Geeks in the Forest = Pondering the Equations of Life
The outside temperature has dropped to the 40’s (4°C), it’s drizzling a bone-chilling cold and we’re deep, deep into the TN forest. It’s moments like this that make you wonder what happens when 2 geeks in their expedition-weight Patagonia underwear spend several days holed-up in a large tin-can in the wilderness. Well, there’s many ways of keeping warm, of course…copious quantities of hot chocolate and mulled wine, woolen hats and good ‘ol-fashioned ehrmmm physical activity. But no matter how much we pretend to be normal the geekiness, after a certain number of hours, naturally comes forth. It’s the Natural Law of Techies-In-The-Wild and leads to a lot of interesting conversation about life, the universe and everything inside it. So, for today’s post I thought I’d share a few of our newly-arrived-at conclusions.
Where T = temperature (in celsius), and K is an environmental factor related to proximity of cold-running mountain streams and number of squirrels in the area. As you can imagine K, in general, gets larger the more “out there” and “up there” we go. So in a hot, city climate doggie energy (DE) goes to zero, whereas in a chilly remote mountain area, with a nice selection of small fast-twitch critters our dog will go “banana’s” with energy, mathematically speaking.
Where T = temp (in celsius)
Cat stickiness (CS) is a technical term, of course, denoting how close to your body kitty “sticks” throughout the day. On the coldest days (lowest T), the cat is like super-glue and will elongate several miraculous cat-body-lengths over your body in order to attain the highest surface area of attachment. As you can see from the equation, at T>40°C (104°F), cat stickiness goes negative (i.e cat disappears) whereas at T=0 (freezing) cat stickiness is essentially infinite. Our experience has proved out both these facts.
Where D1 = distance to your neighbour, D2 = distance into the wilderness, CS = cat stickiness, DE = doggie energy and W1,W2 are weighting factors. So, basically the more we get out there, the happier we are, and the fact that CS and DE are in the equation just goes to show we like to have our fur babies around us. The weighting factors niftily allow you to adjust the equation to your own preferences.
This really says it all. Life is the sum of everything that happens to you, or rather, with a little mathematical generalization and a few simplification steps, life (and so by extension life happiness) is the sum of your experiences.
It’s amazing in retrospect to think that Einstein and Newton failed to derive these simple life laws, but it just goes to show what 2 geeks with a lot of time of their hands can come up with. So, go out there, get a sticky cat, take advantage of that crazy doggie energy and experience life to its fullest. After all, we’ve proved it makes you happy.
Q.E.D. (Quad Erat Demonstrandum)
40 is shorts weather for me and 40 and rain = normal camping weather in the Far North/Pacific Northwest.
And 40 = time to laugh at the Alaska tourists in their stocking caps and jackets and sweaters.
And 0 = first time I get out the sweaters and sweatpants
And -10 = time to put doggy boots on pups for daily walk
And 20 is warm spring weather and time to pull off layers.
And 40 below = a visit to Fairbanks, where they laugh at us weinies from Anchorage.
And 90 is a number I haven’t seen in 9 years
And 10 is fun and surreal and fun in the hot tub with snow on the ground all around you and northern lights dancing over your head. And cold is when you have to run for the house in your bathing suit or birthday suit afterwards.
40??? Pshaw! Wimps!!! 🙂
Well, Alaska girl…I have to take my thick wollen hat off to you! You’ve definitely got more Viking genes than me 🙂
And I am going to be sweating my a## off when we get to the Lower 48!!! I’ll be the one in the campground with the red face…haha
Yeah, you’ll probably have to plan your 1st summer in the mountains. It can get HOT down in the valleys. By the way are you guys going to start full-timing before winter sets in? Or, are you waiting until after?
7 am – Current outside temperature: 37, current inside temperature 65. Cat stickiness still above normal range…!
hehe….love it!!
28 here at night, and chihuahua stickiness at a high level as well. 🙂
What a great picture of Paul and Polly – happiness can be very simple and I know you guys have found it.
Thanks Leslie! We’re definitely loving the simply life 🙂
LOL! Somehow, I missed this post the first time around. The mental image of the two of you huddled over the table debating the precise configuration of your equations cracks me up. I especially appreciate the nod to your readers with the user-friendly weighting factors you’ve added to Camping Happiness. When we finally get out on the road, I’ll be sure to add these to Excel for handy use. =)
Really happy you liked the post 🙂
Your image of us all huddled up debating the equations is pretty accurate…we had a lot of time on our hands out there in the forest hehe
Nina
Bravo – reminds me of a trip to Hetch Hetchy with my wife where we tried to work out how far below ‘normal’ the water line was by measuring the time it to for a rock in our hands to hit the water and then trying to remember the right equation for motion. Glad to see your degrees are being put to good use.
Oh how I love those moments…so romantic, yet so wonderfully geeky.
Nina