Industrial Maintenance and you

I was told I was rude tonight… Me rude… an asshole maybe, sharp tongued? Sure. Load abrasive ok if you are an idiot. But rude? Never.


I am nothing if not respectful and polite, at the very least silent. I know what the incident was about. I was asked to fix a swing arm case retainer. (An air cylinder designed to hold back empty cases so the counter can pull a box out with out a hassle.) I said sure and pulled the arm off, when I did this all the boxes went rushing forward, I said I can’t fix this AND hold the boxes back…

Was I rude, or just to the point that they need to play the part of the arm while I fixed the real one?

See this goes back to a bigger issue, a while back my wife said I was grumpy all the time. I said why would I be grumpy all the time?

But it made me think maybe I was grumpy all the time, my friends had made a comment to me about being depressed… So I went about trying to change myself, trying to be a little more positive, a little faster to laugh. Hell at times even silly. Hence my facebook update: I am thankful for my friends who can make me giggle like a school girl. That is just the most recent example.

So anyway, I have been trying for like 6 months, thinking happier thoughts, Not giving smart ass comments, taking a lot more in stride and keeping silent on issues I cannot change.

Last week in October my wife and I are talking about attitudes and how one person we know has really been grouchy lately (not me). My wife says: They keep going like this and they will become grumpier than you…

Now this hurt, really, cut me to the quick. Here I have been putting all this time and effort into changing and nothing… I point this out to her, I point out that I have been trying to change. I point out how I don’t let the little things get to me anymore… She starts to blush. I had done these things I was no longer the grumpy guy.

She was just so very used to seeing me grumpy she just thought of me that way… she felt bad, she had not noticed that I had been trying. She said she was sorry, but I understood. It was who I had been for so very long that the change was slow and not sever enough for people to take a big notice.

I will now try to not be rude, at work… where they seem to take great pleasure in teasing me with idiocy…



SERENITY NOW!

I need a small favor...

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Million Dollar Memories...

I blame Travis... He started this and I feel like playing along



So go see what he is all about, I think you'll like it

In my early childhood, on Sunday afternoons, when it seemed all of my friend’s mothers and fathers were nursing a hang-over. The children of said families would do many things to be out of the house. Kite flying, snowball (our version of kick the can). Tree house building, although often we would be yelled at to keep it down… this really just drove us further from the houses…


This was the normal actions for Sundays of my childhood, except for rain and getting campused (our version of being grounded). Which often would occur due to an unforeseen circumstance like home work not done, chores not done… smart assed answer given during a lecture… giggling in church. Many things could and did land me in dutch with my mother.

As a result, I would watch the million dollar movie, it came on right after the Sunday afternoon matinee… which also filled my day. But these shows is where I learned all about true comedy, Oliver and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Martin and Lewis and Burns and Allen. Dead-end Gang, Francis the talking mule… Oh how they would make me laugh. The simple gags of the Three Stooges all the way up to the word play Empire State Building that would be constructed by the Marx brothers, only for the attention to go to Harpo who spoke very little…

The Slap stick these comics delivered are still un rivaled, even by the likes of Jack Ass… All in all I remember how I could watch these films with my mother… and during the commercial breaks; she would tell me stories about the actors who were staring that week. Funny ones, sad ones and love stories. She would fill me in, I don’t think she realized then that those afternoons would be my fondest memories of her. Of my childhood really.

I do miss those days of simple laughs…

Now I know...

So I was reading one of the Blogs I stalk And it was mentioned, as a side note really, she mentioned “your good undies”. Now I under stand, well not really… what the hell are “your good undies”? As a guy, now married and very far from the single scene I asked my wife…

Me: Honey? What are good undies?
Mrs. Me: What are you talking about?
Me: I was reading this blog and good undies were mentioned.
Mrs. Me: What the hell are you reading at work?
Me: My stories…
Mrs. Me: Your what?
Me: the blogs I follow…
Mrs. Me: Now what were you asking?
Me: The phrase “ruin your good undies”… what are good undies?
Mrs. Me: Oh, those would be the undies you wear on a date when you are going to have sex…
Me: Oh, so you don’t have any then?
Mrs. Me: WHAT?
Me: I mean you don’t go on dates so you wouldn’t need any…
Mrs. Me: … I do have silk thongs and such; they are pretty much anything other than granny panties, not that you notice…
Me: Oh… ok…



You rookies out there catch my mistake? Been married 10 years and can still get in the dog house with out trying…

Now I under stand, but I still think it is rather silly… good panties, granny panties, period panties… all these different types of “undies” Hell I remember back when I was 20 underwear had two good sides… the only underwear that was different was my lucky drawers… that’s right, I had them till the waist band would no longer stretch, and they were the underwear I was wearing the first time I got me some poon-ninny…

Only time I got laid in those as well now that I think about it… But really, as for me I couldn’t careless all I care about is panties in a bunch on the floor… Silk, pink who cares… What I want to know why can she wear my boxers and that’s fine, but I put her panties on and I’m a freak…

No, none for you!

I have an old story that has been in my head for a few days now. I had forgotten the event even happened, I am not sure how I could have forgotten as every time I pass the freaking store I say “Oh hell no! I will not shop there ever!”

No really, I have not set foot in a Circle K in over 20 years. I refuse to give them my money after the way they treated me. I can not/will not ever forgive them.

It all starts off at our local shop. It used to be Hanshaw’s, that’s the one I stole the beer from, It had been bout out by Circle K. Now it was brightly lit, clean and last but not least did not have dust on their products. All these changes seemed to happen over night. But there it stood. I could now play Dragons Layer all night long… Ah It was a grand time to be me… Soda, chips, what ever I wanted was right there 24 hours a day 7 days a week.


Well turns out my fortune would soon come crashing down around my ears… I would soon learn what sacrifice was all about…

I was standing in the store with my soda that I just paid for, minding my own business, watching a friend try to beat my score on Zaxon… I was the master of Zaxon and several other games of little fame. When I was grabbed by my collar dragged to the door and forcible remove from this fine establishment. I turned around to see one of the clerks purple faced and glaring at me. So I had to ask: What the hell man? What the hell was that for?

All he said was to never come back… never come back? But… where would I get my soda? My cigarettes? My chips? Where? 7-11 was miles away… I was saddened. I was hurt… My paradise lost… heaven on earth… PooF! Gone… no more.

Well I never did find out what they thought I had done but I was told I could come back to the store. Well I was still a little pissed but ok, I figured I would get over it soon enough.

Well a week later Tony, Sean, and I are drinking and Tony decides he wants a Hershey bar, so off we go. We hop the wall, and head on in. Same guy who threw me out was working. No surprise really, we head in, I get my stuff, and Tony gets his candy bar, Hershey’s with almonds. Sean got his Frisco Burger… I will tell you about that in another post, Well Tony is first in line and the clerk looks at him and says ninety cents please… we all stopped. And it went from there:



Tony: Sorry?

Clerk: Ninety cents

Tony: For?

Clerk: the candy…

Tony: I only have one…

Clerk: yes ninety cents

Tony: But the sign says forty five cents

Clerk: for the small ones…

Tony: but this is small

Clerk: no it is big

Me: No it is the small one…

Clerk: No it is big ninety cents…

Tony: … you are wrong….

Clerk: I AM NOT!

Me: (after getting a regular Hershey bar} is this a small one?

Clerk: Yes, forty five cents…

Me: I don’t want to buy it, I want to show you, this one weighs more than that one…

Clerk: Yes…

Me: then how can it be a large one?

Clerk: Because of the nuts…

Tony: Because of the NUTS? You’re nuts…

Me: That is just crazy…

Clerk: GET OUT OF STORE!

And I never went back... And this really was not a scrifice...

You know who sacrificed? Our Vets, Thank you one and all for service to your country! We owe you big time!

I should be drinking...

I really have nothing going tonight. Been elbow deep in grease trying to get a chain tensioner to well tension… It likes to slip from time to time. Not matter how much torque I put on the damn thing. I decided to sink another retaining hole so I can double bolt it. Seems to be holding for now.

I have seen many discussions on belt versus chain tension, and where you might be quick to dismiss the subject. You have this concept involved in your life a lot. Take the average fanbelt or serpentine belt as is the case on all the cars these days. How much tension should be applied to the tensioner? How do I ensure it will do its job?

I use a basic set of rules for all belts just to get them roughed in. Tightest would be that I can move the belt the width of the belt both to the top and bottom. The lose side would be roughly a one half inch play to both sides. With the belt set mid way between these 2 points I know I can start up the machine and the belt will do its job. I can fine tune it with it running to ensure proper tension.

Now why worry about belt, chains and the like? Well to be honest proper attention paid to these items and a brief check once a month will let your car or in my case my machines run with a reduced chance at a failure. Also, if the belts or chains are to tight it will reduce the life span of your other equipment/bearings or drive shafts.



Callahan’s Pro tip: Ever have a belt whine or screech at you? Replace it only to find the new belt does it as well? Next time splash some water on the belt, if the screeching stops it is the belt, if it does not stop, or comes back really fast, it is the bearing or drive shaft.

Honor amoung thieves?

It's Memoir Monday as started by Travis at I Like To Fish.


(as displayed on Travis' blog: Hey guys! It's Memoir Monday! Everyone should know what to do, just steal my little button code down there, then paste it onto the Edit HTML section on your post. Type up a memoir, spank yourself a little, and call it a win! The only rule? It must be true. So go on! Get you some!)



Back when I was just ever so stupid, I was working at a convenience store. It was a second job and it gave me ample opportunity to occasionally heist a six pack or 2, or a case… maybe 10. Like I said, I was stupid and thought the manager deserved to be ripped off as he would only pay me sub-minimum wage. Roughly a buck twenty back in 1985.

Well one night the manager forgot to lock the back door. I was informed of this from a different stock boy, and all he wanted for this info was a case of bud… Well, ok and I was off…

We, my friends and I, headed in to start the stocking of the cooler. Well 2 of us, the rest were dubbed runners. We handed the case of bud over to the other stock boy and he headed out. Now we started filling the shelves, we could get it done in 15 minutes so that was our time frame. We must have pumped 25 cases out the back door before we were done stocking.

We were done, and in theory, we had 25 cases of beer and 2 bottles of rum sitting in the refrigerator in my garage.

I walked out to go throw the cardboard away. This is how we normally stole our beer, one case at a time, buried deep in the wagon that was used to drag out the cardboard. We could not liberate bottles though; they would clang together and tell the cashiers what I was doing.

I turn the corner and my world came crashing down. Cops with the rollers going, search light on our runners… stacks of beer, cold beer… ice cold beer sitting on the curb… But I did not see the rum, so we might get away with something, but I needed to get my friends away from the nice police officers.

I walked up, and put the cardboard into the bin. Cops started asking me questions and I copped to all of it. It was my idea, I found the door unlocked. I called these guys to come over and help… All of it.

The officers seemed rather impressed that I would admit to my crime. But see it throws them off a little when you do it; it gives you a little wiggle room. They had only caught us with some not all of it. I still thought we had some stashed away in my garage.

We went into the store, the manager showed up, looked at me and said you’re fired, and I said that’s cool. It was only a part time job; my main gig was working at Disneyland. But I needed to not get charges pressed. So I told him I would return the rest of the beer if he did not press charges.

He said fine, I told the officers that we would go over and get it. The one in charge said that an officer would drive me over. So we went, my friends still sitting on the curb, talking and laughing.

We pulled into the ally behind my abode and stacked up all along my fence was ALL of the beer… All of the cold beer and rum… Was now going back to where I had liberated it from. I had fought the war and lost.

The officers were amazed, as well as the cashiers and the manager in how much we managed to get out. All but one case came back. And they never found out about that one so it was good.

I did get a call from the head office of the store, they asked for a phone interview. Turns out the manager was trying to pin the back door being opened on the asst manager. I liked her and told them the truth, well mostly the truth. I told them I found it unlocked at 2pm, 2 hours before the asst started work. The asst manager became the new manager and it was all good, I had said I was sorry to everyone who worked in the store and they were all good with it. Of course it took them 6 months to let me stock the cooler again… go figure.