Thursday, May 14, 2009

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT......OR WAS IT RIGHT TO LEFT


A LOT OF BOATS FOR SALE THIS YEAR
Well, our predicted rainy weather never happened to-day & we ended up with lots of sunshine & clear skies. SOMETIMES THE NAME SAYS IT ALL
Nearly embarrassed myself this morning by taking one of the mobility vans I drive to the local service station for gas when it was...........already full of gas. I don't know why auto manufacturers do this but it seems they always have to be changing things & can't seem to leave good things as they are. The vans I have been driving over the past 5 years have the same gas gauges where the needle goes from full on the left to empty on the right. This morning & had the newest company van which I had never driven before. Checked the gas gauge before leaving town & to my dismay it was nearly on the empty mark. I said a few choice words under my breath for the previous driver leaving the van with hardly any gas from the day before. This meant I was going to have to detour over to the local gas station which was probably going to make me late in picking up my wheelchair person in another town nearby. I was about 3 blocks from the gas station when I glanced at the gas gauge again & noticed something odd. The symbols seemed backwards. On closer scrutiny I realized this gas gauge was reversed from the other older vans in that the indicator needle on the gauge went from full on the right to empty on the left. Completely opposite to the other GMC vans. Hastily made a few turns & I was back on track for my morning pick-up but not before switching my ongoing choice words for the previous driver to the engineering department & GMC. Why oh why oh why would they take a perfectly acceptable & readable gas gauge of many years & reverse it's needle direction. What engineering genius at some CEO level woke up one morning & in his totally bored & overpaid lifestyle said, "oh ho-hum I think I'll make that little gas needle in the new GMC vans go the other way now & maybe some dummy will think he's nearly out of gas...ha ha ha" AMIDST THE HULLS
We in Canada have our big summer kick off week-end coming up starting to-morrow. Queen Victoria's birthday is always celebrated around May 21rst. In Canada we call it the big 2-4 week-end. A case of 24 beers is commonly referred to as a 2-4 so the beer & the week-end go hand in hand. It's early this year but that won't stop the hordes of people flocking to the beaches for the big party. The town of Grand Bend on Lake Huron is about 20 minutes south of us & has always been notorious for wild parties, thousands of teen-agers, bikers, & lots of bare flesh on the beach. My first recollections of partying there started as early as 1962. It was the place to go & the place to be on the big 2-4 week-end. It still is!! I actually got to stay in the Bend one night for free many years ago courtesy of the local Provincial Police Department. Myself & about 5 other revelers were thrown into the "drunk tank" one Saturday night. Believe me, that was not a nice place to be thrown into for the night. The following morning we were unceremoniously herded into the back of a police van (minus our belts & shoelaces) & driven about an hour south to Sarnia where we were locked up in the Sarnia County Jail for a few days. Standard procedure back then if you were picked up in Grand Bend on any alcohol related offence. That County Jail was not a nice place to be locked up in. My Dad had to drive down from Stratford Ontario 3 days later & bail me out. I think the charge was being drunk in a public place or something & a month or so later I had to return to Grand Bend & pay a hefty fine. You would think I would have been smart enough to clue into my drinking lifestyle after that but oh no not me. I had to go on banging my head on the ground for another 10 rough years before finally admitting I had a problem with alcohol. But, that's another whole story for another time:)) WASN'T ICARUS THE GUY FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY WHO FLEW TO CLOSE TO THE SUN
I had started out in the previous paragraph with the intention of mentioning how the Grand Bend Beach area right now is undergoing a massive reconstruction program but somehow ended up with the Sarnia County Jail story. Amazing how the mind is so adept at misleading itself....................!! LAKE HURON'S WAVES ON DEERPARK'S BEACH

3 comments:

  1. Icarus, son of Daedalus, flew too close to the son and it melted the wax on his "wings". His Daddy cautioned him, but did he listen?

    Icarus: look at the shine on that baby! That's what I'm trying to achieve on my rig and it ain't working!

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  2. Port Stanley's Docks are more than half empty going into this long weekend!!! Never in all my years have seen such a shame...This life is really changing..but what is it really changing into???..What a mess and the people are so miserable! Even the high profiler's.

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  3. "Why oh why oh why would they take a perfectly acceptable & readable gas gauge of many years & reverse it's needle direction."

    For the same reason that software programmers make changes to software that is working just fine - make work and job security.

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