What is happening

[P'ter]

I remember sitting in classroom just after school (I was in detention!) when the school's bronze external bell was hit by lightning. I could almost swear that we heard the "bang" before we saw the flash.

The flash travelled down the wire rope used for sounding the bell, leapt to the floor and exited to ground via a paving slab.

It cracked the bell which sounded rather weird for evermore.

[Dragon Fan]

My oldest brother was once very close to a lighting strike when he was a teenager, it knocked him down and to this day he has no leg hair from his knees down.

[P'ter]

Wow! Free depilatory! Nature's laser hair removal clinic.

[Dragon Fan]

Yea, looks very, very, weird when he wears shorts.

[SpaceCowboy]

Thanks Allen.

I was surprised this evening when the people I worked with on third shift brought me a cake while I was finishing up in the dairy cooler. I was actually quite touched since it has been almost a year since I worked with them.

[SpaceCowboy]

Well it wasn't a direct hit but the light standard it hit was melted and was about 50 feet away from the outside wall by our primary breakers.

Originally Posted by SpaceCowboy

I had just locked up my telxon and printer in preparation to clock out for the day this evening when our store was either struck by or caught the backlash from a very close lightning strike. And it was close as you heard the unmistakable boom/crack of a less then fifty foot away strike. What was funny is I stood there unfazed and everyone around me was freaking out as the lights flickered and partially went out.

[Hans]

Originally Posted by SpaceCowboy

I had just locked up my telxon and printer in preparation to clock out for the day this evening when our store was either struck by or caught the backlash from a very close lightning strike. And it was close as you heard the unmistakable boom/crack of a less then fifty foot away strike. What was funny is I stood there unfazed and everyone around me was freaking out as the lights flickered and partially went out.

Hehe, quite an experience. And I understand congratulations are in order?

And, what's a Telxon?

[SpaceCowboy]

It wasn't that bad to me since I've been through earthquakes that shook more. I'm actually looking forward to my birthday in two years since I'm almost qualified for a life time discount at work. I need two more years of age and to make it four more years at work when I'll have the magic 55 years of age and 15 years of service.

A Telxon is a hand held device that allows a retail employee to connect to the store computer wirelessly. I use it to print inventory labels for excess stock that will be going in our storage area as well as check to see if we might have an item in that area. Department managers use them to manage inventory and check on incoming deliveries. Older ones look like a science fiction like handgun and newer ones look like a cell phone. Telxon is also a brand name for them although most stores use it to mean any brand of them.

Originally Posted by Hans

Hehe, quite an experience. And I understand congratulations are in order?

And, what's a Telxon?

[P'ter]

Peter's Law of Escalators states that -- when you want to descend, both escalators are working: but when you want to ascend, only the down one is running.

[vyon]

Right. When I was at the supermarket in Newtown this afternoon the up travelator wasn't working and the down one was literally a pile of pieces. I've never seen the inside/underside of an escalator before.

[Allen]

Escalators can be an incredibly dangerous piece of equipment. It takes a very large amount of power and leverage to make them work, and nothing in the human body is strong enough to withstand the forces involved if caught up in the mechanism. They're not a safe place if you have loose shoestrings or clothing that may get caught or entangled in the mechanism, like the "comb" at the beginning or end.

[P'ter]

And, if one is not running it breaks the rules for a staircase: the ratio of height/length of step varies, and there are often more than 16 steps without the obligatory break for a landing.

[Dragon Fan]

This Topic reminds me of an Observation I made at one time. Escalators are made to take you to the next level without having to climb stairs. Yet I see many people still "climbing " the stairs on the Escalator. So, A little poll is in order. Do you climb the Escalator--or do you stop and let the Escalator carry you to the next level?

[SpaceCowboy]

When I was younger before the arthritis took over my knees I would walk them . These days if an elevator or ramp aren't available I let them take me up to the next level.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by SpaceCowboy

When I was younger before the arthritis took over my knees I would walk them . These days if an elevator or ramp aren't available I let them take me up to the next level.

LOL. "When I was younger"....... sorry, but I'm thinking several of us have years and years on you. Me for one..... I got out of prison a year ago this past September after 15 years and 9 months, at age 68 (when I retired; my wife hates it when I say it like that). I'll be 70 in less than 30 days.

I still walk around the woods whenever I get the time, walk up the quarter-mile driveway (hills, dips, loose rock, no pavement) to check the mail. I say when I get the time because I'm still working on the major remodel, along with all sorts of side projects. Lots of time on my feet, and up and down.

I've lost a step or two as I've gained years. I don't move through the woods, up & down the hills as fast or as "gracefully" as I did 40, 45 years ago, but I can still get 'er done.

[SpaceCowboy]

I agree with the part about some of you having years on me, but I made the mistake of living la vida loca (or since I'm a guy el vido loco) when I was younger and it put a lot of extra miles on me young. It also doesn't help that I started developing arthritis in my knees before I was 25. I badly need knee replacements I can't afford even with insurance and that is starting to affect my right hip and lower back. However I understand it is my fault and don't complain and would do it again if I could go back knowing what I know now about the consequences. I work on my feet all day and even as much as I've slowed down still out work people 30 years younger.

Originally Posted by Allen

LOL. "When I was younger"....... sorry, but I'm thinking several of us have years and years on you. Me for one..... I got out of prison a year ago this past September after 15 years and 9 months, at age 68 (when I retired; my wife hates it when I say it like that). I'll be 70 in less than 30 days.

I still walk around the woods whenever I get the time, walk up the quarter-mile driveway (hills, dips, loose rock, no pavement) to check the mail. I say when I get the time because I'm still working on the major remodel, along with all sorts of side projects. Lots of time on my feet, and up and down.

I've lost a step or two as I've gained years. I don't move through the woods, up & down the hills as fast or as "gracefully" as I did 40, 45 years ago, but I can still get 'er done.

[granath]

Originally Posted by Dragon Fan

This Topic reminds me of an Observation I made at one time. Escalators are made to take you to the next level without having to climb stairs. Yet I see many people still "climbing " the stairs on the Escalator. So, A little poll is in order. Do you climb the Escalator--or do you stop and let the Escalator carry you to the next level?

I usually climb, unless it's very crowded.

[Allen]

I almost always climbed; it's faster. Now, my wife stands still, so I do, too.

[Hans]

So, essentially, you're wife and you are at a stand still?

[mara]

Originally Posted by Hans

So, essentially, you're wife and you are at a stand still?

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Hans

So, essentially, you're wife and you are at a stand still?

But sometimes it's while we're upwardly mobile.

[Kugai]

And down to earth/

[Greenrider Tresa]

I just stand and let the escalator carry me.

[Brenda]

I'll walk down, but not up.

[Sandi]

I haven't even seen one in years. Anybody remember Hooterville?

[Dragon Fan]

I think just about every mall has an escalator, but then due to the higher prices in mall stores, I haven't shopped at one in quite some time.
Ah, Hooterville, of Green Acres and Petticoat Junction Fame?

[Sandi]

That's the one. Makes this place seem downright urban.

[Allen]

I know a lady who never rode an escalator until she was in her late 20s or 30s. She lived in Salem, Missouri and had never even been to St. Louis; the mall in Springfield is one level with NO escalators.

[Kugai]

Ours has a TRAVELATOR!

Lower Hutt going a bit upscale here

[granath]

Most malls here have travelators rather than escalators. It's so that people can take their shopping carts with them from shop to shop. All the stores in one mall are either so small that it's easy for staff/security cameras to keep track of who has paid and who's attempting to shoplift, or they're on the same alarm system, so that once an alarm tag has been neutralized at one store, it won't go off in another. The big hypermarkets at ground level have lockers where you can put your shopping from the smaller stores in. We usually take any clothes or stuff that we've bought elsewhere in the mall to the car first and then go to do our weekly big grocery shopping at the hypermarket.

[Sandi]

I remember that a great many years ago some of the escalators in some of the London tube stations (are they still called that?) Could almost have qualified as amusement park rides.

[Dragon Fan]

Originally Posted by Sandi

That's the one. Makes this place seem downright urban.

Pretty urban here, Small town of around 3,500 people, mostly farms and the kind of stores that come with the farm life, and not an Escalator in sight. Have to Drive over 20 miles to see one of those contraptions.

[Allen]

We live outside of a town whose population is listed as about 2800. The population doubled to that when they moved the city limits to include the prison where I used to work; that added the approximately 1400 inmates to the count.

The nearest escalator that I know of is in St. Louis, about 150+ miles away.

[P'ter]

Yes the London "Tube" still has escalators, though most of the old wooden tread ones have been replaced with metal variants.

I've noticed that if you step on to a stopped one your sub-conscious still expects to compensate for the moving stair: throws one's balance for a second.

Got knocked over yesterday (not on an escalator). I was waiting for a couple of old ladies to get off the train so that I could get on, when a character in a bright yellow turban barged passed all three of us and felled me to the deck. I got a gashed left shin from the door-step and landed on my right hand (saving my laptop) which is now bruised and swollen from wrist to finger tips. I've had it X-rayed at A & E (I was wise enough to go a half-six in the morning -- in and out in under an hour!) and it's not broken so I'm just resting it in a sling and keyboarding one-handed. Lucky I'm a Lefty!

[mara]

Originally Posted by P'ter

Yes the London "Tube" still has escalators, though most of the old wooden tread ones have been replaced with metal variants.

I've noticed that if you step on to a stopped one your sub-conscious still expects to compensate for the moving stair: throws one's balance for a second.

Got knocked over yesterday (not on an escalator). I was waiting for a couple of old ladies to get off the train so that I could get on, when a character in a bright yellow turban barged passed all three of us and felled me to the deck. I got a gashed left shin from the door-step and landed on my right hand (saving my laptop) which is now bruised and swollen from wrist to finger tips. I've had it X-rayed at A & E (I was wise enough to go a half-six in the morning -- in and out in under an hour!) and it's not broken so I'm just resting it in a sling and keyboarding one-handed. Lucky I'm a Lefty!

Some "people"

[Sandi]

There are some people that the older folks used to sat "ain't got no cooth." Sorry you had to meet up with that one. I'm a lefty too and I agree it can be useful.

[Dragon Fan]

[QUOTE=P'ter;204129]Yes the London "Tube" still has escalators, though most of the old wooden tread ones have been replaced with metal variants.

I've noticed that if you step on to a stopped one your sub-conscious still expects to compensate for the moving stair: throws one's balance for a second.

Got knocked over yesterday (not on an escalator). I was waiting for a couple of old ladies to get off the train so that I could get on, when a character in a bright yellow turban barged passed all three of us and felled me to the deck. I got a gashed left shin from the door-step and landed on my right hand (saving my laptop) which is now bruised and swollen from wrist to finger tips. I've had it X-rayed at A & E (I was wise enough to go a half-six in the morning -- in and out in under an hour!) and it's not broken so I'm just resting it in a sling and keyboarding one-handed. Lucky I'm a Lefty![/QUO

Not sure about the "Lucky" but I understand about not hurting your primary hand, I broke some knuckles on my primary hand, Right hand in my case. The 12 weeks my hand was in a cast were the 12 most irritating weeks I have ever known. Wishing you a speedy healing

[Kugai]

Sounds like a complete prick P'ter.

[P'ter]

I did look for him but he'd moved smartly out of that carriage. I was going to ask him whether he would have barged into me if I too had been wearing a turban.

[Kugai]

Sp. you were Sikhing an explanation