Monthly Archives: September 2013

Square Footage

This one’s mine!

So I was conversing with a fellow I know, and the right side of my brain asked the left side, “So just how much square footage per person is there these days?” We both agreed that seemed like an interesting question (given all the people running around these days), so we looked around for a body to help us research the answer.

We just happened to find one handy, so off we all went to the virtual library and math lab.  Unfortunately our math consultant was a Communications Arts major and made a small error thinking square kilometers to square miles was the same as kilometers to miles. Fortunately everyone involved obsessively double-checks their work, so we caught the error in time.

Pity, though. The original answer would have been fun to write about.

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Sea Shells

SallyA couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach pretty much every day. She wasn’t unusual, nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing: She would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around furtively, then speak to them.

Generally, the people would respond negatively and she would wander off, but occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money for something she carried in her bag. The couple assumed she was selling drugs and debated calling the cops, but since they didn’t know for sure they just continued to watch her.

After a couple of weeks the wife asked, “Honey, have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?” He said he hadn’t. Then she said, “Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie out on the beach. Then we can find out what she’s really doing.”

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Darkness Ahead!

The SeasonsThose who know me know that I’m not big on calendar holidays. Even my birthday tends to pass without fanfare. That comes from being single, the island that supposedly no one is.  After a lifetime of Christmas and New Years’ being ordinary days, you get used to it.

But I do honor the Solar Event Days because (as I’ve mentioned many times) light is so important to me (and because I’m a geek).  Christmas may not mean much to me, but the Winter Solstice does! The days finally start getting longer!  Summer Solstice is a day of mourning for the opposite reason.

Today — the Autumnal Equinox — marks the halfway point.

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