24/7 Chat About Anything

[Morgana]

So far the "monsoon" down here has consisted of two five-minute rainfalls about a week apart ... on my walk this morning something seemed different, wasn't sure what and then I realized hey, clouds! I don't know if they're the kind that rain but they're sure purty.

Southern Arizona summer, where hot water comes out of the cold water tap and you get all excited to see a cloud. Still thinking the same as I did on first impressions, even the inconveniences down here are picturesque. Just very, very glad to have access to basic mod cons.

 

[dreamrunnerjt]

Person may be OCD or ADD and need that re-enforcement to settle the information in their mind.

 

[maki2]

There was a nice, drenching thunderstorm at mid afternoon! The Forest really needed that moisture. The solar panel on my trailer also needed a good strong shower.

I myself was very tempted to toss on a long T-shirt shift dress and go out and get a good long, free soaking shower. I can still remember as a 5 year old being allowed to go out and play in the rain in the summer on hot days. That was a very fun and exciting treat! But nowadays I admit that I prefer hot showers over cold rain.

The clouds did clear off later and the sun came out. So I took a short drive to the truckstop to get rid of a small bag of trash. When I arrived there was an army convoy coming out of the truck stop and all lined up along the access road waiting on more units to finish filling up with gas. Plus there were still some troops inside the MacDonalds finishing meals. Most of the tables were empty by then but apparently it had been totally jam packed full of the young military men and women. I am glad I did not get caught up in that invasion force military exercise! The battle of “hamburger hill?”

 

[Happy Camper]

The battle of “hamburglar hill?”




[Mod edit: Attribution label removed-tx2]

 

[maki2]

Have you ever had a meatball try to stare you down when attempting to eat it? Just one of those days camping solo to avoid conflicts does not always work. Yesterday it was a chipmunk getting on my case, today it is a meatball!

 

[maki2]

Yet again I forgot to turn off my fridge when running a small inverter powering my vinyl cutter. When the fridge compressor turns on it pulls just enough power on my house battery to momentarily disrupt the power going to my vinyl cutter and cause it to loose the data it had stored for making the cuts. Too bad there is not an automatic cutoff and restart function for the fridge power. It could be done but I am too lazy to research and wire one up. I will have to at least quit being too lazy to make some type of Hazard warning sign by the control panel on my cutter control panel to remind me to stop and restart my fridge! …and then remember to pay attention to it.

 

[Happy Camper]

Yet again I forgot to turn off my fridge when running a small inverter powering my vinyl cutter. When the fridge compressor turns on it pulls just enough power on my house battery to momentarily disrupt the power going to my vinyl cutter and cause it to loose the data it had stored for making the cuts. Too bad there is not an automatic cutoff and restart function for the fridge power. It could be done but I am too lazy to research and wire one up. I will have to at least quit being too lazy to make some type of Hazard warning sign by the control panel on my cutter control panel to remind me to stop and restart my fridge! …and then remember to pay attention to it.

You can make a little vinyl sticker for that...

 

[maki2]

You can make a little vinyl sticker for that...

It would to be giant sized and fluorescent colored. I would need to move it to reach the control panel to shake up my old habits. I fully understand how my brain slides in and automatically engages into autopilot mode after many thousands of repetitions of cutting these kits. A sticker will on its own not be enough to retrain my mind-to-body-circuitry of physical movement patterns. A hinged cover plate over the control panel that I have to move might do it. A piece of cardboard and duct tape to mount a reminder on should do the trick. After 4 to 6 months I won’t need it anymore as the new sequence of steps will have reliably replaced the old one. I do not cut everyday which is why it will take a lot longer to reprogram my brain than if I was doing that function every day.

 

[Happy Camper]

It would to be giant sized and fluorescent colored. I would need to move it to reach the control panel to shake up my old habits. I fully understand how my brain slides in and automatically engages into autopilot mode after many thousands of repetitions of cutting these kits. A sticker will on its own not be enough to retrain my mind-to-body-circuitry of physical movement patterns. A hinged cover plate over the control panel that I have to move might do it. A piece of cardboard and duct tape to mount a reminder on should do the trick. After 4 to 6 months I won’t need it anymore as the new sequence of steps will have reliably replaced the old one. I do not cut everyday which is why it will take a lot longer to reprogram my brain than if I was doing that function every day.

Just add a blinking backlight and a traditional movie bomb beep that speeds up after a while. That should do it lol.

 

[maki2]

Just add a blinking backlight and a traditional movie bomb beep that speeds up after a while. That should do it lol.

Last thing I need or want is more electronic gadgets flashing and making noise.
I am going back to reading my ebook tonight. It is quiet

 

[dreamrunnerjt]

Off the wall thought. Ever wondered what happen to people who intentionally moved into a haunted house?

 

[Happy Camper]

Off the wall thought. Ever wondered what happen to people who intentionally moved into a haunted house?

I enjoy that sorry of thing.

 

[dreamrunnerjt]

I enjoy that sorry of thing.

Enjoy living in haunted houses, owning or just visiting?

 

[Happy Camper]

Enjoy living in haunted houses, owning or just visiting?

I like interesting visitors. Grew up in a house that had them. Was pretty cool overall.

 

[maki2]

My houses were just haunted by the normal stuff related to previous owners who should have hired competent repair and builder persons.

The last house I owned made a lot of noise in the evenings. The plywood siding was not installed with the right kind of fasteners so they lost their grip and the sun heating the wood expanded the plywood pulling it away from the studs and in the evening it made al kinds of creaking noises as things contracted. When I painted the house I re-nailed the siding on that south side of the house. Of course that was the wall next to my bed The original builder haunted me.

 

[Morgana]

So the infamous Zoom class I took earlier this week was for poll worker for early voting. (There’s a primary election coming up.) A team came out to my little town on Friday to set up the site and we were invited to observe and learn — totally optional, supposedly just to reinforce what we'd already learned. I went.

(1) Neither of the two other workers for this site showed.

(2) The setup ladies shared essential information which we would have been lost without — including where the keys are that unlock everything.

(3) I asked “who is the site captain?” and they said “you are.” I have never done this job before. I have never voted in this state before. But I’m a bring-it kinda gal so I laughed and said fine. Then the problems started appearing.

(4) They had the wrong site map.

(5) Essential supplies were missing.

(6) Turns out that, because this is a remote site, procedures are drastically different; nobody told us that during training, and the new/different instructions skip over some critical information.

(7) Even the basic instructions are pretty complicated — the kind that you’ll do in your sleep after a week but are overwhelming at first. I barely grasp them, and I suspect I’ve studied 10x as hard as the other ladies, one of whom spent the Zoom class chewing into the camera.

(8) The setup ladies answered what they could and gave me the supervisor’s number to call for the rest. By then it was already mid-afternoon on a Friday.

(9) The supervisor grudgingly and condescendingly answered most of my questions, but only after I pushed him repeatedly. He had this flat-affect voice like someone who thinks he’s dealing with a difficult customer and isn't very skilled at that. I suspect he knew before I called that there were problems. He kept saying “it’s in the instructions” when it’s not. He said they’d *mail* the missing essential supplies *next week*. The voting site opens first thing Monday.

(10) He also told me that I am not site captain. There is no site captain. We all just show up and spontaneously work smoothly together. That oughtta work fine. Now stuffing all the initiative I summoned up to deal with this back down into where it came from. Love getting yanked around like a rag doll!

My plan is to go massive CYA, do whatever I have to to survive the week, do my best to make sure none of this background ******** affects the voters’ comfort, and then never, ever do anything like this again.

The setup ladies were as helpful as they could be, ditto the librarian where the site is. I don’t have a good first impression of my fellow poll workers, but they could still turn out to be fine — chewing into the Zoom camera is not a capital offense after all. But the HQ people! You’d think since they *know* they’re packing for a remote site where they can’t offer much support they’d at *least* take care to pack everything needed. Maybe you just get your conscience and work ethic surgically removed when they put you in management.

AFAIK they actually need me b/c there are a lot of tasks that have to be done by two people from different political parties and the other two workers belong to the same party. We’re 2 hours from HQ and nobody wants to make this trip. But I wonder if they’d even give a xit if they had to shut the site down.

It’s funny really b/c to me this was the most important thing in the world but to them it is just a nowheresville rural place and I’m just a temp worker. So I’m talking to him like my opinion really matters and I could make this thing work but ROFLMFAO.

Weirdly, the actual election day is staffed through a different department and even takes place at a different site. Hopefully that will be a little more together. Now sweeping up the remaining shards of positive attitude and putting them in a nice box in the back of my brain so I can whip up enthusiasm for election day, because I would not forgive myself if I didn’t give that a 110% chance.

But after that I’m done and intend to spend the rest of my retirement kayaking.

OK, as soon as I finish enjoying the bunnies and quail and saguaros and my lease is up. Then I’ll spend the rest of my retirement kayaking. Meanwhile even if all the work/volunteer options suck this is still a pretty cool detour.

 

[Happy Camper]

LMAO that's brutally bad. Wow.

So who is in charge of this? Who makes the rules? Where are you again? Your writing style is fantastic btw. But the content made my brain hurt because of the ineptness of those you're dealing with.

 

[Morgana]

The sad thing is that the rules seem **excellent**. I was truly impressed during training with how voter-friendly the system is while also being meticulous about security. In theory this should work brilliantly! Alas it has to be implemented by humans -- specifically, county-government humans. I once volunteered for a county-level office (emergency management) that was my lifetime favorite gig. The guy was on fire for community service, and he was super nice to his volunteers and always trying to make a teachable moment. (At the other end of the political spectrum from me lol but that just goes to show that politics ain't everything.) But maybe in general county government is not where the real go-getters end up?

I just have a feeling, too, that people don't care much about the rural areas. At least, whatever chip on my shoulder I had about that just doubled, grrr. To be realistic, fewer votes here. \_(**)_/ But they add up.

Oh well. God is great, beer is good, people are crazy.

PS The setup lady was super, I wish *she* was the supervisor! Maybe she will be someday.

 

[Happy Camper]

So this is run by the county? I'm just trying to understand who the actual responsible entity is for this, since it's primary voting for both parties.

 

[Morgana]

Definitely county. Even in primary elections. I think (could be wrong) that the laws are set at the state level and administered at the county level.
Who can vote in what primary differs a lot state to state, but I think it's always a government office of some kind that keeps a record of what party you want to belong to and then manages the voting.
I wonder if other countries do it that way too, I honestly never thought about it before you asked.