humor

OMG! Someone, actually buys this stuff.

~ Ron Walker ~ 22 Comments

I hope I don’t offend anyone that subscribes to these theories I am criticizing. I was researching another subject regarding wireless connectivity. Also, Michelle had stepped into the man-cave/office the other day and commented it looking like NASA, and I should glow in the dark.

I stay in my little world of computers and gadgets, Apparently I have  not raised my head up in a long time. I knew the world was getting strange, but the degree of audacity, and lack of caring of our fellow man astounds me.

A dozen other generic symptoms

I remember many years ago, seeing a documentary of a gentleman that had moved to the desert into a cave. He wanted to escape Electromagnetic Radiation, being given off by power grids, TV/Radio towers etc. He claimed that the radiation caused all kinds of symptoms affecting his health. His affliction, if you can call it that, over the years has gained momentum beyond imagination.  I have learned that several countries (not the US thank goodness) now give disability for the new term, EHS (“electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome”). So now if you itch, have headaches, nausea, blurred vision, bad concentration, memory lapses, rash, tingling, numbness, lack of coordination, no sex drive, frequent urination, and about a dozen other generic symptoms that are repeated in a pharmacy commercial, you might qualify for disability from an affliction that has not had any solid scientific proof.

Market based on fear

I wonder at what point will insurance be forced to pay for items, that the afflicted say works to ease their symptoms. Hey, I never thought it would get this far, but a whole market has grown based on fear. You  know, we used to laugh people out of town that sold things that they know don’t work. 20 years ago it was frowned on to take advantage of people’s fears, offering crazy potions to cure everything. Today? Anything is fair game for a dollar.

We men that may develop a concern for electromagnetic fields while blogging, can check out the cute boxers for men. Only $89 a pair! at Amazon (free shipping with Prime). Personally, I’ll take my chances with the EMF. I don’t want to forget and wear silver threaded undies out in a thunderstorm. Also, explaining to the friendly security at the airport, that your briefs are 42% silver. 

Or, for ladies and men, the hoodie that blocks what one site says is 99% of negative EMF. Unless of course the radio waves notice your exposed face, hands, or your cell phone in your hand, or you make that call or text, whoops! At $179.99 and free shipping they urge you to order, there were only 17 left at the time of this post.

EMF Protection


Imagine showing up to work, or your next office party in this pacemaker protection gear. Yes, they are quite serious. I would love to read the warning label on this one. I hope it recommends mentions not wearing it outside during lightning storms. Seriously, you have to be really scared of your cell phone to don this outfit.

If it lasts more than 4 hours

Or perhaps the “Grounding Strap” comes with a 12-foot cord so you can clip it to your garment. Plug it into a wall socket and use the buildings electrical ground connection  to drain away harmful EMF. Sorry, but I have seen what happens to electrical components, and some people when a ground went bad in a building. With that connected to your shorts… It may be one of those “If it lasts more than 4 hours, seek medical attention” moments.

Comments always welcome.

The Trailerhood, is waking up.

~ Ron Walker ~ 12 Comments

It has been so quiet around here, that I had to take a walk around the area to make sure they hadn’t turned it into a cemetery, and neglected to tell me. That was two weeks ago.

A new Genius on the block

It seems like the walk I took, woke up some long dead spirits, and they have possessed some trailerhood denizens. Right after that walk, I noticed a new trailer being pulled in. In about an hour, there was a call to the county to send a deputy out to a disturbance. You guessed it, the new tenants were already fighting. County arrived and took the male person of the family unit to the jailhouse for assaulting the female person of the new family unit, in front of the Deputies! Now that is true genius I tell you.

If you can’t take it home, better leave it alone.

It just seems to have  come to life around here. There is a guy that lives about 2 houses up from the park, that walks down this way to the mailboxes chatting on his phone. More than likely that will erupt if and when it turns out he’s chatting to someone he shouldn’t be, necessitating having to walk away from the house to not be heard. 

Thou Shalt Not…  Whatever.

Last Sunday, I’m out front vacuuming the car out. I hear a vehicle braking hard and a door slam. Very loud voices and cursing. I look two doors down, and It seems the preacher from a nearby church, came to voice his displeasure to a member that called him out in front of members, for not paying him for work to the church.  They were both screaming at one another, and one or both were cursing. I thought it would come to blows, all in front of what looked to be a tiny 3 or 4 year old little girl, watching the whole thing. They finally separated and it was over.

If I had a Dollar for every time.

Yesterday, I heard loud voices shouting outside my room. I look out to see a black-male following a white female gesturing to her. He stopped at the mail boxes, got out and opened the passenger door, and told her to get in gesturing angrily and shouting. She refused, and starting walking back towards my direction. I grabbed my cell phone in case it got too bad. I caught him driving in a hurry past her (back home I guess) and she was walking back the same direction. As they say, If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen this around here.

Sunday morning Drunks.

Annabelle, Michelle’s Service Dog, awakened me around 4:30am. So I got up to check the house. Out front near the edge of our yard was a pickup truck  sitting there with its lights on shining into our yard.

My first thought, someone breaking into something, but what idiot, would park their vehicle with their lights shining into the windows of the residence. Then I remembered the genius mentioned above, so I decided to let the dogs out to check the back yard for me, while I checked our vehicle.

I waited about 15 minutes to see if there would be anyone around it. I was picking up the phone to call the county when I heard the engine roar, a thump, and in a moment the sound of squealing tires as it entered the highway. Apparently the person was intoxicated, had pulled off the road to get their bearings. When I stopped watching from the dark, and turned on the office light, they spooked. Instead of backing up, they drove forward. They had failed to note the large railroad timbers laying on the ground in front of them and drove over them. Navigated through our yard, missing our vehicle by about 4 inches maybe.

I ran outside and saw the pickup going down the highway. I checked and the car was not damaged, so they missed. Drunks are lucky that way.

Came over the timbers and bricks

Not sure how he missed, it must have been a fluke, the tires tracks are so close, you would have thought the body of the truck would have extended out far enough to hit the car.

Already a fight this morning in the park, I can’t wait to see what happens next. It’s not even a full moon!

Our last bit of news! Cold weather coming, we are bracing for a bout of Bird Flu in the Park.

Comments always welcome,

Finally Friday! Recap of the Week.

~ Ron Walker ~ 10 Comments

After Tuesday night’s adventure with the spiders, I just wanted a quiet day Wednesday.

That was not to be. First thing Wednesday morning, an alert revealed the 500GB secondary hard drive was dying. I had been expecting the failure for a while. You don’t trust a drive with important data that is 6+ years old, it was used mostly for temporary files while working on videos. It had just started having some minor issues. So, a cursory check with the smart-drive software revealed the main 1 TB drive, that came with the computer 6 years ago, was showing “pre-fail” for three statistics. It too is beyond safe life limit. So I need to give up, and replace the two drives. Actually, I just need to plug up a whole new computer to the monitor. 

screaming noises

Sitting there pondering crawling under the desk and removing the drive, the office light decided to turn on by itself. I looked at the switch, and it was in the off position. After about 10 seconds, the light went back off. This occurred twice while I watched it. Wonderful! That indicates a short, which could cause an arc, which could cause a fire, you get the picture. I hate working on house wiring, I always get shocked somehow. I can work on most things, but I have a mental block for house wiring. So I spent the morning checking YouTube videos. Had it been a simple switch circuit no problem. But no, it wasn’t. When I cut the power to the room, the small UPS, which was purchase about 8 years ago, but tested fine a week ago when I moved the office around, decided to start making screaming noises, and beeps. The “replace battery” light was on. The buzzer/beeper sounded like someone had it by the throat. Still, not bad for a UPS with an 8-year-old battery, to have passed the battery self-test a week ago. I silence the alarms on both UPS units.

The light switch in the wall was shot, it was a shallow mobile home one piece unit. There were 4 spare new switches in my parts box, not a single wall box to mount the switch in. So, a trip to Walmart was in order.It’s starting to get quite hot in the office.double chirp starts on the large UPS… Getting back home, the new switch box was too big, so I enlarged the hole with the jigsaw. Once I tried to install it, there was a 2X4 wall stud behind it liking only another 1/8 inch to fit flush.

So I started a new area to mount it in (at least I was working with thin paneling). Halfway into cutting out the new hole, the jigsaw decided this was its final day, I finished the hole with a pocket knife. While attaching the wires, firmly I might add, the screw driver slipped, and I stabbed a nice star (Phillips head) shape in my left hand. Michelle patched me up.

double chirp starts on the large UPS…

Time to restore power to the office. The smaller UPS resumes its weird gurgled scream when I turned it on, then silence. No power on the UPS side (battery) so I transfer the plugs to the always-on side. The larger UPS comes on fine. All three computers and other items for the internet come on okay. I’m 20 minutes into working on a program, and a double chirp starts on the large UPS… Early warning that the battery probably has 2 weeks of life left. At least it’s Friday!

Comments welcome,

DIY at-home cardio stress test.

~ Ron Walker ~ 15 Comments

It’s just before sundown Tuesday evening. I need to mow the lawn here in the Trailerhood. Takes under 30 minutes.

Mowing chore is done, daylight fading, but you can still see without needing a flashlight. While taking the mower back to the large storage building which sits at an angle to the trailer, there is an area about 6 feet across to pass through. I’m exhausted at this point after swimming through the humidity mowing the lawn.

In that nano second

Passing through the area going to the storage, pushing the mower that is not negotiating the loose dirt well, I am caught in a few stands of web. In that nano second, the brain registers that it is now getting dusk, all the spiders are setting up webs for the night. That thought precipitated me nearly breaking my neck trying to run over the mower which is bogging in the loose dirt, pushing it and flailing my arms in horror. I have a really powerful dislike of Spiders.

The one I killed. Quarter in bottom of picture  for reference.

It’s a horror show! Turning around there are 3 large spiders at varying levels of height, first one starting about 6 feet up.  Apparently I walked through the angled lower anchor strand, that ran from the house to the storage building of this hideous spider. Luckily I happened into the web as he was ending a trip to the edge of the house, at about 3 feet off the ground. Look at it! Are those muscles? I thought I would have to change an article of clothing.

They drowned, or I bored them to death

I knew if I walked back that way, one of them might decide to drop on me, precipitating the coronary that I had just miraculously avoided moments ago.  After securing the mower in the storage, and arming myself with a stick, and made a dash through the same spot. Returning with some insecticide that was about 4+ years old. I sprayed the remaining 4 large spiders, using a spray bottle with a stream for distance. It killed two of the four, but not sure if they drowned, or I bored them to death.

Here are the others, I had to look them up for pictures since they were too high for the phone to get a good detailed picture. Yea, spiders are my Kryptonite.

  • It’s a bad boy when it can zig-zag double stitch.
  • Just damn ugly…
  • Watermelon with legs?

On the plus side, the scheduled stress test copay of $45 can be saved. 30 minutes of mowing grass with a non-self-propelled mower, in humidity you could cut with a knife, and getting the life scared out of me didn’t trip the circuit breaker of my ticker, it shouldn’t while walking on a treadmill. Sorry, Doc.

Comments welcome,

(softly please I’m still a tad jumpy.)