And if you think that Imperial measurements (inch, foot, mile) are silly, you don't know the depth of it. In the southwest US (mostly Texas and California), surveys were done using a unit of measure called a vara. A vara was a piece of chain a little less than 3 feet long, and it was the standard for survey measurement when the Spanish owned this part of the country A COUPLE-HUNDRED YEARS AGO! Despite the vara becoming obsolete quite some time ago, varas were the standard unit for Texas surveys all the way up to the 1970's.
Not only that, but the varas weren't standard. A Texas vara is 33 1/3 inches long, but a California vara is 33 inches.
Say what you will about inches and feet, but at least a California foot is the same freakin' length as a Texas foot.
Went to the dentist last week. It's been a few years for Shelly & I, so we took advantage of the "free first visit" from our local dentist-chain, hoping against hope that we'd get out cheap.
As you can imagine, the free first visit is a windfall for 'em, because they get folks like me who think their teeth are just fine. Not surprisingly, some of my 30+ year-old silver fillings are going bad. Worse yet, one of my back-teeth has a crack and part of the tooth has chipped away.
Thankfully most of the damage was all to one tooth, so replacing some fillings and putting a crown on the tooth was the sum-total of what needed to be done. So now I have a temporary plastic thing on my tooth that I have to wear for a few weeks while the crown's on order.
And I have to go back to the dentist this morning to get the rest of my gums pressure-washed.
Oh happy happy.
Actually I suppose it could be worse, because at least I'll have some peace of mind about the state of my teeth.
