On a Lighter Note

Lighthearted Posts

Freaky Friday

~ Ron Walker ~ 2 Comments

We all know how dumbed down the Weather Reporters are now always deferring to “Computer Models” to predict. We could spend hours beating that dead horse but we won’t. Last night was supposed to be a severe Winter Storm so the Governor declared an emergency. Schools closed, businesses did not open. It was supposed to arrive around 11pm to 1am. When I went to bed at 1am it was still 48F outside! A bit warm for a major Winter storm.

I got up this morning to a decent 38F no snow, no ice, no sleet. Only 2 One-hundredths of an inch of rain. Now they decided they were wrong and it will be here tonight around the same time. The rain has started and the temp is dropping slowly. It has held at 34F now for about 4 hours.

I suppose it will get here when it gets here. Temp for tonight expected to be 23F so maybe we will see some sleet or a flurry or two late.

 

“A Hard Day” is relative.

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

Ever think about how hard your day is going. I was having one such day about two months ago when I noticed at the back of our lot in the ‘neutral zone” outside our fence the local helper cleaning out the septic tank. Or what our landlord of the trailer park calls his version of cleaning it out. He has this poor fellow scrape just enough off the top to allow it to function another year.

No gloves, no face mask and getting paid a whopping $60 to use a pick and shovel and crowbar to dig up the lid by himself and shovel poop off the top into the back of the Trailer Park pickup truck to be hauled off to who knows where and dumped. The poor guy shovels, shudders, stifles back throwing up and jerks uncontrollably from the smell (frame stutter is from the webcam) and digs some more as I watch. I kept waiting for the cigarette he was smoking to set off drifting methane gas but it didn’t happen thank goodness. Imagine where all that gunk would have gone!

It must take a special kind of cheap to enlist another human being to do such a thing to save money on a real septic cleaning service.

So on your next “Hard Day” drop back by here and check him out. You just might get a new perspective.

Comments welcome,

Grown up to childlike in 0.75 seconds… Go!

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

Okay, so I’m bored at times while I sit here in the Forum Office and just think. Michelle says I’m dangerous when I think and that I shouldn’t do it too often. She sometimes sneaks up and closes the office door lest I share some of my crazy brain concoctions with her or the Dog.

I fill the silence of the day with a radio scanner. I have it set to listen to the law-scanerenforcement contingent in the area, and the FRS (Family Radio Service). You know, those cute little radios you can buy at Wal-Mart and other places to communicate to one another while on trips or at the Mall with the kids etc. It seems that the Dollar General about 2 hundred yards down the road uses them for the employees. The school about 100 yards in the other direction use them.

If you ever want to witness grown adults going from adulthood to childhood in about 0.75 seconds, which is the average reaction time from deciding on an action (pressing the talk button) and execution, listen to the FRS radio frequency in your area. Teachers, employees get goofy when they think they have a toy and no one hears them.
redneckfireworksThe best one is apparently the Power Plant some 3 miles away as the crow flies. Now if it went “boom” it is said it could wipe out a good chunk of real estate around it.

Imagine the scary chuckle I hear when someone says, “Hey Joe, I just checked this thing-a-muh-jig with the pressure reading and It looks high but I don’t understand it so you need to check it.” Or, “Hey, I need someone down here to look at this valve that seems to be spraying some caustic type of fluid.”  Of course some of the Dollar General radio conversations are quite funny also.

Nothing like cheap entertainment. Comments welcome.

 

Large Whoopee Cushions on Wheels (Jake Brakes)

~ Ron Walker ~ 2 Comments

If it isn’t the loud jacked up trucks with Earth Mover Tires, then we get lambasted by the Pulp Wooder 18 wheel Trucks that slowly drive down the highway out front holding their “Jake Brake” Open. The item is an addition to the engine to assist it is slowing on steep grades by allowing the compression stroke of the Diesel to be vented straight to the outside air. This can result in a loud “blatting” or machine gun noise depending on speed. It also sounds like what a super massive Whoopee Cushion might sound like in slow motion.

For some perverse reason these pulp wood truck jockeys take pleasure in going byimages-4 slowly past the park and holding the device open. They are on a level grade and they keep it in a high gear and low-speed to keep the sound going as long as possible. There is absolutely no reason to cause the noise other than “look at me” factor. Of course when you look at them they usually have bald tires and ropes or cables hanging mysteriously from the truck.

Some municipalities and rural areas post signs forbidding the use of them in the area. I think they should give a hefty fine for using them when they are not needed, much like laying down on the horn as you drive along.

Comments welcome.