Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Wednesday Whatever - June 28 edition
Can you believe it? 3 straight weeks I've remembered to do this. Now if I could only get the daily posting thing down.
Last night I was going to just sit around watching TV and waiting for Dad to make us some supper (was going to be grilled ham with some sweet corn cooked on the side burner of the grill). Well, I got home from work, shirt off, shorts on, cold pop in one hand and the remote in the other at 5:20 when the scanner lights up with a message for our Fire Department. Anybody available to help with a controlled burn, meet at the station at 6:00. Well, about 5:50, surprised that Dad isn't home yet, I put my pants back on with a shirt, grab my radio and head out to the pickup. Dad's just arriving home now, so I tell him that I'm going to the controlled burn just to see what and where it is since no details were given on the page.
Well, the burn goes off fine, although there was a time with so much black smoke I thought sure the DNR, FAA, FCC, FBI, CIA, NAACP, NCAA, MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, WPBA, and any other interested alphabet agency would show up. Oh, by the way, the burn was just a mid-sized brush/debris pile in a hole. About 8:30 we decided any damage that could be done was already done and headed back to town. When I got home, Dad informed me that if I'd been 15 minutes later, he would have had supper without me. It was then that he was going to light the grill and side burner. Grill got lit and I went into the house to grab another cold pop. Dad came in too and went into his office. About 10 or so minutes later, he went out to check on the grill and the corn, came back into the house and told me to go get another gas cylinder. This time I left the house wearing my shorts since I didn't want to put my pants on AGAIN, even though I hate my legs, especially the one that was still wrapped.
I get to the quick mart, c-store, whatever they're called in your area (similar to Casey's, Pronto, Kum & Go, etc.), and drive by the cage where they keep the cylinders. Upon first glance, they're all upside down, which is usually the sign that they're empty. I went inside anyway and told the gal working what I wanted and what I'd seen. She decided to check it out anyway. Lo and behold, on the bottom shelf in the back, there were 2 cylinders left that were full. With my purchase made, I head back home to find that Dad decided to make the corn on the stove and broil the ham.
In the midst of all that screwing around, he asks me what we would have to do to get the Sioux City news station hooked up to our TV, since we've only had access to Omaha's since we got Dish Network hooked up on May 1st. I told him the options, and after much explaining of the easiest method, and halfway through eating supper, we hooked the original cable line back into the back of the upstairs TV. About this time, since I've had some parts to try to get this done, but haven't gotten around to it yet, I decided to experiment with it after Leno's monologue, since the part after the first commercial wasn't anything we'd be interested in.
Now, when the dish was being installed, the installer told me I would need an "A-B Switch" to be able to have the local cable and Dish Network on the second TV. I thought "no way, the Dish feed is coming in on a channel that ain't even close to what local cable covers", but didn't argue with him as I figured he'd been to classes or something and had some idea what he was doing. As an experiment, I took an ordinary 1-2 splitter, hooked the feed from both the Dish receiver and the local cable to the outputs, and a line to the TV on the input. Guess what, it worked GREAT.
Now if only fixing the phone lines that the same Jackass Dish Installer farked up was as easy, we'd be set.
Last night I was going to just sit around watching TV and waiting for Dad to make us some supper (was going to be grilled ham with some sweet corn cooked on the side burner of the grill). Well, I got home from work, shirt off, shorts on, cold pop in one hand and the remote in the other at 5:20 when the scanner lights up with a message for our Fire Department. Anybody available to help with a controlled burn, meet at the station at 6:00. Well, about 5:50, surprised that Dad isn't home yet, I put my pants back on with a shirt, grab my radio and head out to the pickup. Dad's just arriving home now, so I tell him that I'm going to the controlled burn just to see what and where it is since no details were given on the page.
Well, the burn goes off fine, although there was a time with so much black smoke I thought sure the DNR, FAA, FCC, FBI, CIA, NAACP, NCAA, MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, WPBA, and any other interested alphabet agency would show up. Oh, by the way, the burn was just a mid-sized brush/debris pile in a hole. About 8:30 we decided any damage that could be done was already done and headed back to town. When I got home, Dad informed me that if I'd been 15 minutes later, he would have had supper without me. It was then that he was going to light the grill and side burner. Grill got lit and I went into the house to grab another cold pop. Dad came in too and went into his office. About 10 or so minutes later, he went out to check on the grill and the corn, came back into the house and told me to go get another gas cylinder. This time I left the house wearing my shorts since I didn't want to put my pants on AGAIN, even though I hate my legs, especially the one that was still wrapped.
I get to the quick mart, c-store, whatever they're called in your area (similar to Casey's, Pronto, Kum & Go, etc.), and drive by the cage where they keep the cylinders. Upon first glance, they're all upside down, which is usually the sign that they're empty. I went inside anyway and told the gal working what I wanted and what I'd seen. She decided to check it out anyway. Lo and behold, on the bottom shelf in the back, there were 2 cylinders left that were full. With my purchase made, I head back home to find that Dad decided to make the corn on the stove and broil the ham.
In the midst of all that screwing around, he asks me what we would have to do to get the Sioux City news station hooked up to our TV, since we've only had access to Omaha's since we got Dish Network hooked up on May 1st. I told him the options, and after much explaining of the easiest method, and halfway through eating supper, we hooked the original cable line back into the back of the upstairs TV. About this time, since I've had some parts to try to get this done, but haven't gotten around to it yet, I decided to experiment with it after Leno's monologue, since the part after the first commercial wasn't anything we'd be interested in.
Now, when the dish was being installed, the installer told me I would need an "A-B Switch" to be able to have the local cable and Dish Network on the second TV. I thought "no way, the Dish feed is coming in on a channel that ain't even close to what local cable covers", but didn't argue with him as I figured he'd been to classes or something and had some idea what he was doing. As an experiment, I took an ordinary 1-2 splitter, hooked the feed from both the Dish receiver and the local cable to the outputs, and a line to the TV on the input. Guess what, it worked GREAT.
Now if only fixing the phone lines that the same Jackass Dish Installer farked up was as easy, we'd be set.
# posted by Tiny @ 1:19 PM 
