Coping: With Tribulation Weekend

Yeah, I know:  No war with the NORK’s yet, no trumpets sounding from on-high.  And no, none of our friends are missing, either.

Still, for a Tribulation, I’m pretty things are bound to get worse.  Just give it a little more time.  You can’t shove 7-billion onto a rock designed for 250-500 million and not have a little shoving and cutting in line, and so forth.  Toss in nuclear warheads, and it’s clear what the outcome will be, just not when.

Saturday, though, started off as a dead-ringer for the real deal.

(Continues below)

Tribulation here started with the internet going down Friday, but maybe the Almighty pays attention to the International Date Line.

At any rate, the Internet came up and I heard from the local [alleged] phone company (Century Lag) that a new tech had come in and gone through the local central office “setting everything by the book.”

A couple of old telco/IBEW hands, who were here when we moved in (2003) explained to me that all they had to do was “turn up the levels” and everything works fine, again.

Proof again, by the way, that NOTHING in the book is ever right.  This is a point men are constantly explaining to women; the utter foolishness of “reading manuals” or seeking “directions.”

The next thing to go wrong was Peoplenomics had a server glitch Saturday morning.  Since we pride ourselves on high reliability access to our reports, this was the first bump in the blood pressure on the “official” first day of Trib.

Again, it was a problem easily fixed by our hosting service – and presto, the PN report was being served up with a little more than an hour’s delay.  For that I apologize, but not our doing.

Just as the last of the server chores were done (back-up of the back-ups of the back-ups) Elaine came over to the office to announce we had no water pressure.

On the line to the local rural water outfit second later and wouldn’t you know?  “Hi Mr. Ure…yes, we had a break in a line and we have a crew out there fixing it…should be back up in a couple of hours.”

It was.

But, of course, when the water goes out, we have to turn off the hot water heaters.  Big house and guest quarters off the shop.  The latter is easy (it’s own breaker and GFIs).  For a really good time, try being a couple of pensioners on Social Security trying to find just the right magnifying glass to read the incredibly faint lettering WH in the breaker box

With that project out of the way, I set about opening up a new piece of test gear that arrived from Amazon.

Some women collection shoes.  I have a sister who at one time could have given Imelda Marcos a run for it.  Men, on the other hand, at tool sluts.  Unless they have the “double curse” of also collecting Test Equipment.

Here comes the next little Trib treat:  I powered up the unit and absent-mindedly hit “Menu.”

Bad move.

What I didn’t know, since men don’t read manuals (I did mention that, right?) is that the first time the unit is powered up, it SETS THE DEFAULT LANGUAGE.

Which, since it was a Trib Treat defaulted to Chinese.

That led to reading the manual.  Which would have been fine, but I did mention the pensioner’s magnifier adventuress?  I found the one again that was able to make our “Water Heater” in the breaker box…figured it would work on a test equipment manual.  (Elaine made me sign a tool chit for it.)

It did!

Unfortunately, there was NOTHING in the manual to explain:

“If you are idiotic American fool, and you can’t read Chinese in all your ignorance, you must turn on the power while holding down the Right Arrow button.  You are stupid to be in this position.  We are superior…”  (I picture the old guy in the movie Remo Williams saying this. Hmmm…Korean, wasn’t he?)

No “reset language” detail in the manual.  So it took me about 15-minutes of jerk-around time figuring every gawd-awful button press combo I could until the right combination unlocked the language screen.

By now it was noon and my luck started to change.

The mailman brought me the first of three Home Workshop Solutions that were ordered last week.

Did you know that for a few bucks. you can order brand new spray can nozzles?  I am the proud owner of 30 of them.

There are male and female spray can nozzles (*if you didn’t know).  I hadn’t thought about gender-checking my paint rack, but it was a novel idea.  I may have to put in male and female paint racks now.  Maybe an “either” rack, too.  I can put the air-powered air-brushing gear there.

One last gem still to show up? (After the male and female paint can tips…) Those “straws” that go on nozzle for things like gun oil, contact cleaner, computer duster cans, WD-40, BoeShield T-9, Silicone spray and on….and on…

Got 30 of those straws landing this week.

By Sunday, we’d shaken off the Tribulation Warm-p from Saturday.  Whether coincidence, or it being Sunday, isn’t clear.

Be a sport.  Buy your spouse a KKmoon 40MHz Function Signal Generator Dual-channel DDS Arbitrary Waveform Pulse Signal Generator 1Hz-100MHz Frequency Meter. Only $140 bucks.

But, project after project got done.  OM2’s son was over helping.  The outbuilding (stored food, freezer, dozens of ham radios and antenna projects) finally got its long-overdue snow-coating on the roof.

A place along the ground on the outside of the guest quarters that had wood (treated) in contact with the ground, was replaced with cementitious board, ALL of the wood previously stacked at random is now organized by size and type.

A new rack to put rebar and plastic pipe on was built, the pick-up was loaded with the old water heaters since I never did come up with a useful way to recycle them into something we don’t already have two (or three) of.

In all, while there were a few bumps at the outset, if this is as bad at the Tribulation is going to be, I might last for the Big Show at the End.  If I don’t wake me up.

Me-Me’s Kill Pro Sports – Thanks!

Unless and until Major League Baseball suspends players who don’t stand for the National Anthem, baseball is on my sports boycott list.

This leaves NASCAR, female mud wrestling, and PRCA Rodeo.

Unfortunately, what pro sports hasn’t realized is that one of its core values (in marketing, their unique selling proposition) has previously been how inclusionary sports has been.

Gay people got to play football, blacks, Latinos…everyone was doing fine. It was the American game.  Teamwork.

Now, thanks to some spoil sports, both Football and Baseball, have been hornswoggled by the “social just us weirdos” into removing the word “team” from “team sports.”

Damn shame.

Thankfully, if we aren’t going to have “team sports” anymore – thanks to the kneelers – that means we can move on as a nation to the important personal sports.

Power-lifting and golf come to mind.  So does fishing.

The best news about the social just-us warriors blowing up pro sports, is they will give millions of American men a lot of free time on weekends.

With which, we assume, they will spend a greater part of time now working with their hands (opening beer doesn’t count as a craft, unless it’s home brewed).

As the major league sports sag, I look for a blizzard of home remodels and updates to be done.

If baseball follows football into the SJW/no-longer a Team Sport sewer, I figure stock in Lowes and Home Despots stock might be worth another look.

Write when you get rich,

George@ure.net