Trampoline...no longer.

Yup. That's what I've accomplished this weekend. I took down the trampoline. And I'm using the bouncy black mesh stuff to cover my utility trailer because it still has both my new push mower and one of the riders in it. And tomorrow I'll have to hook it up to the car and try to back it up to where the trampoline used to be so it's out of my driveway when the snowstorm hits.

I just love winter. It makes my life so much less complicated.

I would have gotten more done if I would have gotten up earlier. But I didn't. And then one of the kid's friends stopped and asked if I could run his family to Willmar because the driver that was lined up to take them had a family emergency. And so I did.

When I picked them up I thought they might be getting their pictures taken because they were dressed up very nicely and the mom (who I am just officially meeting for the first time) is fighting with her little person trying to get his hair combed just right.

It turned out that they were going to a Christmas party that was apparently sponsored by a women's shelter or something... so I felt a little stupid dropping them off as they are a black family and I was driving the Cadillac and I had my cap on backwards like some homey wannabe and now looked like a wife beater.

And then I went shopping (bought notta) until the party was done, picked them up and brought them back to Granite. She said she also felt a bit stupid as she had seriously overdressed the 3 of them for the occasion and felt that everyone was staring at them.

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as she was talking about the meal that was served. She specifically stated that she appreciated it and that I wasn't to take it that she didn't, but she felt they should have included corn bread and a couple other items that I've never even considered to be part of a traditional Christmas meal. (My family has always done a very simple meal of a sweet bread in molasses with ring bologna and prunes. I think it's something that came from the Bohemian part of mom's side of the family, and I have no idea how to spell the word for the bread stuff. It sounds like "bush-ta-keys" - and people who are not directly from the blood line seem to enjoy it even more than our own family.)

So then we talked about whatever came to mind. It's always interesting to see how similar and different you can be to someone at the same time. But I do give this lady credit because she wouldn't let her son stay overnight at my place the one time he'd been over...while I was home, anyway...because she hadn't met me yet. And now she has, so I think he's good to go.
(She gave me gas money and a tray of homemade cookies. Score!)

But anyway, I do like the Christmas part of winter. I think people generally are more friendly during the month than they normally are. I'm not sure why the people who decided what day to celebrate The Birth picked the middle of winter for that day, because to me it seems like it would be a lot more handy to put up Christmas lights in May through October rather than in one of those months where the weather forecast includes chances of flurries.

Maybe it's because they didn't have electricity and therefore didn't put up strands of lights.
But still. Plan ahead a little bit, OK?

And at Job2, like we have for the last few years, we listen to 94.7 FM - which plays nothing but Christmas music for the entire time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's amazing how many times we hear the same classic songs during a night that are sung by different artists.

And when you hear them often enough, you question the lyrics.

For example..."There's marshmallows for roasting..." Do people do this somewhere during December? Is this really part of someones holiday tradition? Cuz' I sure ain't about to bundle up in my freezer suit from Job2 and huddle up against the fire pit to burn a marshmallow.
And from the same song there's the line..."There'll be scary ghost stories..." Really? I'm thinking you're running a couple of holidays together there, Tim Burton. (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Not that I have anything against these songs. I sing along even if I think the lyrics could use tweaking. I even do some tweaking. Like so...

"A Child, a Child, shivers in the cold. Let us bring Him silver and gold. And an electric blanket."

See? Now here again we run into the problem created by having no electricity during this time period. At least He could use the blanket. Not sure what the silver and gold would've done. Unless they also hadn't created wrought iron and needed silver and gold to make a headboard for the cradle in the manger.

Whatever. I'm sure December 25th was an important day for some pagan ritual or something so Christianity used it to detract the significance from the pagan beliefs. (I don't know if "pagan" gets capitalized. I hope "spell-check" corrects that if it's not right.)

Time to move on. Pretend that the "electric" part of electric blanket, wrought iron, silver, and gold somehow ties the first part of this in with the second part. Although none of this really ties in with the title...

So anyway, I mentioned yesterday that I had talked to David's science teachers. Blah blah blah David has good grades but is missing assignment whatever so write that down and get it turned in there David or I'll have to pummel you love dad.

I asked them about the Table of Elements and if there were only the 4 or 5 metals that were non magnetic. Turns out I had it backwards and that there's something like 88 metals and only 4 or 5 ARE magnetic. So then I asked them if there was a way to bend magnetism. But before they could answer I asked how to make metal magnetic as I'm thinking that you can do so by pounding two of the right metals together. They said to run an electromagnetic current through the metal.

Oh, sure. Let me just strike my MacGyver pose and I'll use this piece of chewed gum and the foil wrapper it came in to rewire my vacuum cleaner (now that the lice problem is taken care of) to make me an electromagnetic current producing thingy.

So by then I knew that it was time to move on to the next teacher, which just happened to be Todd's cute English teacher. But that was across the gym so I had time to think a bit.

If there are 88 metals and only 4 are magnetic, what are the chances that some don't conduct electricity? How about some that store electricity but can't run it through from side to side? How about something like that that doesn't start on fire when you accidentally microwave it?

Just think! The people at Arby's could wrap their ham sandwiches and beef-n-cheddars in this electricity storing metal instead of the fire hazard foil they currently use, (which burns in approximately 5/8 of a second with the microwave set on "high" - by my accidental experimentation.) and then, when you are done warming a sandwich on your lunch break, you can cram the sandwich's nuclear charged wrapper into your Ipod's battery compartment and let it run on that!

Or how about a portable microwave? Just run the non sparking, electrical current conducting wire from inside the microwave to the power cord in the back and the thing'll run on it's own nuke power! (Probably will have to have a nuke charged Arby's wrapper compartment installed to get the power to kick in.)

No more peanuts on long air flights! "No, ma'am. Won't be needing those peanuts today! Got me my portable microwave and my Arby's sandwiches here! Hey. What's this mile-high club thing I hear tell of?" *wink wink*

Or better yet, just wire a couple portable microwaves to the engine of one of those ugly-ass Toyotas that run on part electrical, nuke a bowel of water and convert the vapor into steam power for other half of the hybrid power, and thereby eliminate the need for foreign fuel? (If not the ugly-ass foreign car.)

Yes. I am a genius. And this is why I stand in a freezer or load boxes on a truck for my money. :)

And while I'm on the subject of magnetics again... have you ever put a magnet over sand and found that some of it will "stick" to the magnet? Well, glass is made of sand. If this same glass were to be made of all magnetic sand, would the glass then be magnetic as well?

The speakers in a car all have magnets behind the cones. They could then be stuck to your windows wherever you want them instead of producing "clear and accurate" sounds...to your knees!

"True Surround Sound" has already been used. Probably has a trademark on it.
False advertising. :)