When you're an adult, security measures mean you lock your door, go through airport security, and make sure your toaster is unplugged. When you're a one or three year old, security measures means you have your special blanket, stuffed animal, and pacifier/thumb collected so that you can go to sleep.
On my short drive to work yesterday, I was idly wondering why colds are more prevalent in winter than in summer. I've heard all the theories about close proximity, etc., and then I happened to get a link to this site in my e-mail inbox. It doesn't really explain why colds happen more in the winter, but it does address the flu season. Happy reading. Hopefully the shelf life of this article isn't too short and you can actually access the article.
Hello, my finely feathered faithful readers. I'm back. I suppose most of you probably didn't know I was gone. I got back today from a quick trip to Mexico for work (3rd time this year - that's a record for me). It was one of those deals where I asked a question last Thursday in a meeting about something I saw in an e-mail, and next thing I knew the project leader was strongly recommending I be in Mexico for the meetings I had innocently inquired about. After the request for travel approval went way up the chain because of international travel budget restrictions, by the time I got the final approval on Monday morning, I had an hour and a half to book my travel arrangements and pack, and then I was headed to the airport. That way the company could make sure they spent the maximum amount on a plane ticket. :-) This is why anybody who works in corporate America likes the Dilbert comic strip.
That's it about it. I wasn't there long enough to make a big long list of stuff like I have in the past. I didn't even take any pictures. But I do recommend ordering the "arrachera" if you're ever in Monterrey. It is muy excelente. As usual, so was the salsa. Peace out, amigos.
As I was reading through a magazine the other day, I came across this familiar sight. Do I have anybody who can name this place? Here's two hints:
This weekend I was reminded of a quote I saw at an exercise club a few years back. It said, "Remember, holidays are people events, not food events." While I did enjoy the people, I also totally ate way too much. I've never eaten so many times in my life and so much food when I didn't feel hungry. But it just tasted so good! I didn't take any pictures either, so you're stuck with using your imagination to see all the fun times I had.
While driving to Thanksgiving dinner, I had a great idea. I think people should start making Thanksgiving songs. That way we wouldn't have to start listening to Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving. How in the world am I supposed to get into the Thanksgiving mood when all I hear on the drive to dinner are Christmas songs? Does anybody have a Thanksgiving song to start off with next year?
Why wouldn't you buy one of these? And while you're at it, take two, they're small. Which one is your favorite? I think my favorite is the surrendering deer.
View the Hitch Critters
After wearing these last week, I decided that it was probably time to dispose of this faithful pair, much as I would have loved to keep them. Unfortunately, they did not get the opportunity to be worn for the last time in Europe and then discarded in a European wastebasket. Not all sock dreams get to be fulfilled.
Don't you just hate it when the mice who live near your hot tub ignore all the "Swim At Your Own Risk" and "No Lifeguard On Duty" signs and go swimming in your hot tub anyway? Then you have to scoop their bodies out when you find them a couple days later and fully drain the tub. Blech.
On a different note, a couple weeks ago a technician in the lab retired. That's not very remarkable in itself, but what was remarkable was that he filled out all the paperwork with HR and all that, but his boss didn't know until 4:00 PM on the day before he retired that he was retiring. Now that's what I call a lack of effective communication. The technician was a bit of an odd duck to start with, but I that still takes the cake on retirement stories so far. Ironically, his name is Norm.
At the end of the day today I was feeling a bit down as the day didn't go all that well. But, when I checked another blog I regularly visit, I was reminded that I forgot to think of three things I'm thankful for today. I've noticed that's much harder to do on a not-so-good day. So here goes. I'm thankful...
I was scheduled to go to Korea for an "emergency" work situation next week. But alas, they decided I needed to stay home and continue my work here while they sent someone else to deal with the situation. Lucky me I'll probably get to be on a conference call with Korea in the middle of the night instead. Oh well maybe next time. There's always Mexico in the January/February time frame.
Here's a few pictures from the last week. I've seen the fox in the picture below three times in a week's span. This is the best picture I managed to get of him.
Tonight Reggie almost ran over a baby raccoon. Raccoons, foxes, opossums; the wildlife has really been out in force this fall.
I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday, and they already had some Christmas stuff set up outside. On November 3rd! The poor pumpkins weren't even cold in their graves yet, and the turkeys haven't even approached the grave. The candy hadn't even fully settled in the kids' stomachs! I would advise selling any stock you have in Wal-Mart because I think their health insurance is going to increase sharply after all their employees go stark raving mad from listening to Christmas music for two months straight. I kid you not - they already had the Christmas music going over the PA system. Too far, Wal-Mart. Too far.
I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I finally heard about a Hannah Montana concert on the radio enough times that I had to go and look up what exactly the rage was all about. I also heard some mom on the radio a few weeks ago saying that she had bid more than $1200 on e-bay for a pair of tickets to a Hannah Montana concert so that she could take her daughter to it. At that time, the bidding wasn't closed yet either. Can you believe that? That's totally out of control.
I had a request to explain a couple of the previous engineering jokes. The two jokes with the punch lines were based off a mathematics/physics concept call a cross product. To explain a cross product, you have to start with a vector. A vector ALWAYS has a magnitude (scalar value) and a direction. A cross product is the multiplication of two vectors, and the result of the cross product is another vector that tells you how close to being perpendicular the two vectors are. The direction of the resultant vector is always perpendicular to both of the vectors that were multiplied. Thus, three dimensional space is required to do this operation.
If you cross vector A with vector B, the resultant magnitude is A*B*sin(angle between A and B), and the direction is determined using the right hand rule. Put your right hand fingers in the direction of A, fold your fingers toward B, and where your thumb is pointing is the resulting direction. When A and B are perpendicular (90 degrees between them), the sine of 90 degrees is 1, so the resulting magnitude is A*B. If the two vectors are parallel, the sine of 0 degrees or 180 degrees is 0, and the cross product is the vector 0.
One of the most common uses of the cross product is to determine torque. Usually you have a distance vector determined by the length of your wrench that points parallel to your wrench. Then you exert a force on your wrench perpendicular to the wrench, which when you take the cross product of these two vectors causes a torque in a direction perpendicular to the force and the distance. This is also why a longer wrench creates more torque - because the magnitude of the torque (cross product) is determined by the force*distance. The other common use of the cross product is to determine how much force a magnetic field will exert on an electronic charge.
So, the reason the joke is funny when it asks what you get when you cross a grape with an elephant is because the answer takes the cross product of the vector grape with the vector elephant. Statistics show 99% of the population considers these kinds of jokes to be lame. And, in order to take a cross product, both things must be vectors (no scalars allowed!).
Did you make it through all of that? How much drool is on your keyboard? Any vacant eyes yet? Was that so exciting that now everybody wants to be an engineer? Was the explanation so skilled that I should become a math or physics teacher? Probably not since it's hard to cram a whole semester of physics into a two paragraph explanation. ;-) But, it was fun for me to take a trip down college class lane. Next week: The joys of taking a dot product using vectors.
What is up with the opossums lately? In the last three days I've seen at least three of them, and I could have run over two of them if I had tried even a little bit. I'm pretty sure the ones I saw tonight weren't little kids dressed up.....
And here's your greeting for the season.
Last week a lady at work brought up a good question that I was reminded of this evening when I went to use a ziploc bag. Why do those types of bags always come out of the box sealed? Do they test the seal of the bag before they ship it? Does it make it easier to put in the box? Does it keep contaminants out of the bags? Does anybody know the real answer to this? Has anybody ever toured a Ziploc factory? I already asked Jeeves, and he didn't know.
For part of the past week and weekend, I was in Nashville for a National Society of Women Engineers convention. It was a lot of work and very exhausting, but lots of fun too. Below are a few pictures of some of the things we did.
The first night, there was a genuine George Jones sighting. I guess his aging process has been a little bit out of the ordinary since his skin turned color and everything. I also saw Elvis and Tony the Tiger while in Nashville, but I didn't get any pictures of them unfortunately. And, I was told that the "real" Garth Brooks was in the building while we were there, but we were busy working and couldn't go to see him.
This week my car needed a minor repair on its exhaust system, and I was reminded again that my car is getting sort of old. I have been contemplating getting a new one, but Reggie still runs too well to get rid of him yet, and the other problem is that I don't know what I want. But to be prepared, I should probably try to figure this out ahead of time so that when Reggie finally gives up the ghost I'm only in a mild state of emergency.
Here's my criteria for a new vehicle:
Today I did things a bit differently. I didn't go so far as to do my evening activities first and then go to work. I went to work like usual. But, after work, I went outside and ran around and got all sweaty, then I went to the YMCA and changed out of my exercise clothes and into my "Tuesday -go-to-meetin' " clothes, then left. I was there for probably less than 10 minutes. I betcha the people manning the front desk don't see that real often. Possibly because the people who do goofy thing like that slip out the back door so it's not so obvious how goofy they are.
Al Gore? A Nobel Peace Prize? I feel like a grandparent who always bemoans what this world is coming to. But I read in a magazine just yesterday about how to improve our lives we should count every day three things we are grateful for and not dwell on the negative so much. So, I'm grateful.....
I was at a restaurant yesterday, and near the cash register was this small urn thing with a cork stopper, and on it someone had painted "Ashes of Rude Cell Phone Users". Apparently they hadn't had any rude customers lately because it was empty. Or else they have so many they have to empty it really often.
I turned my furnace on last night (October 10th). My aunt and uncle stopped by for the night, and it got kinda cold yesterday and looked like it was going to stay that way for a couple days. It's ironic that two of the three times this year that I've had overnight company corresponded to the day that I turned my AC or furnace on.
So let's see now....October 1st to October 10th would be.....9 days. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner who guessed correctly! I have no clue who it is, but if whoever it is wants a free blog post on this site, that's the usual prize. Apparently no one wants to be associated with this site too badly as I haven't had any takers on this offer from my previous polls.
That's about all that's happening here, folks. The daylight hours are rapidly getting shorter, and it's cold, drizzling, and dreary here. This all leads to an increased "depression index" that must be combated with trips to the YMCA and going somewhere on the weekend. The sunny side is tomorrow is Friday with a whole weekend ahead! Later gators.
The person I went on the hike/walk with was a very nice, kind, enjoyable LADY who has two teenage daughters and a husband. :-) Sorry to dash your hopes! And Eva, I'm not quite sure I understood your comment from the previous post. You didn't like my nature pictures? Or maybe they weren't as good as my prose from the post before it? Or was that sarcasm that didn't come through very well?
I'm not sure if I would include convention stew, but I should definitely add convention strogonaff to the list of fall foods. Mmmm....Mmmmm....Mmmmm.
I don't have much to say today, but I thought I would post a couple pictures from a walk we took going through some DNR land yesterday. I went to visit some friends a little over an hour away, and we had a good time with a bonfire, racquetball, and this nature hike. I also went with them to a thing called "If These Stones Could Talk", which was a theater thing in the local cemetery where you went to seven different graves of people from the history of the town, and an actor would pretend to be that historical person and tell you about him/herself. That actually was better than I had expected. They use some of the proceeds from the event to restore old graves in the cemetery. Enough with all the chatter, here's the pictures.
The danger of wild grapevines (picture above).
There's something about the start of a new season that I always like. It doesn't really matter what the new season is, it's just fun to know that there's new things coming.
Right now, the changes of fall are coming. You can hear and smell the rustle of dry leaves (in the trees and on the ground) and see the beautiful fall colors of the trees. It's still nice and warm during the day, but then in the evening there's a crispness in the air that's perfect for bonfires and hot apple cider. I haven't thought of this in awhile, but it also reminds me of being a kid and running around in the freshly tilled dirt after the potato harvester went through the garden. Speaking of harvesting, soy beans and field corn gets harvested around this time too. There's nothing like sitting in the combine and listening to some AM radio or some "real country" on an FM station. And let us not forget the foods: crisp apples, squash, and....other stuff I can't remember right now.
On the first day of winter (weather-wise, not the technical day), I love how the ugliness of late fall gets covered by that first fresh covering of pure snow. And, the snow makes the world so silent. Not only that, you can pull out your snowboard or skis and dream about the fresh powder coming in the next few months. It's also the perfect time to slow down a little, play a little music, organize your digital pictures, and cuddle up by the fire while reading a good book. You also might look forward to the next couple months when it gets really cold and you can go and ice skate on the pond in your backyard or else see a college or amateur hockey game. Favorite foods of the season: hot chocolate, tea, soups, grapefruit, and lefse.
Then comes spring, where you can finally take off your winter clothes and go outside without a coat. The air has that "fresh" smell that soap and deodorant makers try to imitate, the world once again turns green, and the tulips bloom. You can quit going to the YMCA so much and start doing exercise stuff outside again. I think I expounded on the virtues of spring in a previous post, so I won't belabor this season. Foods to look forward to when spring comes: strawberries, asparagus, and strawberries. OK, I kinda drew a blank there. Maybe you can help me out.
Finally, summer arrives. It feels good to go outside after freezing in the air conditioner at work and feel nice and HOT. There's always the beach, waterskiing or wakeboarding, bicycle riding, tennis, canoing, etc., etc., etc. Some other bonuses of summer are outdoor concerts, eating outside, lots of daylight hours, and easy driving. A few of the many best foods: fresh blueberries, peaches, raspberries, cucumbers, anything made on the grill, corn on the cob, and peas and potatoes picked that day from the garden.
OK, that wasn't comparable to Henry David Thoreau or anything, but I'm hoping you don't usually look here for that kind of stuff anyway. I suppose I could get used to Florida or Hawaii where the seasons never change, but I'm afraid I might get bored. That's it for now folks, now go take on the day and the new season!
twenty years later. Surprisingly, she didn't have any stories to tell on me (good or bad). I was going to upload a picture of her and me from twenty years ago, but my scanner is out of commission at the moment. I may still need a babysitter now too, but my parents quit providing one, and I haven't hired one myself yet. :-)
When I was back home where I grew up this past weekend, I was reminded of the book "If You're Not From the Prairie", which was written by David Bouchard and and Henry Ripplinger. The line I was reminded of from the book was "If you're not from the prairie, you don't know the wind, you can't know the wind." The wind was blowing incessantly while I was there, but to me it's part of being home and almost like seeing an old friend. Anyway, if you haven't read this book, I would recommend it, especially if you grew up on the prairie. It summarizes the growing up experience very well.
On another note, what is the point of summer if inside every building it feels like the arctic? At the place I've been at for work the last couple days, I have to put my coat on to go inside and take it off to go outside, where the temperature has pleasantly been in the 80's.
Look out world, I learned how to shoot a gun today. Today was the annual department outing/team building at work today, and one of the options for the morning activity was to go to the local shooting range/boxing ring/fitness center. I chose to go there instead of golfing. I got to shoot all sorts of guns such as a 38 (special and 357 magnum bullets), a semiautomatic 45, semiautomatic 22 pistol, a shotgun, and a semiautomatic AK47. It doesn't get much better than that. I think the only thing I missed shooting was the 22 rifle and the 9mm. And until today, none of that above mumbo-jumbo meant anything to me.
In the afternoon we played a little softball, tennis, volleyball, and cornhole. I am thoroughly sore now! What was interesting was that it was almost impossible to predict who would choose to go shooting and who would choose to golf. People I thought for sure would want to shoot went golfing, and some people you didn't really think of as interested in guns went shooting.
That's all for now. Have a good weekend everybody....
Today's thought on bathrooms involves choosing stalls. My theory is that if people enter a bathroom and a stall is already occupied, their natural tendency is to choose a stall so that there is at least one empty stall between them and the occupied one. And, if somebody goes into the bathroom and it's empty, they will choose a stall (when possible) so that if another person comes in they will be able to put one empty stall between them. Don't ask me what the behavior theory is for urinals since I don't know and don't really plan to do any observations to find out. Maybe my male readers could tell me.
Here's one more thought that I have come up with on this topic over the past year or two. I think all of this new-fangled technology has taken some of the art out of road trips. It has taken some of the hassle out of it too, but we're going to focus on the art part today. Nowadays, when people go on a long trip, they bring along their Game Boy or handheld PlayStation (whatever they're called), their DVD player, their mp3 player, their cell phone, their GPS, books on CD/tape/mp3, and who knows what else. Using all of these gadgets, everyone can fully ignore everybody else in the car for the entire trip unless you have to request a bathroom stop, and in that case you just send a text message. :-)
Whatever happened to riding in the car and having a deep meaningful conversation, doing Chinese fire drills, playing the "who can keep their hand on the window the longest when it's 20 below" game, playing the license plate game, the alphabet game, everybody's mother's favorite "little red schoolhouse" game, singing songs a capella, getting lost because someone can't read the map, making signs to put in the windows of your car, tormenting your siblings because you're bored, and listening to your sister scream because your brother is bored and is tormenting your sister? I was also going to mention using walkie-talkies between cars, but maybe that counts as a new technology?
I don't think the art is completely dead yet though. A few months ago I met some kids from Minneapolis who still know how to do a road trip up right. They were doing all sorts of fun things including running to the thrift shop next door while gassing the car up, making up little car dances, and making the person whose turn it is to put in gas do something silly while they put in gas.
I agree with Jen that this remote communication stuff keeps people in their "bubble" more. But I try to resist this temptation sometimes and get out there and meet new and interesting people. And get to know some old friends better.
Here's a couple other random thoughts:
Reggie now has an opossum and a squirrel under his belt for the year. The opossum barely made any kind of thump, so it may not have been a direct hit.
There are some days when I'm at the YMCA when I wish I had a camera. Today I saw a lady on an exercise bike reading a newspaper with one pair of glasses on her face and another pair of glasses on her head in her hair. That just kind of struck my funny bone.
One of the best inventions ever was mapping programs on the computer. That's a definite good addition to the modern road trip. Maybe the next post will be all the benefits of road tripping with new technology.
Someone opined to me many months ago that people are more likely to say things on the internet, instant messenger, and e-mail that they would never say in person. I think that is probably true. The question then becomes: Do people do that because there is less personal interaction and they don't think about and can't see how their words will be taken by the other person? Or is it that people are more true to who they really are when they aren't face to face with somebody? Or, are they more likely to lie because they know it's less likely they will be caught when the person can't see their body language? With all these new and less personal methods of communication, will we start to have more and more antisocial people on the earth? Or is the human desire to have personal contact strong enough to prevent this?
I think people still know subconsciously that these remote methods of communication are not a substitute for personal interaction. At work, I work with people from at least three different countries almost every day, and I'm sure all the people at work, including me, would tell you that more effective work gets done when you have met the people you are working with in person. It's even more effective to sit near them every day while you work.
With all the blogs people have started, will this help people stay more connected or less connected to others? I definitely keep up with the lives of people who don't live near me much better if they have a blog. But, I don't see them or call them any more frequently. I just know what's going on in their life. Is that then a false sort of connection with someone? Are blogs a way for people to feel like they have had a conversation with someone when in reality they're only talking to themselves? Kind of like I'm doing now...
My favorite example that illustrates the ridiculousness of all this remote communication is when you see 3 or 4 teenagers in a car hanging out and cruising, and each one them has a cell phone attached to their ear. It's like, "Why are you bothering to try to be near each other if you're going to ignore each other?" By the way, that is one of my bigger pet peeves is when people come to visit you and then spend large portions of their time on the phone not visiting with you. Or vice versa, where somebody calls you and then spends all of their time talking to people in the room with them while you're on the phone. My biggest pet peeve is people who don't know how to listen. Laces Out Dan says that I have a lot of pet peeves, but I'm not sure that's true.
By the way, I don't have any answers to these questions, I just like to stir the "thought pot" every once in awhile.
If you don't know exactly where the Mason-Dixon line runs, here's another way to tell. You can tell you're in the south when they ask you if you want iced tea and it comes already sweetened. You're in the north if they ask you if you want iced tea and the default is unsweetened.
If a dyslexic person drives through Lansing, MI where I-69 and I-96 meet, what is the probability that they will end up on the wrong road, assuming they do not have GPS?
I don't have time to post something deep and meaningful, so here's a funny picture to tide you over the Labor Day Holiday. I believe its caption is "New Riding Lawnmower", and usually there's a good story to go along with it about a wife nagging the husband to get her a new riding lawnmower, so he does. Have a good weekend everyone!
Here's a brief summary of how I did in the triathlon. Maybe I'll post a picture later (later as in the next few days). The weather on Saturday was a bit chilly at Detroit Lakes, MN. The air temperatures were in the 60's with wind and threatening rain the whole time. Needless to say, it made the swim a bit rough.
Place out of females ages 29 and under: 27 of 29
Place out of all females: 68 of 76
Total time: 1:45:18
Swim time (1/3 mile): 27:40
Transition from swim to bike time: 3:42
Bike time (10 miles): 41:54
Transition from bike to run time: 1:04
Run time (3 miles): 31:00
Needless to say, I wasn't really burning up the track there, but I didn't drown, and I finished in less time than I thought I would, so it was all good. Contrary to Jen's belief, I had been planning to do this most of the summer, although you probably couldn't tell that from the amount I was exercising. What do you mean, I'm supposed to train? Plus, if I told everybody in advance, it would make this blog boring. I like to spring a surprise on my readership now and then.
Whoever you are that guessed that it would take me between 1.5-2.0 hours to finish, you guessed correctly. Once again, you get a free subscription to this blog and a possible opportunity to put a post on this wonderful publication. And to whoever guessed it would take me more than 3 hours I say, "Oh ye of little faith."
I was at one of my company's manufacturing divisions this week, and apparently sometime in the last year the city had passed an ordinance outlawing smoking in buildings. Anyway, what the company had done was build these little 10'x12' buildings with benches inside and windows all around so that employees have a designated place to smoke outside the building. I saw at least five of these little enclosures (I called them smoke shacks), and there were probably more of them.
On one hand it's sort of nice of the company to do that for the employees, but on the other hand it's sad if the union demanded that be done. It's even sadder that so many people use those smoke shacks. I don't know what the real motivation for the shacks was. In the design center where I work, they don't have smoke shacks. You're not allowed to smoke on company property unless you're in your car.
The 5.5 hour drive home was interesting. I went through an area where they were having severe thunderstorms. I saw some hail (luckily I had a rental car), and it was raining so hard part of the time that I had to pull over. I could see almost continuous lightning for about 1.5 hours. Speaking of rental cars, I was lucky enough to get a red Mustang. The only problem was there were too many cops in Indiana to put it through its paces.
That's all for now. Wish me luck in the triathlon!
And I'm not talking about the music. An "old" friend from college stopped by last week for a little over a day. Why, she must be at least three months older than me. We had fun going to the beach, then going to the beach again. And, we rented a kayak and tried that out on the big lake. What is that they say about friends? They're like M&M's? You know when you've picked a good one or something like that. Or maybe that was a wedg.....never mind. We saw a killer sunset too. It looked like Chicago was on fire.
By the way, you're all welcome to come and visit anytime (as long as I know you or you know someone I know). If you give me some warning, I might even clean the house for you.
Earlier this week, I did the scabies treatment, and it wasn't as bad as I had dreaded it to be. You put a medicated lotion/cream on your entire body from the chin down (under fingernails, armpits, soles of feet - everywhere), leave it on overnight, and then wash it off. Then they recommend washing in hot water all the clothes, sheets, and towels you've used in the last two days. The cream made my skin tingle some, but other than that it was OK. My new washer and dryer got a workout; I don't think I've done so many consecutive loads of laundry before in my life. Scabies actually are fairly "fragile", and most websites I read said that scabies can only last 24-72 hours at the most without a host, and usually they are only spread by direct skin-to-skin contact. That is apparently why you don't have to do a whole house disinfection.
After reading all about scabies, I'm still not sure if I had them or not. First of all, I'm not sure where I could have gotten it. Maybe on the Amtrak train? Maybe from the hotel sheets in Mexico? Maybe from kissing all those people in Mexico? :-) I wonder if they can live in a pool that's not properly chlorinated (Mexico again)? All of those situations fall in the 2-6 week time frame, but none of them fit the "direct skin-to-skin contact" requirement it doesn't seem, and I can't really think of any "skin-to-skin" scenarios. I did itch quite a bit, but it wasn't keeping me awake, which some sites said they would do. Maybe they hadn't gotten bad enough yet. There did seem to be a correlation between doing the treatment and the itching not being as bad, but it was only a correlation and not a proven causation. I guess I will never know for sure. "Usually" you can not get them through handshakes and brief hugs, but just in case I did have scabies and they beat the transfer odds, if you've seen me in the last 6 weeks, be on guard for unbearable itching symptoms!
Speaking of human parasites, if you're going to get one, probably scabies isn't so bad. You do NOT want bed bugs. Those suckers can live for up to 18 months without a host, only come out to feed about once every 5 days, and they can hide in all kinds of cracks and crevices from what I read. Fleas too can apparently live weeks without a host. Sure, the symptoms of scabies are worse, but I think I would prefer that to living in fear of other parasites reoccurring months or even a year later. Maybe a tapeworm would be preferred over scabies though? I've never had one, so I don't know......
Two of you guessed correctly that it would be 11-20 days from July 13th before I turned on my air conditioning. I turned it on last night (20 days from Day 0). I think this is a new personal record. Last year I turned it on around July 17th or so if I remember correctly. The cooler weather here in July helped. For those of you who guessed correctly, you get a free year's subscription to the MelB Marvis blog! Maybe I'll let you do one post sometime if you let me know who you are.
I won't bore you with too many details here, but I've had itching/rash over my legs and arms for more than a week, so I finally went to the doctor. The doctor said, "My first suspicion is poison ivy, and my second one is scabies." So he called the physician's assistant in to look at it too. He looked at it, and then they went out into the hall to have a consultation amongst themselves. It was only semi-private as I could hear them somewhat through the door. When the doctor finally came back, he said, "I think it's probably poison ivy, the P.A. thinks it's scabies, so we arm wrestled to determine which diagnosis you got." After a little bit of discussion, I decided that if it was poison ivy I would just tough it out, and in case it was scabies I would do the treatment for scabies. If the scabies was cured by the treatment, symptoms would generally go away in two weeks, which was about the same for poison ivy. So unless the scabies has a relapse, I'll never really know which one it was. Nice. Engineers hate not being able to find the definitive root cause.
Interesting fact: If it's the first time you've had scabies, they usually take 2-6 weeks to make themselves evident. If you've had them before, you're more sensitized, and symptoms will appear within days. Other interesting fact: Scabies can sometimes be commonly known as "the itch" or "seven year itch" and is fairly contagious.
Here's an AC update now that my poll is closed: So far I haven't turned it on, but it's possible I may have to in the next couple of days since I have company coming and the temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 80's and lower 90's for at least the next five days. I may have to be courteous to my visitor and turn it on. Plus, being warm makes the itching worse, so I might do it for my own comfort too.
It looks like the old "blog" days of summer have set in for all of the bloggers out there. You know, that time in late July and August when it gets really nice outside and you just don't feel like blogging. It's also when us bloggers actually have a tiny bit of a life and don't feel as compulsive about documenting that life because we're too busy living it.
Or, could it be that blogging was a fad, and now that I've jumped on the bandwagon it's scaring everybody off? Actually, I think I'm pushing them off and underneath the tires......and that'll be enough silliness for today, OK?
We have a lovely drawbridge here in town (actually, we have two), and as I was sitting in my car today waiting for the drawbridge to go down, I thought of a great bridge crossing process improvement. The city should install a sign on either side of the bridge that tells drivers what kind of drawbridge event is currently going on. If it's going to be a "quickie" where the bridge just goes up and then down to let a few large sailboats through, they could display something like "No need to panic, this will be only a short delay". But, if the big freighter is coming in and the bridge is going to be up for half an hour while it squuuueeeeeeezes through the drawbridge, then they could say "Wait will be long - us the other bridge, doofus". I think you get the picture. Wouldn't that be so much better? And today, they could have told me "Medium delay - a couple medium sized ships coming through". That way I could have read the sign ahead of time and made an educated turn before I got hemmed in at the stoplight right before the bridge.
Speaking of the drawbridges, it is about the only valid excuse you could use to be late to an early morning or after-lunch meeting here. The "caught in traffic" excuse just doesn't fly for some reason. I'm not sure, but I think to use that excuse the town actually has to have some of that traffic stuff. The other excuse that could maybe work is "I got stuck at the railroad tracks" because of the train that went through, but that one is risky because the train goes right by (and I mean RIGHT by) the building where I work, so if your boss is observant......you may be out of luck there. Unfortunately, I can't use either excuse in the morning since my house and work are both on the same side of the drawbridge AND the train tracks. Now after lunch...........of course I don't use the excuses then either. Come on people, what do I look like, a slacker?
What to say, what to say. I suppose I could recap my weekend, but I don't really feel like it, and I haven't downloaded the pictures from it either. Hmmm....I got nothing, people. There's nothing to see here. It's just the start of another work week and another nice summer day gone. I didn't have any meetings at work today, and I don't have any scheduled for tomorrow either, so some REAL work is getting done. I guess I'll just say "Hi" to the rest of my family who's having fun "Spending the day(s) in Medora". And, belated Happy Birthday to my older sister. You know who you are. Move along folks, move along.
Yep, I installed these babies myself (with some help from some friends at work who helped deliver them and manhandle them into the basement). I'm not sure if those guys are still my friends or not. ;-) They're the Whirlpool Duet Sport laundry pair. They're the slightly smaller version of the original Duets, but no less powerful of course.
Installing these got me to thinking, "Why do we almost always put the washer on the left and the dryer on the right?" I figure by now it's pretty much industry standard and makes construction, plumbing, electrical wiring, appliance manufacturing (default door swing), etc. easier and cheaper, but who decided that would be the industry standard? Is it because we read from left to right, so people figure they should also do laundry left to right? Does that mean the ancient Chinese did their laundry from right to left? In Europe, they must be confused about which way to go because the majority of people there don't even have a dryer. Maybe they install their clothesline to the right of the washer?
Why is it that you see the most spectacular sunsets whenever you don't have a camera, but when you make sure you take your camera with you, then you usually see mediocre sunsets and scenery?
Murphy's Fourth Law states that whenever you want to shut down your computer quickly at work, Microsoft Windows always decides to "save your settings" for five minutes before it shuts down that day.
A few days ago in a land underground, there was a group of people working on some cooling machines who called themselves engineers. Above-ground dwellers have been known to call these people enginerds. Comments like "You can't spell geek without a double 'E' " have been made on occasion, and sometimes a snide and/or uneducated comment about trains comes into the picture.
Anyway, I digress. These engineers were looking to make their team more cohesive, to get a day away from the underground world of work, and to give a proper send-off to one of their own who would be returning to the land of Marco Polo's spices shortly. They had heard rumors of an above-ground city called Chi-town, so they decided to go there to accomplish the afore-mentioned goals. Plans were made, and the date was set.
The engineers arrived in Chi-town mid-morning, as illustrated. Obviously, the engineers had not fully learned the etiquette of the above-ground dwellers and how to correctly enter the city. After struggling a bit with getting their bearings and finding out how many engineers it takes to read a map, they were on with their adventure for the day.
The first stop was lunch (engineers will always eat), but the scenic route was taken en route. The engineers managed to find the right buses, travel down the Magnificent Mile, and after a little bit of walking arrived at the restaurant of the owls, where many wings of chickens were eaten. Unlike the chickens shown here, these chickens had been cooked and were sans feet and heads.
After leaving the restaurant of owls, the next planned stop was Fancy-Plates-City, where there was known to be more restaurants. On the way to fancy-plate land, some other sights were seen, and some practices noticed that weren't completely understood.
It is still unknown what eyebrow threading is because the engineers were too afraid to discover what it was. They also tried to stop and get some honey from the giant honeycomb, but for some reason the above-ground cars were occupying the honey spaces, so they moved along.
One engineer was almost lost when he suddenly grew a strong attachment to a statue. The other engineers laughed and pointed at first, but eventually went to his aid and freed him.
They made it to the town of fancy plates, but not before missing the bus stop for it and having to ask the bus driver to turn around and take them back. There were many things to see here besides fancy plates, including LOTS of teas, and if desired, a light snack of dried anchovies. A search was also started for "dragon eyes", but apparently they weren't quite in season as the only thing close to it that was found was lee-chee (don't know the Chinese symbol for that).
Eventually they made their way to a restaurant, where they tried some new and interesting dishes like you would find in the land of fancy plates. They tried things like duck, kabob lamb, spicy fish soup, chicken (cold, hot, and deep fried), spicy cabbage, and noodle (singular, never plural). The only thing they didn't try was the rabbit stew because there were just so many options, they couldn't try everything.
After that meal, it was time to head back home to their underground world. That process involved taking the bus, walking, hopping on a train, and taking a car drive after that. The train ride was fairly uneventful except for the above-grounder who was crowding one of the engineers and threatening him with her weapon. From the picture, he didn't seem to mind too much.
And they all went back to work the next day very tired. And yes, they were still GOOFY!
Here's my 4th of July happenings summary. You can determine your level of familiarity with my personal history by how many names and nicknames you recognize.
I'm not as boring (on the internet anyway) as watching paint dry. However, since I only had nine voters, I think my sample size may have been too small. I can't remember much from my statistics class, but I think they say you need at least 13 samples to get any meaningful results. It may not have been too wise to try to do a survey over the 4th of July holiday.
I noticed a couple people don't like the colors, but you'll just have to live with them until I get tired of them. I'm worried about those of you who check my blog hourly. You may want to see the doctor about your OCD. If you don't think you're quite at that stage, then I recommend that you start cutting your pills in half. ;-) Likely the red sweater will reappear again once it cools down, and as for the bathroom observations.....well, we'll just have to wait and see.
you ride up to the local pizza place/train depot on your bike (not a motorcycle, a bicycle) wearing your fairly dressy work clothes, tennis shoes, a bike helmet, and you have a backpack on your back that contains your laptop and other electronic gadgets. Your work shoes are dangling off the handlebars. The pizza place is packed, and they have outdoor seating so everyone can watch you. The only thing that could make you cooler would be if you had peed your pants (which I did not do, just to clarify).
You know you're getting old, set in your ways, and possibly beyond hope when.......you don't care that all the people at the restaurant stared. Or, maybe it just means you're a nerd. No, wait - I think it means you need to move to Oregon or Colorado where you could live like that and not stand out so much.
For those of you inclined to swim in public pools, especially ones in third world countries, I have a great travel tip for you. Take a few spa/pool test strips along in your suitcase, and if you don't smell strong chlorine or the chlorine seems too strong, "before you dip, dip a strip". If the chemicals are way out of balance, don't chance it. You'll just have to use the tiny weight room instead.
For natural bodies of water, you're on your own. The only tips I have there is don't swim right next to or downstream of any nuclear power plants, industrial factories, or sewage treatment plants. And if the locals say there are sharks, heed the warnings.
Hmmmm.....I don't have anything to say today. You might as well move on to the next blog.
OK, maybe I do have one thought for the day now that I think about it. I participated in interviewing someone yesterday, and we reviewed our thoughts on the candidate today. On one hand I hate interviewing people, but on the other it's morbidly fascinating.
How are you expected to accurately assess a person's technical skills, social skills, communication skills, life situation, and personality in a brief half hour or hour interview? And, this brief first impression can sometimes make or break someone's career. That's the part I hate. The fascinating part is that you can learn an awful lot about a person in such a short period of time. What would be even more fascinating to know is how accurate those first impressions are and how accurate this information you "know" is.
Most of my observations from my post in January still hold true except for the stuff about the weather, but I have some other interesting tidbits that I thought I'd share.
