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Monday, May 25, 2015

A Tricky Mind

A wasted mind is a terrible thing. Or something like that. Sometimes I wonder how mine works and every once in a while it will do something quite revealing, although like some avant-garde thing no one knows what it means. Including me.

I was up to my eyeballs in work at the office trying not to fall farther behind. It is often my job to stop whatever I am doing and help the people who walk in off the street. So this one guy comes in and I notice this "thing" in his ear and think, "My god that's a big hearing aid!" Of course I remember seeing them in airports when I travel, but they look uncomfortable and totally silly in an area like this where cell phone reception is iffy on a good day. Or if you are hiking in the woods and a spruce branch knocks it out of your ear. It does keep any biting insects out of that ear.
I wanted to talk louder to be sure he could hear me through his "good" ear. He was obviously in a hurry and the kind of person who couldn't stand to be out of touch with whoever was on the other end of that thing. Many people come to this area to escape all that kind of pressure and sensory assault. With spring bird migration and especially bears coming out of hibernation you would think he would want all his senses to be fully functioning. Somehow I doubt if he spends much time outdoors, though.



I had yet another misfiling episode at work. Sometimes I don't get around to filing everything I am supposed to because several other things come up and I forget until later. Or I get through the pile far enough to say to myself, "Hey! I better get this thing filed!"  So the boss was looking for something in the file I had ordered for a guy named Dave Burns. (Not his real name, but the same initials.) Boss says, "Did you file an order for Dave Burns?" It was last week so I said, "I think so, but I will print up a new one from the numbers on the purchase order," which I did. A few minutes later the boss says, "I found that order under "C". I said, "Well, I must have averaged his first and last initials and compromised by putting it in C."   It seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time. Now we know where else to look next time.

In other exciting news I decided to play "appliance repairman"  yesterday. The dryer hasn't been drying very thoroughly as of late and we were trying to figure out what to do. Last weekend we took the dryer apart to clean out the lint and see if there were any blockages.  I did watch the obligatory YouTube video of how to first so as to lessen any possible damage I might do. So after 8 or 9 years there was a bit of lint on the inside. Not enough to replace all those socks that disappeared, though.
  After reassembly I realized that it was still doing the same thing so I ordered a heating element. Yesterday's project (one of) was replacing the heating element. I am currently doing laundry as I write this (my version of multitasking) and will find out if it worked. So far I do not smell any smoke. Oh! I forgot to tell you there was a bonus. Stitch (alias the one armed bandit with her arm in a cast) and I found nearly a dollar in loose change in the bottom of the dryer when it was all apart!  We look like this now.

Life is good! Albeit mundane.
   

21 comments:

  1. No dryers in Ukraine but in Canada, I got pretty good at tearing the back off to rescue stuff or repair stuff. Lint by the bucket and even the odd sock. Problem was a bad seal at the back and of course drive belts

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  2. What is it with people who cannot disconnect from electronic communication during their trips to town?

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  3. Mundane is good. Sometimes very good. The purportedly Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times' has always struck me as vicious.

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  4. I like tinkering with appliances and see if I can fix them...

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  5. Not to worry about your filing logic. A friend of mine was looking for Joe Blow's address in her mother's address book and couldn't find it under the "J's" or the "B's." Her mother told her it was under "U" - for "Uncle Joe."

    My dryer is about the same age as yours and doesn't dry that well any more, either. It's not lint - I've checked and cleaned. If you come to Florida, would you mind replacing the heating element in exchange for some cookies?

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  6. BF, amazingly it isn't rocket science OR a mystery! Cool, eh?

    vanilla, it keeps me wondering.

    EC, at least nothing horribly dangerous happened (to me) this week. I'm happy about that.

    JACKIESUE, it is amazing what you can do if you just give it a try.

    PP, glad you have a good filing system, too! I will ALWAYS work for cookies. I am total cookie slut.

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  7. So, an evening on the town with Ms. Canada and Ms.Argentina is mundane....how far from the pack have I strayed...?

    Cheers, Pal.
    Mike

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  8. My office is a wreck, but after reading this, I'm going to begin telling me that whatever they're looking for is filed under M 1/2, which would be the average of A and Z.

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  9. At least it wasn't in the "circular file".

    Hope your dryer works now. Maybe your socks will show up when the washer goes on the fritz.

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  10. Congratulations on the change, and don't you feel good when you repair something?

    Love,
    Janie

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  11. A whole dollar! Don't spend it all in one place!

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  12. Should Fish More, You'd be surprised at how many adoring fans you can have from doing simple things!

    Katy,I think it's a good business strategy.

    jenny_o, the circular file has more accurate filing. Everything in there deserves to be.

    Janie J, I had a celebratory beer or two and strutted a bit.

    Debra SWS, If I keep this up someday I might be a hundredaire!

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  13. Did you figure out the mystery of the missing socks? What ever happens to the mates? I always feel so bad for them. They have a perfectly fine life together, go for a bath, and then poof, one goes MIA.

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  14. A bit of trivia. Gordon Jump, who played the Maytag Repairman, lived a couple of blocks away from us when I was growing up. He was an excellent character actor who kept getting work throughout his career. But, because he was a Mormon, he refused to do beer commercials. Lucky for him, posing with beauty queens was ok. :)

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  15. Well done with the dryer! Watch out for those older machines, though - ours didn't have a thermal cutoff. The drive belt broke and the drum stopped turning, but the fan and heating element didn't cut out. Fortunately I was home and noticed the lack of tumbling noise and the odour of scorched socks. If I'd been away it probably would have burned down the house. I replaced the drive belt and the teflon bushings, but I never ran it again unless I was around to supervise.

    You're right, though, repairing appliances does feel good - I think we should both have a celebratory beer! ;-)

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  16. JKIRF, It is one of life's mysteries that may never be soled.

    Donna, Cool! Maybe his WKRP character was a lot like him in real life. I wonder if he tried to marry Lonnie Anderson?

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  17. Diane, Mine has thermal protection, but as a rule I never leave the premises when it is running. Anytime I need to take a break and have a beer I just tell everyone I am drying clothes and can't leave. Good idea, eh?

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  18. I thought that ear thingy was a punishment for people who slacked on the job, sort of like an ankle monitor but one where they are forced to listen in on work meetings that are so boring and non-substantive, it would make a normal person want to slit her wrists. (Yes, I am speaking from experience.)

    Congrats on finding a whole dollar! Maybe that's God's way of telling you to ditch the metal detector and start fixing appliances …?

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  19. AT, when people are walking down the street yammering to themselves I figure they are wearing one of those things. Or not. So far with the detector I have found 18 cents. It'll take a while to pay it off.

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  20. Did you find any of my missing pink socks, Jono? Looks like the Miss something on the right might have some more change in her cleavage. ;-)

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  21. Robyn, Sorry, no socks. :( I'm pretty sure I checked her cleavage first for, umm, loose change.

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