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Friday The 13th

Well, it's Friday the 13th again ... Here are some notes about the fabled unlucky date ...
Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky?

It is uncertain how this calendar date became associated with bad luck, but the number 13 has been considered unlucky for some time.

Friday the 13th was first mentioned in a biography of Gioachino Rossini, an Italian composer, who coincidentally died on Friday, Nov 13, 1868.

Thomas W. Lawson, an American businessman, is believed to have encouraged the superstition, after his book, Friday the Thirteenth, was published in 1907. In the novel, a stockbroker causes panic on Wall Street, blaming it on the unlucky day. ...

Unlucky events that have happened on Friday the 13th

One of the earliest events associated with Friday the 13th dates back to October, 1307, where officers of King Philip IV of France imprisoned and later executed hundreds of the Knights Templar, a religious, military group who sought to defend the Holy Land. ...

Since then, the Second World War bombing of Buckingham Palace by German forces in September, 1940, and the Bangladesh cyclone in November, 1970, which killed 300,000 people, both occurred on Friday the 13th.

A Uruguayan Air Force plane crashed in the Andes on Friday, October 13, 1972, with 16 of the 45 passengers being rescued two months later. In order to survive, they had to eat the flesh of dead passengers.

In 1976, New Yorker Daz Baxter, was apparently so afraid of Friday the 13th he decided the safest place to stay was his bed. Mr Baxter was killed when the floor of his apartment block collapsed that day.

Rapper Tupac Shakur died of his wounds on Friday, September 13, 1996, six days after being shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting.

More recently, the £13.5 million SAW ride at Thorpe Park, Chertsey, was scheduled to open on Friday, March 13, 2009, but was shut down due to a computer fault. Plus on Friday, January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship crashed off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.

Just over four years ago, ISIS organised several terror attacks in Paris on Friday, November 13, 2015, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.

It is also rumoured that an asteroid will come within 19,000 miles of the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029. A coincidence?

FULL STORY: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...gin-meaning-behind-superstitions-why-unlucky/
 
Not at work today. Didn't want to chance it.
 
Today would have been a significant birthday for someone I loved who died young.

Wasn't looking forward to it, but was cheered up by the first news item I heard on t'wireless about the death of Peter Sutcliffe.
Like this - :)
 
It's a relief to see mostly good news here about yesterday. We had an exciting day, but it turned out to be harmless enough for us.

We were awakened at four o'clock by beeping from our two computer UPS systems telling us the power was off. I got up to see what the problem was, and decided to look outside to determine whether the power loss was specific to our house, in which case I'd need to get busy and maybe call the power company pronto. It was 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I looked out the kitchen window to see if the obnoxious light on the fire station across the alley was on. The station was dark, and silhouetted by a bright orange glow. Uh-oh.

Our newly adopted little town has no water system, so no fire hydrants. That was a major problem last year when a fire broke out across the street the other way from the fire station. That one ended with three houses lost, among other structures. We bought this house a few months after that calamity. So with a major fire a scant one block away, we started loading our vehicles with important stuff. Warm clothing was high on the list. We then got the hell away from here, not knowing if we would still have a house when the sun came up. We own a rental property nearby, which is currently vacant while we do some work on it, so we had a good place to go, with heat and lights on. We drank coffee and watched the excitement from a safer distance.

About the time we got out, the sound of approaching sirens filled the air as fire fighters arrived from nearby communities. The team effort was successful, not in saving the house that was burning but in keeping the fire contained. Under the circumstances, that was impressive. No other structures were damaged, even though some were quite close. We headed back to our dark house and watched the temperature inside our well house slowly drop. There is a battery powered remote thermometer in there. The little shed is well insulated but heated electrically. As the sun came up and began to shine on the well house, the temperature drop slowed and then leveled off at 33 degrees. By then I had a propane heater rounded up and ready to keep all that expensive equipment from freezing.

Getting the power back on was a bit complicated for the crew from the power company, since the transformer at our end of the block was on a charred pole in front of the place that burned. They got us back on line shortly after lunch time though, so the disruptions from the fire were pretty minimal, all things considered. We don't know the people who lived there, but it was a big run-down house that the owners had been working on. Progress in getting the place cleaned up was beginning to show. It's bad enough losing your house and all that work, but in bitter cold temperatures it's got to be that much worse. We really don't know many people here, having moved in during the coldest part of the year and having the Covid restrictions hit soon after. Apparently no one was injured, so that's a great thing.

Here is a picture I shot with my phone, from our back steps as we headed out. On the left is our garage, on the right is the fire station. Behind our garage is a thick stand of trees and underbrush, next to the fire station. The fire station is a nice big new metal building, so we weren't too worried about that burning.

IMG_20201113_043007602.jpg
 
Rural Colorado. We're at about 7,500 feet above sea level. The town has something like 200 residents. The entire county, a large one in terms of square miles, has about 6,000 people. That's a very small tax base. None of that is particularly unusual in these parts. Living in the mountains is expensive and challenging no matter what approach one takes. I often wonder how people with kids manage it. Even the wealthy ones have things to deal with that can't be fixed with money.

Of course, many things are helped by infusions of cash. The marijuana growing business is booming in Colorado, and our little town is getting its share of tax money along with the benefits of development. There is talk of water and even sewer service going in, which would make the place far more desirable for building new homes. It's an old railroad town but there have been no trains or even tracks since the 1950s. What infrastructure was here (other than roads and electrical service) has fallen into disrepair or completely disappeared since then. There was a really neat depot two blocks from our house, but it is long gone. I'm sitting in what was the middle of the business district 100 years ago. It will be interesting to see what changes the next decade brings.
 
It's a relief to see mostly good news here about yesterday. We had an exciting day, but it turned out to be harmless enough for us.

We were awakened at four o'clock by beeping from our two computer UPS systems telling us the power was off. I got up to see what the problem was, and decided to look outside to determine whether the power loss was specific to our house, in which case I'd need to get busy and maybe call the power company pronto. It was 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I looked out the kitchen window to see if the obnoxious light on the fire station across the alley was on. The station was dark, and silhouetted by a bright orange glow. Uh-oh.

Our newly adopted little town has no water system, so no fire hydrants. That was a major problem last year when a fire broke out across the street the other way from the fire station. That one ended with three houses lost, among other structures. We bought this house a few months after that calamity. So with a major fire a scant one block away, we started loading our vehicles with important stuff. Warm clothing was high on the list. We then got the hell away from here, not knowing if we would still have a house when the sun came up. We own a rental property nearby, which is currently vacant while we do some work on it, so we had a good place to go, with heat and lights on. We drank coffee and watched the excitement from a safer distance.

About the time we got out, the sound of approaching sirens filled the air as fire fighters arrived from nearby communities. The team effort was successful, not in saving the house that was burning but in keeping the fire contained. Under the circumstances, that was impressive. No other structures were damaged, even though some were quite close. We headed back to our dark house and watched the temperature inside our well house slowly drop. There is a battery powered remote thermometer in there. The little shed is well insulated but heated electrically. As the sun came up and began to shine on the well house, the temperature drop slowed and then leveled off at 33 degrees. By then I had a propane heater rounded up and ready to keep all that expensive equipment from freezing.

Getting the power back on was a bit complicated for the crew from the power company, since the transformer at our end of the block was on a charred pole in front of the place that burned. They got us back on line shortly after lunch time though, so the disruptions from the fire were pretty minimal, all things considered. We don't know the people who lived there, but it was a big run-down house that the owners had been working on. Progress in getting the place cleaned up was beginning to show. It's bad enough losing your house and all that work, but in bitter cold temperatures it's got to be that much worse. We really don't know many people here, having moved in during the coldest part of the year and having the Covid restrictions hit soon after. Apparently no one was injured, so that's a great thing.

Here is a picture I shot with my phone, from our back steps as we headed out. On the left is our garage, on the right is the fire station. Behind our garage is a thick stand of trees and underbrush, next to the fire station. The fire station is a nice big new metal building, so we weren't too worried about that burning.

View attachment 31527
Anyone else spot a giant chicken monster in the flames? :D
 
Went to see my mother today. Chose to go by motorbike. Miscalculated the journey time and ignored the fuel warning light. I planned to fill up on the way home.

I left my mother's house and the bike cut out within 1/4 mile. I knew there was a petrol station "not far away" so I started to push. I double checked with someone I passed and he directed me to a "nearer" one "about a mile in that direction".

It was nearly 3 miles, pushing a 750cc motorbike in bright sunshine, and I was dressed for sitting still in a 60 mph wind.

On the plus side, my previous bike was bigger and heavier, and I was in Boston (Lincolnshire) which is almost perfectly flat. The petrol station, when I reached it, was reasonably priced and had outside tables where I could sit in the shade and consume a few calories and a drink before continuing my journey.

I don't blame the bad luck of Friday 13th for this. I made a couple of bad decisions. However, it is the only time in 30 years of biking that I've had to push one any significant distance to a petrol station.
 
Went to see my mother today. Chose to go by motorbike. Miscalculated the journey time and ignored the fuel warning light. I planned to fill up on the way home.

I left my mother's house and the bike cut out within 1/4 mile. I knew there was a petrol station "not far away" so I started to push. I double checked with someone I passed and he directed me to a "nearer" one "about a mile in that direction".

It was nearly 3 miles, pushing a 750cc motorbike in bright sunshine, and I was dressed for sitting still in a 60 mph wind.

On the plus side, my previous bike was bigger and heavier, and I was in Boston (Lincolnshire) which is almost perfectly flat. The petrol station, when I reached it, was reasonably priced and had outside tables where I could sit in the shade and consume a few calories and a drink before continuing my journey.

I don't blame the bad luck of Friday 13th for this. I made a couple of bad decisions. However, it is the only time in 30 years of biking that I've had to push one any significant distance to a petrol station.
Haven't been a biker for many years although I have passed my test. Mine had a 'reserve' lever for fuel (which saved me many, many times), don't all bikes have these then?
 
Haven't been a biker for many years although I have passed my test. Mine had a 'reserve' lever for fuel (which saved me many, many times), don't all bikes have these then?
These days most bigger bikes have a reserve light, but not a manually switchable tap. Either way, depending on speed, hills, headwind, etc., you can get 25 to 50 miles, but it is never precise.

I have happy memories of "going onto reserve" on a 250, half way through a somewhat optimistic overtaking manoeuvre.
 
I got a summons in the mail earlier this month that I needed to be at the main courthouse by 8:30 AM last Friday. Mercifully it had info about a local website to fill in jury qualifications, so I filled it out a few days before Friday and soon got an email notification that there were enough jury candidates that I wouldn't have to show up. So glad not to have to wobble up all those courthouse steps! So i have still not have had bad luck on the 13th, and we do adore the black cat who adopted us a year ago.
 
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