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#28096 08/10/03 12:17 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 4,294
Member
Can you do it? How??
I took the girlfriend out for dinner (we rarely get the chance)...Left cellphones and all at home to avoid disturbances.
Lo and behold, while waiting for our meal, I spotted a busboy with a cheap 6' aluminum ladder.
He put it on top of one of the tables, climbed up, and with both feet on the "not a step", one hand on a fire sprinkler, was changing light bulbs on energized track fixtures.
I grumbled immediately about "never leaving my camera home again" (basically wrecking the enjoyable "no cares" dinner).
Then I did a mental inspection of the restaurant.
I can't go in a store without looking up at the lights, and my wife, bless her heart, puts up with me. I guess I'm very lucky.
Anybody got this same disease??...S

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
S
Member
oh sure Scott...

it's not too had to pick out others with the same affliction either....

especially in those 'husband seats' the malls have where one can sit and stare at the pipework

probably a great place for group therapy eh?

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,457
E
Member
Count me in for the session guys.

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,391
I
Moderator
Count me in too guys, I have the double affliction of a mechanical and electrical voyeur.

Having been electrician/mechanic for an amusement park, I end up under rides at fairs and parks more then riding them.

I think I embarrass my wife. [Linked Image]

Bob


[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 08-10-2003).]


Bob Badger
Construction & Maintenance Electrician
Massachusetts
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 717
G
Member
OK, I'm in.......but the session WILL fail. Having been nearly everything you can be in the electrical trade, up to inspector/engineer, I assure you the affliction is incurable, up to and including walking down the mall (as a customer) and saying "Here kid, lemme show ya an easier/better/different way".

My family refuses to walk with me, not necessarily a bad thing.

Don't EVEN walk in Radio Shack/Ham Radio outlet with me. "Yeah, says the clerk at the counter - selling a 4' ground rod to a client, Ya wanna pound this into the ground and make sure it has NO contact with your building ground" IT GETS UGLY!!!!!!! I've had good friends of over 20 years walk away from me in that situation.

I would be willing to serve as a horrible example, and if you can cure me, there may be help for anyone, just learn to expect disappointment [Linked Image]

Last Sunday, I went to a hamfest in Berryville, VA. On the way home, I stop at this place known to have good pies. Unfortunately, I can't do without the Nextel (rarely) but did leave my camera at home...dammit.

I'm wandering around this little country store/bakery, they have a TV set under a unit heater. On the TV set is a note that says:

"If you raise the antenna (old rabbit ears) into the heater, you WILL get a very severe shock"

My son, and the buddy that was with me drug me out of the store mumbling to myself. Then I realized I was in my truck and had my tools, they wouldn't let me go back and troubleshoot it either. I just wanted to know.

And YOU think I can be cured? [Linked Image]

I don't thin' so, Lucy. [Linked Image]

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 914
E
Member
I find myself helping customers at the big orange box. Especially when I hear their "expert" giving wrong advice. I have to bite my tongue a lot in there or I never would be able to leave.

I also find myself in stores and restaurants looking at the fixtures and wiring. I often refuse to sit at a table under a wobbling ceiling fan. I once spent 2 mornings in a Hooters repairing their fans. Many were missing set screws and near falling. About 5 had missing blades.

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,391
I
Moderator
Quote
I once spent 2 mornings in a Hooters repairing their fans.

What ever excuse works. [Linked Image from click-smilie.de]

I try not to have company shirts on when I go to the big box stores, I will never get out of there. [Linked Image]


Bob Badger
Construction & Maintenance Electrician
Massachusetts
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,749
Member
Hooray!

That's why I never leave home without my camera's, and now they are so small I can put one in my shirt pocket, and one in my cell phone holster. I carry extra batteries and memory card just incase I find a place with the doors oped. Just bought a new camera that uses the xd card and will have the capability of taking almost 500 pictures on each of the two 256 mb versions.

I even take them to the john and find some interesting pictures there too, like broken lights and no GFCI's for the installed receptacles.

My wife has given up on me and puts up with my obsession!

When she's driving I take pictures of services, and any thing near the passengers side.

But in spite of my strange ways I do enjoy this business, I am interested in safety, and have been doing so for a long time!!


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116
Likes: 4
Member
It's funny, but I had similar questions running through my mind last night.

I have to admit to the same affliction. My kids get after me sometimes for it. When I sit in Church and look up at the fixtures sometimes they might think I'm doing something else though. [Linked Image]

[Linked Image]
Bill


Bill
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,081
T
Member
I probably don't notice as much as the pros here do, but I sure look at wiring. I've noticed plenty of radio towers, myself.

Once I was just about to turn around thinking I was going the wrong way, when off in the distance I saw a New Jersey Network tower. I knew I was OK [Linked Image]

On the Garden State Parkway, milepost 153, there is the NJ State Police tower. Anybody know what the nearby set of 4 towers is for? They appear to be some sort of Rhombic setup...?

My wife, the dear that she is, puts up with my schtick also. [Linked Image]

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