I’m bored like so many Americans that are shut in during this virus lockdown. So I entertain myself playing on the computer, listening to a radio scanner, and anything else that might distract me. Of course, it doesn’t help that I have the attention span of a gnat these days.
The scanner is dutifully moving through frequencies, occasionally stopping on an active one. This provides a bit of background noise/entertainment. Dollar General down the road, has employees that chatter on about mundane things, sometimes getting downright silly as adults. Then we have the daycare, located about 3 miles (4.83 km) down the highway. Frightening at times, to listen to those charged with taking care of toddlers and up, being as silly and immature as a junior high student. Flirting and joking as they make sure the kids get in the proper vehicles at the end of the day. Of course right now, due to the virus, they are not open. That might be a good thing.
“Hey, this thing-a-ma-bob”
However, we do have a large power plant about 4 miles (6.44 km) to the west of us. We were told at one point years ago, that if it exploded it would be equivalent to a small tactical nuclear device. This morning, while listening to the scanner, I hear one employee call another on the radio and inquire, “Hey, this thing-a-ma-bob you wanted me to check on down here, is showing in the red, and has a buzzer going off.”
Now, I can’t be sure, but it doesn’t sound like really skilled labor operating something that might be capable of mimicking a small tactical nuclear device, if it malfunctions. Anyway, is a thing-a-ma-bob possibly something I should be concerned about? Especially if it’s in the red and beeping?
I have just made it to Friday
It makes me wish I had a radio and shout back, “Hello, I am feeling sick, my right ear makes a sound when I hiccup, like a bumper on the old pin-ball machines. I have just made it to Friday, so please don’t blow me all to hell first thing this morning.
How is your Friday? Stay safe my friends.
Some things are best not heard. Yikes!
Amazing, the hiring process they apparently implement.
You can’t unhear those things!
Sometimes it’s scary. Other times it is entertaining to say the least.
Uh-oh, I will just bet you wish you had turned the scanner off before you heard about the thing-a-ma-bob. The Fermi II Power Plant is about 23 miles from me, but you can see it huffing and puffing on a clear day at least ten miles before you approach it. It doesn’t give me a lot of comfort either when they occasionally shut it down for a day or so as it’s gone offline … does it go offline on its own, or does someone see it limping along and reboots it? Our City sirens are only heard if there is no noise inside or outside the house … forget about hearing it on a Summer day between the motocycles and barking dogs!
My apologies, Linda. Sometimes for unknown reasons, comments get eaten by the spam filter. There seems to be no pattern to it. Other bloggers have encountered the mysterious spam gremlin.
Fortunately, we have a siren about 2 blocks away. I have seen storms around here, that smother even that loud siren.
All the power plants are getting long in the tooth, I hear of explosions at them from time to time in the news, along with some oil refineries. I think ours is fired by natural gas. So it will make a big boom.
No problem Ron. I know fellow blogger Anne Mehrling just told me several of my comments went to SPAM … I told her I said nothing SPAMMY! WP is fickle sometimes.
We have a chemical plant five miles away and periodically they do tests on their emergency equipment and you can hear the loudspeaker with voices saying “this is only a test” … BASF Chemical is five miles away.
I don’t worry about Fermi II as much as I worry about those natural gas explosions in houses every so often. Now that scares me when you see the aftermath and the house in bits and pieces all over the neighborhood – just like a tornado ripped through it.
Oops, I think I went to SPAM … I didn’t say anything that should have sent me there either!
Small wonder that most serious accidents are attributed to ‘human error’!
Stay safe, Ron.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Pete. It seems I’m somehow missing replies, I think it was during the flu bug I had, and I’ve just not caught up till rechecking things tonight.
Personally, I would never wanna hear “thing-a-ma-bob,” “red,” and “buzzer going off” all in the same sentence. ? How fast can you run?
I can run pretty fast, and if I fall on a downhill slope, I’m good to go!