We all know that the spontaneous games are just as good- sometimes more spectacular- than the regularly scheduled programming. Except for that bowling ball ping pong thing that Them Duke Boys tried to get started. That was just a bad idea. I’m sure that the ambulance will be back soon enough though, and that little guy’s hand will eventually be just fine. Dunno about his foot. That looked bad.
By the way- it’s my birthday today! All you ‘Mericans grill something meaty over the weekend in celebration. Wave flags and have some watermelon, for heaven’s sake. Also, where it will not cause injury or loss of property, and where it is entirely and clearly legal to do so, please shoot off a colorful and attractive firework. I’ll take it as a compliment for my latest circuit around the sun.
watermelon’s not just for wavin, it comes with schrapnel!
well, it used to…
When I was an exchange student to Cyprus, I taught my family how to eat watermelon in the wild (and they taught me how to eat it civilized -in a bowl with forks) My anne (mom) saved all her seeds and spit them out at us machine-gun style!
Congrats on your ride around the sun. Mine is later this month. 69 times and I haven’t fell off yet! I’ve done Snow shoe races up in Alaska. Jogging with tennis rackets are an equivalent. Enjoy your day!!
Happy birthday, Greg! What did you get us?
And the Dragoncat Award for Best LMAO goes to … GREG CRAVENS!!! That comment just cracked me up!
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Happy birthday, chief!!!
Happy 21 (again) Greg. You were born 5 months after me. Trust me, it gets easier as long as you can get out of bed and power through what checks in from yesterday’s hijinks. [Me it’s playing robo-weeder and setting up the last of my RGGS garden stuff. Hoping to be done by Monday, only 5 weeks late]
Surely at least one more of those events were scheduled. Me, I’d be raiding the recycle for all the soda and water bottles and a ball of string and lashing up some floating rafts for a river event. (and string two ropes across farther down for catching to get back OUT). Recycle rafting. 1) only soda and water bottles up to 3 liter in size and one large ball of string. 2) Must float and hold at least one person at least half out of the water. 2b) must have one person on board that is able to part self from craft at any time, and up to four. 3) no hanging feet to allow foot pushing on the bottom. Hanging into the water is okay but not where it’s useful to push with. 3) Must be 18 or older just for legalities 4) wear your helmet 5) wear your life vest 5b) no self flotation devices made of soda or water bottles is allowed, must use proper flotation vest. 6) paddles are allowed, but same, no more than one mop handle and only string (NO DUCT TAPE). Winners are two classes A-Speed and B-Style. Style is how outrageous. If you can build a viking long boat out of the stuff, that’s style. Floating along a slower chunk of the river, say 500 yards.
[for example, a sealed 55 gallon drum full of air will float about 500 pounds.]
This should be a morning to scrounge and build, say 4 hours, a quick lunch and potty break, then safety check and queue for launching. Build and launch, 5 members max. 4 to build, one to drown…ahem, pilot, the craft.
I just wanna do the ‘research’ on that one!
It’ll be vatloads of fun. A great sport. And after send the vessels off to the recycle bin. [I got the 55 gallon/500# from old Junkyard Wars episodes]
A gallon of water weighs eight pounds so a 55 gallon drum will float less than 440 pounds completely submerged, subtract the weight of the drum.
Water weighs more than eight pounds a gallon, 8.35 pounds a gallon. And one cubic foot is 7.47 gallons… 55×8.35 is about 459 pounds… I said the figure was gotten off a TV show that said about 500 pounds a barrel, sealed. So floating a car on the pond with a lot stripped off the vehicle, took about 4 barrels, one fastened about where each wheel was. Add the team of four on the vehicle and some more bodged stuff, figure that for 5 or 6 drums, it was going to stay afloat. Floating is more displacement… you can make a boat of concrete and mesh wire, and get it to float. So in the case of the bottle boats (I’ve seen this actually done) is to get enough displacement to float. The volume to gallons is from aquarium keeping… so two two liter bottles is about a gallon displacement, you’d need 15 for a cubic foot of displacement. And to finish killing with math, my 160 pound body would theoretically take 40 2 liter bottles to float. Or so. That I’d have to be pretty much on top of.
I still think it would be absolutely a great thing for an event. Round up all the soda and water bottles, instead of duct tape you get to use string, and a large spool of it, to lash or convince the whole thing to stay together. Then float to victory, or at least a good rinse in the river. (today it’s the 4th, we are in the 90’s (about 35c) with a heat index and for most of the day humidity over 50% … a nice water event would be very lovely)
Right , I rounded down because of the variable weight of the drum, and the fact that I live near salt water which changes salinity, and buoyancy, depending on many things. Heavy salt water actually makes it easier to float while stagnant lake water makes it harder to float because of dissolved gasses. A sudden release of gasses can actually sink a boat.
Happy Birthday, Greg!
Happy birthday Greg!
Got the watermelon in the fridge. Gonna have to see what I’ve got in the freezer that’s good for grilling. I’ll leave the fireworks to the pros. They’ve got the money, licenses, and insurance to do the good stuff. My neighbors have been shooting off a few fireworks every night for the past week.
One slow-smoked Fred-Flintstone-car-flippin’ dino rib in your honor comin’ up, birthday boy!
Happy Birthday, Greg! As a present i’ll be signing up for Patreon later today.
Wait, why is there no obvious link to your Patreon site anywhere on this page???
They changed their logo. That big orange ‘P’ logo with ‘team hubris’ stenciled on it is their original logo. I haven’t taken the time to update it.
It’s up there on the left hand side under the cartoon.