Apart from the useful comments Doug makes, he poses some quite valid questions I'd like to answer: >>4. What's the ascii for a smilie, for a contact wearer on e-mail? Since most contact wearers are not able to fully open their eyes, scared their lenses might fall out, I suggest |-) . However, I'd like to hear from the experts on this one. >>5. What other weird kayak-related experiments do you perform in your bathtub? (No flare sessions, I hope - inside PW joke) - Practicing to keep my breath for more then two minutes. - Getting used to a nose full of foam. - Getting used to hyperthermia ( I like my tub HOT). - Getting used to sharing a small space with other people: In an emergency, you might have to share your kayak or tent with someone. If you paddle rivers, you can get the same practice in the shuttle. - Testing my drybags and flotation bags. - Cleaning my gear after a salt-water trip. - Cleaning my glasses. I'd like to know more about the flare-sessions in a bathtub, sounds like a good story. >>6. Without glasses, don't you find sea-spray wind-sting a problem? Sometimes, but for those cases I carry some cheap sunglasses that I can take off when they get too salty or fogged, or I can just look over the top when I really need to see something. >>7. When you tell your SO at home while reading PW that your eyes are "glazing over" from one of Doug's, Matt's, or Joan's long posts, does this mean you are saying it literally because you have contacts on? Yes, I sit behind my desk at Foxboro with contacts on. Not only that, I am wearing a wetsuit, sprayskirt and PFD. The rest of my equipment is shock-corded to my desk. I spend at least an hour every day drilling holes in my desk and chair, to attach new equipment. Since I had a small accident with a flare and a sigarette, flares are now prohibited in the office, I had to sneak them in and duct-tape them under my desk. My GPS doesn't work indoors, so I just take the risk that the office is drifting while I'm inside. Do I need all this? No, it just gets me in the mood for reading my mail each morning. >>8. Do you carry back-up contact lenses with your signal mirror and flares. Come on, be safe out there Niels. I may have different standards of safety then you, Doug. I don't value my life very high, but I do value my comfort. I don't carry a mirror and flares: I carry a bottle of Scotch (Lagavullin, 17 years old) with a crystal glass, spare sigarettes, lots of lighters, sunscrean, bug repellant, a camping chair and dry socks. I keep my spare contacts with the dry socks. >>9. Audry Sutherland says everything you take kayaking should have a dual purpose. I can start a small fire with my "magnifying" strength eye glass wear. What can you do with your "superior" contacts, huh? - The plastic containers burn very well, they are excellent to start a fire. - The aluminium cover can be used as a signalling mirror. - The containers are filled with sterile fluid, excellent for cleaning wounds. For big wounds, use lots of containers. - Since each container contains a bubble of air, the lenses add to your flotation. - These lenses are made of a kind of plastic. It might get you over your fear of plastic, so you're ready to buy a plastic boat next time your Nordkapp breaks in two - If you wear contacts overnight, all you see in the morning is fog, so you have a great excuse to take the day off from work and go paddling in the afternoon when the fog has cleared. BTW, this question surprises me from you, Doug. Are you the same guy that flamed me for my creative use of a paddle as a spear? I'm warning you: I'm working on a list of 100 ways to abuse a paddle, and I am quite ready to mail it at the slightest provocation. >>10. Come out to the west coast of Canada next winter, and I'll show you some enviro-marine action that will not only flush your contacts out, but your eyeballs too! Please order a Foxboro I/A system with a DIGITAL BLENDER package, so I can travel at Foxboro expenses to help you with the implementation. Since implementation might take several weeks, depending on the effort I put in before shipping the package, we'll find time to do some paddling. To cover the costs on your side, you might want to build an oil refinery first. |-) Niels. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: "Blaauw, Niels" <nblaauw_at_foxboro.com> To: <PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net> Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 7:24 AM Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Wearing glasses (add Top-Ten Contact Lenses List ) > Yes, I sit behind my desk at Foxboro with contacts on. Not only that, I am > wearing a wetsuit, sprayskirt and PFD. The rest of my equipment is > shock-corded to my desk. I spend at least an hour every day drilling holes > in my desk and chair, to attach new equipment. Since I had a small >accident > with a flare and a sigarette, flares are now prohibited in the office, I >had > to sneak them in and duct-tape them under my desk. My GPS doesn't work > indoors, so I just take the risk that the office is drifting while I'm > inside. Do I need all this? No, it just gets me in the mood for reading my > mail each morning. > Can you post pictures to a web site, I'd like to outfit my desk like this; What about a recessed compass to monitor that drift? or do the computer electronics interfere? No desk lines in case a natural disaster throws the desk across the room and you need something to grab hold? No knives, ball and chain or jousting stick in case the office mates make any disparaging remarks, go agro on you or demonstrate some territorial localism from behind the divider? With all due respect, I think you're overlooking some key items that could serve as "precautionary back-up or pecuniary ballast"! We all must be prepared for any eventuality, even while sitting at our desks! Can you roll that desk? Keep paddling those desks, Craig *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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