Barefoot

  

Remember going barefoot as a kid?  Probably summer.  The sometimes smooth, sometimes slightly rough texture of sidewalk cement.  Cool green grass.  Dusty slightly slippery dirt.  The rough surface of a tree branch and the hot sand between your beach towel and the water line.  Blazing hot black asphalt when crossing the street.  You could go "ouch, ouch, ouch" and resort to dancing along the white pedestrian crossing paint, or endure the burn, suppress the urge to hurry, and feel immeasurably cooler than the person next to you going "ouch, ouch, ouch".  The pleasure of sensual extremes, all relayed to you by your feet. 

 

Long for the days?  Ever tried it as an adult?  It's not the same.  I go barefoot around the house and in the yard every day of the year.  Even with that though, straying out onto the asphalt is not a comfortable thing to do.  The soles of my feet are not as tough now as when I was a kid.  I don't go barefoot in all conditions as I did back then, but I think there is more to it than that.  I think physics has gotten involved.  Something about doubling the surface area and the resulting volume quadruples.  There is more pressure per square inch on the feet of an adult than there is on the feet of a child.

 

But I wonder if that physical difference is insurmountable.  Could an adult get as comfortable walking without shoes on all surfaces as a kid can?  I don't have a theory, but maybe I should test it anyway.  While I'm barefoot already, I could make it a point to venture out onto the rough asphalt every day and see if it gets any easier after a few weeks…

 

 

 

 

If I wanted to lust after an upscale sedan

…which I don’t, it might look like this.

 https://www.lucidmotors.com/air

 It’s a Lucid Air, it’s in production, and it’s a really good thing I don’t want an upscale sedan, because this thing costs a lot of money. 

Morning moonset

  

 

 

 

 

 

The answer to the pop quiz

  

This little guy is an American Kestrel, our smallest raptor; about the size of a blue jay.  He weighs the same as 34 pennies.  An ambush hunter to be feared, if you happen to be a tiny mammal, lizard, or large bug.

 

 

 

 

Football Pool

  

I got hosed.  I got 8 games right.  Matt got 9.  Judy got 11 right, but that wasn't fair.  She made a bunch of crazy picks.  I was a lot better at this before I invited others to play…

 

 

 

 

 

Pop quiz

  

 

Can you name what kind of bird this is?

 

 

 

 

 

Another big bug

  

 

A really big bug.  Haven't seen this one before so had to look it up.  It appears to be a Banded Hickory Borer.

 

It inhabits the southern and eastern U.S.  It likes hickory trees, but it will lay its eggs on oaks as well, and that's what we have a lot of here, oaks.

 

 

 

 

When we were kids

  

…way back in the 1950s, there were two kinds of household refuse.  At our house we had trash cans and garbage pails.  There were two types of collectors.  There were big trash trucks, the ones with the big compression mechanism on the back, that took the dry trash, then there was a messier open bed truck that took the wet garbage.  We had trash men and garbage men.

 

So what was up with that?  Why was there a separation between trash and garbage?  Did they take them different places?  Why was it like it was then, but not like that now?  What changed?

 

 

 

 

 

A 700 day streak

  

I'm not studying Spanish.  I'm playing a computer game.  Every week, in this game, we get split into groups of 30 and earn points by doing simple Spanish lessons of our choosing.  We get points for consecutive-day streaks.  That's where I am now; a 700 day streak.  We never have to study because it doesn't matter if we learn any Spanish or not; we're just playing a game for points, and at the end of each week the five players with the most points get promoted to the next level, and the five players with the least points get demoted.  (I've had a lot of promotions and not many demotions.)

 

But after almost two years of playing this game in Spanish, one would think I would have absorbed a little by now, pero no.  No aprendo nada.  Yo no conozco nada!  De verdad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we go places

  

…Google Maps knows, and sometimes will ask us if we want to submit a review or a photograph we've taken with our phone.  Sometimes we do, but not with any special effort.  I found it amusing today when I got a notice back from Google Maps that over the years our reviews have received 32,000 views, and our photos 18,000,000!  A segue into my next career!  Reviewer, photographer, influencer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The football pool

  

I did a lot better this week.  I got 9 out of 14 games right.  I only lost to Matt by 3!  Judy didn't do quite as well.  She lost by 6.

 

We're back home in the Valley today.

 

We don't really want to convert a semi-truck to an RV.  But if they can build an electric semi-truck, surely they can build a bus.  That's what we want.  A bus chassis is perfect to convert to an RV.  They've already done all the hard work.  All we would have to do is take out all the seats and build a house inside instead!

 

But thinking about electric cars, I realize a serious shortcoming.  Sitting at an intersection

Waiting for the light to change.  Idling.  Cars roaring by as they turn left across our bow.  Noise.  Fumes.  Imagining the clarity that would ensue if all these cars were electric.  Suddenly I realize how unfair it would be to the teenagers of the world.  What about their rite of passage?  A hot car.  Even if it's not really a hot car, but you had done something to soup it up.  Loud exhaust.  You gun the engine.  Heads turn.  You floor it around the corner and with the roar of the engine, get a screech of tires.  The teenage rite of passage.  Who could take that away?

 

No.  There would have to be an exemption.  Even when internal combustion engines make no sense at all, there would have to be an exemption for teenagers.  They could have gasoline cars and make their statement.  Wouldn't want a generation of lost boys…

 

 

 

 

And the winner is:

  

Matt Taylor!

 

He got the most picks right in this week's football pool.  His reward?  The respect and admiration of all.

 

He got 8 right.  Judy and I, on the other hand, each got 7 right.  Out of a possible 14, getting 7 right is a lot like, close your eyes and guess!

 

Anyone else wants a chance at it for a few more games this season, let me know.  Send me your cell number and I'll pop you an invite.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of coffee

  

I have received helpful advice in the last couple days.  Like this.

 

Or this.

Thank you Deb and Jon.

 

And here is how coffee looks at our office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow morning

  

…when I make coffee  …I'm going to remember to put a cup under the brewer before I walk away.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Christmas Bonus

  

Little drummer boy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1CS0Jhk90

 

We sang this in High School Choir.

 

Maybe not quite like this.