Enter the Dragon: Algebra

My column is up at the Douglas Budget and you should go there now and read it because in it you will find out:

1. just how small my brain is

and

2. why rules are good *and* bad

and

9. that math is the key to everything, even cooties.

Please? 

Mr. Tire (Mr. Peanut's 3rd cousin) really wants you to.

It's kind of embarrassing to admit how much a math class (that I get no credit for whatsoever and doesn't really matter if I pass or not) scared me. I'm no genius for sure but in general I don't go around feeling like a complete and utter moron. Enter Algebra and her evil minions Word Problems and I turn into a dimwitted dingbat.

It scared me but I took the class anyway because if I go back to school I'll probably need to remember how to get x and y on a train going different directions and then figure out how fast they'll get to Uranus (hehehe) and more importantly, math ain't the boss of me.

And you know what? After six weeks of, "oh, this isn't so bad, I get it" to "I am the stupidest person that ever lived and I should jump off the nearest bridge because I will never pass this class and I'll have to be a hobo" and every feeling in between, I passed. 

I passed.

I'm like the Bruce Lee of math now. Until the next class, that is.

The Mason Dixon Line and Low Flying Aircraft

We woke up in Gettysburg PA this morning surrounded by fog and it was cool enough to snuggle under the blankets. We didn't get to do any sight seeing, although a few years ago, we got tangled up in our directions and drove straight into Gettysburg.  All 18 wheels and 75 feet of us! It was definitely not truck friendly, but then again, we've been to New Jersey so dirty looks don't phase us!

Yesterday we crossed the Mason Dixon line. You always hear of that being the border between the North and South but it predates the Civil War and the United States themselves.  In 1763 Englishmen Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were asked to resolve an 80 year property dispute between land owners in Maryland and Pennsylvania. They lay stone markers indicating the boundary using the stars to calculate the path through the wilderness. It took 5 years to mark out the 233 mile long boundary. When I think about people doing things like this with only their minds, pen and paper, and the stars, I realize how much I don't know about how things work.  Stars and math seem to be at the root of all things and I don't know anything about either. I hope I never get sent back in time, I would not be a good representative of the future and I wouldn't last very long without hot water and a toothbrush.

Crazy signs of the day: "Warning Low Flying Aircraft" What are you supposed to do with this information? Shouldn't the aircraft be watching for the interstate? Presumably the aircraft can move out of the way, cars and trucks on the road certainly can't! Also today at the shipper, a huge distribution center, a sign saying "Live Driver Staging Area". Now, we have met truck drivers that had the IQ of the walking dead, but they were in fact still alive.