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Uh oh. I came home last night and Werdna told me some bad news. (Bad news in my eyes.) The fridge was on the blitz. This is not a good thing. I had noticed that my milk was getting warm over the past few days, but I associated it with the hot and muggy weather we've been having for the past week or so. The fridge tended to be a little warm during heat waves and I assumed this was just another one of those times. Well, when Werdna opened up the freezer (part of the fridge), there was no ice. The cup of water he put in there was still tepid, and all of my food (and everyone else's) had defrosted. This included the bucket of ice cream which I was saving for a rainy day. (Wah!) Fortunately, I hadn't gone shopping all too recently so I didn't have too much food in the fridge. However, I still had quite a stash hidden in the freezer so I have to go through that cache as quickly as possibile. I think the ice cream is pretty much useless now, but I still have twenty Eggo waffles which will take me at least five days to go through. A dozen sausages which I should cook ASAP, some wontons, an unopened box of chicken nuggets, and.. I think that's about it. Since everything has already defrosted, I might have a day or two to cooke everything up and try to ingest as much as possible before they all start going bad (the freezer is already starting to smell funny). Oh dark day indeed!
On the way back home last night, I saw a bright flash of light in the sky, followed around fifteen seconds later by a long, drawn out booming thunder. It was a signal for the approaching storm, and I was only halfway home. I had always been afraid of being struck by lightning, and most times when lightning flashes near me, I'm usually stuck in the middle of a parking lot or field, which doesn't help my paranoia much either. Fortunately, being fifteen seconds away, I had quite a bit of time to find shelter. Making it midway through the parking lot, there was an even brighter flash, and the roaring thunder came a couple of seconds later. I started walking faster. You may have noticed that I wasn't struck by lightning last night, but it's still a freaky thought. Anyway, I was lucky that I headed home when I did, the rain started coming down a few moments before I made it to the house, and continued on throught the night.
The weather has been much cooler today. I guess the cold front that came in with the storm will be pushing all that mild air we've been getting out of the area. It also allowed me to close my window a bit so I didn't have to hear the thunder in all of it's glory overnight (which would've led to some interesting dreams I bet).
I've been meaning to type up some interesting science and math teasers for a while now, and I figured I might as well start here. I wanted to put up a separate section, but I guess I can do that at another time. Here's a teaser I found in a book (called Science Teasers by Rose Wyler and Eva-Lee Baird) when I was a kid. I didn't actually figure out the answer, nor did I understand the solution until years later. Anyway, here it goes:
The Old Rubber Tire:
A man is fishing in a lake. He hooks an old rubber tire that has been lying at the lake bottom and hauls it into the canoe. What happens to the level of the water in the lake?
You will probably be able to guess to answer to the question, but can you also explain why?
Wednesday, May 10, 2000 at 19:56:02 (UTC)
The level should go up! Assuming the old man places the tire in his boat, it's now displacing its weight in water, whereas before it was displacing its volume. Since it was at the bottom of the lake, it must be denser than water, so its weight in water is more than its volume in water...
Do I win a car? I could use a car.. Or a harley, or something.
I'd settle for a million dollars though.
Mister Man Mikeo