Twenty-Two Degrees Farenheit (according to the thermometer in TurboSchlock that tells me outside temperature) is a magical temperature. It’s the temperature at which a Jeep Grand Cherokee which has just emerged from a car wash will, when driven at 45mph down State Street, make snow.
This was very cool to watch. The jeep looked clean and wet — no snow to be seen anywhere. But it was dripping, and trailing it was a cloud of snowflakes and ice crystals, some quite large. I watched for four blocks as the effect slowly dissipated, and the whole time I was trying to figure out why I’d never seen anything like it before. The answer is simple: water temperature must be perfect, and air temperature must be perfect. Otherwise the water freezes on the vehicle (I’ve seen THAT before) or drips off and freezes a few moments later on the road (I suppose I’ve seen that, too.)
Sometimes you have to stop and smell the flowers. In the winter you have to give pause for other stuff, because there aren’t any flowers yet.
It’s true… I feel like I’m spamming my fans. There are, at last count, SEVEN places where I’m a major contributor and others are invited to comment. Including this one.
I just launched Blógünder Schlock, which is where all my “Open Letter” archives will end up. Right now you can find everything from the last two months (minus a couple of administrative posts), and if you feel so inclined, you can post comments.
Not that you’d want to though — you’ve said everything interesting that there was to say regarding most of that stuff. And that’s kind of why I feel like I’m spamming you.
I had a dream last night (or maybe it was yesterday morning). I was using my Compaq M300 laptop, and the machine downloaded a hardware patch of some sort, and then installed it without permission from me. This patch installed a four-inch “side-car” to my laptop, extending the screen to the right, making the screen touch-sensitive, and adding a numeric keypad next to the keyboard.
It also came with a coupon allowing me to trade in my M300 for something that looked suspiciously like an iBook, and that had a touch-sensitive screen and all sorts of other coolness.
Naturally, I decided to forego the trade-in and uninstall the “patch” because it was preventing my computer from fitting into its bag.
And then I woke up.
And I’ve been awake pretty much ever since. Stupid insomnia.