Coping: Some Sharing in Sheridan

(Sheridan, WY)  If you follow Interstate 90 long enough starting eastbound from Spokane, you will eventually get to Billings, MT.  And from there, it’s an hour south to Sheridan, WY.

Our original plans had us departing this morning from Sheridan after a single night and the uneventful trip down here from Missoula, MT Thursday.

The most exciting part was our fuel consumption which was higher than planned, by a bit: Headwinds.   We landed with about 7-gallons useable remaining on board.  45-minutes of gas is closer than I like.

And since Ures truly was not going to gamble on a “go round” in case I misjudged a landing, when it became apparent that I was a bit high on the final approach into Sheridan, Elaine got to experience her first serious side-slip.  By cross-controlling the old Beechcrate, I can drop altitude like a freefalling safe – somewhere around 3,000 feet per minute.  Not the kind of thing to do if you haven’t practices a lot which some I know has.

It’s just the grown-up version of correcting for a strong crosswind when landing.

Slips are cool, though. Instead of the runway being directly in front of you, the airport is suddenly off to the side when your in the slip.  It’s the big sideways airframe that slows you down.  But you can’t do it for long because the fuel in your tanks (what there was of it) runs to hide and the next thing you know, you’re fuel starved the engine.  The sideways action forces the fuel down to the other end of the tank…away from  the sump and pick-up.

All’s well that ends well.  50.8 gallons to fill up is a bit of a wallet bite, though..

Bighorn Airways where the marvelous lady at the front desk finds us the only hotel room left:  A queen at the such and such hotel.  This Rodeo Week here.  Rooms are scarcer than the Truth in Washington.

Mr. Charm, promising the hotel front desk lady a place in Heaven and a winning Lotto ticket if she would upgrade us, managed to secure us the only King left within a hundred miles.  It was either my charm that worked, or the pile of small bills I left on the counter.  “Latte money.”  She’ll be wired for a week.

A leisurely lunch (room wasn’t made up yet) and we found the wifi log in and discovered that an exceptionally nice couple who read the column and live in Sheridan had left us a note that they’d been readers for years and would we want to get together for a “Howdy?” – which of course we did.

After a decent nap, we sauntered down to the bar – met this delightful couple, and shot pool for a while and hatched further plans which includes a bbq tonight and going to the rodeo…which will be way cool.

You can get a sense of what a real old-time rodeo in Wyoming is like by checking out the event website over here.

To be sure, we might have been able to depart Sheridan this morning, but there are rain showers south and I have a Peoplenomics report to prepare for tomorrow morning.  When the markets close today (2 PM Sheridan time) I’ll get the chart work done and by 4:30 or so, we should be ready to resume something other than being data-crunching machines.

But who would have thought?  Two UrbanSurvival readers live in Sheridan and they are really neat people.  The power of the Internet continues to amaze me.

So the plan today is (roughly in order):  Hit the hotel breakfast buffet, catch up on sleep, write Peoplenomics,  attend BBQ and rodeo and then off in the morning to McCook Nebraska and then on to Dodge City and then back to the ranch on Sunday.

Our hosts promise us the world famous Indian Relay Races are the best part..which is good because I may not have to stay up past my bedtime.  Although it will take calculus to figure what that is in this time zone.

Winding  up the tripping about  means we will be done Monday with the travelogues and we can get back to the business of Urban Surviving which is considerably easier if you get out of the urban part and head for the woods while the world goes through what will either be the birth pangs of a new way of being, or (more highly probable) the death throes of a nice idea that got corrupted and consequently implodes.

The good news is that we still have time before the glorious start or bitter end, which is what weekends are all about.  Garden, hydroponics and other self-support mechanisms.  They are available…just like the clues in a video game.  But it’s amazing how many people miss the clues hidden in plain sight in the game or in real-life.

It takes a new kind of “looking” that few people work on.  It’s not an app seems to be the reason.

High Efficiency Pool

Been a while, by the way, since we’ve played pool. 

Last time, I think it was 75-cents a game.

Nowadays, it’s a buck.

The good news is that if you stay away from pool long enough, you can lose whatever accumulated skill you might have gained.

Toss in delightful conversation with friends and we can no proudly report that on an hourly basis, pool is still 50-cents an hour.

Get this:  It can be 4-bucks an hour if you’re good, fast, and can run 3-4 balls in a row.  but the worse you are, the longer it takes to clear off the table, the cheaper the cost!

No doubt Adam Smith missed this part about Pool in his hidden hand discussions, but it’s got me researching for you what other extravagances in life are like this:  Inflation adjusting.

Bowling might go into the pile.

When you were younger, do you remember rolling back-to-back games as fast as the ball return would permit; even going two balls sometimes so the only speed bump was machine set time?  Remember the sweat and intensity of it all?

Been thinking about this (maniacal) approach a bit. 

Today, there’s no way that I would roll them out this quickly.  Sweat aversion.

It would be more like roll.  Observe, sit down and discuss the roll.  Talk about Obamacare a bit, sip a drink.  Chat about the weather and local this & that’s.  Then, maybe 5-10 minutes later, work up the energy to go lift the bowling ball again.  They seem to have gotten heavier over the years.

Another roll.

Another 10-minutes of chit-chat and then 3-minutes of Tai Chi posturing to get the balance right and then another roll.

Approached this way, 2-4 people can turn a line of bowling from a 12-minute speed event into an hour, or better.

One thing’s for sure:  Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was OCD-ADHD and didn’t have arthritis.

Even Adam Smith got some things wrong, not the least of which is clocks.

I wanted to mention this to you this morning because it’s Friday.  Knock off a few minutes early today.  I’ll sign your hall pass, provided you promise to return Monday.

Work, like the laundry, will still be there Monday.  And if it’s not, it will be in India or Philippines, China,  or Latvia. 

Write when you break-even,.

George   george@ure.net