Beauty in the Strangest things

I saw this on ABC News a couple of evenings ago and was blown away how something so simple could becomes something so beautiful. And yes, this does show how much of a nerd I truly am but it is amazing to watch. What am I referring to? Check this out (you need Quicktime installed AND it is 14 MB in size so it will take a while to download):

You can find the background information on this page by Aaron Koblin. You just saw all the air traffic for a 24 hour period with the color representing types of flights (passenger, cargo, military, etc.). It is amazing to see how the outline of the continental U.S. shows up as well as the Transatlantic and Hawaii routes (plus some minor flights to the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, and Central America...). Take a look at Aaron's webpage...there are several other videos of the same day but in different forms. Simply Amazing!

Yup. I'm getting older...

One of my co-workers recently got a promotion and has moved to Midland. I offered to maintain his lawn and garden while the house was in the process of being sold (which was under contract...after 20 days on the market!) since he had already departed to Midland. It wasn't a big deal; his house is a couple of blocks away and he offered me any of the fresh vegetables in his garden that he had to leave behind.

After getting an e-mail from my co-worker stating the house was closing in 4 days and seeing my lawn needed a haircut, I decided to get up early this morning (early meaning 11 am) and knock out both yards in a couple of hours. So, I lathered on the Bullfrog Sunscreen, applied liberal amounts of Deep Woods Off to hold the West Nile laden mosquitoes at bay, gassed up the mower, and started cutting away. No big deal...I had both lawns mowed in two hours. This even included cleaning out some weeds in my flower beds the old-fashioned way (by hand).

So, after cooling off with a 20 oz. ice-cold Gatorade and two bottles of water under the ceiling fan in my living room (didn't want to sit on any furniture as I was coated in sunscreen, Off, and now dust/grass particles) it was time to take a refreshing hot shower and get ready to work. It was quite nice and relaxing until I put my head under the stream of what was supposed to be comfortably hot water. Suddenly...flames erupted on the top of my head and it felt as if someone had turned on all the cold water faucets AND flushed all the toilets at the same time. O.K., it wasn't quite that bad. But boy, did it hurt! Since I had been having problems with my hot water heater, I figured that this soon to be replaced piece of equipment was the culprit.

Nope. It was something much more sinister and totally out of my control (well, not TOTALLY). After drying off and getting my glasses on, I saw the unmistakable light pink (fortunately NOT lobster red) coloring of a sunburn...on my HEAD! For some strange and unfortunate reason, the SPF factor of hair lowers proportionally with the thinner your hair gets and now I have reached the tipping point of needing to use more sunscreen. On my SCALP of all places. How the HECK am I supposed to do that?!? Sigh. Just another sign of the years as they tick by; increasing real estate thanks to deforestation on the top and front of my scalp.

By the way...all you younger guys can laugh now...but it will happen to you! Someday, you will unknowingly leave your dome uncovered thinking you were safe thanks to a full head of hair, spend a day in the sun, and suffer when you realize the march of time is unstoppable (according to current laws of physics). Then it will be my turn to laugh and say "I told you so!"...

Puns of the Day

I like good puns. By good, I mean puns that make you think for a bit then you end up laughing at them because they are crafty. REALLY good puns are the ones that make you laugh at work and everyone turns to look at you and so you tell them the pun but they give you a blank stare back or go "Huh?". Well, I found two good ones that are too good to not share with you. Here goes:

A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. The marine biologist was immediately arrested and charged with transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.

There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant, and the first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This goes to prove that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

Yeah, that last one made me laugh. A lot.