Friday, November 5, 2010

Random thoughts

It has been an interesting week.  I am in the middle of projects and so don't have a much to show.  There has been a couple things happen this week that made me think. 
I walked into a public restroom and the entire stall was tagged including the toilet seat.  I am no a tagger but I believe the purpose is to declare to every one their territory/property.  How low do you have to be to mark the place that people sit on to relieve themselves?  What it is saying when I am using the bathroom that some one has tagged?
I was at a home improvement store today buying some lumber. I also picked up some ruled squares.  I did not realize it had a security device on it.  This is not the my thought though.  As I was going to check out I noticed that there was only self check out registers open.  Shelf check out is very interesting business practice.  In short it took four cashiers and reduced them to one.  I understand the reasoning and cost saving that happens with self check out.  However I was purchasing two 1X12X8 boards and there was no lumber cart in the store.  Here I am in the self check out with these boards and my two squares.  I ring up my two squares and don't deactivate the safety device and then have to ring up the boards, not the easiest task but I was able to do it.  As I am walking out the alarm goes off.  I keep walking because I always do and they usually wave me through anyway.  The lady at the door stops me and asks to see my bag and receipt.  She literally takes three minutes to examine my receipt with four items on it!  Meanwhile I am still holding my two pieces of lumber. When she hands me back my bag she asks "Do you need any twine or a red flag?"  Nope but when purchasing large items a normal check stand would be nice. 
One of my favorite random events this week.   have a decent commute that is mostly in traffic.  I have a manual transmission so I don't like to shift a  lot.  I tend to go about 30mph when the freeway is averaging 25-35mph.  There are times where there is a decent gap between me and the next car 150-200 feet (decent when going 30mph).  There are people that think that is too much and they flip their brights on me.  It doesn't happen very often but when it does I have to laugh.  This past week had to be my favorite.  A PT Cruiser was following me and I was going 30 and traffic was ebbing and flowing like it normally does.  The Cruiser was getting really impatient and starting to tailgate.  She flipped on her brights.  The only reason I know she did this is because my side view mirror lit up.  I could not see here headlights in my rear view mirror.  So I being the nice person I am tapped on my breaks.  She was not happy with that move.  She flew into the next lane passed and cut back in front of me.  There she stayed for the next twenty miles.  Really?! Getting all bent out of shape over one car length?  If you don't like the traffic go some where else.  It is part of the lifestyle of southern California.  Patience people.

Now I have another bucket of blocks to give away.  I am going to do the guessing game in the next post but I have a "win it now" feature I want to try.  This is not going to be easy.  But first a few guidelines.  This contest is open to all in the continental USA.  I will ship the blocks.  Last week I was cleaning up my parents garage after doing some wood working and my wife asked me why chopping blocks was part of the clean up.  It was then that she realized that these block I give away are my scrap.  Thus there is not a lot of scrap firewood.  This is not a block set these piece are random shape and size.  They are belt sanded and the edges broken.  They are finished with mineral oil (food grade safe).  There are hardwoods in this scrap block set.  If your child like to throw things they can potentially hurt.  Said another way, if there is an intruder in my house I am heading for my set of blocks.  Should you throw them at your child that is your issue.  Now for the contest.
 You have until Sunday morning to e-mail me a picture/link where one of these two profiles are used in the real world.  Here is a couple of hints:  You will not get any hints from reading any post in my blog.  Second if you don't have an idea where to look do not waste a lot of time.  You only have one guess.If no one guesses correctly there will be a guess the number of blocks later.
The blocks are not done yet but they will be by the time the contest is over.

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