It’s not easy. You might think winning and losing is all about how the teams play, but you’d be wrong. There is much more to it than that. I have to have my Bronco Poncho on while they’re playing. If they’re not doing well I take it off. If I had forgotten to put it on, we find it and put it on. When Judy gets agitated and has to get up and do something, she starts cleaning the house. If our team starts playing better, that’s all the positive reinforcement she needs; she won’t stop before the game is over. Yesterday, she put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher and sat down with me to watch the game. By the end of the first half, she was up looking for more stuff to do in the kitchen. The Broncos started playing better. When she ran out of stuff to put away and counters to clean, she turned her attention to the dishwasher. By the end of the game, she had emptied the dishwasher completely, washed everything by hand, dried, and put away. So when we lavish praise on athletes for doing well, let’s not forget the dedication and hard work that goes on in living rooms and kitchens all across America as well!
Fly fishing
I’ve been thinking about fly fishing. In the spring I fly fished poppers for bass. I used to fly fish for trout every summer and fall. When we moved into the bus full-time, I still fished when we were in Colorado. Now I find we haven’t fly fished in years. The three of us used to drift boat fish with Rick once a year in Montana,
…but we haven’t been to Montana in a couple years now. So Rick sends us this picture in a Christmas card this year.
I’m thinking about fly fishing again.
…but we haven’t been to Montana in a couple years now. So Rick sends us this picture in a Christmas card this year. I’m thinking about fly fishing again. The Football Pool
I won the football pool a couple times and thought: “Wouldn’t it be fun to win more?” It’s a one-dollar pool. There is no limit to the number of entries. What if I submitted more than one sheet? I would have a greater chance of winning. My one in twenty chance could be a two in twenty-one chance. What if I really wanted to mess with people one week and guarantee I’d win just for fun; submit enough entries to cover every possible combination? Fifteen games in a week, excluding Monday night. How much would it cost to just bet every game? There are only two possible outcomes on the betting sheet for each game. There couldn’t be *that* many possibilities altogether. I did the math. Actually I tried to do the math, but lost the thread. If there is only one game, there are two possible outcomes (discounting ties); one team wins or the other one does. If there are two games, there are four possible outcomes. It gets a little harder after that. Three games, eight possibilities. Now I’m confused. I need a formula. It’s not simple multiplication; it’s something more sophisticated. I remember “factorial” from a statistics class a gazillion years ago. That’s a number times every whole integer number below it in sequence. That applies to some statistical situations, and almost to this one, but not quite. We turned to our grandson Tony for the math. He said the answer would be the number of possible outcomes, to the power of the number of games played. I tested that out on the lower numbers. One game, two possible outcomes, two to the power of one equals two. That works. Two games. Two to the power of two. Four. That works. Four games, sixteen possibilities. That’s sixteen dollars to dominate a four game pool. It’s starting to get a little scary. Okay, so what’ my out-of-pocket cost to guarantee the football pool? No more bye-weeks at this point in the season, so each pool is fifteen games. Two to the power of fifteen. Ooh, that’s a lot of doublings to win a $20 pool. For a mere $32,768, I can guarantee that no one will beat me; but I can’t guarantee that no-one will tie me! If one person tied me once, I’d be out $16,000! Not a good bet.
Judy and I each got the gift of hearing for Christmas at our house this year
Judy opened hers early; her hearing aid. I waited until Christmas to open mine. My hearing assist has more to do with birding than just regular hearing.
It’s a headset with a digital processor that picks out the higher frequencies that I can’t hear, and cuts them in half (or by three or by four), to bring them down to my hearing range. Here is the processing unit. It can just drop in a shirt pocket and the controls are still accessible from the top.
Here is a link to the demo of how it can bring high-pitched bird sounds into hearing range: http://hearbirdsagain.com/sound-samples/ We were going to test it out today, do a little bird listening, but there is a front blowing through. We didn’t think a roaring windstorm was the best time to check out our new listening device, so we stayed home for a calmer day.
It’s a headset with a digital processor that picks out the higher frequencies that I can’t hear, and cuts them in half (or by three or by four), to bring them down to my hearing range. Here is the processing unit. It can just drop in a shirt pocket and the controls are still accessible from the top. Here is a link to the demo of how it can bring high-pitched bird sounds into hearing range: http://hearbirdsagain.com/sound-samples/ We were going to test it out today, do a little bird listening, but there is a front blowing through. We didn’t think a roaring windstorm was the best time to check out our new listening device, so we stayed home for a calmer day. Merry Christmas everybody
Or as we say at our house, Merry Skype Christmas. We started our day with coffee and fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast at Becky and Brian’s house in Colorado. (They didn’t actually eat hot cinnamon rolls, but we did. I did hear something about fresh Monkey Bread on the agenda at their house a little later.)
Then we moved on to Matt and Lindsay’s house about fifty miles south of Becky’s.
Both houses had a cold snow-on-the-ground, crunchy-ice-on-the-streets Christmas Day. Arie colored really really close to the computer screen without actually coloring on it (we think).
And we finished up the day with dinner at Tom and Kathy’s thirty-five miles south of us here in the Valley.
Smoked ham. Yum. They got us fed and gone by five so we could make it home by dark. Judy can’t see to drive after dark, and I’m not turning my head yet. A darn good day. (And 80 degrees too.) Happy Holidays.
Then we moved on to Matt and Lindsay’s house about fifty miles south of Becky’s. Both houses had a cold snow-on-the-ground, crunchy-ice-on-the-streets Christmas Day. Arie colored really really close to the computer screen without actually coloring on it (we think). And we finished up the day with dinner at Tom and Kathy’s thirty-five miles south of us here in the Valley. Smoked ham. Yum. They got us fed and gone by five so we could make it home by dark. Judy can’t see to drive after dark, and I’m not turning my head yet. A darn good day. (And 80 degrees too.) Happy Holidays.