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Weekly Question #15: Tell Us Something Boring
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So, it turns out that we might have termites. First hint: a pile of hundreds of wings on the windowsill. At first I thought a very fat and successful spider must pluck his wings off his victims before slurping out their innards. But then I read that subterranean termites shed their wings en masse once a year. Couple this with the hollow windowsill and pile of dirt filling it, and I think we have a problem. Only ... I'm monetarily scared to call a terminator.
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I spent the day disassembling, cleaning, inspecting and media blasting a 737 aircraft component. Tomorrow I get to put masking tape on the pieces and then I'll send them to be painted.
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I found myself waving my hands like an idiot today under a sink that turned out not to be automatic. Definitely, if it's new and public and in a bathroom, you should have to touch it. Ew.
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The item: A one of kind Chinese paper cutout, seven feet long four feet tall framed. Worth $1000
The frame is damaged around the edges, the glass broken, the paper cutout misses large pieces out of it upon arrival.
I fill out the typical insurance claim and fax it to UPS...proof of insurance, but they want proof of value to validate the $1000 insurance. Does anyone know anything about art and know how to compare a one of kind Chinese paper cutout? Can't really find that kind of thing on Amazon...So I find a piece of art that is worth $1000 and write a letter explaining there is really no comparison.
I wait two weeks for UPS insurance to process the claim. I am contacted and told that UPS to pay on the claim will need an art appraiser to appraise the value of the art. Also, UPS will not pay more than $100 for an appraisal. Not sure how UPS insurance is dictating market value of appraisers but whatever...I get a very reasonable estimate, it will take $300 to pay an appraiser to determine the value of art.
I contact UPS insurance to ok the expense of the appraisal and I am told, an appraisal is not needed a repair estimate is required...Believe you me I remember stuff and I know the difference between an appraisal and a repair estimate...So I call around to several conservation places...not many to be had in the world mind you...and I get a hold of a very nice women who specializes in paper restoration...perfect.
The restoration expert says if she can get reasonable pics on email she will send an opinion via email for no charge...She sees pictures of the damages and says in her professional opinion it is beyond restoration and repair efforts would far exceed the value of the art.
I send the email to UPS insurance as a repair estimate. UPS insurance responds that an email is lacking credentials and could she send it on company letterhead. I contacted the restoration expert and told her what UPS insurance was asking...She said she would gladly put it on letter head for $135.00 it was her minimum fee for a job.
I informed UPS will be liable for the $1000 plus the $135.00 expense upon completion of the claim...They called me today and said the letter head is not needed. The payment is on its way.
Please do not use this story against me, we seldom damage anything we ship, but know that when you ship at the UPS Store in Provo Utah and something does go wrong...you have a bulldog on your side trying to make things right!
Wish I could say a day in the life, but with insurance claims its more like a month in the life.
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So, it turns out that we might have termites. First hint: a pile of hundreds of wings on the windowsill. At first I thought a very fat and successful spider must pluck his wing..."
Yikes! Amy,
As a home owner I hate it to find some household maintenance item pops up that was not part of the budget.
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Do you work directly for Boeing or a contracted company? I noticed you live in Seattle where all the Boeing action happens.
Today I decided that I'm not going to fold my underwear anymore. I'm just going to stack them flat. And if they're inside out, I'll right them when I go to wear them. Also, now get this, if I pull out a sock that is inside out, I'm simply going to wear it that way. You're messing with the wrong guy if you think I'm kidding.
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Also, now get this, if I pul..."
I learned that trick from a roommate once. Such a revelation and time saver.
As for wearing socks inside out, that one would drive me nuts.
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The item: ..."
Chinese paper cutout? You mean something like this? http://www.ecrater.com/p/18602389/uni...
So next time I need to ship something delicate by UPS, I guess I need to take a road trip to Provo.
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And yes, the taps were automatic and were activated!
..."
I've encountered that one, too, only it was the baby that got wet because there was no actual changing table and I tried to use the sink counter. Don't get me started on restrooms that don't have changing tables. I was in a toy store the other day that didn't have one, and, even though we don't use them anymore, I was upset nonetheless. Toy stores at the very least should be child friendly for all ages of children.
Nathan wrote: " Thomas wrote:I spent the day disassembling, cleaning, inspecting and media blasting a 737 aircraft component... Do you work directly for Boeing or a contracted company? I noticed you live in Se..."
I work for a repair station. We handle contracts from a number of companies, Boeing included. I do live about 5 minutes from a Boeing facility though.
Thomas wrote: "I spent the day disassembling, cleaning, inspecting and media blasting a 737 aircraft component. Tomorrow I get to put masking tape on the pieces and then I'll send them to be painted."Thomas,
The request was for boring. The work you describe sounds worthy of a Popular Mechanics profile.
Haha. If I recorded it on video and did a time lapse of the process it might look cool, but there are hours of tedious work that goes into the job.That's not to say I dislike my job, because I'm actually quite fond of it. The best part about it is the fact that I can listen to music and it makes the day seem faster.
I just got back from an eight day road trip vacation. Two of our stops were library visits, because I have a long wishlist of picture-books that I want to read that aren't available in my system, and other libraries do have many of them. So, twice, I sat down for a couple of hours in the children's room and read stacks of picture-books and took notes on them. Today I entered all those notes as brief reviews on goodreads. And I finished the job in just a couple of hours!
(I think all of your stories are interesting. I think I win most boring so far. ;)
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So were you reading the children's books for personal pleasure or for professional reasons?
just personal pleasure - had a small town library growing up and missed so many classics
I recently received a copy of a family history my cousin put together. During the 18 months surrounding my great-grandfather's death, my great-grandmother kept a journal. It was mostly simple thoughts or highlights of the day, some very sad as she realized she was soon to, and then did, become a widow. It makes me wonder if I am leaving any unintended time capsules.Cynthia
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Journals can be such powerful ways to get to know your family. I lost my dad at a young age. He was 33, the same age I am now. There have been so many times I wish he would have kept a journal so that I could have known how he viewed the world or perhaps passed on some bit of advice. It's wonderful that you have your great-grandmother's journal. Sometimes we don't think our thoughts or words are especially important, but someone after us might value them dearly.
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That is not boring...its extremely sad. I echo what Nate said about Journals bringing powerful insight into the lives of our ancestors.
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It occurred to me that the average temperature outside here in Florida is normally around 80-85.
Well played, yoga studio. I see what you did there....
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It occurred to me..."
Ha. Well played indeed. If that's the case, you might as well find an outdoor yoga class. At least with those, you catch an occasional breeze and get to enjoy nature.
Interestingly enough, I have a friend who just moved to St. Pete and goes to hot yoga classes. I wonder if you guys crossed paths. :)
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Hmm ... hot yoga in the rain. There's got to be a market for that. :P
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Perhaps this helped their decision a little:
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Okay, fair enough. I may be unintentionally sending out some subliminal gift clues with that cover.
Paul, that would be a negative result indeed. For me, reading old journals mostly results in me shaking my head at what my younger self thought the future would be like.
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Me: "What does a carburetor do?"
Applicant: "It carburates?" (points to the muffler)
Ah, the future of aviation. Some days it looks pretty dim...
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Me: "What does a carburetor do?"
Applicant: "It carburates?" (points to the muffler)
Ah, the future of aviation. Some days it looks..."
Ha. Did he appear to have ever seen any other parts of a plane's innards before?
Nathan wrote: "(Today while giving an exam to an aircraft mechanic applicant)Me: "What does a carburetor do?"
Applicant: "It carburates?" (points to the muffler)
Ah, the future of aviation. Some days it looks..."
That was awesome.
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I was able to bypass a lot of the test projects because he simply couldn't locate any of the things I was talking about.
Needless to say, someone is not getting a license today.
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Well, since this is the thread for writing about boring things, I guess people can't fault me for explaining.
So basically a carburetor meters a proper ratio of fuel for the amount of air your engine is ingesting. The ideal fuel/air mixture is the one that will burn the best based on the current air pressure. In planes, the atmospheric pressure (and density) changes a lot as we go up and down in altitude so we have controls to adjust the fuel mixture.
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Your dad would have known all about mixture control in his plane. We do call it "rich" or "lean" depending on how much or little fuel it's getting. Way to bust out the aviation lingo!
Technically since the mixing of air and fuel is known as carburetion, the carburetor does carburate, not that I think, that in anyway, he understood his own answer.
Re messages 37-41:
Well done. Mission accomplished. I am officially bored.
Cars.... yawn.
In fact the inner workings of any machine are boring as far as I'm concerned, with the possible exception of the Tardis. If anyone can explain how that works, I'd be really interested. (On a different thread, obviously.)
Well done. Mission accomplished. I am officially bored.
Cars.... yawn.
In fact the inner workings of any machine are boring as far as I'm concerned, with the possible exception of the Tardis. If anyone can explain how that works, I'd be really interested. (On a different thread, obviously.)
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I couldn't even finish reading my buddy read on Tom's Midnight Garden...which is my favourite ever time travel book...not only that, its a childrens book of just 200 pages!
I am going through a phase where I just cant focus on a good book of any kind, been that way for a long time and its why I can't take part in any book discussions.
I'm quite depressed about it because there are so many books I want to read but I cant.
So I am reverting to just playing games and watching movies (which were always my staple diet anyway)
So not only am I boring you right now but I am a truly qualified boring person (with respect to this cool group) because I'm struggling to read books :(
I have that same problem. I start books, and it's taking me forever to finish them, even the ones I like! I think mine has something to do with epilepsy, and the fact that I recently had seizures though, so hopefully it will pass soon. Meanwhile, I'm binge-watching Outlander . . . again, so it's time well spent.
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Well done for compensating with an enjoyable alternative and showing a way around a way around a difficult obstacle :) There's always a way. Hopefully, we can both get back to reading soon!
On the rare occasions when I get reader's block, I read children's books (about the level of Tom's MG or a bit easier) that are *new* to me. It's more than dipping a toe into reading, which is what short stories would be, but it's not full immersion in the sea, which would be what grown-up books would be. Another thing that worked for a GR friend was listening to a relatively 'light' audiobook.
Another friend says she found a brand-new environment to read in. IIrc, it was when she started taking the train to work, and had a long enough commute that she could get some serious pages read if she could force herself to concentrate.
Hope something helps you both, Rachel and Tej!
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Audiobooks are a nice recommendation...problem is I do have a low attention span with audiobooks and podcasts, my mind wanders off too often, lol. I'll try groove back into reading. Maybe I'll try resume Tom's Midnight Garden...so sorry to not complete the buddy read with you guys :(
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I'm on the slow reading track for Tom's Midnight Garden myself since I'm interspersing it with bedtime stories with my daughter. Some chapters beg to have another read right after it while others beg me to perfect my skim-reading-aloud skills.
The funny thing is, Tej, that I'm feeling the same thing for movies that you are for books. I just can't make myself want to watch them lately. I think I've watched maybe 1 in the 6 months besides kids movies which are requisite around here.
It takes 10 days to order an ISBN number in the UK unless you pay extra for super fast delivery. Wonder when they will come into the 21st century?
Timothy wrote: "It takes 10 days to order an ISBN number in the UK unless you pay extra for super fast delivery. Wonder when they will come into the 21st century?"Can a drone fly all the way from the UK to the USA (where I live)? And would that actually be faster?
Probably they use drones to go to Canada where ISBNs are free
Probably they use drones to go to Canada where ISBNs are free
So since Lincoln is aching for a conversation around here by trying to revive old conversation threads, let's have ourselves a conversation! What's going on in your life, people? Inquiring minds want to know.