Here We Go Again

Every two years I get some new glasses. In 2012 I tried the Warby Parker Home Try-On program. Of the 5 frames I tried, I rejected all of them and ended buying a pair from our local eyeglass place. In 2014 I stuck with the local place, but in 2016 I went full on Warby Parker and after trying two separate sets of 5 glasses each chose my current frames.

So here we go again. For 2018 I’m going to try Warby Parker again and my first 5 frame choices arrived yesterday. I choose 3 that are sort of the same shape as the current frames and two that are more round. And while the current blue frames have received rave reviews from practically everyone who notices them, all 5 of these are not blue (although the Hardy in Striped Pacific looks that way on the website.) We really just have a couple of greys, a couple of browns and a green.

Of the five, I kind of like the Seymour in Sage, but wish it was more green. My next choice would be the Lyle in English Oak, but I’m not sold on that color. Donna sort of likes Baker in Striped Sassafras, but I think they are too dark. So you know what this means, let’s mail ’em back and pick another five.

Truck Day

You know baseball is just around the corner when they pack all the equipment in a big old tractor trailer and drive it down to Florida for spring training. It’s Truck Day in Beantown. When they are finished loading the trailer this year, before they lock the doors, they better double check for stowaway Patriot players trying to sneak out of town…

Motoring to a Miata Club Meeting

Thursday was the Masters Miata Club February Dinner Meeting and because they were meeting at a restaurant we like and haven’t been to in a dog’s age, we went. Also factoring in was the weather, for once in a quite a while we caught a day when the temperatures were actually above normal, so we could ride with the top down. For an appetizer, we took a couple of motoring challenge photos on the way over and for dessert, we grabbed one, on the way home.

Runners-Up Again

The results of the 2017 Moss Motoring Challenge are in and we finished solidly in the Runner-Up field once more. We scored a total of 243 points and ended up tied with 4 other people for 16th place. Although if you go to the winners list on this page we are marked as tied for 19th with another person even though the two of us have the same point total as the 3 tied for 16th.

The first year we did it, 2014, we finished in the #20 spot of the runners up with 128 points. In 2015 we scored 172 points and finished in the number one runner-up spot just 7 points shy of cracking the top three. The year 2016 was a lost cause. The Emperor stared giving us fits, so we didn’t feel comfortable taking road trips in it. We racked up a mere 60 points and didn’t even submit the results. Even if we had, we would have been 27 points shy of making it into the runner-up category.

Trash Compactor

Ninety-two per cent of Americans believe it is important to wash your hands after using the bathroom, but only 66% actually do it. And almost 70% of the folks that do wash, skipped using soap. So, of the last 10 people that used the rest room before you, you would be lucky if maybe 2 washed their hands with soap.

So I can see why the people who do wash their hands, soap or not, exit the restroom using a series of complex dance steps. They dry their hands with paper towels, reach for the door handle with the hand that has the damp paper towels, pull the door open, stop the door from closing with their foot, and then reach back to toss the paper into the trash can.

This leads to the trash cans getting full fairly fast because there is a lot of air in between all those paper towels. The bathroom trash cans here at ASCO get emptied twice a day, once in the morning and then again really late afternoon. So, if I use the restroom just before lunch or mid-afternoon the cans are almost full or in some cases overflowing.

For the last couple of weeks, I have taken it upon myself to play trash compactor. If I’m alone in the rest room1 I’ll put my right foot in front of the door (so it can’t be opened into me), raise my left foot into the trash can and squish all the air out from in between the waste paper. I then perform the above-mentioned exit maneuver to leave the room.

Brown Socks

As a computer draftsman in a manufacturing plant I work in an office, but I’m not really a white-collar worker. I only occasionally have to go out on to the shop floor, so I’m definitely not a blue-collar worker either. I like to think I’m somewhere in between, sort of a chambray-collar worker.

As a result of my middle of the corporate ladder status my typical work attire for the longest time has been a polo shirt with a pair of Dockers khaki pants transitioning to a pair of brown or tan steel-toed shoes with some brown socks. At first the socks were 6 packs of plain cotton dress socks, but then I started buying a couple of three packs at a time with brown or tan socks containing patterns to spice things up: argyle, stripes, dots, etc. The 6 pair of brown socks were stuck in the drawer and I rotated them by placing the freshly laundered ones on the bottom of the existing clean ones, trying not to wear the same pair more than once during a week. Not because I was afraid someone would call me on it, but like rotating your car’s tires, it evened out the wear.

This plan has worked out pretty good, usually as soon as a hole develops in the toe seam or on the bottom at the ball of the foot, the rest of socks from the same 3-pack would fail in the same fashion a short time later. Somewhere along the line a set of 3 outlasted the other set by a large margin, so instead of needing all six socks at one time, sock purchasing became staggered. As soon as the second sock of a pack failed in quick succession, it would be time to buy another 3-pack.

As luck would have it, two weeks ago, socks started wearing out. The first one went, then a couple days later the second developed a hole. The very next day, sock number three gave out as well. I did not immediately go to the store and buy a new 3-pack of brown socks, I considered it, but then I did the math. At this point I was down to just under 40 working days left and I wasn’t really going to wear the tan safety shoes after that, so with my remaining 3 pairs of socks I would need to get just a little more than 12 wearings out of each. When I ride the bicycle to work I normally just keep my dark gray cycling socks on during the day, so that number will get reduced every time I ride in. I think I can make it until March 2nd.

Will the brown socks last, the tension is palpable, stay tuned.