Saturday, June 16, 2012

Speed (2012-06-16)


I was on my way back from the grand opening of a water treatment plant that I’d designed.  This one had been a long and twisted road.  The design I’d first committed to paper was only know being christened complete – 5 long years later.  But the final was reached and the treated water was not distributed from the reservoir.

I hit the highway with a brief screech of tires and sudden acceleration.  There was traffic oncoming and I wanted to get out in front of it.

I settled in behind a 4 door Volkswagen sedan, on the four lane stretch that ran past the village.  The speed limit was slowed for the sake of the towns people, but only to 90 lm/h.  Soon the sign said 110 again and my foot hit the accelerator.

The traffic that had been oncoming, as I pulled out onto the road, soon passed on the left.  The pair that were in a hurry were a black Range Rover and another 4-day grey sedan that was lumbering to keep up.

I pondered my options.  I had the time, I could loaf back in the pack with the Volkswagen.  Or I could press down on the accelerator and match the speed of this high-flying Range Rover as it steamed on towards the city at a high rate.

I made my choice.  A snarl erupted from my tailpipe as I lunged forward past the Volkwagen.

Right off the move, the Range Rover seemed like a fussy driver.  I settled in behind it at a comfortable 150 km/h and was content to just cruise like this the rest of the way home.  But the snotty driver got it in his head that he was too good for a caravan, and tried to zoom away.

Serious?

It took barely more effort than tot swat a fly, for me to accelerate, and again be behind the lumbering wagon.  I wasn’t following close, instead choosing to stay far enough back that you could no longer read the Range Rover’s license plate.  I wasn’t trying to make anyone uncomfortable, I just wanted the cover of a group to hide my speed.

Still behind us struggled the grey sedan vainly.  Wanting to stay with the lead dog, but clearly not up for the task.

This attempt to pull away was repeated twice more, as we rocketed towards civilization on the 4 lanes of blacktop.  Once after having passed the procession of charity bike riders, who in a large group crawled along the highway on their bicycles.  A motorhome signaled the rear of their procession.  A multi-axle truck signaled the lead.  When we were clear of their hazard, the Range Rover burst forward again, trying to break free.

Like a fisherman with a reel, I pulled it back in again.  The effort no more troubling than reading one of the signposts that went by like a picket fence.

The third time he tried to pull away, I was lost in a reverie of what was playing on the radio.  I can’t even recall at this moment anymore what it was that held my attention.  Nevertheless when I looked up the Range Rover had zipped ahead of me, and now I would have to be serious if I wanted to close the gap.

For some reason I got angry.  It may have been the temerity of thinking that a lumbering wagon like a Range Rover could out-speed my V-8 Mustang.  That probably was it, but when my foot pressed that accelerator to the floor this time, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the Range Rover was not going to get away.

The speedometer did not jump to attention with my foot.  My car itself seemed to have been lulled to sleep at a drowsy 150 km/h.  But after a few seconds of my foot to the floorboard, it seemed to rouse from its dreamy reverie.  The relentlessness of my intent was finally impressed, and the needle started turning towards the end point.

First came 160.  I held steady on the accelerator.  170 came soon enough on its own.  Still I did not relent.  Now was 180 and the Range Rover was firmly in sight and getting closer. 

A decision needed to be made.  My purpose was to catch that lumber wagon.  But as the needle hit 190 km/h I felt a giddy headiness wrap itself around my brain.  The Range Rover was being effortlessly reeled in, like the garden hose after you finish watering the lawn, but I didn’t really care about that anymore.  I was driving faster than I ever had before, and there seemed no exhaustion of the supply of speed.

I went passed the Range Rover like another might have passed a picket fence.  I felt alive like few things in life will ever make you feel.  I screamed “Good Bye” as my position passed his, and still I hammered onward towards home.  The first few markers of reaching home were just peeking forward in my view.  But I did not relent.

The dial hit 200.  I had never known anything this fast.  The car was not concerned about the velocity we were travelling.  It actually seemed to be having fun.  The tailpipe was snarling, like a satisfied animal with its kill.  The wind was whipping past the canopy, making a whistling noise that I’d only ever witnessed in an airplane.

Still I raged onward.  The pressure of my foot on the accelerator was now in a dangerous game of chicken with my sense of fear.  How far would I push this?  When would I lose my nerve?

The speedometer now read 210 km/h.  I had never travelled this fast in a car before.  My foot was down on the accelerator, but the car was getting towards the outer reaches of its ability.  The pace of the needle was slowly, though my foot did not move from the gas pedal.  My home city rose up in front of me with alarming rapidness, but I did not relent.

The needle wavered at 210.  Did I want to push this any further?  Could I face more fear?  The signs of the city were all around me as I travelled near twice the speed limit.  Was there anything more to prove?

I felt the sense of exhilaration in my chest.  It was an exultation; energy in my heart that I couldn’t put there by any other means.  The joy and the excitement, it forced me to go onward.  But the wavering of the needle at 210 made a cold sense of fear creep up from my belly towards the white hot sun in my chest.  It cooled the molten exhilaration into icy stings of fear.

My foot pulled back.  Fear had won.  I watched as the needle began to fall slowly back towards sanity.

It was a little surreal, how 150 km/h now felt slow, after the rarified air I had just touched.  It had been only seconds but I felt like I’d touched something special.  As I took the turn into the city, of lights, stop signs and right turns, I felt oddly relaxed.  To come to rest at a stop light felt like a story ending.  But that brief few moments would live with me forever.

Borden - Art (2012-06-16)

Now, for my attempt at obscure art:




Borden Grand Opening (2012-06-16)

Actually, this is what I do all day. . .







Today I Learned . . . (2012-06-16)

Today I Learned . . .

1.  The food at Chili's has an absurd number of calories in it.

Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-16)

Blog Question(s) Of The  Day

1.  Why do I weigh 3-4 pounds less in the morning, between the time I first get up, and when I've completed 30 minutes of weight lifting?


La Connexion Francaise (2012-06-16)

La Connexion Francaise

1.  Je porte du moyen maintenant.

2.  J'ai alle vite.

The Daily Affirmation (2012-06-16)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  I just completed a very tricky integration problem without looking up the answer first.

2.  I really enjoyed a Tim Hortons frozen Lemonade

3.  I drove faster than I ever have before in my car today

4.  We made a late comeback to win the soccer game tonight

Friday, June 15, 2012

Today I Learned . . . (2012-06-15)

Today I Learned . . .

1. Tiffany Anne Jones is older than me

This is what I do all day . . . (2012-06-15)

This is what I do all day . . .



La Connexion Francaise (2012-06-15)

La Connexion Francaise

1.  Je ne fais pas calcul mal.

2.  J'ai une idee.

Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-15)

Blog Question(s) Of The Day

1.  How do I become the gold standard of healthy?

2. Should I be waxing my car?

3. How come you just don't find that many girls named Tiffany in real life?

The Daily Affirmation (2012-06-15)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  I looked up the stats from Wednesday's ball hockey game and I got credit for my 1 assist.

2.  My iPad replacement part arrived today!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ball Hockey

Ball Hockey

This is what ball hockey really looks like:







Daily Photo (2012-06-13)

Daily Photo

1.  This is why we aren't playing ball tonight


The Daily Affirmation (2012-06-13)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  I was disappointed that there was going to be no ball game tonight but given that its pouring right now, I think we're going to end up on the right side of that decision.

2.  My effort level in ball hockey was vastly improved over Monday's game

Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-13)

Blog Question(s) Of The Day

1.  Is it too much to ask to want a girl that would know how to integrate?

La Connexion Francaise (2012-06-13)

La Connexion Francaise

1.  J'adore gateau.

2.  Il pleut.  Je ne joue pas softball.


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Today I Learned . . . (2012-06-12)

Today I Learned . . .

1.  An artesian well occurs when water enters a porous geologic structure (like sand, gravel, sandstone, limestone) that is trapped between two layers of an impermeable geologic structure (like a clay or shale).  Water enters the porous geology at a higher elevation.  It flows downward, and at a lower elevation, can not escape do to the impermeable layers that trap it.  If a well is drilled into this porous geologic structure, the gravity pressure can be sufficient for the water to erupt from the ground without mechanical pumping.

The Daily Affirmation (2012-06-12)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  I really enjoyed the result of cutting a circular pattern into my front lawn

2.  After many months of planting nothing but white grapes, I have finally mastered them and can move on to new grapes.

La Connexion Francaise (2012-06-12)

La Connexion Francaise

1.  J'ai tonde la pelouse ce soir.

The Daily Photo (2012-06-12)

The Daily Photo

1.  My under-desk "kitchen"




2.  What kind of tree is this?

3.  Newly planted grass, first coming out of the ground


4.  Circles in the grass






Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-12)

Blog Question(s) Of The Day

1.  Why do adapters have to be so much bigger than the electrical plug itself, effectively blocking at least one additional receptacle space?

2.  Can you be thinner without having lost any measurable weight?

3.  Would I enjoy watching European soccer live?

Monday, June 11, 2012

La Connexion Francaise (2012-06-11)

La Connexion Francaise

1.  Je ne joue pas bien ce soir.

The Daily Photo (2012-06-11)

The Daily Photo

1.  The mini-shelf that I built tonight, with pieces of an actual shelf, and a board I bought at Home Depot



2.  This is what ball hockey looks like


Today I Learned . . . (2012-06-11)

Today I Learned . . .

1.  The Greek word for green is "chloros"

The Daily Affirmation (3012-06-11)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  Enthusiasm from someone you didn't expect.

2.  New book order arrived!

Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-11)

Blog Question(s) Of The Day

1.  Where can I find more time?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Today I Learned . . . (2012-06-10)

Today I Learned . . .

1.  If you know what's going to happen, and you watch closely, you'll notice that at the end of Back To The Future III, Marty puts the manual transmission on his new 4x4 truck into reverse, before the light turns green

Blog Question(s) Of The Day (2012-06-10)

Blog Question(s) Of The Day

1. Is there enough water in a wet towel that it can conduct electricity?

2.  What race is Yoda?

French Connection (2012-06-10)

French Connection

1.  I'aime mon nouveau chapeau baseball

2.  Je vais avoir un boisson gazeuse

Hat sizes

What's the deal with hat sizes?

I've got four hats in the last year.  Each one fits differently than any other one.  I don't get it.  My original blue Montreal Expos hat was a 7-1/4.  It fit great so I resolved to buy 7-1/4 for all future hats.

I got a Phillies hat from my sister for my birthday last year.  Following my policy, I got a 7-1/4.  It fit decently so I was satisfied.  But then in the fall I wanted a Blue Jays hat so I got one at SportChek.  I believe I had a gift card or they were on sale.  I had a reason to be getting it at SportChek.  They had no 7-1/4, but they did have a 7-3/8 so I took that.  Its only 1/8 of an inch bigger, which is a pretty small discrepancy.  The hat is enormous.  You could get a small child in beside my head inside this hat.  1/8 of an inch should not make that much difference.

Then I bought two hats simultaneously today.  I stuck to the rule, and picked up 7-1/4 hats for both.  They had an anti-theft device in them so they weren't really try-on-able in the store.  I got out to my truck and giddy as I was, I had to fix the brim and try them on.

Each was 7-1/4.

The red Washington Nationals hat was very, very snug.  Bordering on too small but based on my experience from last fall, I wasn't moving up a size else it would require walking around with a child hanging next to my right ear to make it fit right.  It was snug but I wasn't uncomfortable wearing it so I declared it good.

The blue Montreal Expos hat was spot-on perfect.  It fit my head exactly the way a hat is supposed to.  It was just about 10% too snug.   You have that security of knowing there's no way its blowing off when you're lined up for a 3-iron on the 12th hole at the Harbor Golf Course at Elbow, where the wind screams off the prairie landscape like the sonic blast coming off a space shuttle launch.  The hat I wanted most fit better than anything else I tried to buy/get in the last year.  It was like coming home.

Four hats.  Four different fits.  All of these hats trying to approximate the sense of perfection that comes only when I wear a Montreal Expos cap.

Olympian Sports

I have to throw out a plug right now.

Yesterday was very frustrating.  I had money left over from Christmas that I still hadn't spent.  But I got an idea this week for something that I would want, so I was going to go out on Saturday and get it.

Notwithstanding is the fact that I got a last start yesterday, and it was raining cats and dogs, so the mall was borderline zoo-ish.  So I went to Midtown, because I wanted licensed apparel, so my first thought was "Jersey City".  What else would you think of first?  Sure its all wickedly over-priced but that's where you should be able to find such things.

I wanted the official on-field cap of the Washington Nationals.  Red hat with a giant white W on it.  Not some strange variant but the everyday home hat.  Huge rack of hats at Jersey City.  They did not have the red one.  They had some stupid black one with a red/blue DC on it that may be a special edition hat, but isn't the everyday red one.  Huge rack of hats, not the official one.

WTF!?!?!?!

There's another hat store just down from Jersey City.  I was dejected by this point, but its close so I looked anyway.  Same problem.  Lots and lots of hats.  Lots of variety in some things, but not an official on-field Washington Nationals hat.  About 27 different god damn variations on the blasted Yankees but no Washington Nationals.  (FYI - god damn Yankees)

I also looked in SportChek but that's 5 minutes of my life I'm not getting back.

So I'm sitting in my basement last night, feeling kinda morose about my lack of luck with this hat issue.  I still want one but now I'm looking at ordering online, and while I do that, its just not as satisfying as leaving a store clutching your purchase.  Then, like an epiphany, I had inspiration.  What about Olympian Sports?  Every time I go in there, it seems like they have about 100,000 pieces of licensed merchandise.  I have a whole Sunday; it'll cost me an hour, at most, to go check.  Worse case is no worse than how I was feeling last night.

So I go into Olympian Sports today just after lunch.  Up the stairs to where the bulk of the licensed stuff is.  Bang, there is a wall of hats.  20 seconds of analysis and I figure out where the MLB hats are.  (strange that a ball cap is synonymous with baseball, and its not even the largest category in the wall'o'hats)  My eyes immediately snap to the red hats and in about 5.3 seconds I find my whole grail - the red on-field Washington Nationals hat!  The search has concluded; I reach nirvana!

Wait!  What's this!?!  Right next to the red Washington Nationals hat is something that looks like a solid, royal blue Montreal Expos hat.  I blink.  It is a solid, royal blue Montreal Expos hat!  I thought this doesn't exist!?!

Exist or not as a new product, there it is.  Something I've been lusting at for almost 5 years is right there in my trembling hands.  First I lost (or thought I had) my blue Expos hat.  Then I found it behind a book shelf but my examination of it suggested it was dirty as hell.  (not surprising as I'd had it since I get it for my birthday when I was 18)  So having found it, I tried to clean it.  That didn't work and it no longer looked all that fresh.  So I wanted to buy a new one, but my searching said they didn't make it brand new anymore.

Now here in my quivering hands was the hat that I'd wanted for so long.  I debated whether to purchase it for, oh, about 2.3 seconds before concluding this was a no-brainer.  My faithfulness was further rewarded when each hat was about $2.50 off list price.  My breathless search was concluded successfully and I got a discount.  Could this have ended in any better way?

So now I have both hats that I wanted.  And I've reached a conclusion.  I am not pissing around anymore.  My first and only direction when I need something sporting good related is to go to Olympian Sports.  This has happened 3 times that I can remember in recent memory.  I wanted something, tried somewhere else first only to search out Olympian as a last resort.  They have not disappointed.  Thus my future policy will be to just go to Olympian and stop getting frustrated.

I recommend to anyone that reads this that they follow the same policy.

Daily Photo(s) (2012-06-10)

Daily Photo(s)

1.  Today's project:



2.  Future project:


3.  My new hats




4.  Wearing the Washington Nationals hat



5.  Wearing my new Montreal Expos hat










The Daily Affirmation (2012-06-10)

The Daily Affirmation

1.  Miami Dolphins cheerleaders lip syncing "Call Me Maybe"

2.  Not only did I find the Washington Nationals hat I wanted . . . I found a royal blue Montreal Expos hat I wanted that all my research online said, DIDN'T EXIST!!!

3.  I filled in every column on my tracking spreadsheet today