Get your motor runnin'...

...head out on the highway...lookin' for adventure...

OMG I'm so excited!!!

We did have to change our route a little. The roads in Montana, up in Glacier National Park, won't be open until after June 22nd! So we're going to skip that, and northern Idaho. That's ok. We're totally gonna find other things to see :-)

Wide open spaces, mountains!, quirky small town gems, funny little museums, ghost towns, wildlife, rivers and lakes, roadside attractions, funky motels. It's going to be so awesome!!!

Did you know trivia

I love this kind of stuff;

Over 25 years ago, a cargo ship traveling from Hong Kong to the United States accidentally lost a shipping crate in the Pacific Ocean. Inside that crate were 28,000 rubber ducks unwittingly about to embark on many long journeys across the globe. As rubber ducks continue to pop up on shores around the world from Australia to Alaska, they’ve enlightened our understanding of ocean currents. Some have made it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, while others have been found frozen in Arctic ice. 

The inventor of the frisbee was turned into a frisbee after he died

“Steady Ed” Headrick invented the frisbee in the 1950s, then went on to invent the sport of disc golf in the 1970s. “He lived for frisbee,” his wife said of the inventor of the classic American toy. When he died in 2002, his final wish was to have his ashes turned into, what else, but a frisbee. His son said it was his father’s dream that they play with him after death and that he might even accidentally end up on someone’s roof.

 Roosters have built-in earplugs.

Considering how a rooster’s call can get up to 140 decibels or louder, it might leave one to wonder how the rooster himself keeps from going deaf when that noise is coming right out of its beak. It turns out, the farm fowl have built-in earplugs. Researchers found that when a rooster opens its beak to crow, its external auditory canals close off, preventing sound from coming in and serving as earplugs.

The most requested funeral song in England is by Monty Python.

A survey of funeral directors by Co-operative Funeralcare found that the most requested song to play at funerals in the United Kingdom is “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” by Monty Python from their irreverent comedy classic Life of Brian. It beat out Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

A sea lion once saved a man.

Attempting to end his life by jumping of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a man named Kevin Hines survived but broke his back. While it seemed he would be not long for this world, a sea lion came to the rescue, swimming beneath him and keeping him afloat until the coast guard arrived.

Indians spend more than 10 hours a week reading, more than any other country in the world

Social media and digital consumption have become so overwhelmingly popular in most parts of the world that it’s easy to forget that for some people, reading is still a primary form of entertainment. According to a recent study, the average Indian spends 10 hours and 42 minutes per week reading. Compare that to America’s five hours and 42 minutes per week. The other countries with the top five highest reading times are Thailand, China, the Philippines, and Egypt.  

Research shows that all blue-eyed people may be related

At least, they may share the same distant ancestor. After studying the DNA of blue-eyed individuals from Scandinavia, Turkey, Jordan, and India, Danish researchers found that they all had identical gene sequences for eye color. They believe this trait comes from a single individual, called the “founder,” whose genes mutated between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before that, everyone had varying shades of brown eyes.

This punctuation mark ?! is called an interrobang

That’s right, the combination question mark-exclamation mark that so many of us overuse in text messages has a name. It was invented in the 1960s by an ad man named Martin Speckter who wanted to lend typographical form to the messages behind advertising campaigns that were both questions and exclamations. Think: “Got milk?!” or “Can you hear me now?!” The interrobang originally looked like this, “‽” but nowadays most people use its two root symbols instead.

Doritos are flammable and can be used as kindling

If you’re ever in a bind, throw some Doritos on the grill and spark them up. Though you can make kindling out of nearly anything, the flavored corn chips are particularly handy because they’ll burn for a long time. In fact, most chips will serve as good fire starters because they’re made of flammable hydrocarbons soaked in oil, according to an investigation by The Star. The more covered in powder-flavoring they are, the longer the fire will last!

The first written use of “OMG” was in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill

The days were dark during World War I when Europe was at war and world powers like Britain were mobilizing their forces. One celebrated British admiral of the Royal Navy had retired by 1917 when he wrote to Winston Churchill to share his take on the headlines of the day, some of which were so exciting, he wrote, “O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!). How could he have known that the acronym he invented would go on to become one of the most-used phrases in the world?

infrastructure

Our roads suck. Sometimes my morning commute is stressful just because of the potholes. It's all anybody talked about, for months. We have our own memes they're so bad;

I mean really!! This woman is collecting hubcaps on her street!

And then there was the big story for several days about a pothole so bad, on the freeway! that cars with flat tires were lined up on the side of the street after hitting it.

Anyway, this morning they said that for the first time since January 1st, pot holes are NOT the #1 complaint on the mayor's action center hotline. Seriously...IT'S MAY 23RD!!!!! There are still 5950 open complaints for pot holes though. IT'S MAY 23RD!!!! 
I can almost promise the current mayor of Indianapolis will not be reelected. I know it's dumb to fire someone over pot holes, but that's how we roll. Bart Peterson got booted because snow removal in the city sucked the winter before the reelection. Yeah, pot holes are worse. See ya Mayor Hogsett!

Death

The other day I was chatting with a coworker...she's a few years older than I am. I think I'm one of the youngest old people I know. I wonder why. She's kind of chill and conservative and super responsible. Anyway, she's a classic conservative, democrat, Midwestern woman. Born and raised in a small town by 2 parents whose parents immigrated from Poland. (not that that matters) The only thing that's not typical about her is that she's not religious, at all. You live and die and that's that. No heaven, no hell, just done. She said, "I wonder if you know when you die, that you've died." Curiously, I had just read an article about that!

https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20171108/does-your-brain-know-when-youre-dead

So, don't say mean things around someone who just died! It could come back to haunt you.
She didn't really like this idea, that you know when you've died. I don't either. Creepy.

human rights

What exactly do you consider a "human right?" Do you have the right to own car? Do you have a right to eat whatever you want? Is healthcare a human right? Is having a job a human right? I feel like we throw a lot into that 'it's my right' bucket. Whenever we want something or want our way, we say, it's my right! 

The United Nations says human rights are;
1. all humans are born free and equal
2. everyone has a right to freedom without discrimination
3. everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person
4. no one should be a slave
5. no one should be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment/punishment
6. everyone has the right to use the law
7. everyone has the right to be protected by the law
8. everyone has the right to fair treatment by the law
9. Nobody has the right to arrest/detain you without a good reason
10. everyone has the right to a fair trial
11. you're innocent until proven guilty
12. you have the right to privacy
13. everyone has the right to go wherever they want in regard to travel
14. we have the right to seek asylum in another country
15. everyone has the right to a nationality
16. we have a right to marry and have a family if we want to 
17. We have a right to own things
18. everyone has the right to freedom of thought
19. everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression
20. everyone has the right to meet where we like
21. we have a right to democracy
22. we all have the right to housing, medicine, education and enough money to live on
23. everyone has the right to work and receive equal pay for equal work
24. everyone has the right to rest - including vacation and holiday pay
25. everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care
26. everyone has the right to an education
27. everyone has the right to copyright protection
28. everyone is 'entitled' to a fair and free world
29. everyone should protect everyone else's rights too
30. Nobody has a right to take these away from you

There's a lot of conversation to be had there. I looked that all up this morning for a reason though.
In Alabama, lawmakers have voted to ban abortions in their state.  Again, a lot of conversation to be had there. But I was struck by some of the protesters and their signs. One sign said, "abortion is a human right." Really? Is it? So I looked it up. Hmmmm. Another sign said, "protect women's health." Still others said, "senator's mistresses and daughters will always have THEIR abortions" and "It's easy being pro life when you're not pregnant." People are so dumb. I mean, if you can't protest something intelligently, no wonder your lawmakers walk all over you. I don't agree with Alabama. Mostly because I don't think the government should be able to make that decision for you. Wouldn't it better if you just tried harder to teach them about birth control, responsibility and consequences? Shouldn't that be the conversation?

Your time off

Did you know;

"1 in 4 Americans have nine or more days of paid time off left in October. That's more than most workers can, or will, use by the end of the year. 
While most employees at least want to make the most of those hard-earned days off, American workers use only about half, or 54%, of their eligible vacation time on average, according to a separate study by jobs and recruitment website Glassdoor.
As a result, they end up burning valuable time.
By forfeiting over 200 million vacation days that cannot be rolled over, American workers gave up about $62 billion in lost benefits last year alone. That means employees effectively donated $561 in work time, on average, to their employer."

I can see how that happens, but what a shame. I mean, a lot of people feel like they just don't have anything to do if they took time off. Or they can't afford to "go somewhere" so why bother. Currently, I have 207 hours in sick time accumulated and 134 hours of vacation time. I've been saving my vacation time though, for the epic road trip coming up!! And I'm one of those people who only uses sick time when I'm sick, thus, I've accumulated a lot of it. Next month, my fella has to have shoulder surgery and I can use my sick time to be home with him. That's a nice benefit. Some people, when they retire, have upwards of 3 months of vacation time they haven't used. That's just crazy. If you have that much time on the books, just take every Friday in the summer off. How cool would that be, 3 day weekends all summer long?! Sign me up! I don't necessarily like the use it or loose it policy, but take your time off people! 

Many years ago I worked for a company who had this crazy wicked program...if you didn't use any sick time all year, they threw your name into a hat to win a new car! There were a couple other really great prizes too. One was a cruise and the other was an extra week of vacation. It actually saved the company a boat load of money! We could only accrue 2 weeks of sick time though. A few years ago I read an article about a large employer in Japan who figured out that smokers used an average of 7 days a year on break, smoking. So if you were a nonsmoker, you got and extra 7 days of paid vacation a year. Good incentive to quit smoking. I bet they take all their time off in Japan! (not that any of that has anything to do with what I was talking about)

we're so much more!

I saw this statistic the other day about the average size of the average home.

It said, in 1920 the average house was 1048 square feet. 1960, 1289 square feet. 2000, 2266 square feet. Today, 2690 square feet. That's a pretty big house considering the average size of a family today is 2.58 - down from 4.34 in 1920. Houses aren't the only thing that's bigger! WE are too! In 1960, the average woman weighed 140 pounds. I thinks that high. I would've guessed less in 1960. Now, the average woman weighs a 170 pounds! Men went from 166 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds now. And we're taller too. Everything is just extra these days.

get your motor runnin...head out on the highway...

...lookin' for adventure and whatever comes our way. Booooorrrrnnnn to be wiii iiillllddd!
hahahahahahahaha!!! Yeah, that's us. Two old folks hittin' the road with only a general plan and some destinations in mind. OMG! Are we nuts!?!??!!? Ok, ok, I'm ok. 
My fella and I are going to take an epic road trip in the near future. We want to travel through the great northwestern part of our beautiful country. We want to see Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, the Black Hills, lots of stuff! When we leave though, we will not have made a single hotel reservation. We're just gonna wing it. We'll drive until we're tired. We'll stop and see whatever we feel like; the largest ball of string, the biggest cow statue in the world,  a funky little car museum, you know, whatever! Honestly, 'what to take' took more planning than the actual trip. Do we need flares? How about bear spray? Oh, binoculars for sure. Camera, check. Paper maps, check. Portable phone battery, check. What about a tool kit and a first aid kit!? Flashlights, check. CD's for those areas with no reception. Oh! And food! No, you can't just eat crap all the time. I mean jelly beans and chips are good but come on. How about celery and peanut butter. Apples, grapes, cheese, lunch meat. Lots of water. Homemade jerky! A blanket. Travel pillow. Books! I should have a mini van. Because I like to have stuff with me. We're going to see things we've never seen before. We're going to be adventurers. Road warriors! We're seniors. We're bad ass! Woooooooot. Hey, better late than never :-)

Guns n trucks

Last week, the annual NRA Convention was in my home state. It was a big deal. Mostly because of the projected attendance numbers...80,000 expected! That's A LOT of people. It was held just a block over from where I work, so I took that Friday off. I'm not  a fan of that many people OR traffic like that! 

I have a cousin who is a gun maker though, so we kind of had to go. OK, I kind of had to go. My fella was happy to go :-) Honestly, it wasn't bad. I mean really, if your a gun enthusiast, how cool is it to be able to go to one place and see it all?!?!?!?!?!! 

The thing that really cracked me up though? I'll tell you...everyday I park in the State parking garage, for State employees. It's not open to the public Mon - Fri from 5:00am to 5:00pm. During business hours it's filled with sedans and SUV's. Some mini vans and some trucks. Lot's of motorcycles in the summer. But the weekend of the NRA??? 90% pick up trucks!! When we pulled in to park, I laughed for 5 minutes. The whole entire garage, level after level was filled with pick ups! Funniest thing ever. I didn't know that owning a truck was a prerequisite to owning a firearm! Oh, but only if you're white. That was the other funny thing to me, not a lot of diversity at an NRA convention. How ironic.

:-)

The other day when I go home from work, I was talking to my brother on the phone. We weren't done talking so I just sat in my car in the driveway, until we were done. I know that sounds dumb but the audio is through my car and if I turn my car off and get out, it switches over to my phone or my hearing aids. I never know which is going to happen. Plus, when I go in the house the dogs are joyfully, loudly, celebrating my arrival and it's distracting :-)  So I sit in the car. I was in the car for awhile...my brother is a talker. After about 6/7 minutes, the garage door opens and this is what I see;

My little Grumpy Funko Pop. I laughed right out loud. My fella is pretty funny sometimes!!!