Friday the 13th Woes

[Newstar]

Friday the 13th....

Normally I am not very superstitious although I admit to carrying a lucky rock in my pocket for some 20 odd years now.

On Friday morning, the plan was to be packed up and out the driveway by 7am. Here's how the day started:

1. 7am - packed and ready. Grab the new Gerbings and we are set.

2. 7:05 - just realized that the new Gerbing jackets came with four little leather clips and no regulators! Looks like someone at the dealer screwed up!

3. Plan B: go to breakfast, then to the local Gerbings dealer for the temp regulators.

4. Oops! The RT's battery is almost dead! WHAT??? We've never ever had battery problems before! Plug the RT in to the charger and take the truck to breakfast.

5. Back from breakfast, loaded up, both bikes running, stop at the dealer for the Gerbings stuff and we are off for West Virginia. (Only 2.5 hours behind schedule now!)

6. Stuck on some back road in WV while a road crew repairs a 6" x 6" section of road. (3 miles of road with one way, escorted traffic!)

7. RT's battery dies again. Could be the Gerbings draining power while we sat idling at the construction site. :doh

8. GS makes it through realizing that the RT is not following. GS pulls off to wait. I made the mistake of shutting off the GS only to find that it's battery also keeled over! :doh :doh

9. Both bikes start after rolling down hill.

10. It's freakin' cold in WV but we made it to our destination. Time to continue with our weekend and hope the 13th is behind us. Spent Friday night like this: :bottle

[RedBeemer]

Seems like a normal ride to me :D

[GeneT]

This was sent to me Friday with a story regarding a person resigning his job on this date, adding the numbers in the date equal 13. this I am told will occur every 400+ years

1+0+1+3+2+0+0+6=13


:dance

[username]

This was sent to me Friday with a story regarding a person resigning his job on this date, adding the numbers in the date equal 13. this I am told will occur every 400+ years

1+0+1+3+2+0+0+6=13


:dance

it's rare for the sum of the digits of the date to equal the value of the day?

:huh i don't think so.

it's rare for the sum of the digits of the date to add up to 13 on a [shivers] friday the 13th?

again, no. not rare at all. it happened TWICE this year, and it'll happen again in 2011.

here is something you can send to the person who misinformed you:

it isn't that odd for the numbers in the date to add up to the value of the day portion of the date.

in 2006...

saturday the 14th:
1+0+1+4+2+0+0+6=14

sunday the 15th:
1+0+1+5+2+0+0+6=15

monday the 16th:
1+0+1+6+2+0+0+6=16

tuesday the 17th
1+0+1+7+2+0+0+6=17

wednesday the 18th
1+0+1+8+2+0+0+6=18

thursday the 19th
1+0+1+9+2+0+0+6=19

as well as 10/10/2006 - 10/12/2006, and 1/10/2006 to 1/19/2006.

hmmm, not very exciting. these internet things that point out one "coincidence" while ignoring a multitude of others and wrapping themselves in the guise of "math" drive me batty. theyre almost always wrong in at least one way.

this also happened in january of 2006 by the way:

01/13/2006.

and yes, it was a friday the 13th in january.

in 2007 from 9/20 to 9/29 this will occur.

in 2008 from 8/20 to 8/29 this will occur.

in 2009 from 7/20 to 7/29 this will occur.

in 2010 from 6/10 to 6/19 this will occur...

on may 13th, 2011 this will occur AGAIN with a friday the 13th!

most coincidences on our lives are not coincidences at all.

[Visian]

most coincidences on our lives are not coincidences at all.

dude, yer scarin' me....

[username]

i dont like it when bad math and science propogate.

our lives are filled with fears of things that are not likely to happen to us. they are filled with people using statistics to lie to us to manipulate us. they are filled with people not using logic, and pretending it is logic, to draw false conclusions, to manipulate us.

i believe that it is our fault if we are fooled and taken advantage of. knowledge is power! smart is better than dumb!

note: i'm not calling anyone specific here dumb, just the aggregate of the american population. on average, we're below average when it comes to understanding math. and this post isnt really even about math! aauuugghh! ;)

[BubbaZanetti]

just the aggregate of the american population. on average, we're below average when it comes to understanding math.


i never made it past algebra II

[Burnszilla]

note: i'm not calling anyone specific here dumb, just the aggregate of the american population. on average, we're below average when it comes to understanding math. and this post isnt really even about math! aauuugghh! ;)
Do you think that Americans are below average at math because they have other people do their physics homework for them online?:stick

[username]

Do you think that Americans are below average at math because they have other people do their physics homework for them online?:stick

how would not doing physics homework make someone bad at math?

it would make them bad at physics!

jeez, your question is too dumb even for an AMERICAN! are you from another country by any chance? :D :ha

[username]

i never made it past algebra II

if you were burnszilla's kid, he would have made you do physics homework in an effort to boost your math ability. :ha


:hide

[Holly]

Americans can do Physics without Math? Wow, I'm impressed! :D

My son, from the same other coutry as Burnzilla, used to win Math contests, and was in line to represent the USA at the Math Olympiad. Unfortunately one of his contest mates won the gold medal for the US team the year before and the US wouldn't allow us to play anymore. Seems they would rather not win than have us help them out. BTW, both my sons were bought into PhD programs in the US, which offered way more money than any of our universities. #1 son has his PhD in Math (Combinatorics and Optimization) from Ann Arbor, MI. #2 son will soon have his PhD in BioChem from Boulder, CO. I just love the excuse to ride to Boulder.

Still waiting for our smiley flag!

[dlowry]

Yeah, well, my wedding date (our wedding date - oops) adds up to 42 - which according to the late Douglas Adams, author of the trilogy of five books called Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, is the meaning of life, the universe and everything. ;-)

Numbers are just numbers, unless you make something out of them. Personally, I like numbers, you can do some fun things with them. I like the number 42. In 7-bit binary it's 0101010. I know, only a geek would think of this.

Don't read anything into the numbers unless you wanna have phun with it.

[GeneT]

I stand corrected.............

:wow

[BradfordBenn]

Being I used to do Math in the Mathlympics I am a recovering geek. okay recovering math geek. But I agree with username, too often we as people is baffled and assume stuff is right cause people say it is. I am amazed when I do the marketing numbers each month at work by how many people have no idea how I do the math (simple percentages) but then argue with the formulas cause they don't like the numbers.

Then they argue the numbers are spot on cause they like them.

[GRANT63RT]

This was sent to me Friday with a story regarding a person resigning his job ...1+0+1+3+2+0+0+6=13

Believe it or not, 10/13 was supposed to be my last day at my current job. Woke up find out I couldn't get to work because Buffalo had 2 FEET OF SNOW!. Have yet to figure out if this was good or bad luck. :dunno

[john1691]

Friday the 13th....

.. some back road in WV.....

So where did you actually go? A friend of mine and I are planning to ride from the Harrisburg, PA area to somewhere south of here the first weekend in November. I did a trip in WV this spring, rt 9, 29 and 55(?). We're looking at one overnight, so we can't go too far, and no highways, the more twisties, the better. He rides a Kawi ZX1100, I'll be on the K12RS. We discussed camping, but will probably get a hotel, due to my old back (20 years of construction).....Also, the first day has to end with a great steak dinner. Any suggestions? Thanks

john1691
200 K1200RS

[Newstar]

So where did you actually go

We took the highway from Delaware to Fredrick to make up for lost time. Then on down through Winchester,VA. (Sorry, not sure of the route #)

Route 50 west to Route 220 to Petersburg. Then on to Route 28/55 down to Seneca Rocks. Beautiful scenery on this road. At Seneca, pick up Old Route 33. Once past Elkins, it turns in to a highway but it is still a nice road. (Be sure to stop and explore the huge cave. You can't miss it on the side of the road.) From there, we went in to Weston and stayed at the Stonewall Resort. What a great place and suprisingly inexpensive!

www.stonewallresort.com

We rode out on Saturday and took Route 19 to route 20 which made the whole trip worthwhile.

DEFINATELY RIDE ROUTE 20!!! What an incredible twisting, turning, snake-belly of a road. Most suprisingly, the roads in that area all seem well kept and clean. Did I say that you definately need to go to Route 20??? We rode from Arlington to Summerville - what a ride! :wow

Back to the Stonewall. Beautiful resort with a nice indoor and outdoor pool/hot tub. It felt great after a long cold day. The food there was pretty good. They have two restaurants, one offering a buffet at each meal as well as a full menu. The fire pit in the evening is nice too. It's right on a lake and you can't spit without hitting wildlife. Deer are everywhere. They wouldn't let us park the bikes under the canopy but we found a nice spot back by the loading dock that shielded us somewhat from the elements. They also have a marina and camp grounds.

You can't go wrong with that area of WV. We are planning another trip there in the spring and again next fall.

Tracy

[john1691]

Thanks for the info. I'll check the map and see how we can incorporate Rt. 20, as it sounds like fun. We'll probably skip the resort in favor of a cheaper place, as it is just the duys this time, not a "get a way". Berkley Springs is a good destination for next spring, neat old village with some over priced spas, but a nice weekend. Ride Rt. 9 and check out the scenic overlooks.

john1691
2000 K1200RS

[kbasa]

Time for a new rock, newstar. :D

Hope your 14th was better!