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Tagged: randomness

Coyote Licks

Miscellaneous

Timing is everything

Ever had that sneaking suspicion your timing was all wrong? Yeah… happens to me all the time. I manage to laugh at inappropriate moments, ask humorous questions at just the wrong time, or walk into a room at the worst possible moment. But Karma maintains balance, and I can look back to find that there were many occasions where I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I couldn’t have...

I've long known that a falling piece of toast can land only one way... jam side down. And, most likely, on one of the many clumps of Fiona hair that no vacuum cleaner in the world can quite overtake. Last night, I made another incredible discovery. It would have merited further experimentation, but I was going to run out of socks... You see... I discovered that dropping a rolled up pair of socks from any point in my master bathroom results in said pair of socks landing in a water dish. I was, given this discovery, further surprised to learn that their are only three water dishes in the master bathroom and that one of them was on the counter. And it's not a small bathroom by any stretch. Including the closet, you could fit a large portion of my parents' first home into our bathroom. In the end, it all just meant that I had to run a load of laundry to get a clean, dry pair of socks. This phenomenon concerns me, though. You see... I have an amazing ability to encounter localized pockets of enhanced gravity. That's a euphemism for "When I go mountain biking, I tend to encounter the ground with some frequency," or even, I suppose, "Given the opportunity, I'll probably fall down." Fortunately, dirt is soft, and my most serious bicycling injury to date involves a painful bruise on my breast bone. However, given my new knowledge that gravity doesn't always pull straight down — that is, that there might be more prominent nearby gravitational bodies than this Earth we wander around on — I'm concerned that I might encounter something more dangerous in the woods this spring. What if, for example, a localized pocket of enhanced gravity formed in the middle of a tree. Come to think of it, I may have witnessed just such an occurrence a few weeks ago when TT-Bob came flying off his bike near SMU... There must have been a gravity pocket in that light pole overhead! That really does explain a lot. I'd prefer to continue falling down, though.

Cycling

Falling objects

I’ve long known that a falling piece of toast can land only one way… jam side down. And, most likely, on one of the many clumps of Fiona hair that no vacuum cleaner in the world can quite overtake. Last night, I made another incredible discovery. It would have merited further experimentation, but I was going to run out of socks… You see… I discovered that dropping a rolled up pair of socks from...

Fuji at rest on a cold winter's day in Dallas

Cycling

38… Riding the thermometer

  We year-round cyclists have a way of rationalizing really cold days. Once the mercury starts to dip below 50, we “ride the thermometer.” 45 degrees? 45 miles. Last night at dinner we were discussing what/where to ride today. At the time, I wasn’t really keen on another ride downtown, but I knew it was the prudent choice. One of the mysteries of living near a big city is that said big...

Posing before the ride with my buddy, Anne. I'm still trying to figure out how anyone can tell who's who when it's cold outside...

Cycling

2010 – Finding balance

  Yesterday was the first day of 2010. So, of course, it was the first bike ride of 2010. I stayed with the group for about 6 miles before getting scared off by shaky riders and a very unsettled pace. We seemed to speed up on the ascents and slow down on the descents. In the end, I had a great 46 miles of riding through Allen, McKinney and Frisco with only...