I do not normally read the USA Today paper but as I waited in line to pay for my coffee, I noticed the title story that was on the top fold. I was intrigued, I often ponder the usefulness and effectiveness of the so called “social network”. They seem so virtual that I regularly wonder what the purpose is. Just like the Wii, if I wanted to learn how to play golf - I would go get a set of clubs and go play golf. How important is, and can, a virtual relationship be, which is what they are, all of them – Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and the myriad others – Virtual reality. They do have huge benefits, I have reconnected with folks in the virtual world and then later through that connection hooked back up with them in real life. Marco R. della Cava wrote what I thought was a very good piece for the cover story in USA Today on the 10th of February that covered some of the concerns. Although I do not agree 100% with him, I do think he makes some very good points.
My initial interaction with the social networking started late in 2007 with my joining My Space, I created a home page, put up a couple of pictures, and then lived with the fear. The fear, that I did not have the time or inclination to decorate my page. Some of my very few friends had wildly elaborate pages that had scrolling pictures, played music, and were pieces of art, in my opinion. I on the other hand did not really want to spend my time sitting at the computer learning how to and then in turn creating a fancy home page that did all the cool things my friends pages would do. After that My Space page languished for a while, I just stopped doing anything with it. I was not about to let some virtual reality create anxiety and fear for me, no way. That is kind of how I felt at times, it was a weird feeling and I did not like it at all. I do not have that kind of anxiety in real relationships, why would a let a computer application run on a web site affect me. It turned me off to the whole social networking thing, I decided I would prefer real relationships over the virtual. I thought maybe it is my age but have decided nope – it was a conscience decision not to spend my time on the computer and spend it actually doing things.
It was not until early 2009 that I decided that I would try again, this time on Facebook. It was quite a bit different, there were not fancy pages to create, no feelings of inadequacy and no anxiety. I remember talking to a friend of mine and determining that it was a passively selective way to have a relationship. It came fast, I was soon up over 200 friends. I was not using any of the apps that were built into this program. No hugs, no flowers, no farm animals, no fish, no mafia wars and none of the other things people kept trying to get me to play. I wanted to use this new tool to reconnect with friends, I did not want it to take over my life with computer games. It did not take me long to realize that getting the most friends was not what I was looking for. That realization came with a post from a so-called friend that managed to disparage women and minorities in the same post. I remembered back in time and realized that I was only stationed with this dip shit and that I never really liked him, it was what I called a proximity relationship, those who were in the Military know what being stationed together means.
I liked it though, this new interface to the world. It emboldened me to seek out people from my past, I also learned people were looking for me. It was great, now with a manageable 100 friends I was really starting to enjoy getting on and checking in on what folks were doing. I met up with one woman in California that was actually looking for someone else but weirdly we became good friends. We did have some mutual friends so it was OK. I reconnected with all manner of folks from my past and I liked it. Shortly after I got on and started enjoying it, I started a blog, this one you are reading. I was not sure where it would go or how long it would last but here we a one year later and I am still babbling on about any number of topics. I have reconnected with Bride and I’s oldest friends, we all met in Annapolis Maryland when we were all four in the Navy. Well this led to that and we got married and so did they and then like every military posting, some got out, some transferred and we lost track of each other. We reconnected and they visited us on their Florida Vacation last week and we had a GREAT time. I do not plan on leaving Facebook, I will not allow it take over my life either.
The Article states that there are 400 million folks who have active accounts on Facebook, 400,000,000! That is a bunch of folks, more than the population of the United States by about 100 million people. That number is staggering and if you know anything about social networks and how they work, the whole 6 degrees of separation thing, the ramifications of it should be scary to you, they are to me. We can get in touch with anyone, anywhere. According to the article, just as the social networking train is gathering momentum some have decided to get off at the next stop. Some felt they were being harassed by strangers and that was the reason given for leaving the virtual world. My experience has been to dump those strangers from your friends list or better yet, do not friend people who are strangers in the first place. I had that problem when I first got on, as soon as I realized that I did not like that person in real life, they became erased from my virtual life. The article tells us that even the likes of Miley Cyrus has quit twitter, whoever she is. Seems the site was a distraction from her relationships. Hum….. virtual friendships not as good as the real thing. I agree!
I was interested to find that there are companies dedicated to erasing folks online identities. For a fee, these hucksters of the digital age will remove your virtual existence. Seems that some have put a bit too much information out there and are now worried about ensuring that it be properly erased. Having worked on computers for over 20 years and being an early adopter of the internet (AOL before they had version 2) I know that nothing is really ever erased. It may be hidden from your view and it may be hidden from many folks view but it is never gone. Even if you use the tools provided by the sites themselves, your business is out there – deal with it. I am careful about what I put online and I act the same in my virtual world as I do in my real world. Just like I would not let anything take over my real life, I set limitations and boundaries for my virtual life. I will not let some computer application that resides on a web server somewhere I will never see, take over my life. I have seen and see some of my friends who are updating constantly, like I give a shit when you go to the bathroom – TMI.
Well my advice to you is this, enjoy this new novelty they are calling social networking. Not sure about how they got to that name since it is really interacting with a computer screen sitting in your house when you should be going out and experiencing real social networking, where you actually interact with people. There will always be a lack of context when pecking away on a keyboard, it is just a simple fact. Do not let this thing take over your life and I think we will be fine. If it sucks you into farms, fish tanks, wars and all the other things there are to do – DO NOT WORRY, I will bet that there will soon be a virtual group in this virtual world that you can join to deal with and address your addiction problems.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Garage doors and their short lived springs along with the trials of finding replacement parts
I installed our garage door a little over 9 years ago, we had only lived in our house for about a month when I replaced it. Our old house did not have a garage, we had a car port and we were both pretty excited about having a garage. Well one fine day my Beautiful Bride was leaving for work, she had not had her coffee yet, when she backed through the garage door. Well not completely through it but enough to completely destroy the door. She felt awful and embarrassed, yep here I am dredging it up again and I am sure that will help. Well we were able to get the door open enough to get the car out so at least we did not have a car crisis. Her car was a Crown Victoria and there was little more than a small scratch on the bumper.
In a past life, I ran a business doing home repairs and one of the services I made REALLY good money on was replacing the bottom sections of wooden garage doors that had rotted out. There was real money in that. Well to be able to get the individual panels you had to know someone, or become a dealer of garage doors. I did the later and completed all the necessary paperwork to be able to purchase each and every part that could conceivable be in or around a garage door. The instant Bride backed through that door I thought no worries, I will just go and pick one up. Well one thing about that was my account was a cash account and since we had just moved into this house we were cash flow poor. I went to The Home Depot and purchased a Clopay door using the Home Depot card that I got just for that purpose, it included a 10% discount on my first purchase. That all worked out fabulous and I tore the old wooden door out and installed the new steel door in a couple of hours.
Well life went on, I replaced the garage door opener along to the way. I really like the Excelerator, made by Genie. It is a screw drive unit and opens the door in short order and it is very quiet and does not throw bits of grease all over like some of the chain drive models do. Life went on and I never really thought about the door, the opener or any of the mechanisms. I just mashed the buttons and up or down the door went. All was well until a little over a week ago, when I came home and when mashing the button found my door would only rise up about 4 inches. Odd I thought. I suspected something with the opener at first but that was later proven wrong. I was able to mash the button and while laying on the ground get the door up enough for me to slide under. Upon further investigation I found the opener to be in good working order and the problem was that the windup torsion spring had failed. Broken into two pieces, I can only imagine the sound that must have made when it snapped.
Inside I go, to call The Home Depot to make sure they have it in stock before I drive over. Well long story but that store is full of idiots and I could not even get connected to the correct department. I decided to end that frustrating phone ordeal and just drive over to the store. Well that proved about as fruitless as the phone call. They stock almost every part for those Clopay doors, every part except the springs. He tells me if I get him the model number, he will be able to order it for me, 2-3 weeks before it comes in. WOW I thought – that sucks. My Jalopy was trapped in the garage and I was not happy about that. I did not place that order because I did not happen to have the model number of my door. I thought, no worries I will get on the internet and find someone else who has one in stock here in town, NOT! Evidently, there are some liability issues with the sale of torsion springs. I do know that they could kill you if you do not know what you are doing. My first call was to Amarr, of course I have an account. Well not so much I find out, when they transitioned from a paper based system to a computer based system it seems since I had not purchased anything for over 10 years and I had been dropped. Damn!
My internet search turned up my answer though, in the form of DDM Garage doors out of Chicago. Let me tell ya folks – I WAS IMPRESSED and if you know me you know that I am not easily impressed. I navigated their web site with ease, it was very well laid out and provided lots of useful information. I found a tutorial on how to replace the very system I had on my exact door. The instructions included pictures and had 79 steps, it was VERY detailed and they were actually written by someone who had done the work, I could tell. Well by the time I finished navigating the site it was to late to call so I planned the call for the next day. Seems Dan Musik is the founder of the company that was started up in 1982 to provide training to maintenance personnel in manufacturing plants, distribution centers, auto dealerships and other facilities with numerous overhead type doors. I also learned that Dan is true to his convictions and openly advertises that DDM Garage Doors exists to bring glory to God. I want to post this from his site “We will do this by serving our customers in any way we can, especially by fulfilling our commitments to them in the best way we can find. We will do this by serving our few faithful stockholders by bringing them a good return on their investments. We will do this for ourselves by seeking "neither poverty nor riches," but "our portion, lest we be full and deny God saying, 'Who is the Lord?' and lest we be in want and steal, and profane the name of our God" (Prov. 30:8-9).”
I am all about companies leadership having the courage to talk about and make God part of their business plan in such an open way. To many places now a days talk a talk but they ain’t walking the walk – good for you Dan! Well I found another section on the site that talked about what information I needed to have when I called to inquire about a replacement spring. It even told me how to gather the information and where the model numbers and serial numbers would be located. I called the next day and low and behold – I got to speak to Dan Musik, I remembered seeing his picture on their home page. So, I passed along the necessary information, size of the door - 16x7, radius of the track – 12 inches, number of reinforcing struts - 3 and that the spring was on the left side of the door. He asked about the three struts, seems that door initially came with only one and he wanted to insure the spring he was going to sell me was of the correct size. He told me he wanted to call Clopay to get the exact weight on the struts before we proceeded. He told me he was pretty sure they were 16 pounds a piece but wanted to verify. He called back an hour or so later and confirmed they were 16 pounds each.
We then talked about what type of spring, seems there were three options he tells me. Option one, the least expensive, was also the spring with the shortest projected lifespan, measured in cycles. Then there was a middle of the road model and then the top of the line. I felt like I was listening to a weird garage door version of Goldie Locks and three bears. So anyway, I ended up going with the top model, it was only a few more bucks. I also decided to replace the winder and have the cones installed on the springs. The winder was old so why not and the cones more because it was going to be a pain in the ass to get the old ones out of the broken springs. Dan was very informative, courteous and VERY knowledgeable. I had the parts shipped ground and he indicated I could save a few bucks by shipping to my work address instead of my home, which I did. It was ground because I did not want to pay a fortune for overnight or even second day, it was very expensive and I was shocked when he gave those shipping costs. Ground was like 14 bucks so ground it was.
So my parts arrived in a clean box and were exactly what I needed. On the spring was the gap distance for the spring to ensure proper operation. It also include the number of twists I needed to wind it up, between 10.5 and 11 it told me and I found that to be exactly right, 10.5 it is. It took me only a few minutes to remove the old broken and worn items and clean up the shaft where the old items clamped down. That slight deformation was caused by the set screws that hold all of it the shaft. A couple of more minutes to install and wind up the new spring and I was all done. Bride came out when she heard the door going up and down and was impressed, I told her it was no biggie but she was impressed all the same – I love her for pumping me up.
I am just so impressed with this company, DDM garage doors. There site is at http://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php and I am highly recommending them for any of your garage door needs. They are a top shelf operation and during my brief experience with them I found everything and every step to be very positive. They are located at 408 Fremont St. - West Chicago, IL 60185 and their numbers are (800) 383-9548, (630) 293-1312 and the Fax: (630) 293-1526
In a past life, I ran a business doing home repairs and one of the services I made REALLY good money on was replacing the bottom sections of wooden garage doors that had rotted out. There was real money in that. Well to be able to get the individual panels you had to know someone, or become a dealer of garage doors. I did the later and completed all the necessary paperwork to be able to purchase each and every part that could conceivable be in or around a garage door. The instant Bride backed through that door I thought no worries, I will just go and pick one up. Well one thing about that was my account was a cash account and since we had just moved into this house we were cash flow poor. I went to The Home Depot and purchased a Clopay door using the Home Depot card that I got just for that purpose, it included a 10% discount on my first purchase. That all worked out fabulous and I tore the old wooden door out and installed the new steel door in a couple of hours.
Well life went on, I replaced the garage door opener along to the way. I really like the Excelerator, made by Genie. It is a screw drive unit and opens the door in short order and it is very quiet and does not throw bits of grease all over like some of the chain drive models do. Life went on and I never really thought about the door, the opener or any of the mechanisms. I just mashed the buttons and up or down the door went. All was well until a little over a week ago, when I came home and when mashing the button found my door would only rise up about 4 inches. Odd I thought. I suspected something with the opener at first but that was later proven wrong. I was able to mash the button and while laying on the ground get the door up enough for me to slide under. Upon further investigation I found the opener to be in good working order and the problem was that the windup torsion spring had failed. Broken into two pieces, I can only imagine the sound that must have made when it snapped.
Inside I go, to call The Home Depot to make sure they have it in stock before I drive over. Well long story but that store is full of idiots and I could not even get connected to the correct department. I decided to end that frustrating phone ordeal and just drive over to the store. Well that proved about as fruitless as the phone call. They stock almost every part for those Clopay doors, every part except the springs. He tells me if I get him the model number, he will be able to order it for me, 2-3 weeks before it comes in. WOW I thought – that sucks. My Jalopy was trapped in the garage and I was not happy about that. I did not place that order because I did not happen to have the model number of my door. I thought, no worries I will get on the internet and find someone else who has one in stock here in town, NOT! Evidently, there are some liability issues with the sale of torsion springs. I do know that they could kill you if you do not know what you are doing. My first call was to Amarr, of course I have an account. Well not so much I find out, when they transitioned from a paper based system to a computer based system it seems since I had not purchased anything for over 10 years and I had been dropped. Damn!
My internet search turned up my answer though, in the form of DDM Garage doors out of Chicago. Let me tell ya folks – I WAS IMPRESSED and if you know me you know that I am not easily impressed. I navigated their web site with ease, it was very well laid out and provided lots of useful information. I found a tutorial on how to replace the very system I had on my exact door. The instructions included pictures and had 79 steps, it was VERY detailed and they were actually written by someone who had done the work, I could tell. Well by the time I finished navigating the site it was to late to call so I planned the call for the next day. Seems Dan Musik is the founder of the company that was started up in 1982 to provide training to maintenance personnel in manufacturing plants, distribution centers, auto dealerships and other facilities with numerous overhead type doors. I also learned that Dan is true to his convictions and openly advertises that DDM Garage Doors exists to bring glory to God. I want to post this from his site “We will do this by serving our customers in any way we can, especially by fulfilling our commitments to them in the best way we can find. We will do this by serving our few faithful stockholders by bringing them a good return on their investments. We will do this for ourselves by seeking "neither poverty nor riches," but "our portion, lest we be full and deny God saying, 'Who is the Lord?' and lest we be in want and steal, and profane the name of our God" (Prov. 30:8-9).”
I am all about companies leadership having the courage to talk about and make God part of their business plan in such an open way. To many places now a days talk a talk but they ain’t walking the walk – good for you Dan! Well I found another section on the site that talked about what information I needed to have when I called to inquire about a replacement spring. It even told me how to gather the information and where the model numbers and serial numbers would be located. I called the next day and low and behold – I got to speak to Dan Musik, I remembered seeing his picture on their home page. So, I passed along the necessary information, size of the door - 16x7, radius of the track – 12 inches, number of reinforcing struts - 3 and that the spring was on the left side of the door. He asked about the three struts, seems that door initially came with only one and he wanted to insure the spring he was going to sell me was of the correct size. He told me he wanted to call Clopay to get the exact weight on the struts before we proceeded. He told me he was pretty sure they were 16 pounds a piece but wanted to verify. He called back an hour or so later and confirmed they were 16 pounds each.
We then talked about what type of spring, seems there were three options he tells me. Option one, the least expensive, was also the spring with the shortest projected lifespan, measured in cycles. Then there was a middle of the road model and then the top of the line. I felt like I was listening to a weird garage door version of Goldie Locks and three bears. So anyway, I ended up going with the top model, it was only a few more bucks. I also decided to replace the winder and have the cones installed on the springs. The winder was old so why not and the cones more because it was going to be a pain in the ass to get the old ones out of the broken springs. Dan was very informative, courteous and VERY knowledgeable. I had the parts shipped ground and he indicated I could save a few bucks by shipping to my work address instead of my home, which I did. It was ground because I did not want to pay a fortune for overnight or even second day, it was very expensive and I was shocked when he gave those shipping costs. Ground was like 14 bucks so ground it was.
So my parts arrived in a clean box and were exactly what I needed. On the spring was the gap distance for the spring to ensure proper operation. It also include the number of twists I needed to wind it up, between 10.5 and 11 it told me and I found that to be exactly right, 10.5 it is. It took me only a few minutes to remove the old broken and worn items and clean up the shaft where the old items clamped down. That slight deformation was caused by the set screws that hold all of it the shaft. A couple of more minutes to install and wind up the new spring and I was all done. Bride came out when she heard the door going up and down and was impressed, I told her it was no biggie but she was impressed all the same – I love her for pumping me up.
I am just so impressed with this company, DDM garage doors. There site is at http://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php and I am highly recommending them for any of your garage door needs. They are a top shelf operation and during my brief experience with them I found everything and every step to be very positive. They are located at 408 Fremont St. - West Chicago, IL 60185 and their numbers are (800) 383-9548, (630) 293-1312 and the Fax: (630) 293-1526
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Two Kitty’s, Darryl and his other brother Darryl
Bride and I are cat people, I never in a million years thought I would be that but I am, and I like it! We got our first cat, Zappa, when we were just dating in 1989. His face was all white with, well you can guess I bet, he had a black patch under his chin. It looked like a kitty version of Frank Zappa’s little soul patch thing he had going on. We have had at least one cat ever since then, until in November when we lost Sybok. We had lost Pike a couple of years before him and a couple of years before that we lost Junior and a Zappa died of pneumonia a few of years before that. Most of the times we had two at a time, all of them were boys and all of them were always about 4-6 years apart. We enjoy the company and entertainment that they each brought into our lives. Each was unique in their own way, Zappa had us as owners for a little over 5 years as the shortest lived. Pike was the longest lived at 14 and while losing each was hard in its own way Pike was especially hard for me. He slept with me every night and came in to talk to me each morning when I went into the bathroom for teeth brushing and my shower.
So in November we became cat-less for the first time in over 20 years, it seemed really weird – for Bride and I both. We still have Newton, our one and only dog, a gigantic Boston Terrier that is a pansy, he has been afraid of every cat we have ever had, dare I say he is a Nancy Boy. We started our search for some new kitty’s at the Humane Society, I was happy to learn that they are now a no kill shelter. That means all the animals there stay until they are adopted and that is a good thing. When we were talking with our adoption agent Cindi, we learned that nearly 140 animals move through this shelter every week. They are open 7 days a week as well and have a huge selection of kitty’s, puppies, cats and dogs. We made 6 trips, I think it was 6 or 7, and when we walked in this day, Darryl and Darryl looked at both of us and we knew, they were the ones. We could not hold them because they were like 2 hours post op, a neutering. We immediately put a hold on them and planned our trip back the next day, a Saturday, they are open 10am to 4pm. We stopped at the pet store to get approximately $1987.27 worth of food and litter and toys and all the other things we were going to need and were waiting in the parking lot of the Human Society by 9:25. We were the first in line but there were several folks right behind us.
So we get to hold them for the first time, the volunteer, brought them out of the cage and handed Darryl to me and Darryl to Bride. They were still a bit sluggish, I am not sure if they just woke up or if they were still recovering from surgery. We were right, they were the ones and we started the adoption paperwork. At close to 11 we had completed our work, the brothers Darryl had their adoption paperwork complete and the exit checkups finished. They were also fitted with their RFID tag and their new collars, with nametags attached - in different fonts of course to differentiate Darryl from Darryl. Darryl was a talker, all the way home he talked to us and we talked back. Darryl on the other hand was just sleeping, he would be the laid back one, or so I thought.
As we were adopting the boys Cindi told us we should pick a room and leave them in there for a few days, in order to adjust to the changes in their lives. We have always just brought new animals home and threw them in the mix, I mean right away they had to figure it out. Darryl and Darryl had had a bit rougher early life and were just neutered the previous day so I was thinking that might not be a bad idea. We brought them home and setup a blanket and toys in the bathroom and put them in there. I noticed that they appeared scared and hid behind the toilet all balled up together, poor boys I remember thinking. We left them in there for a bit over an hour, I actually went in with a pillow and took a nap with them. We decided to move them to the laundry room, it was a little bigger and there was no toilet to hide behind. Bride is telling me the whole time, let’s just throw them out here and they will figure it out, it is what we have done with every other pet we brought home over the years.
We settled in to watch some stupid TV (any time it is on it is stupid TV) and we agreed that we would each go and get one of them and hold them in our laps. They sat with us for about a minute, and then the kitty’s went CRAZY I tell ya, they have not slowed down since. Their first order of business was to make the 40 pound dog, Newton, their bitch. It was funny to watch because it only took them about 2 minutes to do it. Two kitty’s, less 3 pounds apiece, immediately subjugate a 40 pound dog. I am somewhat embarrassed to actually claim that mongrel as my own. It is very disappointing to have pansy dog who is afraid of a kitty that is a magnitude of order smaller than him. Newton was Pike and Sybok’s bitch as well, I was hoping this time it would be different though. I was hoping that Newton could muster his inner dog and be the alpha male of the house. It was not to be, it is my shame to bear and I will carry it without further complaint.
We have gotten all of our kitty’s as small kittens but we have never had 2 small kitty’s at the same time, and they are litter mates. Darryl and Darryl went berserk, I am not sure if it is all related to being a kitty or being brothers or the cat nip we laced their toys with but they were running around this house like they were hoped up on crystal meth! Non-stop they were and then when I got the laser pointer out it was like we stepped up the meth dosage. We both wanted to hold our new kitty’s, to bond, but they were having none of it. I was able to catch Darryl by the door, he was staring out the door into the backyard and I was able to sneak up and grab him. It scared the bejesus out of him when I grabbed him and I was immediately glad that they had nubbed his nails. I was able to hold him long enough to get the collar off of him. The collars we thought should have a bell so we know where they are Bride said. Well, I could tell we would have NO problems with that so I took that collar right off. The other Darryl was able to somehow remove his by himself, I can tell which one will be the smart one. The collars were of the safety type that break away and were a requirement by the Humane Society for adoption.
So they wore us out last night, we never did catch one of them other than that time by the door, they are fast learners though and I suspect they will not make that mistake a second time. They were more entertaining than the music videos we had running on the TV. We have not had any kitten for almost 10 years and I guess I had forgotten just how rambunctious they are. We love that they are the brothers Darryl and that they picked us out. People may think they pick out cats but they would be mistaken, they pick us. They seem to love their new home and all the surroundings. It must seem like the Taj Mahal to them, I am talking about the one in India not the one in Atlantic City. They are indoor kitty’s, none of our cats have ever been outdoor cats and only once did one get out. There are too many scary things out there for our boys. As indoor kitty’s they will be getting the front claws removed, as two of our cats have had done. Some folks do not like the idea but we are OK with it and they are our cats so they will be going under the knife. Next Monday, they wanted to wait because they had just had the neuter surgery.
We love the new adopted additions to our family, Darryl and the other brother Darryl, I am sure there is another Oratory about them coming soon.
So in November we became cat-less for the first time in over 20 years, it seemed really weird – for Bride and I both. We still have Newton, our one and only dog, a gigantic Boston Terrier that is a pansy, he has been afraid of every cat we have ever had, dare I say he is a Nancy Boy. We started our search for some new kitty’s at the Humane Society, I was happy to learn that they are now a no kill shelter. That means all the animals there stay until they are adopted and that is a good thing. When we were talking with our adoption agent Cindi, we learned that nearly 140 animals move through this shelter every week. They are open 7 days a week as well and have a huge selection of kitty’s, puppies, cats and dogs. We made 6 trips, I think it was 6 or 7, and when we walked in this day, Darryl and Darryl looked at both of us and we knew, they were the ones. We could not hold them because they were like 2 hours post op, a neutering. We immediately put a hold on them and planned our trip back the next day, a Saturday, they are open 10am to 4pm. We stopped at the pet store to get approximately $1987.27 worth of food and litter and toys and all the other things we were going to need and were waiting in the parking lot of the Human Society by 9:25. We were the first in line but there were several folks right behind us.
So we get to hold them for the first time, the volunteer, brought them out of the cage and handed Darryl to me and Darryl to Bride. They were still a bit sluggish, I am not sure if they just woke up or if they were still recovering from surgery. We were right, they were the ones and we started the adoption paperwork. At close to 11 we had completed our work, the brothers Darryl had their adoption paperwork complete and the exit checkups finished. They were also fitted with their RFID tag and their new collars, with nametags attached - in different fonts of course to differentiate Darryl from Darryl. Darryl was a talker, all the way home he talked to us and we talked back. Darryl on the other hand was just sleeping, he would be the laid back one, or so I thought.
As we were adopting the boys Cindi told us we should pick a room and leave them in there for a few days, in order to adjust to the changes in their lives. We have always just brought new animals home and threw them in the mix, I mean right away they had to figure it out. Darryl and Darryl had had a bit rougher early life and were just neutered the previous day so I was thinking that might not be a bad idea. We brought them home and setup a blanket and toys in the bathroom and put them in there. I noticed that they appeared scared and hid behind the toilet all balled up together, poor boys I remember thinking. We left them in there for a bit over an hour, I actually went in with a pillow and took a nap with them. We decided to move them to the laundry room, it was a little bigger and there was no toilet to hide behind. Bride is telling me the whole time, let’s just throw them out here and they will figure it out, it is what we have done with every other pet we brought home over the years.
We settled in to watch some stupid TV (any time it is on it is stupid TV) and we agreed that we would each go and get one of them and hold them in our laps. They sat with us for about a minute, and then the kitty’s went CRAZY I tell ya, they have not slowed down since. Their first order of business was to make the 40 pound dog, Newton, their bitch. It was funny to watch because it only took them about 2 minutes to do it. Two kitty’s, less 3 pounds apiece, immediately subjugate a 40 pound dog. I am somewhat embarrassed to actually claim that mongrel as my own. It is very disappointing to have pansy dog who is afraid of a kitty that is a magnitude of order smaller than him. Newton was Pike and Sybok’s bitch as well, I was hoping this time it would be different though. I was hoping that Newton could muster his inner dog and be the alpha male of the house. It was not to be, it is my shame to bear and I will carry it without further complaint.
We have gotten all of our kitty’s as small kittens but we have never had 2 small kitty’s at the same time, and they are litter mates. Darryl and Darryl went berserk, I am not sure if it is all related to being a kitty or being brothers or the cat nip we laced their toys with but they were running around this house like they were hoped up on crystal meth! Non-stop they were and then when I got the laser pointer out it was like we stepped up the meth dosage. We both wanted to hold our new kitty’s, to bond, but they were having none of it. I was able to catch Darryl by the door, he was staring out the door into the backyard and I was able to sneak up and grab him. It scared the bejesus out of him when I grabbed him and I was immediately glad that they had nubbed his nails. I was able to hold him long enough to get the collar off of him. The collars we thought should have a bell so we know where they are Bride said. Well, I could tell we would have NO problems with that so I took that collar right off. The other Darryl was able to somehow remove his by himself, I can tell which one will be the smart one. The collars were of the safety type that break away and were a requirement by the Humane Society for adoption.
So they wore us out last night, we never did catch one of them other than that time by the door, they are fast learners though and I suspect they will not make that mistake a second time. They were more entertaining than the music videos we had running on the TV. We have not had any kitten for almost 10 years and I guess I had forgotten just how rambunctious they are. We love that they are the brothers Darryl and that they picked us out. People may think they pick out cats but they would be mistaken, they pick us. They seem to love their new home and all the surroundings. It must seem like the Taj Mahal to them, I am talking about the one in India not the one in Atlantic City. They are indoor kitty’s, none of our cats have ever been outdoor cats and only once did one get out. There are too many scary things out there for our boys. As indoor kitty’s they will be getting the front claws removed, as two of our cats have had done. Some folks do not like the idea but we are OK with it and they are our cats so they will be going under the knife. Next Monday, they wanted to wait because they had just had the neuter surgery.
We love the new adopted additions to our family, Darryl and the other brother Darryl, I am sure there is another Oratory about them coming soon.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Let us talk about boots, and I am not talk about shoes made from alligator tails.
I am talking about the boots that law enforcement put on cars when you fail to pay parking tickets and are again busted illegally parking at a meter with NO TIME left.
The official name is a wheel clamp but they are commonly known as Denver boots and wheel boots. It is a device that is designed, rather well I might add, to prevent vehicles from moving. Anyway, if you happen to be illegally parked and they put one on, you can not ignore the parking tickets any longer. This is obviously a less expensive way for a municipality to control miscreants than having to pay tow trucks to drag the offending cars away to an impound yard. An impound yard that must be monitored and kept up so vandals do not destroy the property stored there.
These boots are referred to as Denver boots because that is where Frank Marugg was living when he invented the gadget in 1944 and where he still lived in 1958 when he received a US patent for the thing. Old Frank was a pattern maker and a violinist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra when Dan Stills, a police officer, thought an immobilizer would avoid the expensive towing problem and approached Marugg. Frank was well known and well liked amongst the Denver politicians and police department officials so he seemed a logical choice to design an immobilizer. The police department needed a solution to a growing parking enforcement problem. The city used to tow all ticketed cars to the pound, where they were often vandalized. Those who were ticketed sued the city for the damage and the police had to itemize everything in the cars. It seemed some sort of auto immobilizer would answer all these problems. Legend has it that on a placemat found in Gunther Tootie's circa 1960, gives credit of the name “Denver Boot” to Stills, who indicated that it would do for cars what the Oregon Boot did for prisoners. The Oregon Boot, obviously, was the metal ankle-brace worn by convicts.
The Denver police first used the wheel-boot on January 5, 1955 and collected over $18,000 in its first month of use. 18 grand in 1955, holy cow that is what I would call a successful product deployment. Those initial boots had their problems though, primarily it took three men and a boy to install and remove them because they were cast in steel. Old Frank soon realized that he needed to be casting them from the much lighter aluminum. He created a cottage industry, he was soon selling the gadgets to parking lot owners, hotels and ski resorts and even created a Jumbo version for farm equipment and larger vehicles. The funniest factoid I found was that the Smithsonian Institution has a copy of old Frank’s boot on display in Washington, D.C. How funny is that?
Wheel-clamping is notoriously unpopular with illegal parkers in the same way that traffic wardens are. However, whereas a traffic warden or police officer has jurisdiction only over public roads, in many countries, the law allows landowners to wheel clamp vehicles parking on their property without permission. Wow, how cool would that be to do to someone, it would be like a personal version of the show Punked. I remember an episode of Seinfeld in which a friend of Kramer’s carried a boot in the trunk of his car. He would install it when he parked in an attempt to dissuade the law from installing their boot. Kind of funny really and if you watched the animated film Cars you would have seen them using the Denver boot as handcuffs. The Denver boot has made it to the cartoons – you know you have arrived when that happens.
The funniest part for me is the reaction of the people whose car is booted. There are those who immediately think “shit” I forgot to pay that damn ticket. Those folks, although pissed, remain pretty calm and take care of the parking tickets and booting fees. Then there are others, the ones who are out of control pissed off that they have been inconvenienced by having to deal with the problem. A problem, had it been taken care of at the time of the first offense would have never risen to the level of being a problem in the first place. Those are the people I want to talk about, why – because they are fun to watch deal with this problem and then even more fun to listen to them try to explain their innocence.
All of this talk about Denver boots got started because a friend of mine got her car booted recently while she was with friends at lunch. For me the fun started with seeing a faceBook status update, “sometimes when you think you are headed in the right direction, your car bets booted.” Well obviously I laughed right out loud at that, along with probably everyone else who read it. And why would we not, it is a funny thing to post as a status update and more importantly the fact that she got booted was funny in and of itself. I of course posted the comment “how many tickets must you have before getting booted? Or what are the circumstances that brings the boot out? Sorry but I am just wondering” I mean why would I not say that right? There were others who commented as well but I thought mine summed it up best, I am biased so we have that as well.
So then the next day at work I see her heading towards my office, I could not help myself – I started laughing and it was out loud. I knew that the explanation would be even funnier than the post, and I thought her Facebook post was plenty funny. She goes on to tell me about having lunch and then coming out to find the boot and then once in her car she noticed the paper on her window telling her she was booted. She later told the glue on the note they stuck on her window was VERY sticky and VERY hard to get off and how she would be forced to purchase some goo gone. Again, to me even that explanation was amusing – she was so animated telling the story. So I hear about the 6 block walk across downtown to the tax collectors office to pay the fine. Oh Yes the fine – $232 bucks she tells me. I immediately knew my friend had more than one or two infractions, to get booted and to have a fine of that proportion you have problems with the law. The last parking ticket I got was like 10 bucks. So with the knowledge that my friend was a habitual law breaker the story got even funnier as she is tell it to me. I am laughing even as I type this :)
So after the walk and waiting in line she gets to the counter and I can only imagine how mad she was and then she tells me that the clerk explained to her it was not her fault (meaning the clerk) so I assume my friend was wound up in a flurry of righteous indignation. Well the next part of the story takes her upstairs to the second floor and to investigate the why, three tickets that had been ignored by my friend. It was clear to me now that she held the law in very low regard. She went on to explain to me that if you wait a certain period of time before paying the tickets the prices automatically go up, and then up some more and then eventually, up even more. Until those three $10 tickets wind up costing a person about… oh I don’t know ----- $232 bucks – I am still laughing by the way. She also explained that if you mail the check and before it gets to the office and gets entered into the system you cross one of the price increase dates they will not take your check and contribute to your total. They send the whole check back, not giving you a chance to only get maybe…… say half a boot.
So she also tells of the second ticket and how she thought that one was never really entered. She tells me that the meter was broken, she claims she took a picture with her cellular device but could not produce the picture. Purged, just last month when she was cleaning items from her phone, so she says. So anyway, allegedly, she lodged a complaint with them about the broken meter, she was supposed to follow up a week later with them but – big surprise here – she did not. Well that little miscommunication and misunderstanding ended up not getting that ticket erased from the system and her absolved of the crime. I assume that this miscommunication and misunderstanding was obviously 100% the city’s fault, she did not say that outright but I was able to come to that conclusion pretty easily. What it did do, allegedly, is get them to erase any information about her initial complaint thereby eliminating her ability to pursue the issue any further, screwed I believe is the word she used.
The next big issue was they do not take checks, I agree with her here - that is stupid. Who in this day and age carries around $232 bucks with them. I am guessing that there was a sharp rise in blood pressure that was about to literally pop the top of her head off until she found they would take a debit card – disaster averted. So after she straightened out the consequences of her lawless ways she is back to walking back across town to her car, I would think for a $232 fine the very least the city could do is give you a lift back to your car. The boot removal team is working on her car as she arrives, she diverts into the building to wait until they are done and gone. She explains that was so she did not lose her temper at the poor guy taking the boot off, I would have done the same thing but it would have been out of embarrassment. It was fun to listen to the story and I have not done it justice here at all. I do have say that she gets some credit for accepting responsibility. She recognized it was her fault but see elements of STUPIDITY on the part of the city of Jacksonville. For those who know my friend you know what I am talking about, feel free to post you thoughts in the comments field below.
So I tell you this my friends, pay your parking tickets when they are 10 bucks and do not wait until you get booted and it costs $232 bucks.
The official name is a wheel clamp but they are commonly known as Denver boots and wheel boots. It is a device that is designed, rather well I might add, to prevent vehicles from moving. Anyway, if you happen to be illegally parked and they put one on, you can not ignore the parking tickets any longer. This is obviously a less expensive way for a municipality to control miscreants than having to pay tow trucks to drag the offending cars away to an impound yard. An impound yard that must be monitored and kept up so vandals do not destroy the property stored there.
These boots are referred to as Denver boots because that is where Frank Marugg was living when he invented the gadget in 1944 and where he still lived in 1958 when he received a US patent for the thing. Old Frank was a pattern maker and a violinist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra when Dan Stills, a police officer, thought an immobilizer would avoid the expensive towing problem and approached Marugg. Frank was well known and well liked amongst the Denver politicians and police department officials so he seemed a logical choice to design an immobilizer. The police department needed a solution to a growing parking enforcement problem. The city used to tow all ticketed cars to the pound, where they were often vandalized. Those who were ticketed sued the city for the damage and the police had to itemize everything in the cars. It seemed some sort of auto immobilizer would answer all these problems. Legend has it that on a placemat found in Gunther Tootie's circa 1960, gives credit of the name “Denver Boot” to Stills, who indicated that it would do for cars what the Oregon Boot did for prisoners. The Oregon Boot, obviously, was the metal ankle-brace worn by convicts.
The Denver police first used the wheel-boot on January 5, 1955 and collected over $18,000 in its first month of use. 18 grand in 1955, holy cow that is what I would call a successful product deployment. Those initial boots had their problems though, primarily it took three men and a boy to install and remove them because they were cast in steel. Old Frank soon realized that he needed to be casting them from the much lighter aluminum. He created a cottage industry, he was soon selling the gadgets to parking lot owners, hotels and ski resorts and even created a Jumbo version for farm equipment and larger vehicles. The funniest factoid I found was that the Smithsonian Institution has a copy of old Frank’s boot on display in Washington, D.C. How funny is that?
Wheel-clamping is notoriously unpopular with illegal parkers in the same way that traffic wardens are. However, whereas a traffic warden or police officer has jurisdiction only over public roads, in many countries, the law allows landowners to wheel clamp vehicles parking on their property without permission. Wow, how cool would that be to do to someone, it would be like a personal version of the show Punked. I remember an episode of Seinfeld in which a friend of Kramer’s carried a boot in the trunk of his car. He would install it when he parked in an attempt to dissuade the law from installing their boot. Kind of funny really and if you watched the animated film Cars you would have seen them using the Denver boot as handcuffs. The Denver boot has made it to the cartoons – you know you have arrived when that happens.
The funniest part for me is the reaction of the people whose car is booted. There are those who immediately think “shit” I forgot to pay that damn ticket. Those folks, although pissed, remain pretty calm and take care of the parking tickets and booting fees. Then there are others, the ones who are out of control pissed off that they have been inconvenienced by having to deal with the problem. A problem, had it been taken care of at the time of the first offense would have never risen to the level of being a problem in the first place. Those are the people I want to talk about, why – because they are fun to watch deal with this problem and then even more fun to listen to them try to explain their innocence.
All of this talk about Denver boots got started because a friend of mine got her car booted recently while she was with friends at lunch. For me the fun started with seeing a faceBook status update, “sometimes when you think you are headed in the right direction, your car bets booted.” Well obviously I laughed right out loud at that, along with probably everyone else who read it. And why would we not, it is a funny thing to post as a status update and more importantly the fact that she got booted was funny in and of itself. I of course posted the comment “how many tickets must you have before getting booted? Or what are the circumstances that brings the boot out? Sorry but I am just wondering” I mean why would I not say that right? There were others who commented as well but I thought mine summed it up best, I am biased so we have that as well.
So then the next day at work I see her heading towards my office, I could not help myself – I started laughing and it was out loud. I knew that the explanation would be even funnier than the post, and I thought her Facebook post was plenty funny. She goes on to tell me about having lunch and then coming out to find the boot and then once in her car she noticed the paper on her window telling her she was booted. She later told the glue on the note they stuck on her window was VERY sticky and VERY hard to get off and how she would be forced to purchase some goo gone. Again, to me even that explanation was amusing – she was so animated telling the story. So I hear about the 6 block walk across downtown to the tax collectors office to pay the fine. Oh Yes the fine – $232 bucks she tells me. I immediately knew my friend had more than one or two infractions, to get booted and to have a fine of that proportion you have problems with the law. The last parking ticket I got was like 10 bucks. So with the knowledge that my friend was a habitual law breaker the story got even funnier as she is tell it to me. I am laughing even as I type this :)
So after the walk and waiting in line she gets to the counter and I can only imagine how mad she was and then she tells me that the clerk explained to her it was not her fault (meaning the clerk) so I assume my friend was wound up in a flurry of righteous indignation. Well the next part of the story takes her upstairs to the second floor and to investigate the why, three tickets that had been ignored by my friend. It was clear to me now that she held the law in very low regard. She went on to explain to me that if you wait a certain period of time before paying the tickets the prices automatically go up, and then up some more and then eventually, up even more. Until those three $10 tickets wind up costing a person about… oh I don’t know ----- $232 bucks – I am still laughing by the way. She also explained that if you mail the check and before it gets to the office and gets entered into the system you cross one of the price increase dates they will not take your check and contribute to your total. They send the whole check back, not giving you a chance to only get maybe…… say half a boot.
So she also tells of the second ticket and how she thought that one was never really entered. She tells me that the meter was broken, she claims she took a picture with her cellular device but could not produce the picture. Purged, just last month when she was cleaning items from her phone, so she says. So anyway, allegedly, she lodged a complaint with them about the broken meter, she was supposed to follow up a week later with them but – big surprise here – she did not. Well that little miscommunication and misunderstanding ended up not getting that ticket erased from the system and her absolved of the crime. I assume that this miscommunication and misunderstanding was obviously 100% the city’s fault, she did not say that outright but I was able to come to that conclusion pretty easily. What it did do, allegedly, is get them to erase any information about her initial complaint thereby eliminating her ability to pursue the issue any further, screwed I believe is the word she used.
The next big issue was they do not take checks, I agree with her here - that is stupid. Who in this day and age carries around $232 bucks with them. I am guessing that there was a sharp rise in blood pressure that was about to literally pop the top of her head off until she found they would take a debit card – disaster averted. So after she straightened out the consequences of her lawless ways she is back to walking back across town to her car, I would think for a $232 fine the very least the city could do is give you a lift back to your car. The boot removal team is working on her car as she arrives, she diverts into the building to wait until they are done and gone. She explains that was so she did not lose her temper at the poor guy taking the boot off, I would have done the same thing but it would have been out of embarrassment. It was fun to listen to the story and I have not done it justice here at all. I do have say that she gets some credit for accepting responsibility. She recognized it was her fault but see elements of STUPIDITY on the part of the city of Jacksonville. For those who know my friend you know what I am talking about, feel free to post you thoughts in the comments field below.
So I tell you this my friends, pay your parking tickets when they are 10 bucks and do not wait until you get booted and it costs $232 bucks.
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