I visited my doctor yesterday. It was just a regular checkup, I needed to get my scripts filled and in this country if you suffer from any type of anxiety or other mental related illness and you need medication to cope, you aren’t allowed to just “call in a refill” you have to jump through some government implemented hoops. In a way it’s fine, I suppose. I like my physician and I enjoy our visits. She asked me how I was doing. We talked briefly about my various age-related problems, like my angry worked-with-my-hands-all-my-life-wrists and my middle-age hormones and then we got into a conversation about how quickly this year has zipped by and that we are already at the halfway point. Wow. It’s almost July. We both stopped and for a moment, and then I made the typical offhand comment about how time seems to move by faster as you get older. Then, she told me a tale that was told to her, that she said she thinks about every time she goes to the bathroom. This is a very professional and elegant doctor, so she had my attention.
“Life is like a roll of toilet paper,” she said. “When you are young and new to the world, and the toilet paper roll is big, it seems to go very slow. But when you get down to the end of the roll, it seems to spin faster as you quickly run out.”
It was a funny story and an apt metaphor passed down from one woman to another, and in that moment I just laughed and nodded but it has STUCK with me. Stuck to my brain just like that piece of toilet paper stuck on Trump’s shoe. Now, I can’t use a restroom without thinking about the passage of TIME and Einstein. So obviously I had to pass this tale on to you. Is life shitty? Mmmmmm well that’s debatable, sometimes it is, not always, but now, each time you poop you get a chance to contemplate the science of relativity, time dilation and your place on the paper tube that is life.
NOW, here are some cool links I stumbled across while not staring at a toilet paper tube!
Boaty Mc Boatface, the crowdsourced name of a science gathering yellow submarine has found some interesting and frightening data. The vessel was on a mission measuring turbulence and salinity and temperature. What is found was that winds are increasing, cooling the surface of the ocean water causing that water to sink under warmer water, causing choppier water in general. This is then causing waters to rise faster than anticipated with global warming projections. A funny boat with some serious science that will impact billions of humans and countless sea critters. Read more about the topic here.
More climate data for you! There is a new site called SHowYourStripes.info that is an elegant way to help share the reality of climate change worldwide. You can go to the site and plug in where you live and the site will generate a beautiful red and blue panel with stripes that show the changes in temperatures for each specific area over time. Even though its beautifully designed, this heat map will chill you to your core. It’s a great way to share climate info though, so use the hashtag #showyourstripes on your social media outlet of choice. There are still people out there that don’t think climate change is real. We have to get people on the same page ASAP. Time is running out. Here are the stripes for California, where I live. That red is getting scary dark.
The toilet paper roll of humanity is looking awfully thin. I know, It’s always fun spending time with Surly Amy. Haha. Have a great rest of your week!
