What Irked You Today?

[peteski]

Next time buy Hanes, or Fruit of the Loom.

[NYLIBUD]

19 hours ago, slusher said:

I know everyone is tired of the Covid-19 rules and life style but it’s the only way to slow the it down...

Yes you are correct,I’ve got to admit I don’t always wear a mask at these shows.Dam things fog up my glasses,and I feel like I’m going blind,lol.But I do always wear one around the elderly,wether they have a mask on or not.Just hope things improve by the spring.

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, NYLIBUD said:

Just hope things improve by the spring.

I think that by spring, either things will have been back to normal for some time, OR we will be living in a Mad Max movie. I'm just not sure which way it's gonna go. 

[Tom Geiger]

9 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

I think that by spring, either things will have been back to normal for some time, OR we will be living in a Mad Max movie. I'm just not sure which way it's gonna go. 

Remember Y2K?  I had a friend who was living the fantasy that the world would implode over the computers crashing. He had his Mad Max thing going. He was collecting supplies and talking about how he’d make his way in this new sad world.

He would lecture me to no end because I wouldn’t prepare. We eventually broke off contact, so I never knew how he reacted when nothing happened!  

Ive thought about him during this whole pandemic. He must be in his glory!

[madhorseman]

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

Remember Y2K?  I had a friend who was living the fantasy that the world would implode over the computers crashing. He had his Mad Max thing going. He was collecting supplies and talking about how he’d make his way in this new sad world.

He would lecture me to no end because I wouldn’t prepare. We eventually broke off contact, so I never knew how he reacted when nothing happened!  

Ive thought about him during this whole pandemic. He must be in his glory!

Yup, remember it well. And we all made it through just fine, didn't we? 

[slusher]

We never know what the future holds!

[Tom Geiger]

10 hours ago, madhorseman said:

Never mind 1984....

[Danno]

What 'Irked' me today? And every one of the previous 279?  2020, that's what.  

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[stitchdup]

11 minutes ago, Danno said:

What 'Irked' me today? And every one of the previous 279?  2020, that's what.  

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I saw a conspiracy theory to describe 2020. It said that someone in the future has made time travel possible and they keep going back to try and fix 2020 but inadvertantly make it worse every time they fix something, hence murder hornets dissappearance. Its probably the most believable conspiracy theory I've seen about it

[metalhead]

Drag races cancelled yet again because of rain. I've done missed four out of five races because of weather. Praying for everyone in Louisiana. The hurricane is tracking just east of where the last one came through. I think it was 15 miles to the east or so. It doesn't look good.

[TarheelRick]

On 10/4/2020 at 3:00 PM, Snake45 said:

That's the way I feel about any male who doesn't carry some kind of pocketknife. How on Earth can you expect to get through your day without a pocketknife? 

I used to carry one, but driving a school bus it is strictly forbidden.  A pocketknife on school grounds is considered to be a deadly weapon and arrest could turn into a felony, so my Schrade stays at the house.  Last year a kid was expelled for the remainder of the year because he had one of those little penknives on his key chain.

[stitchdup]

When i was at school we still had a metalworking class. One of the tasks we had to complete to pass was to make a basic knife (not forged, just filled from scraps). Unfortunatelly the school rules changed and having a knife was now a suspendable offence but it was a required part of the class still. Some of us had put a lot of work into making them as christmas gifts for our parents to display but when we tried to take them home we all got them taken off us and the head teacher ordered them all to be destroyed. My dad went to the school and demanded they be returned to the students as it really was quite upsetting to have a punishment for completing our school work. I dont know what that headteacher was thinking, they still had to make knives the following year only with a 45mm blade instead of the 150mm we were making

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

I used to carry one, but driving a school bus it is strictly forbidden.  A pocketknife on school grounds is considered to be a deadly weapon and arrest could turn into a felony, so my Schrade stays at the house.  Last year a kid was expelled for the remainder of the year because he had one of those little penknives on his key chain.

Do you take your Schrade when you go out shopping and elsewhere in real life? 

My Victorinox Swiss Army Adventurer and CRKT M16 go everywhere I go, except of course controlled areas such as courthouses and airport security areas. 

[espo]

5 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

I used to carry one, but driving a school bus it is strictly forbidden.  A pocketknife on school grounds is considered to be a deadly weapon and arrest could turn into a felony, so my Schrade stays at the house.  Last year a kid was expelled for the remainder of the year because he had one of those little penknives on his key chain.

I heard somewhere  they were getting their BVDs in a bunch over nail clippers as well. 

[DonW]

2 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Do you take your Schrade when you go out shopping and elsewhere in real life? 

My Victorinox Swiss Army Adventurer and CRKT M16 go everywhere I go, except of course controlled areas such as courthouses and airport security areas. 

I've lost a few Swiss army knives at customs, I only remember that I always carry one when it's too late! 

[Tom Geiger]

2 hours ago, DonW said:

I've lost a few Swiss army knives at customs, I only remember that I always carry one when it's too late! 

Which is why I don't carry one at all.  During normal times I travel a lot on business.

I used to run a lot of remote conferences. I would send the printing ahead to a local Staples, plus a supply order.  I would usually get desk supplies like office scissors.   I also had all the swag... shirts, bags, awards..  shipped directly to the hotel.  At the end, I'd prepare large boxes to ship back and I'd drop anything I couldn't fly home with in the boxes, including the scissors.

I got home from one of the conferences held in Florida and dumped the contents of my carry on computer bag on my bed... the scissors popped out!  Yes, that bag went through the metal detector and all!

[Snake45]

I used the Phillips screwdriver on my Victorinox today to disassemble (and reassemble) a diecast for detailing, when my regular Phillips bit wouldn't fit. It was a lifesaver. 

I also used the blade to cut the tape on another diecast's box and free it from its cardboard and plastic sarcophagus. (There was tape on the inside packaging, too, holding it in--first time I've seen that!) 

[Tom Geiger]

Verizon Fios has me peeved... they have loaded a new TV interface that changes the function of some of the controller buttons!  After all these years I don’t even look at the controller!  I just know where everything is!  Now I gotta relearn everything... the very reason I didn’t seek a new provider!

[Danno]

21 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Which is why I don't carry one at all.  During normal times I travel a lot on business.

I used to run a lot of remote conferences. I would send the printing ahead to a local Staples, plus a supply order.  I would usually get desk supplies like office scissors.   I also had all the swag... shirts, bags, awards..  shipped directly to the hotel.  At the end, I'd prepare large boxes to ship back and I'd drop anything I couldn't fly home with in the boxes, including the scissors.

I got home from one of the conferences held in Florida and dumped the contents of my carry on computer bag on my bed... the scissors popped out!  Yes, that bag went through the metal detector and all!

There's a person I know very, very well.*  He was a fire investigator who traveled all over the Rocky Mountains region.

That person once traveled into the remote mountains of Wyoming to investigate a suspected arson (house) in the middle of the winter, a few feet of snow on the ground and the only access was by 10 miles of snowmobile ride. The "suspect" provided snowmobiles to travel to the scene from the road closure blockade. Needless to say, the fire investigator and his partner traveled "heavy." 

After the day's work at the scene, the "suspect" and the investigators snowmobiled back to their 4x4 SUVs and went their separate ways. (Yes, it was an arson.) While returning to civilization, the investigator was dispatched to immediately go to the Denver airport to catch a commercial flight to South Dakota. Time was tight but the investigator managed to race to and through the airport, board the plane and arrive in Rapid City.

At his hotel that night, the investigator unpacked his camera bag to charge up batteries. That's when he discovered his "heavy" backup was in the bottom of the bag beneath his camera, where it had been during the snowmobile excursion.  

Having somehow passed through TSA security without detection, the investigator was faced with a dilemma:  To return to Colorado, did he declare the 9mm fire investigation equipment and explain how it accompanied him to South Dakota, and risk federal charges, or, did he replace it in the camera bag and hope for the same fluke to repeat itself and pray for the best, or what? 

The next day presented a unique solution:  the South Dakota fire was also an arson and required collection of debris samples for lab testing. The investigator went to a paint store, bought a carton of clean new paint cans in a fresh carton; placed evidence samples in five of the cans and his fire investigation protective equipment (and ammo) in the sixth can. All the cans were marked as evidence and sealed with evidence tape.

At the Rapid City airport, a TSA officer challenged the carton even though they cleared the XRay, but investigator explained that the cans could not be opened for inspection because that would destroy the evidence seals and then the officer would have to go to court to explain to the judge why he insisted on contaminating the evidence. He decided to let investigator pass.

After uneventfully completing the rest of that trip, the investigator breathed a sigh of relief at home, but was much more - extremely - careful about inventorying his camera bag before flying after that!

* Even though the statutes of limitation expired decades ago, I decline to identify myself as the fire investigator.  Live with it!  ?

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[Tom Geiger]

Neat story Dan!  
My wife and I were headed to Aruba for vacation via Newark International Airport. While TSA searched us head to toe, just short of looking in my underwear, we were cleared.

Right behind us were two clean cut young guys, one an Irish redhead, the other of Hispanic heritage. They and their bags were marched off somewhere. 

We had allowed plenty of time so we had time to eat breakfast at one of the restaurants at the gate. I had never treated myself to steak and eggs. They bring me a serrated STEAK KNIFE!  

We ate and got on our plane. Just as they were closing the door, those two earlier mentioned gentlemen ran onto the plane out of breath and sat across from us.  I talked with them and TSA gave them the third degree for over an hour, almost missing the flight.  The clincher? They were both New Jersey State Troopers!  They were at our hotel so we drank with them all week.

[Danno]

That’s funny, Tom!

When I first started in law enforcement, I was in the vice-narcotics unit. I was young,  long-haired, and wore “hippy” style clothing. Think Serpico.

I got a kick out of cranky, tightly wound old geezers who would scowl at me in public places and mutter angry epithets at me. Occasionally someone would say something like ‘never a cop around when you need one.’  I was always tempted to say, ‘here I am, what do you need?’  But, of course I couldn’t break cover just to educate someone about judging books by their covers.

Every once in a while, though, some yahoo would commit a felony in front of me and it was necessary to intervene. It was always amusing to see the reactions of both victims and criminals when they realized the “Mod Squad” was on the scene!

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[espo]

When I was very young I worked turning wrenches and waiting customers at the station pumps. The owner I was working for at the time was very soft spoken, and a great guy to work for, and never saw him as anything but very open with everyone. He had me work on a late model Pontiac Le Mans and we were putting on new tires and put the best one in the trunk for a spare. He was mumbling  in my ear about something in the trunk and to not look around in there and close it ASAP. This is a guy who would look you straight in the eye when he spoke to you so his actions seemed funny to me at the time. I went about doing the switch out with the trunk and spare and the only thing that I noticed, remember I'm told not to look around, was a blanket over something in the center of the trunk floor. Only after the customer left did he ask me if I had seen anything in the trunk. I mentioned the blanket but said he had told me to get in and out of the trunk real fast, not something you would usually worry about. That is when he told me the customer was with the FBI and he had some weapons under the blanket. He had identified himself to the owner when they first met and had shown him his ID and Badge and gave him a number to call at the local FBI office if he needed to verify who he was before he told him what was in the trunk. The guy just looked like any other guy on the street, but I'm sure that is the point. 

[Mike999]

During the carjacking fad in Los Angeles years ago, a guy saw a well-dressed couple who appeared to be out on a date. They looked like an easy mark and he tried to force them out of the car and steal it.

They were a couple out on a date.  The guy was an LAPD officer and his date was a female Deputy Sheriff.  Both were carrying their off-duty service weapons.  So that was one of the shortest carjack attempts in history.  

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, Mike999 said:

During the carjacking fad in Los Angeles years ago, a guy saw a well-dressed couple who appeared to be out on a date. They looked like an easy mark and he tried to force them out of the car and steal it.

They were a couple out on a date.  The guy was an LAPD officer and his date was a female Deputy Sheriff.  Both were carrying their off-duty service weapons.  So that was one of the shortest carjack attempts in history.  

Call me an old softie, but I just love a Happy Ending!