So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

Not exactly trivial,*and "ticked off" doesn't describe it, but I really hate coming home from work to find that my hot water heater has exploded and flooded my cellar. And the stinkin' thing is only five years old.

Although I should have seen it coming, the same thing happened last week to the water heater at work. Let's hear it for modern workmanship and quality control.

 

[2jakes]

Not exactly trivial,*and "ticked off" doesn't describe it, but I really hate coming home from work to find that my hot water heater has exploded and flooded my cellar. And the stinkin' thing is only five years old.

Although I should have seen it coming, the same thing happened last week to the water heater at work. Let's hear it for modern workmanship and quality control.

Sincerely sorry to hear about your heater problems. I would’ve offered to have you joined me for a game of tennis to
release the frustrations but I don’t believe you would find that much useful.

As far as modern workmanship & quality...

Lately what ever product I buy, there are no instructions like in the past. Everything has to be done via a link on the
internet. And at times is very difficult to ascertain the right model.

And nothing is simple any longer to fix & the quality of material today..”.sux big time” !

Pardon my french.

 

[p51]

Not exactly trivial,*and "ticked off" doesn't describe it, but I really hate coming home from work to find that my hot water heater has exploded and flooded my cellar. And the stinkin' thing is only five years old.

Although I should have seen it coming, the same thing happened last week to the water heater at work. Let's hear it for modern workmanship and quality control.

Same thing happened a few years ago to us. We were home at the time and heard a very loud pop. Only until I walked into the garage and saw the puddle did I figure out what it was.
We're each lucky that neither were launched through the roof, though, as that's happened top a few people. The reaction can be violent, much like boiler explosions that happened with sad frequency in the days of steam...

 

[2jakes]

As my Airborne Black Hats (Instructors) used to tell us to get the lines tightened up... "Make your Buddy smile Boys, Make them grin"

Crotch to butt, almost your face in their skull.
Still remember it 20+ yrs later & it pisses people off in the store when I step up to their heels in line. But at least I don't do it with carts, too many are doing it to me lately so I've had to get aggressive with them, I'll slam my heel into the front of the cart causing it buck backwards, or I'll slam my basket into it again causing it to buck back. Sorry, I don't care if it hurts them, I have heel issues & I don't appreciate a metal cart in my shoes while I'm wearing them. Plus its eating the back of my leather shoes. (grrr)

So trivial, yet it really ticks you off .

With regards to the size of the electric carts in the stores today!

You ever wonder when will it be required to have license plates, a safety sticker
or a special driver’s license to operate these things?
They are getting bigger every day ! :eeek:

In the future:

Speed Limit signs posted on the corner of the aisles.
Police issuing speeding violations.

 

[ChiTownScion]

My dentists are great.

Mine as well. At the risk of sounding sexist, I prefer female dentists. The ones I have seen have smaller hands and better fine motor skills.

My regular endodontist is male, but combines great skill with state of the art equipment. One thing that my eighty-something mother in law and I agree upon: his root canal treatments are painless.

On one occasion, my wife tried to cost cut and sent me to an endodontist within our insurance network. Ex- military, and a damned butcher. He so ****-ed off my general dentist that she sent me to my regular guy to "fine tune" the work. Last time we'll ever try to penny pinch in that regard.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Not exactly trivial,*and "ticked off" doesn't describe it, but I really hate coming home from work to find that my hot water heater has exploded and flooded my cellar. And the stinkin' thing is only five years old.

Although I should have seen it coming, the same thing happened last week to the water heater at work. Let's hear it for modern workmanship and quality control.

Is a tankless heater an option for a replacement? We have one at our vacation home, and we're planning on replacing the water heater at the main residence with one. A bit pricier but we're hoping it'll save money in the long run.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I actually had one of those when I first moved in here -- it was part of the ancient furnace, and I loved it. But that furnace developed a crack in the fire box and was leaking CO so I had to get rid of it. I've been thru two electric water heaters since then, and will be starting on number three as soon as I can get a new one in here.

Meanwhile, I'm heating up water on the stove for a bath. Born living in a cold water flat, ended up in a cold water house. Full circle.

 

[sheeplady]

I actually had one of those when I first moved in here -- it was part of the ancient furnace, and I loved it. But that furnace developed a crack in the fire box and was leaking CO so I had to get rid of it. I've been thru two electric water heaters since then, and will be starting on number three as soon as I can get a new one in here.

Meanwhile, I'm heating up water on the stove for a bath. Born living in a cold water flat, ended up in a cold water house. Full circle.

I grew up without hot water for a decent amount of my childhood, combined with a woodstove. (We actually *had* an electric stove with one of the four burners working occasionally if you jiggled it just right, but wood was free and electric was not.) Cold water just doesn't get the soap out of anything- laundry, hair, dishes, etc. And no matter how much water you heat up, it's always colder than out of a tank when you put it in the tub.

To this day I sometimes catch myself standing in the shower enjoying the hot water. Something my husband, who has always been able to turn on a tap and get hot water out, can't possibly understand.

The nice thing about vintage hair is not having to wash it every day, but that makes hair washing day critical. If the shower is going to fail, it will be on hair washing day. If the motor on the washer goes, it will be when there are two cloth diapers left, etc.

 

[Stearmen]

Mine as well. At the risk of sounding sexist, I prefer female dentists. The ones I have seen have smaller hands and better fine motor skills.

My regular endodontist is male, but combines great skill with state of the art equipment. One thing that my eighty-something mother in law and I agree upon: his root canal treatments are painless.

On one occasion, my wife tried to cost cut and sent me to an endodontist within our insurance network. Ex- military, and a damned butcher. He so ****-ed off my general dentist that she sent me to my regular guy to "fine tune" the work. Last time we'll ever try to penny pinch in that regard.

Back in the late 80s, I had a great big Dentist, he was a wrestler in Collage. Turned out, after I got over the shock of seeing him for the first time, he really had a gentle touch! Unfortunately he moved, but luckily, a friend recommended my current Dentist. On a funny side note, my current Dentists oldest son also went into Dentistry, and practiced with him before moving and starting his own practice. Now, his youngest son will be joining him, and taking over the practice, so I am set for the rest of my life!

 

[p51]

I grew up without hot water for a decent amount of my childhood, combined with a woodstove.

To this day I sometimes catch myself standing in the shower enjoying the hot water. Something my husband, who has always been able to turn on a tap and get hot water out, can't possibly understand.

Same with me and AC. I grew up in the deep south and NEVER had central air. We only ever had wall units, and only then when I was about 12 or 13. Nobody can believe I had no AC of any type for much of my childhood in that kind of climate...
So, I eventually settled down over 3000 miles away, in a climate with very gentle summers in comparison. Most houses here don't have AC but we got a heat pump a few years ago in a rough summer for us. My wife is from Oregon so she doesn't know what it's like 3-4 months into a hard summer with 100+ temps and humidity to match.
So every now and then, I'll stand at a vent, marveling at it cold air. I moved into this new home at the age of 32, the very first place I've ever lived that had real central AC.

 

[swanson_eyes]

I grew up with central air running 24 hours a day in summer. I was in the desert. No AC and you might get heatstroke. Now I have a wall unit in the living room, so the bedroom gets too warm. I need to get a tower fan for the hallway.

 

[2jakes]

I grew up without hot water for a decent amount of my childhood, combined with a woodstove. (We actually *had* an electric stove with one of the four burners working occasionally if you jiggled it just right, but wood was free and electric was not.) Cold water just doesn't get the soap out of anything- laundry, hair, dishes, etc. And no matter how much water you heat up, it's always colder than out of a tank when you put it in the tub.

To this day I sometimes catch myself standing in the shower enjoying the hot water. Something my husband, who has always been able to turn on a tap and get hot water out, can't possibly understand.

I thought I was the only one who did that in the shower because I also did without hot water when I was a kid. But worse then that,
was the outdoor plumbing (outhouse) when I was 2 -3 years. I was so terrified of falling in. I had nightmares about it.
And in the hot summer, the odor would be *yucky*.

My grandma had one rotating electric fan in the bedroom but that was it. I slept on the front porch
with my cousin. To this day, I still call her “Yaya”. I couldn’t pronounce her name ( Oralia).
The house had a roofed front porch. And the skeeters never bothered me like today.

I recall going inside to my neighbors bedroom which was equipped with an A/C.
Her husband was in the Air Force from the North & was not accustomed to the heat.
It was cold & uncomfortable, I was not used to this.
She would bake cookies which was a treat for me.

Today, I need the A/C to be comfortable, but I don’t set it too cold.

 

[tonyb]

I grew up with a stepdad who was of the mindset that if a little bit of something was good, more of it was better. This was most true of air conditioning. If it was 102 outside, he did his damnedest to get the indoor temperature into the 60s. Thermal shock, man. I'm surprised the glass in my spectacles didn't crack when I walked indoors.

 

[p51]

As for warm showers, when I was in the military and would come in out of the field, I would often take a really long hot shower. Not the same thing, but I never lost my appreciation for heated water based on that.

I grew up with a stepdad who was of the mindset that if a little bit of something was good, more of it was better. This was most true of air conditioning. If it was 102 outside, he did his damnedest to get the indoor temperature into the 60s. Thermal shock, man. I'm surprised the glass in my spectacles didn't crack when I walked indoors.

I was at a WW2 spectator re-enactment in New Orleans in June of 92 and they housed some of us in dorms on the campus of the University of new Orleans. They kept it cold enough to hang meat inside, and when we'd walk outside, it was like walking into a hot tub through some kind of force field. I lived in Florida at the time and even then it was pretty tough to take. We recited a lot of 'Biloxi Blues' lines about the heat, the most common was, "It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kinda hot..."
I tell people all the time that I got a commission in the Army to escape the climate in Florida, which I must admit was on the list of motivations.

 

[tonyb]

Having lived in (usually) cool and comfortable Seattle for a few decades, I quite enjoyed the novelty of hot weather. Although I clearly recall a July mid morning in Sacramento, when I stepped out of my darkened and air-conditioned motel room into the glare and what must have been nearly 100-degree air. It was like being hit with a shovel. I had to steel myself for the one-block walk to a corner convenience store.

 

[p51]

Having lived in (usually) cool and comfortable Seattle for a few decades, I quite enjoyed the novelty of hot weather. Although I clearly recall a July mid morning in Sacramento, when I stepped out of my darkened and air-conditioned motel room into the glare and what must have been nearly 100-degree air. It was like being hit with a shovel. I had to steel myself for the one-block walk to a corner convenience store.

I live between you and Portland, so I get your point. I've lived in the area since 98 so I've long lost my ability to handle hot/humid weather. This summer has been pretty warm in the Pacific NW, but it's still no match for the summers growing up in Florida.
I went to Sacramento in 2005 to see the RR museum there and had the same experience you did. It was 102 out the first day I was there, when I walked out of the pizza place for lunch in old town Sacramento, into almost blinding sun and crushing (dry) heat. I'd been in the museum from when it opened to then, so I was surprised at how I was baking outside.
I've spent my fair share of time in deserts, too, and I hate that climate almost as much as the heat and humidity of the South.

 

[basbol13]

Yeah I know what that's like. Sleeping 8 in a 3 room shack in northern WI. Dad had to go deer hunting in off season to feed us. Yeah and the outdoor plumbing, and how about 30 below and in the middle of the night with no electricity and a kerosene lamp stumbling to the outhouse? Or worse using the bucket, and later on having to empty it? I'm talking about late 1950s.

 

[2jakes]

Yeah I know what that's like. Sleeping 8 in a 3 room shack in northern WI. Dad had to go deer hunting in off season to feed us. Yeah and the outdoor plumbing, and how about 30 below and in the middle of the night with no electricity and a kerosene lamp stumbling to the outhouse? Or worse using the bucket, and later on having to empty it? I'm talking about late 1950s.

In a way, having experienced all of what has been mentioned. I can appreciate things the way they are now.

You mentioned a kerosene lamp & that reminded me of a period when the only light at night was a small kerosene on
the kitchen table. It was a glowing green color. I wondered why my folks didn’t turn on the electric light switch.

I was 2-3 & had no idea or concept that there existed an electric or gas company !


Btw: Is that Lester Joseph Gillis on the avatar ?

 

[Stearmen]

Same with me and AC. I grew up in the deep south and NEVER had central air. We only ever had wall units, and only then when I was about 12 or 13. Nobody can believe I had no AC of any type for much of my childhood in that kind of climate...
So, I eventually settled down over 3000 miles away, in a climate with very gentle summers in comparison. Most houses here don't have AC but we got a heat pump a few years ago in a rough summer for us. My wife is from Oregon so she doesn't know what it's like 3-4 months into a hard summer with 100+ temps and humidity to match.
So every now and then, I'll stand at a vent, marveling at it cold air. I moved into this new home at the age of 32, the very first place I've ever lived that had real central AC.

That's funny on the humidity! One summer, when my Grandmother came to visit, she complained that the kitchen was 90 degrees. My mother said to her, "oh Mom, it's not like Iowa 90 with 90% humidity," my Grand mother, who was no nonsense after raising seven kids, just said in a very stern voice, "90 degrees is 90 degrees and that's hot!" My Mother went out and bought an air conditioner that afternoon.

 

[basbol13]

In a way, having experienced all of what has been mentioned. I can appreciate things the way they are now.

You mentioned a kerosene lamp & that reminded me of a period when the only light at night was a small kerosene on
the kitchen table. It was a glowing green color. I wondered why my folks didn’t turn on the electric light switch.

I was 2-3 & had no idea or concept that there existed an electric or gas company !


Btw: Is that Lester Joseph Gillis on the avatar ?

The reason for the kerosene lamp cause no $$$$ no to electricity. Dad worked on a turkey farm.
Very astute, it's Lester Gills all 5'4" 133 lbs. but definitely someone you didn't mess with.