The mystery of the powder on the scale

Yesterday morning I got up and, as I always do, stepped on the Garmin scale in the bathroom to weigh myself. Except before stepping onto the scale, I stopped, because there was some kind of coarse powder sprayed on it. Alas, I did not take a photograph, which will become more relevant in a moment. I did, however, put together this simulation of the scene in Affinity Designer:

Because I had just woken up, and my brain was operating at like 15% capacity, my priority was to clean this stuff off the scale, weigh myself, then get on with the day. I figured Jeff would have an explanation for the powder.

He did not, as it turns out, and this is where I wish I’d taken a photo, because while my depiction above is pretty close to what I saw, a photo, examined all zoomed-in, might better reveal what exactly this stuff was.

With neither myself nor Jeff laying claim to having caused the powder to land on the scale (I wiped the floor around the scale, but it did not seem like much of this stuff landed there), the obvious questions arose:

  • How did this powder end up on the scale?
  • What exactly was it?

The answer to both questions: I don’t know!

There is no apparent source for the powder. There is nothing like it in the bathroom, or anywhere else in the condo. It did not fall from the ceiling or come off the walls. It was not tracked in. It seemingly just appeared during the night and was there when I went into the bathroom early yesterday morning.

It did not return this morning, which is good, but does not lessen the general freakiness of its appearance.

If it’s an omen, I have no idea what it would mean. Clean more often? I mean, that’s always good advice.

I will update this post if more mysterious powder appears.

The mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge

The piece linked below is a very long, exhaustive blog report on why a certain pedestrian bridge exists on I-494 in Minnesota. That might not sound like a subject worthy of a lengthy investigation, but author Tyler Vigen goes on a nerdy, obsessive hunt to figure out why a pedestrian bridge that doesn’t seem to really connect to anything came to be.

Stick around till the end. It’s not exactly a twist, but it is satisfying. This is why blogs are still such a great resource.

The Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge