[FRIAM] the bad pun thread

[Steven A Smith]

In my youth I did those long distance hauls exclusively on a
motorcycle.  The cold wind whistling through the chinks in my
clothing/helmet and the pavement whizzing by a few feet away were
sufficient to keep me awake.   To keep me from getting too bored, I used
those times to work on math/physics problems in my head.  It was good
practice to learn to try to keep all the details in my head without
paper to work on.  I couldn't go as fast as I could with paper and
pencil at hand, but I think it was a good exercise.  I have no evidence
that this type of mental exercise reduced my road awareness... it is
interesting which types of multi-tasking works.  

In later years, I used books on tape to keep me from idling to
distraction.   For the most part I've never had trouble getting sleepy
while driving, or at least not until my much later years when I
*usually* have the option and wisdom of not driving late into the
night.   When I do find myself needing to push past my comfort zone on
wakefulness, eating sunflower seeds from the shell seems to help, the
way I suppose smoking helps with smokers, but without the stimulant
benefit of nicotine.  The "compulsive" repetitive motion is a good
metronome of sorts.

Gary, any chance you knew Jack Horner at KSU?  I think he might be a few
years older than you... mid 60's now.  He has recently returned to
Manhattan for his retirement years. FWIW


On 1/5/18 8:13 AM, ∄ uǝʃƃ wrote:
> Yeah, singing *along* to prerecorded music works to some extent.  But I can still fall quiet, even if the music is nice and loud, maybe like Dead Horse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3EtqJ0OUDc  There's something about the engagement required for it to keep me awake.  I've had good luck with no radio, but trying to remember lyrics and sing them.  But if someone else is "driving" and I'm just "riding along", it doesn't have the same effect.
>
> On 01/04/2018 05:25 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:
>> Speaking of keeping awake when driving (a good idea), in my first few years of college, I went home to help out my folks on the farm nearly every weekend. It was a three hour drive from Wathena, Kansas to Manhattan (Kansas, that is, The Little Apple, home of Kansas State University). I often waited until Monday morning to return to Manhattan, even when I had a 7:30 am statistics class. So, I usually had to drive several hours in the dark before getting there. It took a lot of hot coffee and 8-track tapes to keep me awake. I especially liked listening to John Denver and singing along (badly, I'm sure, but with no traffic and only cows in the pasture along the highway to awaken, I blasted it out at the top of my lungs). One of my favorites was "Two Shots" from the Windsong album. One line in particular sticks in my mind: "I took two shots, got no ducks, and cold, cold hands."
>