Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  "Light years in a leap year..." 


          Found this among the instructions for a rally we participated
in... to four decimal places, please & thankyou!  We didn't have
calculators or computers then.  A friend of ours, an accountant, reported
that he'd worked out the answer in ten minutes.  Maybe that's why he's an
accountant & I'm not... [rueful grin].



JB>  The one thing I never forgot from my bicycle
JB>  escapades, is to never try to repeat the same
JB>  mistake that lead me to the emergency ward.


          Uh-huh.  A sign of intelligence, or so I understand... [chuckle].



JB>  I knew from personal experience on a bike that [offroad
JB>  jaunts] wouldn't feel too good, even *with* all the
JB>  harnesses, and roll-bars. I'm afraid I wouldn't even go
JB>  in the *back* seat, Ardith.


          Fair enough.  I never learned to ride a bicycle.  By the time I
had an opportunity to learn, with a borrowed one, I understood only too
well what might happen if I fell off!  Rallywise, what were doing was
usually more a test of our ability to match wits with the rallymaster...
and vice versa... than a race.  We were supposed to maintain a certain
average speed & didn't know in advance where the checkpoints would be
located.  If the instructions told us to take the first opportunity to turn
left, for example, was this or was it not a reference to the goat track
which might end in a muddy field & delay us by half an hour??  We did
fall off the road once on a speed stage.  Like the vast majority of other
people we knew who had done the same, we were unhurt & the damage to
the car was minor. These were relatively local "fun rallies"...
not as dramatic, or as competitive, as the national rallies on TV.  But I
won't deny there were some risks....  :-))



JB>  I guess I also quickly learned how to drive mom NUTS!
JB>  (HAPPY MOTHERS DAY, BTW! ]|-)


          Thankyou!  Yes, if she's at all like the typical primary teacher
you'd probably drive her nuts & vice versa.  I'm not, as I guess you
know now....  ;-)



JB>  Maybe Barnstey is also a manufacturer, and she just
JB>  assumed your clock might be made by them?


          As to the former, I suppose anything is possible.  As to the
latter, I think she assumed a lot based on a cursory inspection from three
feet away!  She wasn't the expert we'd come to see... he hadn't arrived
yet.  And all the clocks available for purchase in the store had obviously
been made within recent years, so I doubt she knows very much about 19th
century clockmakers.  Such people tend to express personal opinions in such
a firm & authoritative manner, though, that others often doubt
themselves.  The incident with the clock is rather amusing in retrospect,
but the same occurs with regard to more serious matters too....  :-/



JB>  Some people are set in their ways, and no matter how
JB>  much proof, or outide knowledge you throw at them,
JB>  they are always going to be right in their own minds.


          Uh-huh.  I can relate to many of the problems you're having with
folks who don't understand your organic gardening methods because I've read
up on this subject as well.  I was quite annoyed when my father-in-law took
it upon himself to spray an apple tree a decade ago, thinking he was doing
us a favour.  And I'm still battling the alder weed another
"helper" spread by chopping the roots into little bits &
leaving them buried in the ground to produce more weeds... (sigh).



JB>  I've found the real chore is to locate friends who can call
JB>  you on your crap, and have a good laugh about it later.

AH>  I'd like to think you've just located one... me.  :-))

JB>  Aw, *shucks!*

JB>  Right back at ya!!!


          "Do as you would be did by."  It works for me... [chuckle].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+