A report this week has highlighted what has to be the most significant cause of relationship breakdown yet discovered, the report by The Grumpy Shed Owners Assoc. states that the lack of a garden shed is driving both men & women to drink, drug abuse, extramarital affairs & in some extreme cases to murder, all for the lack of a modest garden shed, available in all shapes, sizes & styles there is one to suit every budget, a haven away from the hustle & bustle of everyday life, a place to relax & let the world slip by, storage for that collection of old Playboy\Playgirl mags, space for that hobby you've always talked of taking up but never quite got round to, so what are you waiting for, remember the slogan of the Grumpy Shed Owners Assoc. " If you want to get ahead, get a shed"
Don't forget to sign up for the associations weekly newsletter, which this week features on page 3 " Readers Sheds"
TRUTH OR IMAGINATION
Reminded of several incidents from the past during a conversation with a friend I decided to write a blog looking at whether a car can be jinxed, during my early working years spent in the motor industry on many occasions I came across hard to explain phenomenon related to cars, I think most of us have probably had a dodgy car at some time in our lives, one that persistently goes wrong but given the number of moving parts & the fact they are mostly built for a price rather than to a quality most of this is easily explained, but every now & again a series of incidents come along where explanation is not so easy.
The car trade is riddled with superstitions regarding do's & don'ts, for example back when I was involved in the trade it was considered very bad luck to buy a green car & indeed in the years I was dealing with them green cars never brought anything but bad luck, then there were what were know in the UK as Friday afternoon cars, these were the ones that continually went wrong, right form brand new & the explanation given was that they went down the assembly line just on a Friday & the workers were more interested in what they planned for the weekend than the cars they were building, I was never really convinced by this argument, also included in this category were cars that for no apparent reason were very much faster than any others of that model, never did come to a satisfactory explanation for that as they all had the same parts & where built by the workers in the same factory, but far more difficult to explain than even that are the accident prone cars.
I have personally had experience of cars that continually through their life have been involved with accidents, with different drivers, some seasoned professionals involved in the trade so not owned by teenagers out to impress their mates on a night out, one particular example that stands out was, and I've abbreviated these incidents to fit them into a blog, an American convertible, sold by a Ford agent to a customer who was killed when the car drove into him whilst he opened his garage door, it was then taken back the garage for repair & did the same thing this time destroying the lift taking it to the first floor body repair shop, despite investigation there was never any fault found with the gearbox or any reason for the car to suddenly engage gears on it's own but this was two different drivers, the third driver took out the brick built built gate post whilst delivering it to a new owner at which point the Ford agents decided it was jinxed & wouldn't have it on their premises, it was sold in the trade & I don't know what happened after that. I personally was behind the wheel of what was thought to be a jinxed car, parked at the side of the road waiting for a gap in the traffic to pull out when I was hit by a police car who just veered into it on a straight piece of road, it was sent to the repair shop & on being driven out of the shop had a car land on it that had been hit by another car turning into the garage, again two different drivers & the car itself either stationery or hardly moving. But as I was looking on the net to see if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon I came across the link below, a remarkable story of the car that may have started the First World War. Also on that link is an interesting piece on the car that James Dean died in, it leads one to believe the book & film Christine could in fact have some truth in it.
When I was younger & thinking about a change of career I went through all the options as you do, I quite fancied factory work, like being a taste tester in a chocolate factory for example, or even a wine taster in a French vineyard could have had it's perks but I think my next door neighbour had the one I really wanted, every Thursday afternoon I would see him coming out of his house, uniform freshly pressed, cap under his arm, as he lower himself into his sports car I would wave & off he went, the start of his journey took him to Gatwick airport, one of the 3 London airports, he was a British Airways captain & every Thursday evening he would leave behind the leaden skies of gloomy England & fly his plane to the Caribbean, now here's the good part, nobody wanted to fly back to the UK on a Friday so he was stuck there over the weekend in an all expenses paid 4 star hotel, lounging by the pool or on the beach with the girls form his cabin crew until Monday afternoon when he would fly his plane back to Gatwick, that was it for the week, his job done, I did once ask him how much he had to pay them for this job but apparently not only did he get a free weekend in the Caribbean but they paid him as well. I'm sure I could have handled that job but it probably wouldn't suit everyone, perhaps you have an ideal job you wanted to do or maybe you even managed to get your dream job
It's the little things that can make a big difference.
The world is moving at such a pace it's easy to forget how the smaller improvements have made such a difference to our lives, take mice for example
No, not that sort of mouse, this sort
Not so long ago we were all using a roller ball mouse, what a performance they were, half the time there would be more cat fur in the mouse rather than the preferred option of mouse fur inside the cat , even when you had dismantled & cleaned all the moving parts clicking on the right spot was still a bit like Russian Roulette, I once drove a car all the way from London to the Costa Del Sol without insurance because without me realising when buying the on-line insurance the mouse has decided to jump from March to April meaning the car was fully insured for the month after I'd finished driving it, for me the optical mouse has made a vast difference, can you imagine the confusion on CS with peeps perving profiles by accident because the mouse decided to go for a wander, I'm sure everyone has their own favourite but can you honestly say yours has improved your life more than a decent mouse?
A Tribute to Roy Brown who died last month aged 96, whom some from the name may think was a record producer or comedian but was in fact was one of the last centuries best if controversial car designers, responsible for the legendary Ford Edsel, in these days of political correctness reports of his death site the failure of the Edsel being due to the radiator grille looking like a toilet seat, I'm old enough to remember that's not what it was likened to at the time, judge for yourself why large numbers of men refused to be seen in one -
When the opposition were making cars like this -
For his sins Roy Brown was exiled to the UK, America's lose was their gain as he designed the Ford Cortina which had a production run of over 20 years & made Ford millions in profit, it's conceivable quite a few CS members were conceived in a Cortina as they were quite the car for a young couple to be seen in back in the 60's.
He will also be remembered for the concept car that was later transformed into the Batmobile & although a commercial failure at the time , to buy an Edsel now will set you back about 10 times it's cost new & no car collection throughout the world is complete without one.
I have for a long time thought stress to be one of the most debilitating illnesses from which you can suffer, having seen a friend, a strong man normally in complete control, reduced to a pile of quivering blubber, unable to speak other that complete gibberish, an extreme case, maybe, but I think most of us have suffered from a stress related illnesses at one time or another, anything from flaking skin to a full blown breakdown & whilst my blog title may be easier to say than to do this piece was posted on Facebook this morning & I feel it may help.
A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.
She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."
It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down! -author unknown
I've just seen this news item online that will appear in tomorrows papers (1\04\2013) , the EU have kept it quiet but from tomorrow all of Spain's older wind turbines will be shut down causing massive disruption to the power grid & power failures across the country, Spain has always been a world leader in renewable energy but the downside to this is that quite a bit of the technology is now old & out of date, the EU ruling states that all wind turbines built prior to automated control & controlled manually will have to be shut down, the Spanish government has been given two options, either retro fit computerised control systems ( A very expensive option which due the current economic situation is unviable) or fit all these turbines with toilet facilities for the pilots, as it takes 20 minutes to climb up or down from the control room the EU has ruled this against current health & safety regulations. Although I personally don't rely on the national grid for power my internet provider does, so after midnight tonight I may not be able to get online to answer any comments.
Article from Olive Press Spain (Link to follow)
A pilot during training, this was seen as a way of providing jobs for the long term unemployed, from tomorrow all now out of work & claiming benefits.
The Exorcist , a man by the name of Gump, he was a Graduate of a West Side university, but that's another Story, he'd studied to become a vet & had written 101 papers on Dalmatians before he got the calling, anyway I digress, it was a Dark Night when The Exorcist & I went into the Forest, Gump turned to me saying it reminded him of Jurassic Park & indeed it was A Mad Mad World we were about to enter, suddenly there was flash & a Thunderball hit a tree nearby, in an instant it was a Towering Inferno, this was to be no Love Story, as we were still close to the Airport I could here a plane approaching, it was low, on Final Approach & Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in a nearby tree, my Sixth Sense was telling me we had a Titanic task ahead, it was going to be difficult Finding Nemo, however I was well versed in missing persons enquiries as I'd been a Beverley Hills Cop.....
Feel free to continue the story.
"A cleaning woman has stolen an empty commuter train in a suburb of Stockholm and crashed it into a house, injuring herself, Swedish officials say".
Source BBC News .
I've heard of cars, trucks, evens buses before but never a train
She drove the four-carriage train out of the depot for about a mile (1.6km) until it jumped the tracks, ending up wedged into a three-storey building.
Three families were inside the apartment building hit by the train but nobody was injured, the spokesman added.
I notice a certain amount of understandable reluctance on a previous blog to name names of members you would like to date, only a few of us are brave enough for that, so it set me to wondering, rather than a date who would we like to meet in person, both male & female, if time & money were no object would you perhaps like to surf with Waf from that fabulous beach? Potter around in parti's workshop? Hug one of Welela's trees? From a blog last night I think we can be fairly sure two members would like to ride with each other, or for the really brave how about a boat trip with Mtn ( take a life jacket for that one) For me personally as an example I'm looking forward to one day having that game of marbles with Nonsmoker.
A message I've been asked to past round re dangers for dogs at this time of year, thanks for having a look.
Invitation to nominate your favourite comment on blogs or forum for 2012, might be funny, serious, exactly hit the spot, if you can remember which blog or thread it was in that would be good but not essential, what made this was comment of the year for you? I expect most of us will have several that stick in the memory.
online today!zmountainman Blog (107)
