Budget Bites

It was formerly thought that our mental ability peaked at about 25 and then went into a slow, inexorable decline.  This belief was based on comparisons of how quickly populations of varying ages processed simple tasks, eg: Slap the button if the numbers on the two dice added up to more than seven.

The current belief is that the way we think changes more than the speed with which we think.

A 21 year old man and a 51 year old man walk into a party.  The 51 year old leaves in two minutes.  The 21 year old gets a cue stick broken across his head two hours later.

The 51 year old was able to integrate many, seemingly differing chunks of data and come up with the conclusion that there was some bad mojo riding.  The music, the heavily stocked bar, the ratio of men-to-women, the tension between the sub-groups of men....it all added up for the 51 year old. That party was not a healthy place.

The 21 year old thought it was a great party right up until the moment somebody laid the cue stick up-side his head. 

Twenty year olds can think in a straight line really, really fast.  They are like a 60's muscle car.  Fearsome in a straight line.  Not so competent when the task requires integrating many navigational challenges.

Little budget bites

My ISP is into overage.  Looking at the useage log, the big data hits occurred when Wild Willie was over here.  I strongly suspect that Wild Willie brought some electronic toys and Kubota accommodated him with the key to our wireless modem.

Medium Budget Bites

Darling daughter in Louisiana got a great deal on plane tickets so she could visit us over the holidays.  The devil is in the details.  The departure date was 3 days earlier than she thought.  She cannot take the time off work.  She cannot redeem the tickets for their cost.  It took some $$$ to shift the flight to a time she can make. 

Big Budget Bites

Due to a series of unfortunate events Mrs ERJ was on the road this evening.  One of our children called her, presumably to hurry her along.  Mrs ERJ looked down at her phone when it started ringing...and drove into the back of a truck.

Mrs ERJ and the other passengers are OK but repair of the minivan will undoubtedly exceed the deductible.

Due to the crappy weather, there were two other fender-benders on the docket ahead of her, and it was shift change at the police station, so it took the police a while to show up.

The child who made the call is in a pout because their call was counterproductive.  They had someplace they want to go tonight.  They started to ask if I would give them a ride.....and then they thought better of it.

My +50 year old brain tells me there is bad mojo out there on the roads.  It must have showed on my face.