MAR 15, 23 .. HOW IS THE WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE ?

By Cap Chastain March 15, 2023 Brain Teaser(s), Does Anyone Care? Well I Care!, Rhetorical Question, WEATHER 14 Comments

Today’s Rhetorical Question : HOW IS THE WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE ?

In general, “Yours Truly” (that being me, sitting here at the keyboard of my laptop computer) I do NOT get too involved in the “news”. I don’t watch the “news” on Television. I don’t read the “news” in newspapers. I strive to avoid the internet “news”. When I sign out of an email account, instantly Yahoo or Google flashes “news” in front of me. I am sure you get the idea. In case you don’t get it, I am not willing to get involved in (read : Get things into my brain that can, will and DO bother me) allowing outside events to influence how I am feeling in terms of my mental attitude(s). Of course, no matter how hard I work at  “avoiding the news” those who “peddle the news” are top notch, super skilled people who will, and who indeed do, go to any length to get (not only me but) all of us “involved in the news” over which we have absolutely no sway or influence to change. How can I change, in any meaningful way, what is happening all over he world?

One of our very closest friends is currently trying to get me (not Patti) involved in a “Brain Teaser”.

What is a “Brain Teaser”? A “Brain Teaser” is something that demands mental effort and acuity for its solution. Cap’s definition : A “Brain Teaser” is something that will wrack and torture my brain because for me, they are difficult and practically impossible for me to correctly solve. They can get “stuck in my obsessive-compulsive brain” and I am unable to “let them go”.

Yes, I know, “Brain Teasers” are supposedly good for one’s brain. But, I feel, that they are NOT good for my brain. There must be tens of hundreds of thousands of millions of “Brain Teasers”. I am not willing to allow them access into my obsessive-compulsive brain!

Nor am I willing to even begin to allow them to make me feel bad about myself because I am unable to correctly solve one, or even all, of them.

Below is the “Brain Teaser” our friend asked me about.

What is the length of a pole standing in a river, one fifth of which is in the mud, two thirds in the water, and one eighth above the water while one foot and three inches of the top is broken off?”
 
This question was put to Union POWS in a Confederate military stockade. Within a minute, a dozen Union soldiers yelled out the answer
 
I haven’t a clue. I know the answer, but I’m not telling yet. I want to know how they arrived at that answer.
 
As I have just stated above, for my own mental health, I am simply NOT WILLING to allow a “Brain Teaser” that someone outside of me sends to me and it gets inside of my head and I begin to ruminate on it. Ruminate, meditate, muse, and ponder. To consider or examine attentively or deliberately’ To consider or examine attentively or deliberately, ruminate implies going over and over the same matter in one’s thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposeful thinking or rapt absorption on it.
 
So  I forwarded the above “Brain Teaser” to Patti to let Patti (who by the way loves to follow the “news”) ruminate upon it. But, as far as I am able to ascertain, Patti does not ruminate on such things. Between the two of us, this is unique to me, yours truly.
 
And now I am back to the “news” and the reason for the above title to this Post : HOW IS THE WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE?
 
Patti said a few hours ago that 40 of the 58 counties in California have some kind of “weather warning” in effect. Read : IF you do not evacuate your residence we (the local authorities) may not be able to help, let alone, rescue you.
 
 
So now, with the above link, I am perhaps doing to you what I don’t want anyone doing to me.
 
BUT THE ISSUE OF WEATHER IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA LOOKS PRETTY DARNED SERIOUS AND SEVERE.
 
So : HOW IS THE WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE ?
 
And, Yes I am really interested in your answer (knowing I will get few to no replies).
 
Cap and Patti 
 
Once again Julia Cameron is correct : Just sit down and start writing, the ideas will follow. Of course we don’t know whether or not the ideas will be worthwhile or of any interest to others.

14 thoughts on “MAR 15, 23 .. HOW IS THE WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE ?”

  1. Catherine Raye-Wong

    Hi Cap, Weather here in the Black Hills is becoming like Spring, but still goes from snow to sun from day to day. Yesterday it was 60 deg Fahrenheit. The day before it was in the 20s after a 4 inch dusting of snow through the night. More snow forecast for this evening. We say here if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. So true! All in all not bad, and certainly compared to my community in the redwoods outside Pescadero, California where rain has been constantly falling. Trees have been coming down, and the fire burn scar areas have landslides. Prayers for safety of my family and friends there. In Donner Lake friends sent pictures of 17 feet of snow at their house. They said it hadn’t been that much since the early 1980s, and they are preparing for more. Wow!
    Enjoy your time in AZ, and i hope all are safe everywhere through these storms.
    Hugs for you and Patti.
    Warmly (by the fire),
    Kit

    Reply ↓
    1. Cap Chastain Post author

      To quote Crocodile Dundee .. “Now Kit THAT is a weather report from you!” Wowie! I love it .. a 4 inch “dusting” of snow through the night. To most of us, 4 inches of snow is more than a “dusting”. California is getting WALLOPED! Amazing indeed. We too have friends and family there. My son David (in Solvang) lives North of Santa Barbara. Again thanks so very much Kit for your amazing “weather report”. Cap

      Reply ↓
  2. eArThworm

    POLE: You have to find a common denominator for those fractions, i.e. 120.
    1/5=24/120; 2/3=80/120; 1/8=15/120. Add those all together and you get 119/120. 119 ft. are what remains. BUT…there’s another 1.25 ft. that was broken off, so for the top of each fraction we actually have to multiply by 1.25. Thus 24 ft. becomes 30 ft., 80 ft.=100 ft., and 15 ft.=18.75 ft. Add those together with the broken off 1.25 ft.: 30+100+18.75+1.25 = 150 ft. is the total pole length. There must be a more elegant mathematical solution than this. Maybe someone else can enlighten us.

    Reply ↓
    1. Cap Chastain Post author

      Linda YOU have lost the two of us. To begin with, what is POLE an acronym? For what? Or do you mean the POLE in the brain teaser. Still Smiling. Thank You so very VERY much for having the interest to respond. THAT (your interest) COUNTS for a lot. Smiling .. Cap and Patti

      Reply ↓
      1. eArThworm

        You said, “I know the answer, but I’m not telling yet. I want to know how they arrived at that answer.” So…are you going to tell me if 150 ft. is the correct answer?

        BTW the weather had gotten overly warm for March (80 plus) but now is back down to more comfortable 60’s and 70’s. With a little rain every week.

        Reply ↓
        1. Cap Chastain Post author

          Linda I don’t know the answer. I did not even begin to pursue the “Brain Teaser”. Gullible is the one with the answer.

          Reply ↓
    2. Gullible

      You arrived at the correct answer, according to the book I read, by finding the lowest common denominator, which I thought was the only method to solve the puzzle.

      Now imagine that you are a POW in the hellish Andersonville military camp, starving to death on a cup of coarse ground cornmeal, exposed to cold and heat, with no pencil or paper for their computations. That is what blew my mind.

      Reply ↓
      1. Cap Chastain Post author

        Thanks Gullible for your “no puzzles” email. I can’t afford to get “down” on myself for failing to get some “Brain Teaser” I could care less about. The first step onto a long and ever darkening road begins when I feel “less than” about something. I don’t need to feel “less than” over puzzles. Thanks for understanding and yes I sure did get a Post out of your question. Cap

        Reply ↓
  3. Michael

    Good morning, Cap and Patti! I’ve learned to ‘live and let live’. And embrace that I can and will strive to keep an open mind. Succeeding at that (or even accomplishing half!) I can hear different viewpoints and perspectives and let them stand on their own merits (or not!). As a result of watching others in front, around me, interact with each other and life it has inspired me to change my own perspective and often grow and/or detach. Bottom line: my perspective and interaction of life has changed, for the better. As far as Brain Teasers…I too, don’t have much tolerance to torture myself and have learned to dismiss most. Heck, even celebrating yesterdays Pi-Day and checking a few youtube videos my remaining 3-brain cells were working OT! So I choose just to be a messenger and wish everyone a Happy Pi Day and post the reference vids to FB for others to peruse:
    peruse
    pə-roo͞z′
    transitive verb

    To read or examine, typically with great care.To observe; to examine with care.To read through; to read carefully.
    ….and let go! lol
    And I’ll not wax nor wane redundant….You guys know what the weather is like, here! lol
    Have a Truly Blessed Day
    Love ya both, through and through,
    Michael

    Reply ↓
    1. Cap Chastain Post author

      Lotsa Smiles Michael. As far as an open mind, I am not open to feeling “less than” because I can’t solve a brain teaser. I like these words from your comment : As far as Brain Teasers, I too, don’t have much tolerance to torture myself and have learned to dismiss most. Still Standing. Still Smiling. Cap

      Reply ↓
  4. Robert94596

    Re: personal weather records in SF Bay Area. I’ve got 43 years of records averaging 21 ” per year. This year I’ve got 34 1/4 ” of rain (rain year is June to following June) and counting. That is no. 4 on my all-time list. My record is 45 ” in 1995.
    My all-time 24 hour rainfall was last New Years Eve day at 5″ even. I’ve had only 5 other 24 hour readings over 4 “.
    My driest full year was 6 ” in 1989.
    This year’s snowfall in the Sierra Nevada is 190% of average. But the years 1952, 1969, and 1983 were easily 220% of average.

    Reply ↓
    1. Cap Chastain Post author

      Thanks Robert for “hanging around” in the background and emerging when something “tickles your fancy” here. And we are NOT yet at the end of this “Rain Year” are we? Whewie! Smiles .. Cap

      Reply ↓
  5. Gullible

    Two inches of new snow, 15 black-billed magpies at the breakfast buffet on my deck, along with two Steller’s jays, and assorted chickadees and nuthatches.

    Indigenous native mushing teams took the top three places in the Iditarod!

    There. You have now read the only news that counts.

    Until election day. And that opens a Pandora’s box if you don’t pay attention to current affairs.

    Brainteasers, puzzles, crosswords, and their ilk are exceptionally good for the senior brain, IMO.

    At least you got a post out of my question. Cheers. 🤓

    Reply ↓
    1. Cap Chastain Post author

      Yes. YES INDEED !! I most certainly did get a Post out of your question. Thanks for that gift. And so too did several of our followers enjoy it. I do NOT pay attention to current affairs BUT how can I ignore them when Patti is absorbed with them and her enthusiasm spills over onto me. Many Smiles .. Cap

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply to Cap Chastain Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.