99,999 miles on my odometer and tomorrow is the end of the world.

Tags

99, 999 miles, Baktun, Bend Oregon, Mayan calendar prophesy, Triage Improv

Yesterday, after getting home from an optometry appointment my car’s odometer read 99,999 miles. One of my nicknames is Apophenio, because I tend to see real things that others don’t see, and here was a once in a lifetime conundrum to use that ability to explore unknown and silly connections. The Mayan calendar transitions from from the 12th baktun to the 13th baktun, in just two days, on 21Dec2912, Fri 3:12 AM Bend, Oregon, local.

UTC (GMT/Zulu)-time: Friday, December 21, 2012 at 11:12:00  UTC is Coordinated Universal Time, GMT is Greenwich Mean Time. It appeared to be a sign that the car shouldn’t be driven until the fateful minute of transition. If this car was out of sync with the universe everything might go some different way from what it otherwise might have gone.

Back when the Mayan calendar transitioned from the 11th baktun to the 12th, Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico and it was the beginning of the collapse of the two major New World civilizations, first the conquest of Mexico and the Aztec by  Cortez and a few years later the conquest of the Inca by his cousin Francisco Pizarro. At present there doesn’t seem to be any great civilization about to arrive and destroy us in the next few days, but that’s just what the Aztecs would have said, even though they were worried because of their calendar shift. We are worried in a similar way, in that it doesn’t make logical sense to be worried because everything is as normal as it ever is, but many are worried all the same.

I am not much concerned about these things, but I do think it is cool that my car is perched on its great odometer flip at the same time as this other momentous measurement rollover non-event is happening. As an added spice to this event, tonight is my third visit to the Triage Improv group, and the word triage means (1. A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment. Triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites when limited medical resources must be allocated. 2. A system used to allocate a scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it. – TheFreeDictionary.com) They let me play with them during their practice meeting, which I hope they will do again. The meeting place is only a twenty minute walk from my house. To leave my car in the garage, and walk will to the practice session will mean it will be saved for nearer to the baktun event.

This is all so appropriate because it is all such a comic farce.

Baktun turnover minus 8 hours. Odometer 100,000 miles and gas $3.09