Being a weirdo

You know what it's like when you find yourself really enjoying something you never imagined you'd like doing, and there's no explanation for it? That's what happened when I was doing that road survey when the car broke down. Maybe you thought I was joking about that, but no, I really was sitting beside the highway for hours and hours, counting vehicles as they drove past, and enjoying it. I've got no interest in cars or trucks or highways. Or counting. Or recording the counting. Or analysing the results. Or transport. Or anything else I can think of that might be related. But I had a great time. I don't even know how I came up with the idea in the first place. ("Hmm, why don't I count cars? Why, yes! That's a FINE idea!") It was all just too weird, so I'm inevitably led to conclude that yes, I Am A Weirdo. Hello :)

And now I've spent hours and HOURS trying to make a table to put the survey results in. Who knew it was so complicated to make a table, for heaven's sake? It's like building the wall of China or something. You need to write code for every single cell (unless there's some alternative method I don't know about yet). And because Blogger adds a space after the end of every line, you need to connect each piece of code into one unending line, which then becomes a big scary block of unreadable text.

I couldn't work out how to control the width of the columns (Blogger doesn't seem to recognise the table width tag, or the cellpadding/spacing ones either, unless I've just got that wrong too)(but I put them in anyway, in case)(and is it clear I don't know what I'm doing yet?). The thing is, it was fun. Not laugh-aloud fun, just quiet enjoyment. It was nice, and I like nice.

Anyway, here's the table, and no, I don't expect it will be of interest to anybody else, because it's not even of interest to me. That's the weirdest part. Highway use? Do I care?? NO!! But my weirdo self is proud of this table. It's a thing of beauty and a joy for whole minutes. And if your browser thinks otherwise, (a) I apologise, and (b) beg you to curse on my behalf.

I'm not glum any more, by the way. Weirdos have more fun :)

Road Use Survey

New England Highway, approx. 14km north of Guyra NSW, 02 January 2006

	North*				South*				Total
Time	#C	#4	#T	All	#C	#4	#T	All
0820				11				15	26
0830				7				6	13
0840				12				10	22
0850				16				8	24
0900				18				12	30
0910				19				11	30
0920				19				16	35
0930	10	7	2	19	7	11	1	19	38
0940	9	8	0	17	11	3	2	16	33
0950	15	5	1	21	20	4	1	25	46
#1
1010	13	4	0	17	8	1	2	11	28
1020	17	6	3	26	18	7	1	26	52
1030	18	9	0	27	6	3	2	11	38
1040	22	8	3	33	16	4	0	20	53
1050	30	9	1	40	13	1	1	15	55
1100	16	8	1	25	24	8	0	32	57
1110	15	7	0	22	9	4	1	14	36
#2
1200	27	5	1	33	24	11	2	37	70
1210	24	6	1	31	19	1	5	25	56
1220	15	9	4	28	10	5	0	15	43
1230	16	2	1	19	10	2	1	13	32
#3
1310	17	3	0	20	28	2	0	30	50
1320	17	8	1	26	17	3	0	20	46
1330	16	5	1	22	19	4	1	24	46
Totals	297	109	21		259	74	20
Totals				528				431	959

* Two northbound lanes/one southbound lane/three lanes in total.
#C Cars.
#4 Includes those big 4WD tank-like vehicles, utes and motorbikes.
#T Includes trucks, campervans, and all vehicles towing caravans or boats (those towing trailers are included in car or 4WD categories)
#1 A changeover in timekeepers, from M's watch to her mobile phone. There were discrepancies.
#2 Our handy mechanics (Dad and our uncle) arrived, so I took a break until it became obvious the thermostat was going to take a long time to remove (the bolts were stuck).
#3 Another break.