Living metrically

Life In The Boot

I first learned a little about the metric system in high school. I wasn't impressed. That was because I hadn't grasped the importance of how simple the metric system was and how stupid our english method of measurements was. 

I can remember that there was talk in the news about how the US was going to have to join the rest of the world in using the far superior system. They had even set a target date for the switchover to be completed. It never happened. Since I spend and have spent so much time in Italy , meters, kilometer and liters have become second nature to me. Its so simple. You basically start with one and just add zeros for each increment of measurement. A far cry from the twelve inches to make a foot and three feet to make a yard and so on,and so on, and so stupid so on.  Lets don't even talk about the english liquid measurement. 

There is one measurement however, That I have been unable to adopt. Its the measurement of gas millage. We measure miles per gallon. In the metric system they measure how many liters it takes to go a hundred kilometers  . I understand why they do it, but no matter how I try I just can't think in those terms. My little car uses around six liters per hundred kilometers... I only know that because the instant milage is displayed on the dash board.

A Penny A Bale

Life In The Boot

Yesterday they  baled square bales on the pasture I can see from our balcony. They do rounds bales on the other pastures that are further away. They have done it the same way for the eight years we have been living here. The first year I watched them as they went through the routine of picking up the bales. The father walked besides a low trailer being pulled by a tractor. That first year, the tractor was being driving by a boy about  eight years old. It bothered me that the father kept screaming coldly , "Slow down!" Or "Speed up!".

I tried hauling hay when I was in high school. If my memory serves me correctly, we worked as a team of about eight guys. We were paid a penny a bale each. So if we picked up, loaded and unloaded 1500 bales, we each made 15 bucks. It wasn't all work as a lot of time was spent riding back and forth to the barns. The worst part was the itching. I only did it once.

That little boy that was driving that tractor eight years ago has grown up. Now he walks along side the trailer as his little brother drives the tractor. Nothing has changed as he also was  constantly  screaming , ,"Slow down!" Or "Speed up!"

Again And Again

The merchant ship I worked on in the sixties was a WW2 vintage C2 freighter. They built about 200 of them from 1940-45. It was 25 years old when I got on and I doubt it if it stayed in service for many more years. There was a team of four sailors that worked all the time chipping rust and painting. They had neat little air powered tools that were called "jitterbugs". The tool had four plungers and had the effect of having four hammers chipping at the same time. It took a while, but I got used to the irritating noise they made. At some point those four guys started at the fore end of the ship and slowly worked their way aft. When they got to the end, they just went back and started the process all over again. After 25 years, I don't know how much metal could have been left

I thought about those sailors yesterday as we were chipping rust and painting on a metal railing That ship and our property here had/have the same problem. The ocean .  We already worked on this railing a few years ago. I have  to chip and paint on the entry gate and our burglar bars every year. I don't like it , but I like being near the ocean . How  do they say? "It goes with the territory". I say , "Are we having fun yet?" At any rate life is about repetition. What would we do without it? What if we  had to mow the lawn ,paint the house , wash the car or walk the dog only  once. What would we do with our selves. The wouldn't be much left to do other than to sit around  and write a bunch of silly stories.