Category: math

I put Cocaine on my Roof….

~ K ~ 7 Comments

I live in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle area) and it is damp and rainy here about 97% of the time.  Perhaps, that is not entirely true but we have 226 cloudy days (4th most in the United States) and another 81 partly cloudy days.  Now, I’m not a math genius but that’s a lot in anyone’s book.

So we have a moss problem on our roofs.  I mentioned to my friend that the moss build up on my roof looked awful and I need to go buy some moss killer at the local hardware store.  He suggested to me, use baking soda.  It’s natural and you just put it on the top ridgeline of the roof when the roof is dry.  The rain comes and gently washes it down your roof and kills the moss.  The moss dies, and you can sweep off the dead moss or use your leaf blower to blow it into your neighbor’s yard.

image1 (2)
Who wants to cook their minds?

At Costco, I purchased a huge bag (13.5 pound bag) of Arm and Hammer baking soda for about $7.  I have a fairly large roof so I dumped about ¾ of the bag on it.  I went along the top of the roof ridge with a line on each side of the tip so the baking soda would be washed down both sides of the roof.  My son mentioned it looked like lines of cocaine on my roof.  Thanks son!  My daughter commented it looked ghetto (sweet!  I love to be “that” house in the neighborhood).  I’m always striving to be that house that stands out amongst its neighbors!

The end result:  Moss is dead and I’ve swept most of it off.  The white lines are disappearing and can be easily washed off or swept away if they don’t disappear on their own.

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Die moss….die.

How about those odds? A story of unbelievable odds that will ruin your gambling dreams!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

A few weeks back, my brother called me at 6:30 in the morning to tell me he saw my old car in North Seattle. He had recognized the old bumper stickers on it and knew it was my car, so he had given me a call. I must admit, that was kind of a fun surprise to know that my old 1983 Mercedes Benz 300D (Turbodiesel) was still running. My brother wanted to tell the current driver that the Mercedes Benz use to be owned by his handsome brother Kevin (OK, I added the handsome part) but wasn’t able to catch him.

It was a fun car to have. Sunroof, power windows, great fuel mileage. It was a tank but still a fun car.

The next day, I’m traveling back home from South Seattle College (former South Seattle Community College) and I roll up to a traffic light. As I am slowing down, I noticed a yellow Mercedes Benz in the left turn lane.

It is my car.

It has my bumper stickers on it and the same chrome rims. It has a few more dents but it is still running.

I rolled down my window and signaled for the driver to roll down his window. We chatted briefly in which I told him that my brother said he saw that car yesterday in North Seattle. The driver told me that he lives in North Seattle and that he was there yesterday morning.

It now has 500,000 miles on it (good old German engineering), huh?

Now, one has to wonder what the odds are that my brother would see my old car on Wednesday at 6:30 am in north Seattle and then the next day, I would see my car at 11:10 am in south Seattle? We haven’t seen this car in 14 years, yet in two days, two brothers see the same car and it was formerly owned by one of them? Seattle isn’t a small town…the car is now 32 years old…my brother saw it in on Wednesday morning and then I saw it on Thursday morning. What are the odds?