New Things

Erin Grace is born!  Check out some photos (and send yours!).

Last week I checked a book out of a library.  I haven’t done that in I don’t know how many years.  Definitely not since high school, but even then, I don’t think I even did in senior year at all.  (The book was Asimov’s I, Robot which I’ve been meaning to read lately, because a lyric from a Coheed and Cambria song keeps reminding me of it.)

I learned a new thing on the way home the other night -- I learned how far I can go after the low-fuel light comes on :)  Apparently there’s one gallon of fuel left when the light comes on, because I went about 30 miles after that.  (Actually, I went about 42 miles, but 12 of it was coasting down hills in neutral.)  There was one last small uphill that I couldn’t quite make it up, and I ran out about 200 yards before the crest of the hill.  Beyond the crest there’s a downhill that lasts about a mile, at the bottom of which is the exit for State College, and there’s a gas station near there.  I was so close!  I could have walked and gotten gas in 20 minutes or so.  But since I didn’t crest the hill, it would have been a lot farther and longer (about 2.5 miles and probably over an hour...) so it was easier to call Jeremy and have him rescue me.

I also learned that 20/20 vision isn’t the best vision possible.  That doesn’t really make sense to me in light of the fact that people say things like "hindsight is 20/20" but apparently it’s true.  I have 20/15 vision -- which I always thought meant my vision was sub-par, even though I can see really well -- according to this test.  (Actually, 20/15 is as good as that test will test, so it might be a little better than that.)

Pennsylvania recently repealed the law that required motorcyclists to wear helmets.  My sister knows someone who works in an ICU, and she said that since the law was repealed, the number of motorcycle accident head-trauma victims that they treat has dropped by about 80%.  Sounds like a good thing, right?  Until you learn that it’s because they don’t treat dead people.  Those 80% of the victims aren’t treated because now their injuries are almost always fatal.