Mundane But True Stories!

[Cool Chris]

My last desk job I maybe did at most 4 hours of legitimate work per day. I tried to calculate the actual number a couple times, but it was too challenging, as the work came and went in spurts. It was a cubcile village, and for the majority of it, I was fortunately in the back row so no one could see my screen, which was, more often than not, this forum. It was also loud as many of the people in my area were often on the phones so I regularly had my headphones on. Looking back I cannot believe I was there for nearly 10 years, with nothing more to show for it than my measly paycheck. But that was largely my doing. I am never going back to that work environment.

[Stadler]

Cubicles are the office equivalent of fun size candy bars.  There's nothing "fun" about a candy that is the size of my pinky toe, and don't try to sell it like it's something to be happy about.

[Orbert]

Compared to having no desk at all, a cubicle is something to be happy about.  I never thought I'd miss it, until they took it away and gave me something far worse.

[hefdaddy42]

While I was shaving this morning (6:30 am), a bolt of lightning struck a huge oak tree in our back yard.  It sounded and felt like a bomb going off.

It turns out that the lightning carved a trench in the yard leading up to the tree, blew all the bark (and attached limbs) off on one whole side, and traveled to the other side of the tree and did the same thing there.  The carnage is truly impressive.  It took me 20 minutes to get crap out of my pool.

We are going out of town on our family vacation tomorrow, so this happened at a particularly crappy time.  We had a tree guy come out and assure us that it isn't in danger of falling over onto our house any time in the next couple of weeks, so that's good.  However, with all of the bark gone now, it will start to rot, so it will have to come down, which will be a pretty penny, and will require a special crane (this bitch is at least 50 feet tall).

Meanwhile, my next door neighbor's security camera caught the strike on video.  He posted it on Facebook, and then the local CBS affiliate saw it and came out and interviewed them and my wife and I.  So I will be on the news, I guess.

[faizoff]

That's not mundane at all! wow, I want to see this video now!

[gmillerdrake]

Holy smokes!!! Glad all are ok at the Hef house but that sucks losing a big Oak.

[hefdaddy42]

That's not mundane at all!

I don't know.  I mean, it's me. 

wow, I want to see this video now!

I will link as soon as the station posts to their website.

It was the lead story on the noon broadcast.  That was fun lol

[pg1067]

When I started in-house with my current employer a decade ago, my boss showed me to my office on my first day, and he commented that I'd be supervising people at some point and that the general rule (at the time) was that, if you weren't supervising people, you wouldn't get an office because you didn't need one.  I had given that NO thought during the interview process, and the idea of not having an office briefly scared the crap out of me.  Fortunately, it's not an issue any longer.

[King Postwhore]

Hef, we never had lightning in our yard but we did have 90 MPH winds that made the biggest tree in our yard fall over into our dining room.  A nice hole through the ceiling.  The power was out so we were awake and we suddenly heard tapping at our window.  It was a tree limb hitting our bedroom window seconds before the tree fell onto our house.  I do have pictures on Facebook.  I'll see if I can find them and post a few here.   

[DragonAttack]

While I was shaving this morning (6:30 am), a bolt of lightning struck a huge oak tree in our back yard.  It sounded and felt like a bomb going off.

It turns out that the lightning carved a trench in the yard leading up to the tree, blew all the bark (and attached limbs) off on one whole side, and traveled to the other side of the tree and did the same thing there.  The carnage is truly impressive.  It took me 20 minutes to get crap out of my pool.

I had to re-read this, because my mind thought you had said 'get crap out of my underwear'.

It would have taken me that long.

Holy crap!!!! (pun intended)

Kinger....we had a 'derecho' go through our area eleven years ago.  Had never heard of that term until then.  Not a tornado, but a quick storm line with gusts of over 90 MPH.  Knocked a maple tree in our neighbors' yard onto the power lines.  Both cracks scared the hell out of us as we cowered in our basement. 

No power that night (or for the next five throughout the area). And we were leaving for a cruise the next morning.  Temps in the 90s for days afterwards.  Our nephew that 'home sat' our house simply took our dog the next day, and then went back home to his parents for the time we were gone. 

When we returned home, we had a bloody mess on the floor from our freezer at the bottom of our frig.  So nice that we had just spent over $150 on various meat products because of a sale.     Just wish our nephew had done as we asked, and made a trip back after a couple of days to empty it before our return (double sad).

[hefdaddy42]

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/neighbors-describe-massive-raleigh-storm-that-damaged-tree/

[faizoff]

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/neighbors-describe-massive-raleigh-storm-that-damaged-tree/

Holy shit, that's crazy! I just remembered my in-laws home had a similar thing happen to their oak tree in the backyard some 20 years ago but the tree didn't splinter like in your yard.

[King Postwhore]

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/neighbors-describe-massive-raleigh-storm-that-damaged-tree/

Look at that line of bark that came off.  Crazy. 

[Metro]

That’s crazy, Hef.
That reminded me of something that happened years ago.
My family’s old house had a screened-in back porch. One night a tree branch fell right through one of the skylights.

[TAC]

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/neighbors-describe-massive-raleigh-storm-that-damaged-tree/

You're a star!!

[Orbert]

What happened to the tree actually looks pretty cool.  Not so great for the tree, obviously, but pretty freaky how it came out.

[Lonk]

Glad you guys are ok

[hefdaddy42]

What happened to the tree actually looks pretty cool.  Not so great for the tree, obviously, but pretty freaky how it came out.

Found a big hunk of bark at my fire pit area this afternoon. That's close to 100 feet from the tree.

[Harmony]

I swear the following story is true.

A woman I know, let's call her Angela, and I were talking the other day.  Angela is a very nice young woman who enjoys dabbling in alternative medicine.  Someone close to her recently was diagnosed with cancer and opted to eschew traditional treatment and opted for alternative medicine.  Her choice, obvs.  And according to Angela she is now cured.

Part of the cure was spending tons of money going to local IV infusion clinics.  These are strip-mall clinics that provide mostly vitamins and saline drips but claim these things cure all sort of problems/diseases.  Angela has suffered with some depression and anxiety so she thought it would be great to accompany her friend for a treatment.  1 IVF treatment is about $200.  Again, her choice and not my business how she wants to spend her money.

She said after this 1 infusion she never felt better.  I mentioned that - as with taking oral vitamins - some of these vitamins are merely flushed out of the body as the kidneys and the liver do their thing and thus don't build up.  I wondered out loud if some of the $200 she spent was flushed down the toilet.

She gets this guilty look on her face and says she has to confess something to me.  My mind begins racing as to what she is about to tell me but nothing could've prepared me for what she said next.

She said that a few days after her "treatment" she felt like she might be coming down with a cold or a virus so she drank her urine to recycle the vitamins she got in the IV.  She also said her friend with the cured cancer also regularly drinks her own urine and believes this is why her cancer went into remission.

To say that I was at a loss for words could be an understatement.   

You know how sometimes someone says something to you and you have to try really really hard to control your facial expressions?  This was definitely one of those times. 

[DragonAttack]

Moves the phrase ‘taking the p*ss’ to a whole new level.

I despise the word, but ‘yuck’. 

[Orbert]

Figuratively, she flushed a lot of good money down the toilet.

And literally, anything that should have gone down the toilet really should have.  There's a reason why a couple million years of evolution has resulted in our bodies getting rid of certain substances, and keeping others.

But mostly, WTF is wrong with these people?

[Stadler]

Urine has always sort of been this "hidden magic", just ask Bear Grylls.  I mean, she might have gotten a dose of vitamins - I know that one of the dangers of drinking urine is that if you took a medicine that was flushed out, you risk a "double" dose - but the risk is not zero (urine is not, as is commonly thought, "sterile"). 

And I can't help but recall the statement: "Do you know what they call alternative medicine that has been proven to work?  Medicine."

EDIT: (By the way. I don't think I was crystal clear here:  The first sentence was a little... sarcastic.  The medical community is pretty unanimous that there are no viable health benefits from drinking urine, and in fact, there are some clear dangers to doing so, which is why I wrote about "double doses".  I didn't write this, but it's generally accepted that it's a myth that it can help with dehydration. The US Army, for example, discourages it's soldiers from using this method if stuck in isolation without water.   I can sometimes be contrarian but medicine isn't one of them.  When I hear "alternative medicine" I generally get very very skeptical, and that includes drinking one's urine.)

[Snow Dog]

So a month or two ago, I was changing out a tube for my bike in the garage, and to pull the tire off, you often need a couple little plastic bars called tire levers to edge it over the rim. They look like this:

https://www.modernbike.com/product-2126233517?gclid=CjwKCAjwzo2mBhAUEiwAf7wjkps1aoWRUiysUWQK1m8GxbAH7fOh0PUmuvA-d1L9VQY0oqCwNrMQBxoC_lYQAvD_BwE

So I’ve got a couple of these levers hooked on to get the tire loose, pull out the old tube, put in the new, reseat the tire, and pump it up. Job done, and one I’ve done several times now. I go to gather the tools to put them away, and I can’t find a tire lever. Look everywhere in the garage. In shoes. Under the treadmill. Under shelves or the workout mats. Nothing. Gone. Disappeared like a fart in the wind. I eventually give up and just consider it a loss. No big deal.

The past few rides, I’ve noticed a weird sound. Kind of whispery. Clicky. Rhythmic. Consistent. But faint. And coming from somewhere near my front end. Nothing looks off. Nothing feels off. So I just keep going on rides without much concern. But the noise persists.

I have a ride with a friend tomorrow morning. About 20+ miles, so I’m looking my bike over tonight. Safety check, make sure things look good. Every now and again, when my bike is hanging on the wall mount, I’ll give the pedals a spin just for fun and listen to the buzz of the hub. Even better to me is spinning the front wheel. It just rotates forever. Silently. Did it tonight as well. Just for fun. But this time it’s not fully silent. A faint, rhythmic, whispery whooshy noise with every rotation, consistently at the same spot. A closer listen reveals something sounds like it’s inside the tire. I’m mystified at what and why, and then a thought hits me.

No, it couldn’t be that. Could it?

I pull the front wheel off the bike, deflate the tire, and get to work on removing it. I pull the tube out, and what is sitting there inside the tire casing but one mysteriously disappeared and now found tire lever. Like the prodigal son returning home. Must have fallen inside when I last changed the tube and I didn’t notice. I’ll chalk it up to the lever’s black color blending in with the tire and tube. Good thing I have a new set of levers that are blue, I suppose!

Mundane but true!

[Orbert]

What was once lost has been found.  Huzzah!!

[TAC]

So much for the tire lever breaking out of the garage.

[pg1067]

I swear the following story is true.

I'm not sure this qualifies as mundane!  I went back and forth between EWWW! to LOL for a good minute after reading that.

[King Postwhore]

I mowed my lawn. My godson who lives with us has mowed it lately.   My OCD went through the rood with his quality. 

So today I tried wji h he didn't do for a month. So I ran out of wire for my trimmer. Just bad luck. 

[Podaar]

I mowed my lawn. My godson who lives with us has mowed it lately.   My OCD went through the rood with his quality. 

So today I tried wji h he didn't do for a month. So I ran out of wire for my trimmer. Just bad luck.

Apparently, OCD doesn't extend to spelling and grammar. Were you drunk texting last night, Joe? The more weight you trim off, the easier it is to get tipsy, you know.

[faizoff]

I mowed my lawn yesterday and the neighbor gave compliments. This is akin to how I felt

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Bxp4VZP9UCk

[Orbert]

For years, I've been collecting change in a little bowl in my drawer at work.  The cafeteria decided to round to the nearest five cents for all transactions, apparently because doing away with pennies is more efficient or something?  Anyway, I always come back with quarters, nickles, and/or dimes, and toss them into the little bowl in my desk drawer.  Sometimes in the afternoon, I grab a handful of silver and hit the vending machine for a snack.

Doritos are $1.25.  Too much, I know, but you do what you have to do.  After hitting the quarters pretty hard, I'm down to a bunch of nickles and dimes, so I drop in $1.25 in nickles and dimes and press A4 (Doritos).  The little curly wire turns a few times, the Doritos move forward, and... hang there at the end of the wire.  They do not drop! 

No way, not on my watch, baby.  I'm a Real American, so I start pushing on the vending machine, rocking it back and forth, to get the Doritos to drop.  It's making a shit-ton of noise, but I don't care.  This damned thing will not defeat me!

I hear clunk! clunk! clunk! clunk! clunk! and check the Coin Return.  There are fives quarters in there.  What the...?  It has returned my money, even though I originally dropped in nickels and dimes.  Interesting.  Vending machines have a self-defense instinct.  Give them their money back before you suffer permanent damage.  Except I still want my Doritos.  So I drop the quarters in and press A4 again.  The curly wire turns, the first bag (the one that was stuck) drops immediately, followed by the next bag.  But... at this point I've only paid for one.

Two for one!  Score!  See, sometimes physical violence does pay off!

[pg1067]

That's a great story.  I feel like I've had the 2-for-1 a few times over the years (although not for the reason you did).

Coincidentally, I did some reading earlier this week on the efforts to eliminate the penny.  "No one" uses them; they tend to go into change piles/cans and get turned back into banks.  Some businesses won't accept them.  They cost more than twice their face value to manufacture.  They'd likely have been eliminated many years ago, but it's just not a hot topic.  Also, "Big Zinc" doesn't like it.

[Stadler]

"Big zinc"!  Hahaha!

Orbert, you should take all your change and use the vending machine as a exchanger.  Put all those dimes and nickels in and take the quarters back to your desk for next time.   

[jingle.boy]

That's a great story.  I feel like I've had the 2-for-1 a few times over the years (although not for the reason you did).

Coincidentally, I did some reading earlier this week on the efforts to eliminate the penny.  "No one" uses them; they tend to go into change piles/cans and get turned back into banks.  Some businesses won't accept them.  They cost more than twice their face value to manufacture.  They'd likely have been eliminated many years ago, but it's just not a hot topic.  Also, "Big Zinc" doesn't like it.

We scrapped the penny back in (holy shit  ) 2012.  I'm surprised it's been that long.  When paying by debit or credit, transaction cost remains the same.  For cash transactions whose total ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents, retailers round down; for 3, 4, 8, 9... they round up.  In the end, the theory is that everyone (retailer and consumer) ends up about break even - ya win some, ya lose some.

There is simply no good reason to have the penny.  1) At the time it was figured it cost $0.017 to make a penny; 2) Given how few transactions are actually paid in cash, the impact to BOTH seller and buyer is nominal at best.

[pg1067]

"Big zinc"!  Hahaha!

I know it sounds silly, but there is a lobbying organization called Americans for Common Cents, which is funded by a number of companies, including the company that makes the zinc coin blanks that are used to mint pennies.  AfCC has commissioned surveys that supposedly show about 2/3 of the public favor keeping the penny (or oppose its elimination).  There are also economic arguments against eliminating the penny, one of which is negated by the system used in Canada that Chad described.  John McCain and another senator introduced legislation in 2017, but it died in committee (low priority).

[PMSummer]

This morning I was searching for my lost car keys in a rush to make it to a meeting. After rummaging through my bag and checking the usual spots I started to panic. In frustration, I checked basically every possible spot in my apartment and oddly enough found the keys in the refrigerator. It turned out I had absentmindedly put them there while grabbing a late-night snack yesterday.