Dancing in the Rain

Well, not exactly...and not the Hosta variety, either.
But it certainly was cold and wet today!

So.
Every time I buy new tennies, I have these grand plans of taking better care of them the previous pair.

I was thinking about that today while I was standing in mud with my chainsaw spitting little nurgles of tree all over my feet and the rain dripping off the brim of my hat and soaking my freezer suit from Job2. I was able to see my breath today, so was thankful I had brought the freezer suit home.

And yes. I was once again wearing my newest tennies.
(They washed up and dried very nicely in the LG appliances, I might add.)

The reason I brought home the freezer suit is actually a blog topic in itself, but the short version of it is that my kids locked themselves out of the house...and me, too...because the keys to the house were inside of it, and so was the garage door opener. The kicker is that rather than tell me they'd locked us all out, they called me at work and asked if they could stay at a friend's house that night.

Brats.

I'd stopped at home between Job1 and Job2 and discovered the situation. I figured I'd be spending some time in the morning sun and brought the freezer suit home to hide my untanned body from the sunlight. And now I've learned how to enter my locked and sealed house without breaking any windows or "Heeeeeeerrrss Johnny!"ing either of the entrances.

Which leads me to The Post of the Moment, and said post will include the sun rather than the rain mentioned in the title.
I'll get to that part shortly.

Back when I was just a wee young lad, even younger than my kids are today, I attended grade school at East Side Elementary in Marshall, MN. The building is no longer serving the general public as a public school, (asbestos?) but we had some teachers there that were worth remembering.

Ironically, I have no idea which one it was that said this to us, but one of them told us that with all of the people currently living and all of those that had lived before us, we would never have an original thought. Anything we think of has already been thought of by someone else.

Well. Ain't that a bitch?
I still haven't been able to forgive her for telling us that, even though she's probably right.
(Which doesn't particularly matter, since I can't remember which teacher said it.)

OK. So someone else has already beaten me to everything that I will ever think of.
But maybe...just maybe... that someone died before they shared the thought.
Ah...a glimmer of hope! (In kind of a weird, twisted way.)

So now I'd like to take the opportunity to share some thoughts with you so that I can ruin it for the next poor sap who's bummed out 'cause all the thoughts are used up. My apologies if you have already thought these yourself as you might find this boring.

My thoughts...

On magnifying glasses. Convex lens or concave lens? I don't remember. But when you hold one up so that the *sun* (See? I came back to it!) hits it just right, the light is focused into a pinpoint line that creates enough heat to start a leaf or a paper on fire.

What happens if that beam of light is run through yet another magnifying glass? Does the light get even tighter and hotter? If you add more magnifying glasses, does it work the same as the telescope concept, only in reverse?

And what happens if you aim that light so that it bounces off a mirror before hitting the target?
Does it still create enough heat on impact to start the object on fire? How about if it were reflected back and forth between several mirrors? Would it somehow create the illusion of additional light as well as having the heat? If so, could you take one of those Christmas ornaments (round, colored on the outside but mirror finished on the inside, super fragile glass/metallic), open a small hole on both ends, direct the sunlight through prisms and magnifying glasses on one end, and get a stronger beam coming out the other?

Would it be enough to evaporate water? Would it be intense enough to push an object? Because if was, I might have a use.

Next - magnetism. In the radio world, FM stands for Frequency Modulation. (AM stands for Amplitude Modulation, in case you ever wondered but didn't care enough to google it.) AM radio waves bounce between the sky and the earth, and therefore the towers are in swampy areas. However, FM radio waves work on the same principle as magnetism, with each FM radio wave pushing the previous wave along ahead of it. They travel in a straight forward fashion, which is why you see FM radio towers on top of really tall buildings or in other high locations. The waves don't bounce, so when you drive through a tunnel you lose your FM reception until you are back out of it and into an area where the signal reaches you again.

But what would happen if you were to take a whole bunch of powerful magnets (equal in all dimensions. weight, shape, size, etc.) and arrange them in a wagon wheel spoke pattern in such a way that gravity treats each the same but they are still set up in such a way that they try to make the one ahead of it move? (Opposites attract, likes repel. Right?) Of course, they'd have to be individually attached to something with some give, like a piece of aluminum (non magnetic metal) so that they could be made to move toward the next magnet, and it could then take it's turn to move the next one, and so on.

What could be used to continuously cause the push? Perhaps some sunlight that's been magnified several times?

And so on.

Some of the other thoughts I had regarding these topics -
- Does any of it matter?
- Is any of it already being used? If so, for what?
- Should I pretend that one day I will have the time and money to run my own experiments so that I can find some practical use that I can patent and sell and become independently wealthy and therefore have more money to run more experiments on stuff that other people thought before me but died before sharing leaving me the chance to cash in on their misfortune and get even more money so I can become the crazy eccentric that drives around town in a street sweeper?
- Is it going to wreck my hoodie if I wash and dry it with my muddy @$$ shoes?
- If I start a fire and burn the branches right here on the ground in the path I'm creating through my grove, will the police see it? If so, is it cold and wet enough where they'll just keep driving and pretend they didn't instead of issuing me a ticket for burning without a permit?
- What works better to clean and whiten a beaver skull...peroxide or bleach?
- How much of the side of the road does the city control even if you own it? Is there enough left beyond their chunk and where my trees start for me to start another garden? If so, should I frame it in rock, landscaping brick, or treated timbers? And what would I name it?

I wonder if either my old Sony Walkman CD player or Toshiba Radio/Cassette still works.
I might be one of those people who shouldn't be left with his "own" thoughts.

That's the end of it for today. I'm throwing in a little extra at the end here to say "Hi!" to family friend, Jean L (mom said you enjoy reading our blogs. sweet!) and also to Doodles (thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!) and my twin sister Valerie, who never answers the phone when I call her, even tho I call her during the hours when she's awake instead of those when I am. (Better quit that or next time we're all together I'm pushing you down the stairs when mom's not watching!)

Oooohh. I think I'd call my roadside garden (In an Arnold voice) "'Hosta' La Vista, Baby!"