For those of you who have these in your homes, I am telling you now, please get rid of them !!!!!! They are sooooo very dangerous. We had one explode in our living room Friday night. By the time Casey got downstairs, the damage was done. So fast !!! Bob didn't hear it, nor did I.
My sofa is burned. My love seat is burned. I counted 30 burns on our living room carpet. I say 30 because I was too sick to my stomach to look any further. The pieces flew about 10 feet from where the lamp was sitting. Landing everywhere. I was able to find 2 pieces of the actual bulb. It looks like the rest just melted into whatever they landed on.
If you have them, I suggest you put them out for the garbage man right away. We will be calling our insurance man tomorrow, and I suspect, I don't know why, we will be paying a bundle. Seems to work that way. Don't know why we pay for homeowners insurance. Could have been worse I guess. We could have had an all out blaze !!!!
May 12, 2008
Uncle Myron
Uncle Myron went home from the hospital last Friday, after 7 days . There were 3 more cases of this ( can't spell it & can't pronounce it) before it came to an end. The hospital isn't saying much about it. You can come down with it up to 70 days from the time you are exposed, but Bob's doctor isn't too worried. Uncle Myron is very weak and slow to get around. Rose told me she even thought about discussing a nursing home with Aunt Eva and Uncle Myron. I laughed until I cried. If you only knew my Uncle Myron !! If he can breath and walk from bedroom to kitchen and back, he will not leave his home. I would not have wanted to be in Norfolk had I known she was going to bring up such a subject !
My brothers and I, along with our cousins can tell you many stories of doing things we really didn't want to do because Uncle Myron "asked" us to. Everyone of us, to a person, was scared to death to say no. How many times did I sit on a river bank, baking in the sun, wanting to go somewhere cool but scared to death to say so? Because Uncle Myron wanted to go fishing with "Barb". Many , many days. It would be too darned hot for the fish to bite I thought. I got lots of bites. Mosquitoes and gnats !!!!!!! Uncle Myron? He just kept pulling the fish in and telling me about proper bait . We were using the same darn stuff !! Even the fish were too scared to not do as "Uncle Myron" wanted ...................
My brothers and I, along with our cousins can tell you many stories of doing things we really didn't want to do because Uncle Myron "asked" us to. Everyone of us, to a person, was scared to death to say no. How many times did I sit on a river bank, baking in the sun, wanting to go somewhere cool but scared to death to say so? Because Uncle Myron wanted to go fishing with "Barb". Many , many days. It would be too darned hot for the fish to bite I thought. I got lots of bites. Mosquitoes and gnats !!!!!!! Uncle Myron? He just kept pulling the fish in and telling me about proper bait . We were using the same darn stuff !! Even the fish were too scared to not do as "Uncle Myron" wanted ...................
May 7, 2008
Stupid People
A little background information before I start in on them. As some of you know I work in a factory here. It is very old (built in the twenties), huge and has a flat roof. That is where the problem starts. I have seen many summers where we have had entire roofing crews work all summer just patching it. There is so much tar up there, I don't know what keeps the roof from caving in. With any rain, we have leaks through out the plant. Sometimes the word "flood" best describes it. We had heavy rains in town last Friday. Sometime after the office people went home for the weekend and before I came in Sunday night, a ceiling tile in one of the offices became saturated, leaked and finally fell. Unless you have seen what a wet ceiling tile does on impact, you have no idea what a mess it can make. Picture the average workplace desk. Stacks of papers, planners, notes, telephone, calculator,computer, keyboard, pictures, knick knacks and stuffed animals. I know, I don't understand the stuffed animals either, but they are there. Then picture all that stuff plus the desk, floor and walls covered with thousands of pieces of exploded ceiling tile. What a mess. It took me all of 4 hours to clean that one office. I asked my lead hand to contact someone about removing another ceiling tile that was quite saturated so it wouldn't fall the next time it rained. He did, and the carpenter came yesterday and removed it. One more bit of information before I start in on stupid people. It was a woman's office.
When "That Woman" saw her ceiling tiles gone, she called some "Hot Shot" (engineer) in the plant and wanted her ceiling tiles replaced right now!! "Hot Shot" calls the shop foreman . Carpenter is called and does as he is told. "That Woman" is happy her office is all put back together and pretty again. "Hot Shot" pats himself on the back for a job well done and goes back to work.
"That Woman" is a department head. You would think, she would know why one tile was gone and why I wanted another removed. After all, her carpet was soaked and there were waste baskets all over her office collecting rain water. I had laid all of her papers, notes, books and planner all over the hallway to dry. Did she really think replacing those tiles would fix the leaking ceiling? Lord help us all if she did.
And what about "Hot Shot"? An engineer no less. Been in the plant for years. What in heavens name was "Hot Shot" thinking? Or not thinking. He knows that plant as well as any of us. Maybe "Hot Shot" was trying to impress"That Woman". I don't know.
It started raining last night at 9:30. Hard.... I didn't get to "That Woman's" office until 12:00 A.M. or P.M. Is midnight A.M. or P.M.? Doesn't really matter. It was raining hard !! As I unlocked the door and stepped in, I said "Oh _ _ _ _" !!! Water, water everywhere. I didn't know where to start first. Waste baskets !!! I stand in that office, and all I can hear is rain hitting most of the tiles above me and pouring in throughout the rest of them. I know the original tile is going to fall. I can only hope and pray it waits until "That Woman" is in her office and at her desk when it happens. No such luck. I was frantically moving all of "That Woman's" stuff out of the way when it fell. I had my back to it so I didn't see it coming. It scared the _ _ _ _ out of me !! Sounded like a cannon going off. As I was trying to get away from the cannon, I hit my wrist on the wall. I thought it was broken or sprained at first. I was lucky. It just hurt for a while. I cleaned up the rest of the office ( not my usual best effort) , covered computer, other papers, file cabinet and lap top with plastic, shut out the lights and left.
Then I went to the rest of the offices and dealt with all the other leaks.. I am now in the "safety" of my own home. I say "safety" , but that too is is questionable. That is for all of you who know about our basement problems.
As I sit here at my computer, I am trying to picture what might be happening at work. Is "That Woman" calling "Hot Shot" about her missing ceiling tile? Do they even think about her soaked items laying all over the isles? The things that are covered in plastic? The waste baskets half full of water? I can imagine the conversation now. "That Woman" will call "Hot Shot" and tell him one of her ceiling tiles is gone again. "Hot Shot" will call the shop foreman again and demand that "That Woman's" tile be replaced, this time to be left where it is. Trust me, the next time it happens, I will leave it right where it falls. "That Woman" needs to see, and show "Hot Shot" what happens when you replace tiles that shouldn't otta be replaced !!
When "That Woman" saw her ceiling tiles gone, she called some "Hot Shot" (engineer) in the plant and wanted her ceiling tiles replaced right now!! "Hot Shot" calls the shop foreman . Carpenter is called and does as he is told. "That Woman" is happy her office is all put back together and pretty again. "Hot Shot" pats himself on the back for a job well done and goes back to work.
"That Woman" is a department head. You would think, she would know why one tile was gone and why I wanted another removed. After all, her carpet was soaked and there were waste baskets all over her office collecting rain water. I had laid all of her papers, notes, books and planner all over the hallway to dry. Did she really think replacing those tiles would fix the leaking ceiling? Lord help us all if she did.
And what about "Hot Shot"? An engineer no less. Been in the plant for years. What in heavens name was "Hot Shot" thinking? Or not thinking. He knows that plant as well as any of us. Maybe "Hot Shot" was trying to impress"That Woman". I don't know.
It started raining last night at 9:30. Hard.... I didn't get to "That Woman's" office until 12:00 A.M. or P.M. Is midnight A.M. or P.M.? Doesn't really matter. It was raining hard !! As I unlocked the door and stepped in, I said "Oh _ _ _ _" !!! Water, water everywhere. I didn't know where to start first. Waste baskets !!! I stand in that office, and all I can hear is rain hitting most of the tiles above me and pouring in throughout the rest of them. I know the original tile is going to fall. I can only hope and pray it waits until "That Woman" is in her office and at her desk when it happens. No such luck. I was frantically moving all of "That Woman's" stuff out of the way when it fell. I had my back to it so I didn't see it coming. It scared the _ _ _ _ out of me !! Sounded like a cannon going off. As I was trying to get away from the cannon, I hit my wrist on the wall. I thought it was broken or sprained at first. I was lucky. It just hurt for a while. I cleaned up the rest of the office ( not my usual best effort) , covered computer, other papers, file cabinet and lap top with plastic, shut out the lights and left.
Then I went to the rest of the offices and dealt with all the other leaks.. I am now in the "safety" of my own home. I say "safety" , but that too is is questionable. That is for all of you who know about our basement problems.
As I sit here at my computer, I am trying to picture what might be happening at work. Is "That Woman" calling "Hot Shot" about her missing ceiling tile? Do they even think about her soaked items laying all over the isles? The things that are covered in plastic? The waste baskets half full of water? I can imagine the conversation now. "That Woman" will call "Hot Shot" and tell him one of her ceiling tiles is gone again. "Hot Shot" will call the shop foreman again and demand that "That Woman's" tile be replaced, this time to be left where it is. Trust me, the next time it happens, I will leave it right where it falls. "That Woman" needs to see, and show "Hot Shot" what happens when you replace tiles that shouldn't otta be replaced !!
May 5, 2008
Aunt and Uncle
This weekend we went to Norfolk to see my Aunt Eva and Uncle Myron. They are pushing 90 and neither one is doing well. We stopped at my cousin Rose's house first to see where her parents were. We thought Aunt Eva might still be in the hospital. As it turned out she was home, but they had to put Uncle Myron in the hospital. While at Rose's we also got to visit with her daughter, Sonja. Sonja had a little boy last July and in August was diagnosed with cancer. She and her family moved in with Rose, so Rose could take care of her and her children while she started treatments. It is supposed to be a curable cancer(if you live through the treatments). She started cycles of chemo first. She has thought several times she was done with it but the tumors just aren't shrinking like they are supposed to. She won't go on to radiation until they see more improvement. Then we went to Aunt Eva's house and stayed with her for a while.Then on to the hospital. Uncle Myron is suffering from an inoperable (due to his age and physical condition) hernia. Pain, diarrhea and dehydration are what put him in the hospital. We stayed a while and as we left I held his hand and gave him a hug and a kiss. Bob shook his hand and we left. We had business in Hartington so we headed there next. When we were finished, we headed for Yankton to meet my brother and his wife for supper. Then we headed for home.
We had left Lincoln at 7:30 A.M. and it rained the whole day. Very cold with winds gusting 40 to 50 mph. When we would park in a parking lot, the pickup would actually rock from the wind. We were really afraid it might turn to ice and snow.
Saturday afternoon I got a phone call from my cousin Rose. When I heard her voice I was sure something had happened to Uncle Myron. Not so. She said, "Did you touch Dad's hand?" I thought this was weird, but I said yes when I came and when I left. She asked if Bob had touched his hand. I said he shook his hand when we left. She said, "that is what Dad had told them". (He is still pretty sharp mentally). As it turns out, he has an antibiotic infection he contacted in the hospital. You guessed it. It is contagious and passed on through "hand" contact. This (it's a long two word, unpronounceable) condition is most dangerous to someone Bob's age and the very young. She said they told them we should both call our doctors and tell them we were exposed. My understanding is, we would be in more danger if either one of us had been on certain antibiotics, which we haven't been. Bob will talk to his doctor this morning and I am just going to wait and see what she says before deciding to call mine.
Needless to say, he can only see immediate family members now, and they have to capped and gowned. And no touching! Uncle Myron and Aunt Eva have been married 62 plus years, and I betcha, she don't leave without her kiss !! She is a feisty old gal !!
An added footnote. Rose said the doctors told them, 3 million people a year contact this while hospitalised. Amazing !!!
We had left Lincoln at 7:30 A.M. and it rained the whole day. Very cold with winds gusting 40 to 50 mph. When we would park in a parking lot, the pickup would actually rock from the wind. We were really afraid it might turn to ice and snow.
Saturday afternoon I got a phone call from my cousin Rose. When I heard her voice I was sure something had happened to Uncle Myron. Not so. She said, "Did you touch Dad's hand?" I thought this was weird, but I said yes when I came and when I left. She asked if Bob had touched his hand. I said he shook his hand when we left. She said, "that is what Dad had told them". (He is still pretty sharp mentally). As it turns out, he has an antibiotic infection he contacted in the hospital. You guessed it. It is contagious and passed on through "hand" contact. This (it's a long two word, unpronounceable) condition is most dangerous to someone Bob's age and the very young. She said they told them we should both call our doctors and tell them we were exposed. My understanding is, we would be in more danger if either one of us had been on certain antibiotics, which we haven't been. Bob will talk to his doctor this morning and I am just going to wait and see what she says before deciding to call mine.
Needless to say, he can only see immediate family members now, and they have to capped and gowned. And no touching! Uncle Myron and Aunt Eva have been married 62 plus years, and I betcha, she don't leave without her kiss !! She is a feisty old gal !!
An added footnote. Rose said the doctors told them, 3 million people a year contact this while hospitalised. Amazing !!!
May 2, 2008
Tax trivia
-The Gettysburg address is 269 words, the Declaration of Independence is 1,337 words, and the Holy Bible is only 773,000 words. However, the tax law has grown from 11,400 words in 1913, to 7 million words today.
-There are at least 480 different tax forms, each with many pages of instructions. Even the easiest form, the 1040E has 33 pages in instructions, and all in fine print.
-The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year. Laid end to end, they would stretch 28 times around the earth. Nearly 300,000 trees are cut down yearly to produce the paper for all the IRS forms and instructions.
-American taxpayers spend $200 billion and 5.4 billion hours working to comply with federal taxes each year, more than it takes to produce every car, truck and van in the United States.
-The burden of compliance is the equivalent to a staff of 3 million people working full time for a year, just to comply with the taxes on individuals and businesses.
-The IRS employs 114,000 people; that's twice as many as the CIA and five times more than the FBI.
-60% of taxpayers must hire a professional to get through their own return.
-Taxes eat up 38.2% of the average family's income; that's more than for food, clothing and shelter combined.
-And that is only the federal tax--not counting state, local, property, sales tax, etc.
Just something I read and thought I would pass along.
-There are at least 480 different tax forms, each with many pages of instructions. Even the easiest form, the 1040E has 33 pages in instructions, and all in fine print.
-The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year. Laid end to end, they would stretch 28 times around the earth. Nearly 300,000 trees are cut down yearly to produce the paper for all the IRS forms and instructions.
-American taxpayers spend $200 billion and 5.4 billion hours working to comply with federal taxes each year, more than it takes to produce every car, truck and van in the United States.
-The burden of compliance is the equivalent to a staff of 3 million people working full time for a year, just to comply with the taxes on individuals and businesses.
-The IRS employs 114,000 people; that's twice as many as the CIA and five times more than the FBI.
-60% of taxpayers must hire a professional to get through their own return.
-Taxes eat up 38.2% of the average family's income; that's more than for food, clothing and shelter combined.
-And that is only the federal tax--not counting state, local, property, sales tax, etc.
Just something I read and thought I would pass along.
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