The Coffee House

[CherylL]

So its a never a dull moment in my house. I swear the universe doesn't want me to sleep at night.

I have hard wired smoke/carbon detectors - its building code to have them or whatever

Well it went off for no reason at 12am and then again at 2:20am. Its been going off randomly which tells me they need to be replaced as they do have an effective lifespan but I don't think they are supposed to just go off like that scaring the crap out of you while you sleep unless there is an actual smoke or carbon monoxide present. Normally it talks, says which what has been detector and which detector detected it as they are are connected and the LED on them go from green to red. But this time, doesn't talk at all and the light stays green. From the manual its suppose to make a random chirp noise indicating it reached end of life, apparently it doesn't work lol.

A trip to the hardware store here we come...

So needless to say, I am

Ours are hardwired in and they go off at 2am. Starting talking to each other. We replaced all of them after 10 years and have only gone off once since due to low battery. Spider webs or dust could be a culprit too. The pups get freaked out!

 

[smoke665]

Every now and then, life's irritations can turn amusing. Wrong numbers seem to come when I'm in the middle of something, as just happened this morning, when an overly irate elderly woman called the house phone.

Me: Hello
Caller: (very gruff) WHO IS THIS?
Me: You dialed the number who did you call?
Caller: I know who the **** I dialed, this is my deceased husband's number and you aren't him.
Me: Ma'am I've had this number over 17yrs. Are you sure you didn't miss-dial?
Caller: NO I DIDN'T MISS-DIAL. I'm looking at the phone book right now it says W****** R**** XXX-XXX-XXXX, (my number)
Me: (tiring of her) So if you knew "who" you dialed, why did you ask Who Is This?
Caller: Because I want to know how you got my dead husband's phone number and got it listed in the phone book.
Me: (the devil in me came out) I guess you've caught me. It was all part of an elaborate plot, I didn't really die. I got tired of living with such a grouchy old woman, so I faked my death, had my voice altered, changed my name, and started living a happy life free of you!

I hung up midstream on the string of the not so nice words she began using. I know I shouldn't have done it, because the woman was likely having mental issues, and somewhere, family members are probably right now listening to her tell them her husband is still alive!!!

 

[snowbear]

The area code for part of North Carolina is 919. On some of the older touch tone phones, if you hold down a button too long, it would double dial. I don't know how many times we had someone trying to call NC and would hold the buttons a bit too loong, especially the second number (1) and call 911. Then argue that they didn't do it.

I often wished I could say this: "Hold on, please ... No, I just looked - I'm still in the 9-1-1 center in Maryland, not North Carolina."

 

[SquarePeg]

@nerwin Been there, done that. Our alarm system is hardwired, but the smoke detectors have individual battery backups, which generally start chirping around 2am. If you bypass them the control panel starts chirping. I generally keep extra batteries, but there's been a couple time when I had to make emergency runs to Walmart in the wee hours of the morning. Walmart at 3 am is a whole new strange world.

Best episode of Modern Family is when Phil is going crazy trying to figure out which smoke detector is chirping. It drives him insane and he ends up changing the batteries in all of them only to find out that when they replaced them earlier that year the dopey son threw all the old ones up in the attic

 

[snowbear]

I just snapped the shutter on the 1/2-day Recreational Kayaking Fundamentals course. Now to decide if I want to take the 'yak with me. We're staying fairly close to a slow-moving river.

 

[Digger...]

Lovely set of images! Have you offered Mrs. Magpie a rebate on her rent to try and woo her back to your yard?

Ah i can't be angry at her, but i am sad that i wont be able to sit on the front bench and see the babys hatch on there 1st day. I'd sit out there and click with my mouth and she'd quickly fly down get a feed and get straight back up there to keep the eggs warm.

So been kind of imprinting myself on to them from an early age, thats why there so friendly. But yeah im gonna be anxious about that now.

If i can get to hand feed that's a win but i strive to get them jumping up on me for a feed, thats the main goal and fun.

 

[nerwin]

Well I turned off the smoke detector circuit in my electrical panel and unplugged them for tonight. Hopefully nothing bad happens while I sleep but you know Murphy's law....

Going to go to Lowe's or Home Depot Saturday and get some new ones.

As Billy Mays says, "But wait, there's more!"

My nephew tried using the water function on the refrigerator a couple weekends ago and it wasent working and I'm like hmm and kinda forgot about it and decided to take a look at it today and removed the rear panel of the fridge and had someone push the lever for the water and I got sprayed! There's a hole in one of the water lines

It's in a terrible spot, right next to electrical wires. Luckily the ice maker runs on a different line and that seems to be fine. The line for the water would be costly to replace and quite a chore. So now I'm looking at just getting a whole dang new fridge! This one is from 2010 so probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a new one that's more efficient and quieter too.

It's always something.

I also spent the entire day grading my driveway, it's smooth now. No more pot holes for now haha. I dug it down quite a bit almost to the gravel layer and then smoothed out the driveway mix, also cut down the sides of the drive way a little bit and filled in some low spots...hoping it helps with water. But we shall see.

The UPS guy showed up just as I finished and he liked how smooth my driveway is now. So my driveway is UPS approved!

 

[Digger...]

It's been really difficult transitioning into a new stage of my life. I never thought I'd ever give up photography but here I am but deep down there's relief and some pressure lifted but it doesn't make it any easier selling camera equipment and my computer that I've worked hard for to own. But I can't just let it sit and collect dust that its been for months. I'd rather use the money to do something else that will benefit my life more appropriately right now.

I can say that it's pretty weird not taking photos anymore, I still get the urge when I go out hiking that my instincts is to take photos but that's a habit after 15+ years of photography but at the same time it's nice to just enjoy the world that you see with your own eyes instead always being behind the camera. Its something I haven't experienced in a long time, it almost feels like you're naked lol.

What's the saying? When a door closes, another one opens?

Gonna miss all of y'all. I'll try to stick around for a while. Photography as a hobby maybe not be a priority for me anymore but its always gonna be part of me. It's who I am but I also recognized that its not longer making me happy so my priority is finding something that makes me feel whole again.

You gots pets to keep ya company ect? Yes depression sucks, hard to get out of rut sometimes, but once your out things get better for the most part. I know this all to well.

Rocky Balboa once said, But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

What are your other interests that keep you busy?

 

[Digger...]

Had a lazy inside day with the boys...

 

[smoke665]

It's always something

With a house there is. We completed construction on ours in November 2006, we got almost 10 yrs without trouble. Since then it's been something every year. Maybe the key is to sell and build a new one every 10yrs?

 

[snowbear]

I'm liking that globe, @Digger...

 

[jeffashman]

Well I turned off the smoke detector circuit in my electrical panel and unplugged them for tonight. Hopefully nothing bad happens while I sleep but you know Murphy's law....

Going to go to Lowe's or Home Depot Saturday and get some new ones.

As Billy Mays says, "But wait, there's more!"

My nephew tried using the water function on the refrigerator a couple weekends ago and it wasent working and I'm like hmm and kinda forgot about it and decided to take a look at it today and removed the rear panel of the fridge and had someone push the lever for the water and I got sprayed! There's a hole in one of the water lines

It's in a terrible spot, right next to electrical wires. Luckily the ice maker runs on a different line and that seems to be fine. The line for the water would be costly to replace and quite a chore. So now I'm looking at just getting a whole dang new fridge! This one is from 2010 so probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a new one that's more efficient and quieter too.

It's always something.

I also spent the entire day grading my driveway, it's smooth now. No more pot holes for now haha. I dug it down quite a bit almost to the gravel layer and then smoothed out the driveway mix, also cut down the sides of the drive way a little bit and filled in some low spots...hoping it helps with water. But we shall see.

The UPS guy showed up just as I finished and he liked how smooth my driveway is now. So my driveway is UPS approved!

We have decided that the next fridge we get will by a plain, simple, no-frills fridge with just a freezer and fridge, no water and no icemaker and NO goldern TV in the door... Seriously, it keeps food cold and frozen food frozen, and doesn't need to talk to NASA or make fresh churned butter... although that wouldn't be a bad thing, come to think of it...

 

[Digger...]

I'm liking that globe, @Digger...

Thats my favourite lamp, it's got a nice warm glow for night time. It's relaxing light like campfire light.

Can't stand cool white light at night time, what light do you like at night time?

 

[jeffashman]

Thats my favourite lamp, it's got a nice warm glow for night time. It's relaxing light like campfire light.

Can't stand cool white light at night time, what light do you like at night time?

I have a sun lamp that I can set to a nice bright winter blues beating light or a nice soft orange light similar to what you are describing. Always nice to have a low light option. I use smart lightbulbs in the bedroom, so I can set the color to orange and 10% brightness, or green, or blue, or cyan, or magenta, or whatever...

 

[jeffashman]

Happy Friday Hosers! It's finally the weekend! Me an' Elijah Craig are going to chill this evening... not too much, though...

Well, I done gone an' done did it! After looking at the offerings, I ordered the Sony RX10 M4 from Amazon. I found a refurbished (open box) one for a good price, which allowed me to get a 128GB memory card, lens hood, lens cap, and extra batteries as well. And an extended warranty, just in case, since its a refurb. I also upgraded my iPhone 13 Pro to an iPhone 15 Plus, because my eyes and fingers need the extra real estate, and a tablet won't fit in my pocket... I came close to emptying my Fidelity portfolio, but not entirely. I kept a penny stock from a company that owns several lithium mines in hopes that they'll gain a little traction, but who knows.