Mundane But True Stories!

[Cool Chris]

Not really a story but do not know where else to put this. It could probably be viewed as "mundane but true!" so I'll put it here.

It has always bugged me when clocks represent 4 as IV instead of IIII. I always thought the clock was made incorrectly. Turns out the truth it is much more complicated.

https://monochrome-watches.com/why-do-clocks-and-watches-use-roman-numeral-iiii-instead-of-iv/

[wolfking]

I never noticed that before on a clock.

[DragonAttack]

I went down the rabbit hole and read other articles on this late Saturday night. I checked out the four clocks in our house, and all of the Roman numeral clocks are IIII for four.

As were the ones at my sister in laws. And my best friend’s. And the grocery store I shop at. And at the…..

Thanks for the frickin ‘eye worm’ 😀

[Cool Chris]

When I bought my clock for our main room years ago I made sure to get one with the 4 was IV, as I had seen it both ways on different clocks, and I believed IIII was incorrect. I honestly never gave it another thought till I was looking at buying a clock for our office, and all the clocks I looked at had 4 as IIII. It bugged me so I ended up researching it. After all these years seeing IV on my clock several times a day it will be hard to see it any other way.

[Stadler]

Fascinating.  I love shit like that.

[Orbert]

Speaking of clocks...


When I first went off to college, I was moving into the dorm and my brand-new clock radio, still in the box, fell out and hit the curb.  Once I got inside and pulled it out, it had a big crack on the plastic faceplate right between the hours and minutes of the digital display, but otherwise it worked fine.  Well shit, it still worked, so I wasn't gonna buy another one, and after a while I just ignored the crack on the front.  I had that clock radio for years, after I got married, through several more moves.

Years later, we were staying at a friend's house, in the guest bedroom, and she had that exact same clock radio, but it was weird; something was different, but I couldn't figure it out.  Of course, it didn't have that crack down the front.  For ten years, I had looked at that display at least a couple of times a day, and I had never seen it without the crack because it happened before I even pulled it out of the box.  I kept looking at it, and it was like my brain just couldn't grasp it, like I couldn't figure out what was different, even though I knew right away what was different.  It looked somehow "wrong" without the crack, and yet somehow right.  Some bizarre sentimental side of me took a moment to relive the past ten years, imagining what it would have been like to not look at that stupid crack every time I looked at that display, reminding me of what a klutz I was the day I bought it.

[Lonk]

..

[TAC]

..

Wow, that is mundane!

[Orbert]

... but true! 

[Orbert]

One time when my wife and I moved from one apartment to another, it was in a different city, so we had to do all the normal "get hooked up" stuff like contact the power company and local cable provider.  Water was included with the rent.  The power got switched on the same day, which was nice, but the cable guy couldn't come until the following week.  Oh well, we had plenty of stuff to do in the meantime, unpacking boxes and setting things up.

When the cable guy finally came out, he checked things out and told us that the cable was actually already on, which was weird because according to their records, it had been switched off when the previous tenants moved out.  We hadn't actually checked.  I mean, we could've hooked up the TV anyway to see if it worked, but I just assumed it wouldn't until the guy came out and dealt with it.  I suddenly realized that if I'd done that, instead of calling them, we could've enjoyed free cable for the entire time we lived there, which turned out to be three years.  Shit.

[Orbert]

Stopped at the grocery store the other day to pick up some cereal (Frosted Mini-Wheats, the best!) and as I'm trying to decide which kind to get, there's this woman standing not too far away, also examining the vast array of breakfast cereals.  Seriously, an entire aisle, both sides, four shelves high.  I look over at her at the same time as she looks over at me and we make brief eye contact.  She's pretty, maybe thirtysomething, and I smile awkwardly.  She smiles back and says "I like your scarf."  I'm wearing my scarf that looks like a piano keyboard.  I thank her and tell her it was a gift from my sister (which I tell everyone, because my sister deserves the credit).

"Oh, you're a musician?" she asks.  "Do you play the piano?"  Okay, I guess we're having a conversation.  That's cool; I've got a nice buzz on (as I do basically any time I'm not working), she's pretty, and selecting cereal is not a particularly urgent task.  I reply in the affirmative.  She asks if I play in a band or anything, and I tell her that I used to play keyboards, but mostly now just play piano.

She says she bets my kids are musicians too, and yeah, they were both band and orchestra kids.  We end up talking about kids, music, how band kids tend to be good kids in general, she tells me about a recent trip she took with her kids' school band and how the kids were are great, very well behaved.  We end up chatting a lot longer than one normally does with a stranger at the grocery store.  I'm trying to figure out if this is making things progressively more relaxed or more awkward, but I've got nothing else to do, might as well chat with the pretty lady.  I don't even remember all the stuff we talked about.

During a pause in the conversation, I glance back towards the cereal shelves.  She says "Well hey, it was nice..." and is about to say "...to meet you" which is what you normally say, except that we didn't introduce ourselves or anything, so we didn't really meet.  She says "...talking with you."  Ah, good recovery!  But she makes a face, like she realizes that that sounds kinda lame, but in an instant the smile is back and I pretend I didn't notice.  We both realize that it's unusual, especially nowadays, to actually have a pleasant five-minute conversation with a stranger.  But it was cool.

"It was nice talking with you, too" I reply.  I grab a box each of strawberry and blueberry, and put them into my cart.  I tell her to have a nice day and head away from her because it actually is getting a bit awkward now.  I realize a moment too late that I should've gone in her direction instead, passing her, so I could turn and check out her butt after.  But we all have regrets.  Such is life.

[lordxizor]

One time when my wife and I moved from one apartment to another, it was in a different city, so we had to do all the normal "get hooked up" stuff like contact the power company and local cable provider.  Water was included with the rent.  The power got switched on the same day, which was nice, but the cable guy couldn't come until the following week.  Oh well, we had plenty of stuff to do in the meantime, unpacking boxes and setting things up.

When the cable guy finally came out, he checked things out and told us that the cable was actually already on, which was weird because according to their records, it had been switched off when the previous tenants moved out.  We hadn't actually checked.  I mean, we could've hooked up the TV anyway to see if it worked, but I just assumed it wouldn't until the guy came out and dealt with it.  I suddenly realized that if I'd done that, instead of calling them, we could've enjoyed free cable for the entire time we lived there, which turned out to be three years.  Shit.

We moved into a rental house a decade or so ago and I was able to plug in my cable modem and get internet right away. I had signed up for service online and never got any confirmation that it was set up. I even called Comcast, being an honest guy, and asked why I hadn't gotten a bill. I didn't want to get a huge bill later for several months of non-payment. The person I talked to couldn't see anything in their system saying we had service. I said "OK, thanks" and got off the phone as quickly as I could. We lived there 2 years and never paid a dime for that Comcast service.

[Orbert]

Sweet!  We could've had that, for three years.  I even said something to the guy, how about we pretend that you never came out, and no one needs to know?  He said sorry, he couldn't do that.  I had to admire the ethics, even if he was totally letting me down as a "bro".

[Orbert]

So this is mundane, but true!


The cafeteria in the office building in which I work is actually pretty nice.  Salad bar, grill, entrees, sandwiches, and even a little flatbread pizza setup.  The girl who makes the flatbread pizzas is named Sara.  I know this because she wears a name tag that says "Sara".

As with pretty much anyone I encounter, I'm polite and hopefully sound reasonably intelligent.  Our interactions involve a lot of "please" and "thank you" because she's required to and I try to be polite.  Also (you knew this part was coming) she's really, really pretty and tends to smile a lot, and I cannot help but smile a lot the whole time, because I'm dealing with a pretty girl smiling at me the whole time.

It's only $5.99 for this little flatbread pizza that they pop into a little convection oven for five minutes, but it's a pretty good deal, so I've been visiting Sara a lot lately.  Recently I've noticed that she's become very generous with the toppings.  Like, she'll go back for an extra half handful of cheese, veggies, whatever, watching me and smiling the whole time.  Yesterday's was almost ridiculous; I had trouble finishing it, it was so piled up with toppings.



Today she saw me approaching and smiled and said "Hi!" and when it came time for making the pizza, she again went kinda crazy on the ingredients.  She said she's making my pizza extra special because I'm such a good customer.  Hey, it never hurts to be nice, and you never know when something nice comes back your way, right?  Karma.  Not some cosmic force, but simply spreading positive energy and enjoying the benefits of living in a slightly better world.

Anyway, I think I officially have a crush on Sara the pizza girl.  And No, I'm not stupid enough to think that it's reciprocal; she's just being nice because I'm always nice to her.  Simple as that.  Right?

[Podaar]

I really wish you would have started that story with, "I never thought this would happen to me, but..."

[gmillerdrake]

Tomorrow just tell her you need 10 more ingredients.....and they'd be the digits of her phone number.

[Lonk]

Tomorrow just tell her you need 10 more ingredients.....and they'd be the digits of her phone number.

[lordxizor]

she's just being nice because I'm always nice to her.  Simple as that.  Right?

99% percent chance yes, but you never know...

I was just talking to my 11 and 14 year old sons the other day about how just because a girl is friendly and nice to you doesn't mean she's interested in dating you. But that if she is interested in dating you she will also be friendly and nice and how confusing that is when you're in the dating world.

[hefdaddy42]

I really wish you would have started that story with, "I never thought this would happen to me, but..."

[Chino]

I worked a deli counter for years and still have a kitchen gig on Sundays that requires me to deal with the public from time to time. People really suck. There are days where it just seems like customer after customer is there to make your day a living hell. Every now and then you get those few customers that break that mold. I actually look forward to a quick chat with them no matter how garbage the day is going. I load those people up sometimes like there's no tomorrow simply because they were/are polite and I know they aren't going to add to the daily shit pile. It's almost like it's a way to say thank you and to bribe them to come back next time 

There's guys at the grill station at the place I work during the week with that always mislabel my food. They'll put a fries barcode on a Philly cheesesteak sandwich or something like that almost every single day that I go there. I'm just friendly towards them and we shoot the shit whenever I'm waiting at the counter. It's amazing how much just not being an asshole can mean to people.

[Stadler]

I worked a deli counter for years and still have a kitchen gig on Sundays that requires me to deal with the public from time to time. People really suck. There are days where it just seems like customer after customer is there to make your day a living hell. Every now and then you get those few customers that break that mold. I actually look forward to a quick chat with them no matter how garbage the day is going. I load those people up sometimes like there's no tomorrow simply because they were/are polite and I know they aren't going to add to the daily shit pile. It's almost like it's a way to say thank you and to bribe them to come back next time 

There's guys at the grill station at the place I work during the week with that always mislabel my food. They'll put a fries barcode on a Philly cheesesteak sandwich or something like that almost every single day that I go there. I'm just friendly towards them and we shoot the shit whenever I'm waiting at the counter. It's amazing how much just not being an asshole can mean to people.

Word on this.  I have too many examples of this being true. 

[Orbert]

At my last job, the cafeteria setup was also pretty deluxe, with several different "stations" to it.  The guy at the Entree station most days was John (again, I knew this because of a name tag) and we'd chat about music and stuff sometimes while I waited for my food.  One time I heard him telling a customer that he didn't have anymore small to-go boxes so he had to put her fries in a large box.  I look around, and most stations have a couple stacks of to-go boxes, large and small, but he's out of small boxes.  I went over to an area that had two stacks of small boxes and took one stack over to the Entrees.  "Here you go, John" and I set the stack of boxes on the counter.  It was like ten feet round trip for me, but the way things were set up, he'd have had to go back, around a wall/divider thing, etc... I understood why he was too busy and didn't want to bother.  Anyway, he seemed shocked that a customer would actually do something like that, thanked me profusely, when I just thought it made sense.  I wasn't doing anything else at the moment anyway.

Maybe a week later, the lunch entree was prime rib, and John was working the Entree station.  Nothing fancy, a little six-ounce prime rib and some sides, but a decent lunch.  When I get to the counter, there are two left in the pan, so John stacks them carefully on top of each other in the box before adding the mashed potatoes and green beans.  "They're small" he winks at me and goes to grab another tray from the back.

When I got to the cashier, everyone has to open their to-go boxes, and she looks and asks "Is that two?" and I said honestly "He said they're small.  They were the last two in the pan."  Regular price.  Score!  It was a good lunch.

Always be nice to your service people.

[Orbert]

she's just being nice because I'm always nice to her.  Simple as that.  Right?

99% percent chance yes, but you never know...

I was just talking to my 11 and 14 year old sons the other day about how just because a girl is friendly and nice to you doesn't mean she's interested in dating you. But that if she is interested in dating you she will also be friendly and nice and how confusing that is when you're in the dating world.

Oh yeah, I get that.  I've been married 30 years and Sara is maybe half my age, so nothing's ever going to happen, but her smile, and her pizzas, have quickly become the highlight of my days.

[Orbert]

Well, my days of non-flirting with Sara the Pizza Girl have ended.  The lease we had in that building was not renewed, and I have been transferred to HQ.  This sucks on multiple levels.  I've been a programmer since 1995, and have always worked in a cubicle.  Nothing fancy, just fabric-covered walls on three sides and a workstation, but it was "my" space.  Twice I was lucky enough to be on an outside edge, so one of the three walls was low and I had a window.

The trend these days is to put office rats into a "shared workspace".  Some genius figured out that at any given time, 40% (or whatever the number was) of employees are in meetings, or on vacation, or sick, or whatever, and not at their desks.  Therefore, however many employees you have in your department, you only really need about 60% of that number of workstations.  So they set up a big shared workspace where no one gets an assigned desk.  Every day, you come in and find a place to set up.  You hook up your laptop (everyone is issued one) to the black box, and you're on the network, and hooked up with an external keyboard and mouse and two monitors.  To be fair, they seem to have tried to make things as nice as possible, considering that they're packing us in here.  And of course, at the end of the day, you pack up everything and take it with you.  There are signs reminding us to not leave anything behind.

So, gone are the days of having my own space.  No pictures or little knicknacks on the desk, calendars on the wall, etc., unless I want to bring them with me every day and take them home every night.  Fuck that.  I don't even like carrying my laptop to and from.  For 28 years, I was a cubicle rat.  It wasn't luxurious, it sure as hell wasn't an office with a door, but it was mine, with my name on a little plate on the wall.  No longer.  And of course, the decision to do this was made by people who do have offices the size of my living room (and probably with nicer carpeting).

One plus that I've discovered: I have some pretty nice Sony earphones and play YouTube tunes all day to block out the noise, and help keep my sanity.  The latest remastered version of pretty much anything I'd want to listen to, obscure live stuff, obscure studio stuff, stuff I've never heard of, stuff I've heard of but never had a chance to check out, it's all there.  So there's a lot of stuff I've heard before but not the remastered version and never via earphones or headphones, and I'm hearing a lot of things I've never heard before.  A guitar or keyboard lick I never knew was there.  Background vocals low in the mix filling things up but not obvious.  That kind of thing.  Right now, I'm listening to The Yes Album, an album I've listened to easily over 100 times, and hearing parts I've never heard before.  Before that was Animals by Pink Floyd; same thing.  Hey, I have to spend eight hours a day in this pit (we're in the basement -- they literally refer to this area as The Dungeon), I might as well make the best of it.

[Orbert]

Guys this isn't supposed to be Orbert's Online Diary and Bitchfest.  I was thinking it would be a thread to talk about all the mundane day-to-day shit that isn't worth starting a new thread about.  I'm just throwing shit out there to see what I can stir up.

Anybody here work in a shared workspace?  Commiserate with me!

Anybody ever listened to tunes over headphones or earphones and heard stuff that you never heard before but which has obviously been there for years?  Isn't that cool?

Anybody ever had a crush on the cute pizza girl in the office cafeteria who you'll never see again because they reassigned you?  Doesn't that suck?

Speak!

[pg1067]

The cafeteria in the office building in which I work is actually pretty nice.  Salad bar, grill, entrees, sandwiches, and even a little flatbread pizza setup.  The girl who makes the flatbread pizzas is named Sara.  I know this because she wears a name tag that says "Sara".

I know this post is 3 months old, but I just stumbled in here.

FYI, my 19yo daughter has had 4 part-time jobs over the last few years.  At not one of them has she had her actual name on her nametag, so "Sara" may or may not actually be named Sara.  How's that for mundane?!   

[hefdaddy42]

Not sure I can accurately described this, but it is a true story that happened just this morning.

This morning, I put some chemicals in my pool, and grabbed the brush to brush out some clumped up stuff on the bottom.  As I was putting the brush down to the bottom (deep end), I noticed it wasn't going to be long enough and I would need to extend the length.  As I started pulling it back, the extender was coming toward me but the brush end wasn't coming up any higher - I saw that the adjuster clamp was open and not clamped.  I saw it about the time the extender came out of the brush handle completely.  I quickly used the extender to poke under the brush handle to kind of grab it, but it was far enough away from the edge of the pool that I couldn't grab it.  I yelled "Are you fucking kidding me?" because it looked like I was going to have to jump in the pool to get it.

I thought I may be able to lever the brush handle up long enough to pull the extender and poke it back into the end, and then "walk" it over to me.  I also thought I would only get one shot.  Against all odds, it actually worked, I grabbed the brush, and rescued it from the pool without having to jump in.

Mundane?  I kind of think so.  True?  Absolutely.

[Orbert]

That's cool, though.  Something went kinda wrong, could've gone more wrong, but you saved the day.  But no one saw it and the only place you can brag about it is on DTF.  That's what we're here for!

[Stadler]

Guy's this isn't supposed to be Orbert's Online Diary and Bitchfest.  I was thinking it would be a thread to talk about all the mundane day-to-day shit that isn't worth starting a new thread about.  I'm just throwing shit out there to see what I can stir up.

Anybody here work in a shared workspace?  Commiserate with me!

I've thankfully dodged the "bullpen" thing for the most part.  In Erie, I had a bullpen, but I would navigate to empty offices when I could. Now I work from home, so...    Mostly, as counsel, I could always argue for a hard-walled office with locking door. Which is great for...

Anybody ever listened to tunes over headphones or earphones and heard stuff that you never heard before but which has obviously been there for years?  Isn't that cool?

Not having to use headphones at the office.  But generally I LIKE headphones.  Basslines.  It's almost always baselines for me that I notice with headphones.    There have been some since, but the last specific time I remember was listening to The Wall; that veritably came alive in my head on 'phones.   

Anybody ever had a crush on the cute pizza girl in the office cafeteria who you'll never see again because they reassigned you?  Doesn't that suck?

Speak!

Haha, not so specific, but yes.  There was a girl at the GE cafeteria when I was at headquarters that was cute as a button.  In general I sometimes think about all the people - no one specific, but as a general proposition - that come in and out of our lives that way.  "Random collisions" as Fish called it. 

[Podaar]

Guy's this isn't supposed to be Orbert's Online Diary and Bitchfest.

Yeah, I've thought about that a few times when you've contributed a new story. Every time you do, I try to pay attention to happenings in my life that may be appropriate for this thread (see Hef's story, for example) so I could contribute and not leave you out in wilderness on your own...but, then I just forget. Until, I see a new post and it get's me thinking again. Then I just forget. Sorry, my man.

[Orbert]

[hefdaddy42]

That's cool, though.  Something went kinda wrong, could've gone more wrong, but you saved the day.  But no one saw it and the only place you can brag about it is on DTF.  That's what we're here for!

I told my wife about it, and she wasn't very impressed.  *shrugs*

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Guy's this isn't supposed to be Orbert's Online Diary and Bitchfest.  I was thinking it would be a thread to talk about all the mundane day-to-day shit that isn't worth starting a new thread about.  I'm just throwing shit out there to see what I can stir up.

Anybody here work in a shared workspace?  Commiserate with me!

Anybody ever listened to tunes over headphones or earphones and heard stuff that you never heard before but which has obviously been there for years?  Isn't that cool?

Anybody ever had a crush on the cute pizza girl in the office cafeteria who you'll never see again because they reassigned you?  Doesn't that suck?

Speak!

At the place where I work, they're planning to some remodeling of the building. We're going through a restructuring so people are moving to new positions, joining different teams, etc., so I guess it made sense to do it now. Anyway one of the things that was mentioned was going to an 'open concept' kind of layout, which just sounds like complete dogshit to me, especially since they're trying to reduce our work from home days (and would kill it off entirely, if they think they can get away with it). I feel like it's the sort of decision that's maybe well-intentioned, but completely misguided about what people actually want. I don't want to be in plain view of everyone else the entire day, I want to go in my cube and mind my own business and get my work done.

[lordxizor]

I've never heard of anyone who prefers open offices. What a stupid idea. We all know it's completely a move to cram more people into the same amount of space

[Orbert]

And also so they can more easily keep an eye on you.  Honestly, as much as the noise and lack of privacy sucks, my greatest fear was the side effect that I'd actually have to work eight hours a day.  It's not my fault that my job doesn't take me 40 hours a week to do.  Hell, I'm sure there are weeks that I "work" five days but only actually work 15 or 20 hours.  Part of it's because I've gotten really good at my job, and part of it's because my bosses don't actually know what I do or how long it takes me to do it.  And I prefer it that way.  If everyone can see me, how can I fuck off all day on Facebook, DTF, etc.?

It turns out that we do have dumb little mini-dividers between the workstations; nothing like cubicle walls, but between them and the bizarre layout which has four "branches" going off in different directions, there are lots of corners and a fair amount of privacy.  Someone would have to make an effort, an obvious one, to see what you're doing.  And also, no one cares.  No one walks around checking out what everyone else is doing.  Ain't no one got time for that.  So I find a corner where I can see anyone coming before they can see me, and I can fuck off all day on Facebook, DTF, etc.  Since it's noisy, I put in my earphones and pull up some YouTube tunes.  Life... isn't exactly great, but it's tolerable.