Nothing exciting happened today. That’s why you get filler material, but hey, I’ll compare my filler to 99% of what is in newspapers these days. It was quiet because I went for a physical. Nothing has changed. I am half-blind (20/100 vision (uncorrected) since I was 12 years old), and except for an unexplained heart murmur, I’m as healthy as a pole vaulter. Just think, that many more blogs, gigs and trips to nowhere. I don’t smoke, do drugs, gamble and only drink the occasional Bud when a customer buys, so I’ll be around a spell longer unless I get run over by a government truck. Why, yes now that you ask, I do chase women, but only when women worth chasing can be found. Nobody was performing on Sunday, so I took that as another opportunity to grab a good book. If there was such a thing as a decent party in this town, I would have gone there. I read another article by Jastrow, the physicist. He gave some details about the origin of all matter heavier than hydrogen. The three competing theories are all heavy elements were created instantly during the Big Bang, that they are constantly being created in the cores of stars, and that hydrogen is manufactured out of nothing. Personally, I don’t think any of these provide an adequate explanation. People just don’t realize how much empty space there is between stars and galaxies, so no matter where it was manufactured, how did the really heavy elements get here in such abundance? I like to ponder these things. What do you ponder?
A snag in the mailbox plan is the issue of 24-hour access. I don’t think that is really needed. How many times did you go check your mail at 3:00 AM in the past ten years? My position is that if we are very clear with the renters about hours, we will have our quota without trying to please everybody. We are talking merely 60 people, and I also think we will meet some very interesting personalities in the process. The alternative is one of those titanium grates that pull shut across the area. This would increase the security over the two panes of glass we got right how. Just ask the store owner next door (the one who used to have all those cigarettes and beer).
Another few (unsuccessful) rounds with the playback sound problem, and I’ve decided to accept the worst case scenario of running a basic Karaoke show. I have the software and know-how, so tomorrow I’m firing up (my) three (fastest) Internet computers to start downloading every available midi or kar tune available through van Bascoe. This puts my plans to create the tracks myself on the back microwave. I’m planning on 96 man-hours of downloads and I’ll keep a progress report posted here for those interested in such operations.
Last, to close with a thrilling passage, the cat is shedding. Pudding-Tat proceeded to spend the night on my brown dress slacks that I had left on the card table chair. The trousers that have to be dry-cleaned, the trousers now covered with static cling cat fur. Some may say, “What’s a little cat fur?” What do you mean a little? I wish my camera had good enough resolution for a jpeg. Oh, I hear the same some saying, “Why not just put it on your scanner?”
Because I’m dumb, but not THAT dumb.
Today’s trivia is one of those facts everybody would know if they had a reason to think about it. In the temperate zones of the world, rivers tend to flow toward the tropics. The rivers start from a point farther away from the equator and end in a delta nearer the equator, that is, a lower latitude. The exception is the Nile, which flows entirely away from the tropics. Another distinguishing feature is that it is the only river with nary a tributary.
It is probably the straightest river as well. That is why I know there must be a theory out there that states the river originally had another course, but over time tectonic activity captured the stream. It now flows down a “failed arm”, a geographic feature whereby upthrusts in the Earth’s crust form three radial fractures. Two of these arms “fail”, the third becomes a thing like the Riff Valley or the Red Sea.
My contingent of geologist readers could point out that changing the flow of a river in this manner is called “stream piracy”. But with the recent flap over in Somalia, I’m not touching that line.
