Do you measure up?

Lately I've been finding myself measuring things in odd ways.

How do I measure the technical difficulty of a single track? When mountain biking this season I've been counting the number of bike bits that have fallen off other people's bikes on the trail. Lots of debris, and I know its a hard trail. "Yeah, nice woods, but the 8 miler was a 6-reflector loop!" (I've also encountered a pedal, a fender, and several t-shirts on the trails)

How do I know that it has been an unusually cool summer? Well, one bag of ice from Friday night lasted in the cheap cooler for an entire weekend of camping.

How do I know we are in the depths of summer? I haven't worn my hair down for over a month.