I've Included A Math Problem.

Dude I think I saw you at that Ed’s Redeeming Qualities show at the Make Out Room. We were both wearing golden sweaters. Well, I think I was wearing a golden sweater. Maybe I just liked yours and wanted one too. Everybody else was dressed like my teacher, Mr. Kaufman, but the version of Mr. Kaufman that carried Hello Kitty lunchboxes. Oh well, the world is getting more into lunch boxes in this modern time.

There was some chain restaurant in Fresno in the 70’s that seemed famous for its butter. I liked their forks. They were very light weight.

I just had these words come into my head—“find words that break your mind, and break the law”.

Who owes who how much? Who drinks the most beer? Crump and Dutt share the use of a metal detector that they had found in the garage. Not only did they share all beer and car expenses, but also all the money they found with their “TRS-80 Tri-Discriminator” metal detector (all found change was kept in a jar on top of the refrigerator). One day Crump took the entire $20 worth of change in the jar to buy beer—he shared $5 worth of the beer with Dutt, but then drank the rest. However, the day before, Dutt had purchased $30 worth of beer (out of his own pocket) and shared half of it with Crump. He also gave Crump $12 for gas money to drive the fifty miles into town for both of those purchases, because it was Crump who owned and operated the car. Crump then claimed that he needed to be reimbursed for the additional cost of “wear and tears” on his car—to be split evenly between them. Furthermore, Crump found $2 in change under the bleachers at the high school, which he put back into the shared jar. The solutions: Crump drank $15 worth of his beer, and also $15 of Dutt’s beer, but Dutt only drank $20 worth of beer in all. So Crump drank $10 of beer more than Dutt, within a two day period of time. Crump owed $10 for his half of the original jar fund, but because of his beer purchase, he only then owed $5. But this amount was added to the $15 he owed for drinking Dutt’s beer, plus $6 for his half of the car’s gas and tears, and also his contribution of $2.50 for the other expenses I forgot to mention, minus his $1 portion of the found money for the jar. Crump now owes Dutt $27.50. Either that, or nothing.

The only time I went to the river was once by myself in my car, but I couldn’t leave my car, because I was recharging my battery and had to leave the car running for several hours and didn’t know where to go, so I drove to a parking lot near the river and watched, sadly, the people having fun down in the water, but I could only watch, I was stuck inside the vehicle. And then later I tried going back to find that spot, but I couldn’t remember where it was, but now I live right next to the water, and I never go there. The only entry point is under an overpass, and it looks scary down there. That woman I know says you definitely do not have a speech impediment. She laughed but said, “No, definitely not”. So there you have it, a second opinion, but by the same intern.

I just got a filling today, and Cleveland helped me with a strange food mystery that’s been bugging me for a long time—something called “Scrapple”, and also something called “Getta”. That, amazingly, he knew all about. He said it’s kind of like a baloney, but also more like a lot of saw dust, maybe. My filling: a year and a half ago I was broke and needed a cracked tooth fixed and could only afford some free clinic “operated” by Dr. Melarchy. Well, not only did he cut my lip, but also spent most of the session checking various manuals and arguing with someone else in whispers just beyond the curtain, surfacing once in a while to work on my tooth again. But he only put a “temporary” filling in and told me to avoid using it for a year, which I did, but the comfort never was regained within my mouth, so my pop payed for a visit to another dentist a couple of days ago, and he took out the filling that Dr. Melarchy had put in, which he said was just some glob of stuff, like stuffing, that he said wasn’t a filling at all, but just something soft that had been jammed in there, and that my jaw and nerve might be infected, but after drilling almost all the tooth out he gave it the “ok” and filled the sucker up with plaster and now it feels just fine. My teeth are brittle enough without all that other stuff happening. Like, hard toast. Anyhow, about visiting…the dates sound fine, because I’ll be fishing and hiking on Sugar Loaf Mountain, and visiting the “world’s largest observatory that’s available to the public”. I always enjoy sites that have words of anticipation as part of their description. We will supposedly be able to see galaxies from there. We will also go to Ano Nuevo to see some elephant seals. The experience will surely change my life. I’ve been interested in those creatures for years. Out there on the beachy area on which they congregate, bellow, fight jealously, and mate violently, one can look out onto the small island just a small ways out over the water, where there is an abandoned house—and with binoculars you can see that the elephant seals have taken over the house. They swim over to it and crawl in and out of it. What they do inside the house, nobody knows—not even the rangers. But crossing over to their house would be dangerous. I have a feeling it would seem very much like a separate planet. A planet ruled by fatty animals with lots of jumping abilities. Aren’t you curious? Let me know what you think. We’ll cook something tasty and sit in a warm bath.