Now For The Waiting

I just got out of my exam. I am pretty confident that I got a good enough grade to be able to pass the class. I have been in communication with my teacher so I know about what I need to get on the final to pass the class. It was a pretty low number so I think that I am pretty good with getting that score. Who knows. Now I have to wait. I am not sure if my final grade in the class will be posted on Friday, but my exam scores should be posted on Friday and I have to hope it is good enough. I believe that I will be getting the final grade Monday or Tuesday of next week. It is far to long away, but that is how it is supposed to be. There is always the nervous wait when it comes to grades. I am sure the Campus Information System gets really busy at that time. Oh well. I am pretty confident. I hope that I will be able to enjoy my little vacation to Colorado.

And I am excited to go to Monticello tomorrow. I need a little spiritual uplift after this long summer.

Nervous

I am taking my final exam in Physics 2 tomorrow. I am really nervous about it because of past performances on the exams that I have already taken. It is a little bit nerve racking that I am so close to passing but if I fail this exam, I fail. I know that I should get a good enough grade on the exam. I am not too scared about completely failing. I just want to have a good vacation at the family reunion and come back to a passing grade. If not...it happens and I will take it again next summer with that much more experience. No harm, no foul, just a little bit of lost money. It happens. I didn't realize that it would be this hard. Math isn't my strong suit so I can see why little things mess me up a lot. Wish me luck and send me a few prayers.

In the Context of History

Railroad tracks.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines werebuilt by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built thetramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first longdistance roads in Europe (and England ) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse's asses.) Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two bigbooster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's h ad to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything.

In the Land of Lactose Intolerants.

Endrit is lactose intolerant. I really don't like to drink milk at all. Really I only had it on my cereal. I know that coming from a dairy I should like milk, but it isn't my favorite beverage. We would buy milk in 1/2 gallon jugs and half the time it would go bad before we could finish it. We also cook with powdered milk. With powdered milk it keeps forever and we don't have to hope that our milk in the fridge is good so we just always keep it around. Endrit decided to lower his cholesterol intake and started the cheerios breakfast with eggs sometimes. This presents a problem. Now we needed to buy milk alternative. So I went to the soymilk area of the store and as I am eating my firt bowl of cerial with soymilk, I am a fan. Endrit liked it as well. I think we have a winner! I didn't think that I would like it this much. I actually prefer it to milk. It is relatively inexpensive, organic, and has omega-3 fatty acids and DHA. I have a feeling that Endrit and I will die hippies (minus the pot)! With his research in alternative computer storage and his master's with solar panel research we are going green fast! I love the little things that we do. If you think that you can't do anything because you are a poor college student or struggling little family...green can be something you can do, even to a small degree.

Green Card

Endrit has been looking online for the last little while to see where in the process his renewal application was and it always said that it was recieved, but not analyzed yet. I believe the last time that we looked at it was 3 days ago is all and the website said that they were processing the forms filed in August of 2007. Well we applied in February 2008, so we were expecting it to be upwards of 6 months before we heard anything. We also thought that there was a slight chance that we would need to go in for an interview because supposedly it happens more often than not because something with the application was wrong.

I got the mail yesterday and lo-and-behold there is an envelope that I slightly remember seeing before but I thought that one of Endrit's cards expired...either his check card or credit card. It is a kind of ambiguous envelope with no distinguishing marks, but it is heavy and it feels like there is a card type thing in there...honestly I thought that it was a credit card offer the first greencard we got and I almost threw it away without opening it. Anyway, I opened it and there was his shiny new green card. That wasn't the half of my joy. I forgot that this green card is valid for the next 10 years! I know that it will still have 9 years of validity left when we apply for citizenship, but just in case we don't have to give uncle sam our tax return back with filing fees for another renewal.

We have started to fill out the N-400 for citizenship wich is T-minus 6 months. Endrit bought a study guide for the citizenshiop test. I think we are most nervous about the English portion. He has to prove he can read, write and communicate in English...we are not sure he will pass :) It really shouldn't be too hard for him. I even knew most of the questions. It has been an interesting process that I am hopeful will be done in about a year from now. Who knows it may be longer but it will definately be before graduation which is all well and good. We had a friend get citizenship and it took 3 months from filing to saing the oath. I am not sure it will be that fast here, but it gives us hope for it being less than a year.

I thought that people would like to know this development.

Food Poisoning

I am pretty sure that I have food poisoning. I have been sick most of the day yesterday and still today. That is why I didn't go to church today. Thank goodness Endrit went to teach the class. I just feel like crap right now. I am glad that it was over a weekend, but I am hoping I feel better tomorrow to go to class and get my exam back. It sucks. I don't know what I ate, but it sure feels like food poisoning. I have had it this bad one time before at least. I can say it was something Friday noon/night. Sometimes I wish I could throw up...it has been years. It would probably last less time if I could, but whatever. I am in the chills/sweat portion of getting better. Endrit has some old Albanian secrets to trying to get me better and the one I tried last night did it's job almost a little too well as I can see. He is such a sweatheart. He has nothing but love and wants to see me well. How did I get so lucky?

In My 3 Week Break

I have been thinking about why I am not able to loose the weight as much as I should. It has been almost 1.5 years since I was on heavy medication and I am going to the gym quite regularly. I decided that I will try a detox. I went to the whole foods store to get an "organic" cleanse. I will start this after the reunion. I hope that it at least helps me feel better. If it works for me Endrit said that he will do this as well. It is nice to have something to do when you have a good break so I just wanted to share.