Right by Accident.

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you do something right completely by accident? You know like deciding to take a different way home from work only to later hear on the radio that there was a bad accident along your normal route, that kind of stuff. Well I had two of those experience this week that I’d like to share.

Yesterday I was getting ready for a bike ride with the scouts on Saturday. I put new tire on my mountain bike. Since we’ll be riding on the road I was taking my "knobby" bike tires off and mounting road tires, or “slicks”. I was just finishing up and I saw a little marking on the tire that indicated the recommended rotation of the tires. Knobbies typically don’t have this since they are designed for dirt. However street tire are designed to push the water away from the middle of the tire. If I had installed these backwards they would actually impede the water from moving away from the tires. I had forgotten this little fact about slicks. So I braced myself for Murphy’s Law and was prepared to reverse both tires, or at least one of them. But Murphy must have been off and preparing for Friday the 13th. Against the 4 to 1 odds I had actually mounted both tires with the correct rotation. Woo Hoo!

Earlier this week Victoria had just returned from the dentist office. See her blog for a detailed account of our recent dental adventures. She was informing the family about this new “Top Secret” way to brush your teeth that she had been reading about in the lobby. The secret is to dry brush you teeth before you put any toothpaste on. This breaks the bonds of the plaque better than simply brushing with paste. Then when you come back with the paste it does a better job of removing all the nasty bits. I was really stunned when she told me this, because I always do this. I wasn’t intentionally doing it because I knew it was good for me. It‘s just a silly habit of mine. I have a tooth brush at work, one in my car and another in my laptop “man-purse”. Typically throughout the day I’ll just take a toothbrush out and dry brush my teeth just ‘cuz I don’t like that furry texture they get after a couple hours. I had no idea that I was a trend setter.

So with this in mind I’m going to make a prediction and see if I can go three for three this week. I’m going to take the 8-track player out of my ‘76v VW bus and install it in my 2003’ Toyota Tundra. I think 8-track technology is going to come back in full swing for the rest of the 21st Century. That may be pushing my luck. Just a little…