All Dried Up

The night before Jane left to school this summer, she did a laundry. Unfortunately, not all of her laundry had dried by the time it was time to go. Wendy informed me of this after my laundry was still very wet after spending over two hours in the dryer.

This is not good.

When I opened the dryer door I was hit with scalding hot moist air. The dryer was obviously getting warm, but my clothes weren't drying at all! Something like this had happened a few years ago, and I wasn't looking forward to spending more time at a laundromat again.

When I took out the lint trap, it had tons of red lint. I cleaned it off, ran the dryer for another minute or two, and looked at the lint trap again. Same thing. Tons of lint. It looked like a red sweater exploded in there!

It was soon time for me to go to bed.  Wendy said she'd be up for a little while later, and she'd make sure the dryer kept going. When I got up the next day, there my clothes were: dry! Thank you Wendy!

That day I decided I was going to research how dryers worked. I didn't actually do that, but I did mention the problem to some people who told me to try cleaning everything out, even the vent on the outside of the house.

When I got home I pulled a huge hand-full of lint from the vent on the outside of the house. I went inside and Wendy told me she spent time cleaning out the dryer.

The following week, the dryer worked great! I was so happy. I didn't want to have to think about getting a new dryer.

Earlier this week, I noticed the washing machine was making funny noises. Uh-oh!

United Breaks Guitars, and Looses Luggage

Remember that guy (Dave Carroll of Sons of Maxwell) whose guitar was damaged while travelling with United Airlines?

In Today's Article Dave was flying "to Colorado Springs to give a keynote address at a customer-service and social-networking conference, and also to perform his hit, United Breaks Guitars." The only direct flight he could get was with United Airlines. When he got to Colorado Springs, he found that United has lost his luggage.

I'm not sure if this is more sad or funny. It is ironic, though.

Take A Light Brake

Where were we? Oh yeah. Last I wrote, the McQueen household was really busy, and they had to take their car in to the garage for the third time in four weeks.

Since then, Jane, Bruce, and now Robin, have gone to school. Wendy and Jack are emtpy-nesters with the exception of me. I'm experiencing only-child status.

Before the kids left - about a week or two after the McQueens had their car brakes fixed, they noticed the brake lights weren't working! You can't have that! Back to the garage they went, with me following close enough behind so that no one would get in between and accidentally rear-end them, all the while watching them close enough so that I wouldn't rear-end them!

I think that's 4 times in 5 or 6 weeks. Ouch.

That was back in August. I'm writing this in October, and I'm happy to say that they haven't had any car troubles since. I, on the other hand.....well, we'll save that for a further post.

Hands-Free Phone Law in Ontario

If you were driving down the road, talking on your cell phone and there was a clown on a unicycle, do you think you'd see him? Would it make a difference if you used a hands-free phone?

Probably not, according to today's Article.

The reason is obvious to those who know anything about attention. You can only really pay attention to one thing at a time. We multitask the way a computer does, but we're not nearly as good at switching from one process to another. The problem is not that you're holding something in your hand. The problem is attention.

If you think the problem is holding something in your hand, try this. The next time you're driving, try holding something in your hand. Heck! Try holding your phone in your hand without using it to talk. There shouldn't be significant degradation in your driving skills. (This may be hard for you to measure. Most people don't notice the degradation in their driving skills when talking on the phone, fiddling with the radio, or polishing off a 2-4.) In fact, if you have an automatic transmission in your car, you can regularly drive with one hand.

Furthermore, if driving with only one hand was as unsafe as driving drunk, then everyone who's either missing an arm or hand shouldn't be allowed to have a drivers licence.  And anyone with an unusable hand, due to injury or something, should lose their licence until they recover.

I guess the biggest problem would be for people who talk with their hands.  If they're holding their phone with one hand, and gesturing with the other, then they're not steering their car.

So, if the problem isn't having something in your hand, but attention, then why are we passing laws that say "It's okay to be distracted when you drive, as long as you're not distracted while holding something in one hand."?

Hot Chicks -> Dumb Men

This may come as shocking news to you, but according to Today's Article, men actually get stupider in the presence of beautiful women. But, attractive men don't have that effect on women.

Jeez!  I could have told you that!  And I could even have told you why....as long as their wasn't a beautiful woman near by.

I'm An Artist Too (124)

This guy discovers a new mole on his back. Incidentally, according to this article in New Scientist, the Naked Mole Rat never gets cancer.

I'm An Artist Too (123)

Nobody wants to address the elephant in the room.