Odd

I was riding Zwift through Central Park in New York. For reasons unknown to me, the setting became night. I glanced out my window and realized that it was still daylight where I was. The sun was hours away from setting. I guess Zwift has never heard of Daylight Saving Time.

The Things You Notice

It struck me as rather weird, but perhaps you will disagree. I just thought I should relate it because it has been rattling around in my brain and writing it down is the best way to exorcise it.

The other day, as I was driving to work, I came to a stoplight. I was the second car in the line and there were several cars around me. After spinning through all the presets on the radio and finding only banal commercials, I decided to look around me. I am normally scanning around anyway, but looking for danger and possible danger is different than looking at the scenery.

The car in front of me was white. It was some kind of SUV. The car beside it was also white, and the same make of car. I am not up on all my cars to be able to tell you if they were from the same model year, but they looked quite similar. Instead of pursuing that further, I looked to my left and noticed something odd. That car was white too. Three white cars clumped together at the traffic light. Then I noticed that the car behind that one was also white, as was the one behind it.

What a rather odd coincidence I thought. Then I started scanning more, because surely the other cars would have some colour. No. the two cars behind me were white as well. I was completely surrounded by a bunch of white cars! I should point out that my car is bright blue like the picture above.

Sure, white is a popular colour. Weird that so many people would choose it in North America, though. When I lived in Japan a quarter of a century ago, white was the most popular car colour as it was cheapest to fix when bodywork was needed. That made it an attractive fleet car even if it didn’t turn any heads on the road. The resale value was also probably higher, but I am not sure about that.

I didn’t get paranoid and start thinking that I was being followed by “the men in white”, but it is just one of those things you see while driving.

Have you ever seen anything strange on the road? Please feel free to comment.

It Strikes Me as Odd

It strikes me as odd that I should wake up three days in a row, in May, to snow.  While I often revel in the idea of living in the Great White North, I do like my spring and summer.  At this time of year, I expect to be in a landscape of blooming flowers, and warm temperatures.  Evidence indicates that this is not happening at all.

It has been one heck of a year so far, and I guess I shouldn’t find it so strange.  We would be foolish to think that the locking down of factories, airplanes, and so many more things would not have an effect on the environment.  Like dropping a big rock into a pond, things don’t adjust to calm immediately.  It takes time.

As for me, I found Monday morning’s snow to be quite pretty.  I watched it fall as I leisurely ate my breakfast and drank my coffee.  I had time to ponder the mess we are in and its many ramifications.  I didn’t find any answers.  I had time to ponder my new dreams of woodworking and making things.  No answers there either.

The snow looked pretty.

Having to Wear Boots

I wanted to write that it seems pretty early in the season to be wearing boots, but in fact, it seems like the wrong season to be wearing boots. If I am not mistaken, it is still autumn.  Since autumn is my favourite season, I am a little sad that it is being usurped by winter this year.

Normally an early snowfall like this would disappear, but it has managed to linger, perhaps promising better skiing and hopefully the chance to put on ice skates this year. If you find it odd that I am choosing to look on the bright (though there is so precious little daylight these days) side of things, perhaps you have forgotten the title of the blog.

A Note for my friend Quinn.  The tree growing in the tight space beside the bus shelter continues to thrive.

I Know You From Somewhere

Yesterday, while shopping, something unusual happened. Before you jump to the conclusion that by weird I mean that I didn’t spend any money, rest assured that, sadly, money left my pocket and I didn’t get everything I needed.

I was in a big store that had both groceries and everyday products. While cruising in the grocery section a woman and her cart passed by me just like a car on a road.  When I saw her (and she saw me) we both had a moment or recognition….or something and said hello.

It isn’t that I am unfriendly, but I am shy, and though I see many attractive women during my day, I rarely say hello to someone I don’t know, or who isn’t reading a book.

I had the sense that I knew her, but for the life of me I couldn’t think from where that might be. I started to doubt my feeling.  I rationalized that since I found her attractive, I was just wishing a connection into existence.

When she passed me again, she said “I feel like I know you from somewhere.”

It is hard to ignore that kind of sign. I explained that I too had the same feeling.

We spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the connection was. She suspected that she had seen me at the hockey rink that she took her kid to.  I wondered if we had gone to high school together.  She gave me quizzical looks, and asked where I was from.  I speculated a few places we might have me; the library, the bus, Murphy’s Bar in Osaka Japan (you never know).

Though nothing came of this event, I did appreciate it for its randomness and feeling of “almost”.

 

Finding Common Ground

Though I could have chosen hitting the snooze button a bunch of extra times, or the extra time I had to enjoy my coffee this morning, I have decided to select something else as Today’s Perfect Moment.

Without further adieu, Today’s Perfect Moment is about accidently finding out about common interests.  You see, as I have already explained, for reasons not entirely clear to myself, I have become a fan of US college football.  It will never replace my love for the Canadian game, but it is a nice Saturday afternoon distraction.  I am a big fan of Notre Dame.  I had even considered making the pilgrimage to the stadium to watch a game this year–then I discovered how much the tickets cost.  It may have to wait.

After discovering I am not the only one, a co-worker, who I discovered is a fan,  has taken to quizzing me on team names.  Being as there are a lot of colleges, this is quite the contest.  I hung in there in the early rounds, but not as the colleges become less well know, I am losing ground quickly.  Who knew that there were so many…..unusual team names there were.  It is quite surprising.

I am holding back my Elon College Fighting Christians in reserve.  Any help would be appreciated.  Feel free to give your team a shout out.

I am having a good time though.

 

The Curious Case of the Two-Fisted Drinker

What I have to write about today is not remarkable in any way. However, its absurdity…or profundity, since when it comes to my life on the bus, these two rather opposite things seem to share many characteristics in this universe. Much like a previous post (see here) it involves my fellow passengers and their perplexing abilities with beverages.

A rather comically dressed fellow (maybe he should be considered fashion forward and myself just a snob….) was sitting across from me on the bus. He was carrying two 500mL bottles.  He held one in each hand and had let the caps drop onto the seat beside him.  Had the bus been crowded, I am sure he would have insisted that these two plastic caps have their own seat regardless of anyone else’s discomfort.

As I was saying, he had tow opened bottles in his hands.

I really didn’t think much of it and was more concerned about the guy dressed head to toe in F1 labelled gear (McLaren—in case you were interested). At 10 o’clock in the morning he was busy sipping on a beer.  When I noticed the beer, I thought to myself that it was a bit early in the day to start drinking–but then I thought to myself that this might not be his first beer of the day.

Back to guy with the two drinks. The thought that came to mind was that he was “two-fisting his drinks.”  This is an expression we had in high school college, when you drank with a beer in each hand and gamely tried to even the liquids inside (usually in vain).  While I was thinking about the phrase “two-fisting” I noticed something odd.  He was drinking both drinks, but both drinks were not the same.

Theories anyone?

Here are mine (in no particular order)

• One of them tasted bad so he used the other to mask the taste (not unlike my friend Mike who drank a heinous whisky and needed to chase the flavour away with something).
• Both drinks were horrible, but in different ways and alternating them was a way of coping.
• He liked both drinks equally and in a spirit of equality did not want to favour one drink over another.
• He was colour blind and had no idea that they were different when he opened both of them.
• People on my bus know I blog about them and he wanted to be featured on the blog.
• He wanted to confuse me and other people on the bus with his strange but in no way threatening behaviour.
• He has some kind of personality quirk that makes two fisting drinks seem normal.
• He likes mixed cocktails, but is too lazy to mix them.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.

 

 

 

Learning Opportunities Abound

The world is full of wonderful and odd ways to learn things.  I guess that was the basis for the novel Q&A (also known as Slumdog Millionaire).  As a teacher, I have tried to impress upon my students that there millions of opportunities to learn that aren’t in the classroom.  Today, I came across one for myself.

I went for a haircut, and while there is nothing interesting or insightful in that, it did provide me with one of those interesting learning activities.  Before you start wondering, I have to explain that it did not come from talking to the barber.  I am rather reluctant barbershop chair talker.  Unlike some of the people sitting alongside me, I don’t find I have a lot to say while someone hovers around me with sharp objects.  Luckily, most barbers have mastered the skill of talking to the talkers and leaving the silent ones alone–if only one of the hygienists at my dentist’s office could do the same.

As I was getting my haircut, I noticed that the shop owner had invested in new aprons, or bibs, or dustcovers , or smocks–come to think of it, what are those sheetlike things they cover your body in called?  If anyone knows, please leave a comment in the comment section.

These new aprons featured a dizzying array of moustaches with the names of the moustache types below them…..and there were a lot of them.  I know of the standard goatee and handlebar, but I had knowledge whatsoever of any other names.  I have told my student that everything has a name–sometimes right down to the minute part of any machine or object, but I really hadn’t considered it as deeply as these new smocks forced me to do.

I notice that beards (I have heard them called hipster beards but I am not so up on the trends to know if that is correct.  Again, feel free to comment.  While we’re at it, I would like to know what the women think of this current fashion trend–I am just curious.  I have long given up my goatee and have no intention of ever growing it back.)…. where was I?

Okay, beards seem to be trendy.  I have to guess that is why the barber decided on this particular pattern for his new smocks.  These replaced purple red ones that matched the chairs along the waiting wall.  Given that the decor in the barber shop probably hasn’t changed in 20 years (despite and ownership change that preserved the name of the shop for some odd reason), I wonder what spurred the change of smocks.

As a learning exercise, I can’t really file this under the useful knowledge section of the great hard drive in my brain.  However, it will find its way into the great collection of useless trivia I already know.  If only pub quiz’s were more popular here.