I got a run in today at lunch to make it 22 miles this month. Not too shabby – thanks to our new treadmill. Today is one of those lessons. I really didn’t feel like running. I had a tough time a couple of days ago and had to finish early, and was thinking about that today. I had myself all psyched out that I didn’t feel well and probably needed a break. But I did it anyway and once I started I felt pretty good and had no problem getting in the couple of miles. The mind is a terrible thing, right? It feels good keeping up with all this running. I’ve never been able to do it consistently before, but now I’ve reached my goal for two straight months. My back hurts, though…
We are waiting anxiously for the results of the kid’s orchestra audition from earlier in the week. We should be finding out anytime. It’s just a seating audition for the final concert of the year in May, but we all really want to see her improve from her last seating audition and to see where she stands compared to all the other violins. This will give us an idea as to where she is at before auditioning for the next level orchestra in a couple months. And, she has been working so hard practicing it would be nice to see her get rewarded. So we wait.
The big date thing went pretty good last weekend. The boy is nice – and real geeky – so that is cool. He’s a big Disney trivia nerd – so that is cool, too. He likes Hawaiian style pizza, though, and that’s almost a deal breaker. They are going out again this weekend to a play at his school, and, I guess, this time unchaperoned. So we’ll see how that will turn out.
The kid asked a good question the other day. We were driving somewhere and she asked – how do driverless cars know if a traffic light is green? Hmmm. I didn’t know. Do you know? Later on I looked it up and found that this is one of the main problems they are trying to solve. So it was a good question. Basically, they program into the car’s mapping software every known traffic light out there. Then when the car gets near one, its camera starts looking for it. It can obviously tell what color the light is if it sees it and will also react to the cars around it, so even if it’s green it won’t go if there is a car in front not moving. The problem comes when it gets to an intersection where there is a new light that hasn’t been mapped. Or if the power is out. Or dealing with police officers signaling traffic. Or firetrucks and ambulances coming. There are so many variables, which is why this whole driverless car idea is so complicated. The less hard thing to do is going driverless on the highway, which is why some cars, like Teslas, can already do it. But even those have issues sometimes like the car not being able to see other vehicles if there is a heavy reflection glare coming off it, or having problems in snow or other bad weather. One day soon we’ll get there, and when that day comes we’ll finally be able to live the dream of watching cat videos and texting emoji while the car does the driving!
The other day something weird happened. Well, actually, weird stuff seems to be happening a lot lately, but this involved Willie Nelson. I listened to his version of The Scientist and decided to make it the song of the day on my Tumblr site. As I was creating the post I had this thought about how so many famous singers and actors have died lately and that I hope me posting this song doesn’t lead to finding out he died at some point over the next few days. Later that same night I get a news notification on my iPhone stating a reminder that Willie Nelson was still alive! It seems that there had been a bunch of rumors that day that he had died and they were setting the record straight that he hadn’t. Weird, huh?
Speaking of songs. Here is one of our favorites. Enjoy.
i’m alone again and i’m thinking about
what i shouldn’t think about again
i’m trapped i’m dizzy
spinning and spiralling down
now i’m in love again
and it feels so good
it feels like nothing ever felt before
its a song i wrote it about you
i love you
see i told you i was good
but this is nothing like i thought it would be
i’m scared all the time
i’m afraid i’m gonna hurt you
i’ve gotta pay somehow
but it couldn’t happen to me now
runaway with, my lover, runaway with me
i wanna let the world go
i wanna buy you a ring
maybe i’ll make it myself
do you like rubies and diamonds and emeralds and gold and silver
i wanna build you a mansion
maybe we’ll live in a castle with servants and a pool
what a sorry song
what a stupid idea
i write the songs that make the
whole world think about absolutely nothing
i believe, i dont believe, i dont think believe
its strong enough, its bandwagon jargon
its hip, just do it, but dont do it half way
if you put down your loaded gun
put down your bow and arrow too
and i wanna be in 5th grade again
i wanna worry about poison ivy
i wanna worry about getting beat up after school
i wanna send you a note
i wanna buy you a ring
maybe i’ll make it myself
do you like rubies and diamonds and emeralds and gold and silver
i wanna build you a mansion
maybe we’ll live in a castle with servants and a pool
and we wont have to think about dying
cuz dying wont exist anymore
and we’ll be able to fly
and we wont let anyone use the pool
i wanna buy you a ring
maybe i’ll make it myself
i wanna build you a mansion
maybe we’ll live in a castle with servants and a pool
dave's word 