cigarettes, heat, and hot tubs

As a kid, I was intrigued by the idea of Olympic divers using a hot tub after they performed their dive. Not all of them did, but a majority would slip in to the hot tub immediately after getting out of the pool. I found myself judging the people who would not use the hot tub against those who did. The divers who used it, in my opinion, were cool, and obviously smart.
If someone offered me an opportunity to sit in a hot tub on national (or international) television, I think I would take that opportunity. Plus, I wouldn't have to pay to use it, and there would be ladies in swimsuits involved.
While driving tonight, I was following a car who's driver threw out the butt end of a cigarrette. Things like that really irritate me. I can't stand the sight of dozens of cigarrette butts on a sidewalk or street just feet from a trash can. It drives me nuts. What makes me more upset is when my new sweater shrinks in the dryer.

More Trivia!

Because you like it, and I like that.

20% of Americans think that the sun orbits around the Earth.

Van Halen singer David Lee Roth is training to be an EMT in New York City, and plans to be certified by November 2004.

The thong accounts for 25% of the United States women's underwear market.

On average, 40% of all hotel rooms in the United States remain empty every night.

When you hear a bullwhip snap, it's because the tip is traveling faster than the speed of sound.

There is a new television show on a British cable called "Watching Paint Dry". Viewers watch in real-time. Gloss, semi-gloss, matte, satin, you name it. Then viewers vote out their least favorite.

The largest ocean liners pay a $250,000 toll for each trip through the Panama Canal. The canal generates fully one-third of Panama's entire economy.

French author Michel Thaler published a 233 page novel which has no verbs.

The spring thaw finally allows cemeteries in Alaska to start digging graves for those who died during the winter.

When Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen turned 18 in mid-2004, they took official control of a company worth more than the gross national product of Mongolia. Their earnings in 2003 topped $1 billion.

Orthodox rabbis warned that New York City drinking water might not be kosher; it contains harmless micro-organisms that are technically shellfish.

David Bowie thinks he is being stalked by someone who is dressed like a giant pink rabbit. Bowie has noticed the fan at several recent concerts, but he became alarmed when he got on a plane and the bunny was on board.

A party boat filled with 60 men and women capsized in Texas after all the passengers rushed to one side as the boat passed a nude beach.

In 1997, a woman in Bradenton, Florida lost her cat. In 2004, she got a call from the local animal shelter. The cat turned up wandering the streets in San Francisco, California. The cat's identity was proven with a microchip that had been implanted prior to 1997.

Almost 20% of the billions of dollars American taxpayers are spending to rebuild Iraq are lost to theft, kickbacks and corruption.

Didn't know there was so much to it

A buddy at work bought me a book titled "Kayaker's Little Book of Wisdom." Fortunately, and fittingly, it is a little book. I can't see much more the authors could have put in to it.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes.
"Never paddle on flooded rivers. All kinds of debris is coming down, and trees are a real concern."
"Paddling flooded rivers is the ultimate rush. Use extreme caution."
"The price you pay for your helmet is directly related to what you think your head is worth."
"It's better to be portaging a rapid and be wishing you had run it, than to be running it and wishing you had portaged."
"You know when you lean back in a chair too far and you suddenly catch yourself before you almost fall? That's how kayaking should feel."
"I don't understand why more women don't paddle. I love getting pounded in big holes." Brenda Ernst, U.S. freestyle paddler

Bad combinations

It is entirely possible to stab oneself in the forehead with a knife. This thought came to me tonight, as I was walking my dishes to the sink after dinner. The situation would have to be something like the following; you have a handful of dishes in your left hand, while you are holding a glass of water and a knife in the other hand. While walking toward the sink, you decide to take a drink, and completely forget about the knife in the same hand. Well, you forget about it until the glass gets a half inch away from your lips.

I have a bad streak of forgetting the combination to my gym lock. As you know, a combination lock is almost useless without the knowledge of the combination. Because of this, I find myself buying lock after lock.
I think the problem stems from the fact that I immediately throw away that little slip of paper containing the combination. The number seems easy enough to memorize. That little piece of paper, along with the packaging, ends up in the local landfill later that week. Later the next week, I forget the combination, and have to throw away the lock. The lock ends up arriving at the same landfill the very next week.
It is my thought that there is a man living near the landfill that makes it his hobby of collecting the combination papers, as well as the locks. He takes them all home in the back of his Datsun pickup. Every night, before he goes to bed, he feverishly tries to match up one combination with one lock. I'm curious to know how many locks he has managed to liberate.