humor

Cell Phones make them Stupid

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

You see them everywhere phone in hand walking, driving, standing in line. The obsession with communication (Social Media in particular) has become an addiction. There are those that can’t seem to put down their phones until they go to bed at night, many of them have been known to wake and check the phone for a new Facebook or Tweet about something they are following. You can’t get them up via an alarm clock for work or school, but they come alive at the sound of a text alert. Maybe I should develop an alarm with media alert sounds.

Most mornings I watch as a mother of two kids about 7 or 8 years old walks to the School Bus Stop with them. The kids are way ahead of her and she is leisurely strolling along immersed in her phone at 7am in the morning her fingers working rapidly. It looks rather comical with the phone a mere 8-10 inches from her nose, apparently she doesn’t see too well. The kids meanwhile are left to their own near the busy roadway.

Young and older Millennial adults go to visit someone or eat in a restaurant and spend more time looking at a phone than they do their friends, spouse or kids. Some no matter what they are doing will stop and run to the phone if they hear an alert chime. It’s almost as if they think the message will disappear before they can read it never to be seen again. It’s sad really.

I need to go as it’s time for the School Bus and I might just get a laugh if that Mother walks into something while texting. Failing that I think I’ll just look up some videos of idiots walking into water fountains.

Comments (no texts please) welcome,

Washing Machine Of Nightmares

~ Ron Walker ~ 4 Comments

Tonight started off pretty good, I watched some news and just relaxed on the couch. Then something possessed me to be productive while the Wife was out with the Daughter. I retrieved a load of dirty clothes from the closet and made my way to the Wash Room. En-route I remembered the last week of battling with the Washer from Hell.

The main bearing on the drum (top load) is about gone. In the spin cycle it sounds like a fighter jet on a Carrier revving for take off. Reminds me of the urinal in some restrooms that should have a warning to wear hearing protection when flushing them.

The thing had already bestowed upon me a flood of water in the washroom last week when the level sensor lost it’s mind, over-filling the wash tub and dumped the excess water out the overflow pipe, which just so happens to go nowhere but in the bottom pan of the washer. That’s some real engineering. I started to stop by the storeroom and don a life jacket, but figured I would be on the couch during the wash cycle and it couldn’t hurt me there. There have been instances where washers disintegrated catastrophically when the drums failed in the spin cycle.

Washer disintegrates

As it turns out, I have a load of very clean clothes, because the monster decided it would not spin them out without trying 3 spin cycles. Then I had to feed the thing 3 items at the time to get the spin going, since it has a “brain” and detects unbalance or too much drag on the drum (due to the worn bearing) and activates the brakes on the tub. So a 30-min wash has taken 3 hours and I think I’m deaf on one side now. I know my nerves are shot. I’m going to replace that thing with something a bit more docile and QUIET!!

Time to rest now, as I feel like I washed a large load of clothes down by a creek on a rock somewhere.

Comments welcome,

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.

 

Messy Start to a New Year

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

Well, 2017 is here as off yesterday and this is the first weekday of the new year. It has rained for the last 3 days. This is December but it is 65F and has been for the last 3 days. Thunder and lightning outside at the moment with rain pouring down. It’s a messy way to start a new year.

Power is coming and going and the UPS’s are keeping things running smoothly here in the Depot Forum office. As long as no tornadoes show up we will be good to go.

Rain is coming down now at 1.93 inches per hour. Let’s hope it stops after this hour or I’ll need to dig out the plans for the Ark.

Scanner reports a vehicle wreck out on the Interstate about even with us. They say the vehicle is off and in the trees. Someone going too fast for the conditions. We always said that this area was a place of “Instant Idiots, just add water”.