The week before last, the detonation of a mousetrap in the kitchen woke me up in the night. There was a little commotion for 20-30 seconds afterwards (which is perfectly normal) and then it was silent so I went back to sleep. When I got up in the morning and turned on the kitchen light, there was this mouse running slowly (for a mouse) in a two-three foot diameter circle on the kitchen floor. It didn’t seem at all concerned by my presence. So I went to the bathroom, hoping it would go away by the time I got back. I came back and it was still traveling in circles. So I grabbed the kitchen tongs and drowned it in the kitchen sink. (I hate having to do that but sometimes you’ve got to.) One of the traps was sprung but there was no mouse in it. Brain damage?
A couple of years ago I saw a mouse ROLL (lenghthwise, not somersault-wise) from under the utility closet door in the bathroom.
Hey, I know Arkansas worries about snow like Chris Christie worries about carbs, but a lot of the country is in a cold snap.
Look, I don’t regret chopping wood. Its good honest work and when I burn it for my family on really cold days or special occasions, I can take some pride in it.
Whether its the warm glow that draws the family together or the gentle scent of the wood I can’t say.
Its more of a sense of pride in accomplishment than vindictiveness. I don’t think anyone adds wood to a fire thinking, “I remember that piece of wood! Burn… Burn, you Rat-Bastard…!”
When I was a young kid, maybe 8 or 10 years old, I was riding in the family car headed west on Interstate 80, daytime. In the eastbound lanes, crossing my field of vision, was a naked, laughing man on the hood of a car that was driving at interstate speeds. My dad muttered “hippie” underneath his breath, and that settled that.
I was heading south on I-45 in the Houston 'burbs one day when I saw a motorcycle overtaking on the adjacent feeder road. He must have been going at least 70 in a 45 zone, but the real item of note was that the rider was standing up on top of the seat, with his arms stretched out like Jesus. Who he was likely to meet very soon, if he kept that shit up.
I could go on all day about odd crap I saw when I lived in Paris, but a random event that springs to mind was the time I was walking down a sidewalk near Gare du Nord, when a set of double doors opens up in a building just ahead and a man walks out, leading a horse on a rope. The structure was definitely not a stable.
Every once in a while, my internal jukebox will start - audio hallucinations which sound exactly like a 60’s “portable record player” being played one or two rooms over.
I can’t start/stop it, but sometimes I can program it.
Weird, but enjoyable.
I know of no reason or even mechanism by which this could exist, so it qualifies as a WTH?
Early one morning on my way to work I saw a skateboarder in the middle of the street, going uphill and coming straight towards me; I swerved and he swerved. I don’t think I was asleep at the time but------
Yesterday coming out of the Walmart. There was a guy pushing a shopping cart with what I thought were a couple of kids in it. When he got closer I saw that it was one 20-something adult woman in her pajamas.
I posted this in its own thread, but then realized it was better-suited to this thread instead of its own (I’ve asked a mod to lock that thread).
ahem
I’m currently waiting for my current POS car to quit on me, so I hit up Craigslist to see if I can find my next POS. The first ad I spotted was advertising a 1987 Toyota Camry for $800. I read through the ad, and the seller seems to be quite upfront with the issues the car has. Then I got to the next-to-last paragraph:
"Every now and again the car will stall out, (rare nowadays, but still happens sometimes) we spent about $1000-1500 dollars to repair various things it might be, and while it made the car run better, it didn’t completely solve the problem. Just needs to be restarted, and it runs again. But I wouldn’t recommend this car to any woman who feels insecure driving. "
(bolding mine)
The nippy stuff finally got here. 28° F right now & falling. 30° F the night before last. Nothing like up to the North but them folks chose to live up there.
Still wearing shorts but not taking long walks either.
We have a small free standing wood stove which works good but for ambiance I prefer an outdoor fire, lawn chair & a blanket with wood provided by a good hard working man such as yourself.
If I have to cut the wood, I do say, “I remember that piece of wood! Burn… Burn, you Rat-Bastard…!”
Please let me explain. Towns near where I live will let you cart away sections of tree trunks from trees that they cut down for free (the diameter is usually 2 feet or larger and if you are lucky the height is about 2 feet also).
The trick is to convert something like this into something more like this.
Yes, technically you can chop that monster with an axe, but it would take hours longer and half of your wood could end up looking like saw dust and pencil shavings.
What I do is to place a section of trunk flat-side down and drive a wedge through the center. The wood splits along the seems of the grain and slowly but surely you get from A to B with less work and less lost wood.
That said, I’ll confess that yesterday I cheated. :eek:
When I heard that the cold snap was coming, I wanted all uncut wood chopped and piled quickly, so I rented a chainsaw from Home Depot cleared it all in an hour.
I really should put “Stihl Chainsaw” on my Xmas list…
I’ve heard of this before, associated with deafness/tinnitus. Apparently, if the brain’s getting faint, random signals from the ears, it’ll keep trying to match it up to a recognisable pattern. Sometimes it decides that it’s music, and then won’t hear it as anything else.
I heard a radio programme that discussed the problem, and invited listeners to phone in with their experiences – which was entertaining:
