Thoughts While Driving and Hiking

I drove over to the state park today to take a hike while my wife is at work and before the expected snowstorm arrives. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony involved in driving somewhere to take a walk, so, gentle reader, you need not point it out.)

People have strange thoughts while driving and walking, and probably my thoughts are stranger than most. Here, in order thought, is what was on my mind.

I really struggled with high school physics. Part of the problem was my inability to get my mind around the terms used. "An object falls at 9.8 meters per second squared, " Mr. Martinez said. I wondered, how can a second be squared? "Weight is mass times the force of gravity." So, I thought, mass is the same anywhere in the universe but weight depends on where you are. I'd weigh less at the top of Pikes Peak than I do here in Colorado Springs, and less here than I'd weigh in Miami Beach.

Suppose I could dig a hole all the way to the center of the earth, and hollow out a little room there. While I was in that hollowed out space, would I be weightless? There would be about the same mass of material in all directions around me. I guess I'd drift to whichever side of my little cavern the moon was on, moving right along with the tides.

While walking, I thought how much I have always envied people who seem to be inn shape without having to do any exercising. I have to work like the devil to be in any kind of condition. I was huffing and puffing mightily through most of my walk. Of course, it didn't help that I'd eaten a pancake breakfast just before starting out.

A sign in the state park says bears are the "most well-known" animals that hibernate. A better way to say it would be "best known." The park needs an English major to review their grammar. (Or me.)

My brother is writing a novel. I asked him about it recently and he said it ends with an epilogue in heaven. "What's your vision of heaven?" I asked. "Oh," he said, "It's a wonderful place where you can do what you want and nobody bothers you."

My brother the Libertarian. By the way, much of his novel is set in Reno, Nevada, which he has never visited. Go figure.