I finally got around to working on my AGU poster on Antarctic glaciation this afternoon, so to get in the mood I thought that I would cross country ski in the park next door for the second time today...but this time as the full moon was rising (OK, 1 day past). This morning, when it was colder, I wiped out on a hill at pretty good speed. Then, I proceeded to pass through some gaps in various barbed wire fences. I am on blood thinner. I have a cell phone. These are all pieces of a scientific puzzle, or a challenge on "Survivor". So, I left the cell phone at home, and skied past (on purpose) where I had been before. I nice long open hill loomed ahead...but the moon was just rising so was not shining on hill. I thought it might not be good to go too fast so I skiied to the right of the trail that deer or hikers had been on. I was not going very fast when I piled into the barbed wire fence. It took a while to untangle myself. The path went through a gap in the fence, so if I had taken it, I might have been going a little faster, but would have missed the fence. If I was going as fast as this morning and the barbed wire was higher, it would have ripped my fool head completely off and then whether I was on blood thinner or not would not have mattered. My Motto being "why do something stupid once when you can do it over and over", so when I found the gap in the fence I proceeded to ski the rest of the way down...but no barbed wire, and I made it home, and my favorite pants only have a couple of small punctures, along with my leg, and the blood was all sopped up by my long underwear so it did not stain my pants, so life is good. I'm now trying to talk heartland daughter into going back there tonight. OK, I could work on my AGU poster, or I could watch the really excellent series on Everest on Discovery Channel and get inspired..watching a bunch of other fools.
Maybe later on this thread I'll put a bunch of pieces of a fault/earthquake puzzle and we can discuss the different ways they can be assembled...maybe not
Chris