We Should Be On TV

These trees are across the street from our front door.   They aren't yet showing their full color, but they certainly enhance the view from our porch.
 
    Monday I had my one year/10,000 mile check-up.  It was all good and I get to drop one of my daily pills -- just in time to apply the pill cost to my car which won't start.  The car isn't even trying to start, it just sits there, a 3000lb. lump.  I've checked a couple of things and over the next couple of days I'll replace a couple of parts.  After that I'll limp around on my sore foot which I'll get because I'm going to kick the damn thing before I tow it to a shop.
  
   The other day, public broadcasting had a show on TV about ferrets.  We didn't watch it since dw really isn't fond of ferrets, but it reminded me of an article from Outside magazine about Ferret Legging.  Ferret Legging is a "sport" wherein the competitors tie off the cuffs of their pants, stuff in a couple of ferrets, and compete to see who can stand it the longest.  The putative world record is 5 hours 26 minutes.  It's considered a dying sport (Can you imagine why?!) but there have been stirrings of local interest.  As a competitor said:  "You have to be ready to have your tool bitten and not care."  The sport possibly arose in Yorkshire public houses (Scotland --I'm not sure why -- also claims to have started it ) And it's easy to see how a warm pint or ten or fifteen could lead to ferret legging. 
   And lest people think I'm maligning the Brits -- (My god! Are the British Isles so boring that for excitement men get a snootful and then stuff their pants with rapacious toothy, clawing animals?) --- For a couple of years Richmond, Virginia has had a Ferret Legging contest, but I'm pretty sure the beer of choice isn't warm and is probably PBR or Bud Lite  ("We might have lost the Civil War,  but by god! we'll show you Yanks.  We're gonna stuff some ferrets in our pants!")  But there's more:  St. Vital Park, Winnipeg also has a contest.  Though I doubt if it's the same (but kudos to Canada for trying): in Winnipeg every one's tool would be frozen and even the most eager ferret would find it hard to get traction.

   This afternoon dw stopped knitting and checked for email.  I paused from reading and said:  "We should have our own reality show on TV."  dw: "Why so?"  "It would be titled: The Last Best Hope For Insomniacs"  We've had a quiet week. 

Books:  Perfect Figures (Bunny Crumpacker) A history of numbers -- how they came to have their present form and function.  Very little actual math and an easy read.  Very enjoyable.  The Velocity of Honey (Jay Ingram)  Another science light -- a collection of essays "science of everyday life"  -- a little denser than the previous book but still an easy interesting read.  And Visible Bones (Jack Nisbet)  Natural history essays about the Columbia River Basin.  Well written and a good read.  I've enjoyed this one so much that I'm going to look for another one of his books: Sources of the River,