Pi Day

Pi Today, Gone Tomorrow

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After all the excitement of Pi Day (3/14), I’m not sure a nerd like me can survive. Next to the upcoming glory of Avogadro’s Day (6/02), nothing else is so exciting. For the non-nerds out there, Pi is a constant fundamental to Euclidean geometry, Avogadro’s number is a constant fundamental to chemistry as we know it. Together, they define what kind of universe we are experiencing.

On a more serious note, please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts. They are in the midst of a once in a lifetime disaster. (And beware the spammers and scammers if you donate to the relief efforts.)

march madness, weather

Full Circle

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Remember how I said that the weather went from snow and cold last Monday to the 70s by Thursday followed by wind, etc.?

This is the view this morning from the front door:

Yup, it is snowing to commemorate the joy of springing forward for daylight savings time. Nothing like cyclic weather to proclaim late winter.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term March Madness, doesn’t it?

late winter, rice, weather, wind

The Joy of Coming Spring and Other Oddities

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This has been a typical late winter week of weather here on the high plains. Monday and Tuesday it was cold and it snowed. Wednesday was undecided. Thursday it was warm, close to 70. Today it is warm but the wind is howling at a sustained 40 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. What will tomorrow bring? Who knows?

Enough about the weather. Let’s get on with another topic of late winter – dieting. It seems that the impending arrival of spring has a certain group of people diving head first into the idea of getting rid of the “winter excess”. Some have resorted to the more mechanistic approaches:

Others have been a bit more organic in their approach:

In any case, it can suck the fun right out of luncheon meetings when the diet monster is in full rage. Especially if you are the only one not eating a salad. {*grin*}

That brings my meandering mind to the topic of brown rice. The other night L was bemoaning (on the phone to me) the amount of time it takes to fix brown rice up in the mountains because of the altitude. The boiling point of water is so reduced at the close to 2 mile altitude that it takes forever (and at least twice as much water) to prepare brown rice there. Given that it is a 40 minute task down here at just less than one mile of elevation, you can imagine how long and frustrating it is up in the mountains. In any case, I could tell that L was frustrated. (After all, why call me to kill the time while the rice quasi-boiled away. Watching brown rice boil is not noted to be a source of high entertainment value. I can’t picture that talking to me while I fixed my supper and watching her rice bubble away has a much higher rating.)


More later …

hats, rant and rave

When did?

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This weekend L and I took her mother out to celebrate her 80th birthday at the steakhouse. One of the topics of discussion that came up was “When did it become acceptable for people to wear hats indoors?” There is nothing that says “lack of respect” like the idiots that wear their hat indoors at restaurants, sporting events, even funerals. It has reached the point that one often has to request that people remove their hats for any event.

As we looked around the restaurant, it seemed that at least half the males were wearing their dirty, sweat stained, baseball hats. (Although this being a rural area, many of the hats had farm and seed company logos rather than a baseball team.) And it struck me that sometime in the last 30 years it has become socially acceptable to for people to wear their hats in all manner of inappropriate places. I have been to funerals where those same people have had to be reminded to remove their hats in the church. Likewise for the national anthem, religious services, oaths of office, etc.

Even when the hat idiots are reminded to remove their hats, the result is often a blank stare of complete incomprehension. Somewhere through the years, the idea that wearing a hat indoors was disrespectful to the others present and to ones self has disappeared from our culture. So when did it go and why?

trivia

And the winner …

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… for the oddest call of the week thus far – Mr. Elliot of Los Angeles.

The call went as follows:


Me: Dan Jones
Him: Hello, my name is Mr. Elliot. I’m not sure where I got this number, but is Dan Jones still the mayor of Sterling.
Me: No, that is Larry Fetzer.
Him: So he was just elected?
Me: No, about a year and a half ago.
Him: How long is the mayoral term?
Me: Two years.
Him: Oh!
Him: You’re probably wondering why I called? Well, we are playing a trivia game here in LA and we needed those answers. Thank you. Bye.

Which leaves me with questions:

  • Why play trivia during the day?
  • Why ask obscure questions about small rural Colorado town when playing trivia in LA?
  • Why not go to the Sterling city website and look up the answers? After all, you did enough searching to associate me and find my number – why not finish the job.
Oh well, I can now say that I have officially been a part of a trivia question and answer from half a continent away. Can you say that?

Things Done Right