peaches and cream and oatmeal

and raisins and brown sugar and cinnamon and salt and butter.

1/4 cup dry steel cut rolled oats such as you buy that cooks in three minutes, smashed and chopped up, is not quite enough oatmeal for breakfast while 1/2 cup of that stuff is slightly too much. So far as measurements go, what is the best amount of oats to start out with? It will be halfway between those two. Maths!

1/4 is too little and 2/4 is too much so the perfect amount is 1.5/4, one fourth plus 1/8 is 3/8.

3/8 cup dry oats is the perfect amount.  And 6/8 cup water is perfect for firm pile. 

I got my brother laughing about fractions. I told him I didn't learn much from Dad working on cars together. He'd study in silence and allow no interruption, or he'd teach like a professor above the head of a 1st grader, and I was relegated to mere silent factotum. "Hand me a rag." Then, "A BETTER RAG!" Or,  "A FASTER RAG."

 "Hand me the adjustable pliers," I'd hand him a wrench, "Hand me the socket wrench," I'd hand him a torque wrench, "Hand me the air pressure gauge," I'd hand him a steam valve, "Hand me the fan belt," I'd hand him an alternator belt, "Hand me the valve gasket," I'd hand the spark plug gauge."  I could never find the number he called out, "Hand me the 7/13 socket or hand the 3/14 screwdriver or hand me the 8/17 nut." That's where James lost it because he was actually visualizing all this nonsense and those numbers don't exist in tools not even in metric. James suffered the same indignities, worse, both brothers did, but they managed it all better than I.