket.
  
That was really awkward cuz then those uncomfortable moments would take me clear back to grade school when we were always advised by adults to quit wiping our noses on our hands or our shirt sleeves but we really had no choice because we didn't have Kleenex or a handkerchief in our pocket.

Those first few times of being Kleenex-impaired while speaking publicly were torturous as I had to endure the uncomfortable feeling of liquid seeping from my nostril and do my best when I thought no one was looking to quickly swipe my hand past that spot and get the damn nostril to quit leaking on me in front of all those people. 

While listening to the body language expert yesterday, I also thought about those times and did some quick analysis of my inner soul.

"I really don't think I was any more nervous than usual while speaking,  and, really, the only guilt I was feeling at the time had to do with my nose running in a very public setting and not quite knowing how to deal with the situation gracefully"  

Yup, that's what I recall about those quick hand swipes during my speaking experiences. 

The other aspect I recalled was that my nose tended to start running a lot more during public speaking situations when I was in my 60s than during my 50s or 40s.   

Sorta like Willie when he had lice in the third grade and announced to us at dinner one night that his head itched a whole lot more in third grade than it did in second grade. 

We took care of that propblem with some special shampoo, and eventually I took care of my ever increasing nasal drip in front of crowds by remembering to put a big wad of Kleenex in my pocket. 

Now, as far as Hillary is concerned, I'm betting she didn't want the audience of 60 million or so to see a big wad bulging out of the pocket of her white pants suit, so she decided to wing it and hope that her nasal passages would behave better than Donald's do when he is doing his public speaking. 

So that's what she did, and the nose ran and then the body language expert confidently concluded that she was feeling guilty and anxious----neglecting to note the moisture under her nostril that I could clearly see yesterday, even without my glasses. 

I'm wondering how much the body-language expert got paid by the network for that astute analysis.  Whatever the case, it made good TV, and probably only old codgers who've had runny noses while speaking public would dispute the claims.  

So, that's what I've done this morning.  I'm just one voice, but my journalistic background implores me to suggest another interpretation to that Hillary hand gesture. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Happy Friday.     

Liam sez hi and to have a good weekend while he has a ball.