Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

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Late one night, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were camping in the wilderness. In the middle of the night, Holmes woke Watson and said, “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

Watson, a bit groggy, looked up and replied, “I see thousands of stars, an endless expanse of the universe. It’s awe-inspiring to contemplate the vastness of space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.”

Holmes nodded and then said, “And what do you deduce from that, Watson?”

Watson thought for a moment and then answered, “Well, astronomically, it suggests that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three in the morning. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. And what do you deduce, Holmes?”

Holmes replied with a smirk, “Watson, you fool. Someone has stolen our tent!”

England

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Now that we’ve been back to work for a week, I’ve a few thoughts:

It was a pleasant change from the previous trips a few years ago to London that consisted of making my way to the office for meetings or discussions and the like.

This time, entirely for personal reasons — to be a tourist.

So, you’d seen, of course, that I had posted a photo of the Strand (WC2), and a photo of part of the London skyline, and even a photo of The World’s End.

But now, a quick review of some other things. No photos, just thoughts:

  • A narrowboat trip on the Lady A up the Union Canal from Little Venice (next to Paddington station) to Camden then back down again. Seemed intriguing to us because we were once full-time RV-dwellers and narrowboat-living is a thing in England and Wales.
  • A walk from Little Venice, around Hyde Park, to Mayfair, St. James’s, Whitehall, and back to Strand.
  • The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Although, with the number of people, it was really a very clear view of guards marching in and out.
  • Back up to Camden, but to see the markets on its High Street.
  • The British Museum — and honestly, you need to give yourself far more than the two hours we did.
  • A walk through Bloomsbury, Soho.
  • A very early morning to catch a bus to King’s Cross Station. Yes, there is a Platform 9-3/4 tribute. No, we didn’t make the time to see it. We instead took the National Rail from King’s Cross up to York, 200 miles to the North primarily to see Shambles. While Shambles was our goal, we rapidly decided we’d like to visit York for much longer than we could on this trip. For the Harry Potter reference, Shambles was Rowling’s inspiration for Diagon Alley.
  • Dick Turpin — I honestly thought it was a made-up comedy bit. Nope. He was a real highwayman, and wasn’t nearly as jovial as Noel Fielding makes him out to be.
  • Clifford’s Tower. Read its history.
  • York Castle Museum.
  • Torture Dungeon. Okay, this was quite fun.
  • We had an opera day in Soho — well, Piccadilly Circus, really: Phantom of the Opera on Haymarket then Moulin Rouge on Sherwood a few hours later.
  • Tower of London and a brief history of London… from its founding in 43 AD to present day. Also its guards — but I’ve no idea whether they’re Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, or Welsh Guards. I simply don’t know enough about them to form the question. But an observation: their uniforms and movements don’t seem to be to the same degree of precision as I was once accustomed to.

Now that I think back on it, we did, indeed, see a great many things. Far, far, more to see and experience along with more and longer trips are in order.

Common Sense

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I had commented a few years ago, a form of textual sato voce addendum, “Common Sense Isn’t“.

It wasn’t until recently that I’d stumbled across this quote:

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Albert Einstein

While it’s been attributed to Albert Einstein, its authenticity is questionable unless I can find a valid and verifiable source in the form of a publication or paper written by Einstein.

But, at this point, I’d honestly be content if I were to stumble across a newspaper article from someone who’d interviewed him.

However, regardless of who said/penned/typed it, does it make the statement any more or less meaningful?

Not a Fan

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I needed to rent a car for a week to ensure I can get to a commitment in Spokane Valley next Wednesday morning. I elected to rent a simple, economy-class car while at home in Spokane to last me a week.

I selected a Hyundai Kona because I’d driven its bigger brother, the Hyundai Santa Fe, last Spring while UPGRAYEDD was in the shop for heavy maintenance.

The Santa Fe was quite nice. Comfortable. Quiet drive. Entirely capable. Therefore, I’d assumed that the Kona wouldn’t be too terribly different than the Santa Fe.

But Enterprise selected instead for me a Ford EcoSport, because it’s “comparable”.

Oh, bother.

I was witnessing the evolution of language and culture before my eyes and ears. This was clearly some strange new use of the word “comparable” with which I was previously unfamiliar.

The Ford EcoSport had difficulty with the most basic of tasks like its handling in a straight line on the Interstate. Its susceptibility to airflow changes from passing vehicles. Its neurotic behavior when taking a deep breath while driving.

God help you if you’ve need for the back seat for actually sitting. It would be unrealistic to expect anyone to fold and contort themselves into the space. Even the Scavenger’s Daughter leaves more room to breathe.

In fairness, this one does have about 39,000 miles on its odometer. A bit of wear in the steering components is to be expected.

I’m also not at all a fan of the UI of the sat-nav, or lack of any logic in its interface. UI and UX are concepts that the designers probably thought were overrated and in no way important to the existence of living beings.

The good news: they did include steering wheel and seat-heat. A pleasant surprise.

Also, it does have power windows and door locks and even an automatic A/C and heating system. No fiddling needed. Just set it and forget it.

If the Ford designers’ goal was to make the occupants want to not be in the car any longer than is absolutely needed to move from one point to another, they’ve succeeded. In fact, I think they’ve well-surpassed that already lofty goal as I don’t want to be in the vehicle at all and even thinking about warming up the Shoe Leather Express to walk to work at 4AM.

The good news is that this is only temporary until Wednesday.

The better news is that the Ford EcoSport was retired from service in 2022.