Footle and Grok

It started with a simple question that I pondered after looking at a postcard with a tunnel on it. What is the oldest man-made road tunnel?

This is not easy to answer.

It turns out that there are many types of tunnels; walking tunnels, road tunnels, and train tunnels are just a few. Each has its own winners for the oldest award.

I was interested in tunnels that people, chariots, and other vehicles would have used, but even that can be confusing.

The oldest man-made tunnel is probably the Tunnel of Eupalinos. It was a Greek aqueduct from the 6th century BC. It was 3,399 feet long and ran through Mount Kastro in Greece. Considering that it had to be dug by hand (I’m assuming by slaves,) that is a remarkably long tunnel. Even more amazing, it was dug from opposite ends, and it almost perfectly met in the middle. Those Greeks must have had some accurate measuring equipment.

If we move on to tunnels to aid in traveling, there are many choices. But the one most websites agree on (since it was used for both foot traffic and wheeled conveyances) is at the Apennines’ Furlo Pass.

Oldest Tunnel Facts

• The tunnel was built in 76-77 AD, replacing an earlier, smaller tunnel.
• Emperor Vespasian built the tunnel alongside a narrow part of a gorge on the Candigliano river, known as the “Grand Canyon of Italy.”
• The tunnel on the ancient Roman road Via Flaminia is 125 feet long, 19 feet tall, and one lane.
• The road along the gorge and the tunnel was very dangerous and was often closed.
• It was used during World War II, but few skirmishes were fought due to the gorge’s narrowness.
• The road deteriorated in the 1970s due to mining in the area.
• In the 1980s, the ancient tunnel was bypassed by the construction of two modern highway tunnels.
• The old tunnel still exists, which means it is possibly the oldest.

I leave on vacation today, so I thought I would share some thankful quotes with you since I am thankful that I have friends and family that I want to spend time with. That is better than having friends and family that I have to spend time with.

If you ever need a great quote, check out the Country Living website. They have a wonderful selection and make it easy to explore the list. When it comes to good Thanksgiving quotes, there are too many to pick one, so I’m going to share a bunch. Enjoy.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the eons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.”

Rick Riordan

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”

Johannes A. Gaertner

“Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.”

Robert Caspar Lintner

“He who thanks but with the lips thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart.”

J.A. Shedd

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”

Meister Eckhart

Okay, adventure is an exaggeration.

Rite-Aid/CVS is offering free COVID-19 testing through Baseline, so Hubby and I decided to get tested.

Step one was to go to the website and see if a Rite-Aid near us was testing. The Rite-Aid a block from Hubby’s office had appointments open, so we signed up.

It’s super easy to make an account and get an appointment. I live in a small town, and we got scheduled the day after we signed up. It might take longer if you live in a bigger town.

Baseline sent me an email with a referral number and a video explaining what would happen during the test. It was very clear and not accurate for our situation. Again, a larger town might have everything described in the video.

Hubby’s appointment was at 11 a.m., and mine was at 11:15. The video clearly said that only one person should be in the car at one time, so I went inside Rite-Aid and did some shopping while Hubby pulled up to the line at the Drive-Up Pharmacy window.

Unlike the video, there wasn’t a check-in area separate from the testing area. In fact, there was no check-in area. Instead of giving a specific time, Baseline should have just said come between 11 and 12.

Hubby eventually got to the window and took the test. His advice is to pay attention to which end you stick in your nose.

The video clearly states that no one else should be in the car, but the pharmacist said they test everyone in the car so I could have gotten tested at the same time. However, we were following the rules, so after Hubby was tested, I took the car and got back in line. He walked to his office in the rain.

I had an 11:15 appointment, and I reached the window at noon. There were about six cars in line before me when I got in line at around 11:20. Because we were in the Rite-Aid parking lot, it wasn’t easy to have a long line of vehicles. No one wanted to block any parked cars or the entrance to the lot.

According to the video, I had to show my ID and the email I received with my referral number. When I finally got to the window, a pharmacy employee asked what I needed. That’s when I realized that they were handing out people’s prescriptions and doing COVID tests. I felt bad for people waiting in that long line who only needed to pick up their pills.

The woman asked my name and birthday and had me read my referral number. I never had to show my ID. The head pharmacist then asked me if I had watched the video, which I had. The test was self-administered, and there were instructions on the window, which I appreciated.

I took the sealed swab and the collection vial from the basket they put in the slot below the window. I knew from the video that there was liquid in the vial, so I was careful not to spill it.

Per the instructions, I stuck the swab (the correct end) up my first nostril and did as required. I knew I didn’t need to go in super deep, but I also didn’t want to go too shallow. Whatever I did hurt, probably because skinny sticks are not supposed to be stuck up our noses.

I used the same swab and did the other nostril. I then put the swab in the vial, broke off the top of the plastic stick (per the instructions,) and screwed the lid on tight. I put everything back in the tray, and the pharmacist took it.

With that, I was done. I didn’t time how long it took, but most of the wait was from sitting in line, and I just read a book, so it wasn’t a hardship.

I recommend getting tested if you can. Knowledge is important, and ignorance is unnecessary, especially when it is free.

I was researching turkey trivia when I found an odd fact from the Southern Farm Network. They claim that 19 million turkeys are eaten on Easter. Minnesota and Illinois Farm Extensions agree with this number. (However, they could have all found it from the same wrong source.)

I have had turkey for Easter because I had a Jewish friend at our table, so I couldn’t serve ham. However, I didn’t buy that turkey in the spring; it had lived in my freezer since the previous fall.

So this is my question. Have you had turkey for Easter? I thought we were doing something unique, but apparently, 19 million other households were doing the same thing. Are you one of these families?

I was listening to one of my favorite science podcasts, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, when one of the hosts casually said that the Earth would someday be tidally locked to the Moon. I’d never heard of this before, so I had to find out when this would happen.

Most of the moons orbiting planets in our solar system are tidally locked. It is much rarer for a planet to be tidally locked to its moon. The only one is Pluto (not technically a planet.) It and its moon, Charon, are tidally locked to each other. However, these two bodies are almost the same size, and Pluto is unusual in many other ways.

So can the Earth become tidally locked to the Moon? Sure. There is a great explanation in Universe Today, but the basic idea is that the Moon causes tides on the Earth, which slows down the Earth’s rotation. The Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth in reaction to this slowing.

In 50 billion years or so, the Earth’s rotation will be slow enough that it will tidally lock with the Moon. When that happens, half the creatures living on the Earth will never see the Moon, and only a fraction on the near side will see a full moon. One could assume that the tides would be drastically different too.

However, no living thing will ever see this phenomenon.

The Earth may become tidally locked to the Moon in 50 billion years, but the sun will expand and become a Red Giant in 7.5 billion years. It will consume the Earth and the Moon at that time.

What a bummer. I like the idea that viewing the Moon would be a destination vacation. And the amazing thing is, if it were possible, no one living at that time would know anything different. They would think a tidally locked Earth/Moon was normal. Like the Plutonians and Charonians do today.

Well, make that run/walk, but it’s true. I finished 1,000 miles in 2020.

It all started about two years ago when I decided to earn some streak badges on Smashrun. I have about 80% of the badges completed, and the ones left are either impossible for me or take a great deal of time. However, there were three that I could earn at the same time, as long as I did them in 2020.

These badges were:

• Run 365 days in a row
• Run 365 days in a row in one year
• Run 365 days in a row for a leap year
• And for a bonus, Run 365 days in <2 years 

I knew I could do this streak; I had done year-long streaks before. But I also knew that I would run as little as possible unless I had a reason to do more.

Many of the running websites I subscribe to have “Run the Year in Miles” challenges. I doubted I could run 2,020 miles in 2020, nor did I want to, but I thought I could probably do 1,000 miles, even though I had never come close.

I found a group that had a 1,000-mile challenge with a cool medal, and I signed up. To run 1,000 miles in a year, I would have to run a little more than 3 miles a day. My body was willing, but my mind was like, “no way.”

But I had an alternate plan. I only needed to run 2.1 miles a day (which would be some long days and some one-mile “rest” days) if I worked toward another Smashrun badge and did 300 miles in one month.

So I did. I ran/walked 10 miles a day for 30 days in July. Add that to my other mileage (which was more than 2.1 miles a day on average), and it means that I reached 1,000 miles before Thanksgiving.

I still have to run/walk every day until December 31st, but it feels good not to count the miles so carefully. I had a very detailed spreadsheet, so I didn’t screw up my goal, and I colored ten 100-mile trackers just for fun.

You may never run/walk 1,000 miles or streak for a leap year, but I hope you have some BIG GOALS that make you uncomfortable but give you a reason to get out of bed.

I may be almost done with my streak, but I will have new running goals for 2021 (I think I want to get faster, then perhaps I can earn some of those impossible badges.)

Stay tuned!

Since we survived Friday the 13th, I thought I would find some Thanksgiving jokes to share. Well, I found some, and I’m going to share them, but I’m warning you now, they’re not funny.

I love bad puns and corny jokes, but these are just dumb. Either Thanksgiving isn’t a very punny holiday, or maybe turkeys just aren’t funny.

If you have little kids or a different sense of humor than most, you might like these. Usually, I ask you to share the jokes I find, but this time I understand if you don’t. Enjoy!

Happy Friday the 13th!

The number thirteen has had negative and sinister meanings for centuries. I don’t think any number is different from any other number, but it’s fun to pretend. It’s even more fun to turn it on its head. That’s what the Thirteen Club did.

In the late 1800s, hundreds of different clubs existed so that men could spend time with other men who had similar ideas and passions. Captain William Fowler, a builder in New York City, loved the number thirteen. He also loved joining clubs (he belonged to thirteen of them.) In 1881, Fowler invited twelve men to join a new club that he formed. The Thirteen Club.

It was considered unlucky to have thirteen people at a table, but Fowler challenged that idea. He had all the members walk under a ladder before sitting down, and the meal had thirteen courses. The idea of the club caught on, and soon there were hundreds of members.

Did anything evil happen to the club? While there were mishaps over the years, it wasn’t anything different from other clubs, so I’d say the Thirteen Club didn’t tempt fate. Although, every member of this club is dead, so that could be spooky. Or it could be that everyone who was born in the mid-1800s is dead.

That is how superstitions work. We create meaning, good or bad, to an event but never think about all the other times it has happened. We’re just not wired that way. But for a brief moment, a club broke mirrors, spilled salt, and made thirteen toasts to show that superstitions were bunk.

Check out this article from Atlas Obscura for more facts about the Thirteen Club. I think we need to virtually resurrect it again since superstitions are alive and well.

Has Black Friday become pointless?

Before I give my thoughts on this topic, I admit that I do not have a dog in this fight. I have never woke up early to be at a store at midnight after Thanksgiving, nor have I ever bought a large electronic device because it was on sale. When I worked at Borders, we would open at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, but no one ever showed up that early because our deals were pathetic. So my thoughts are more like ponderings.

In years past, I felt that Black Friday was getting out of hand. Like a new movie release, it was starting on Thursday, which was Thanksgiving, and totally wrong. People were getting injured to save money on stuff they wouldn’t buy if it weren’t a Black Friday sale. And then we had Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday if you had any shopping left to do after Black Friday. I agreed with REI and celebrated “No Shopping Day” on Black Friday.

Now it’s 2020, and thanks to COVID-19, Black Friday can’t happen with its traditional madness. So instead of canceling it, stores are making Black Friday last all of November. Walmart has signs directing you to Black Friday merchandise (mostly pallets of big-screen TVs), and TV and online ads for Target and other stores talk about Black Friday savings all month long.

Here is my question. Is it really Black Friday if it is a month-long sale? Even if you put certain items on sale at certain times and switch sale items throughout the month, is that really Black Friday? Why can’t we retire the overused and abused idea of Black Friday and develop a new way for stores to end the year in the black (which is why we call it Black Friday)?

Since we all have to wear masks and social distance, why not turn over a new shopping leaf. I don’t know what the answer is, but perhaps even I would be willing to go shopping if it wasn’t such a cutthroat activity.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong.

For Veteran’s Day, I wanted to share some insightful quotes. Veterans Day is a unique Federal Holiday in that it does not have an “observed day” on a Monday. It is always on November 11 to honor the end of World War I and everyone who has served our country.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

President John F. Kennedy

 “We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was. Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of them ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause.”

President Ronald Reagan

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

President Woodrow Wilson on the first commemoration of Armistice Day on November 11, 1919