Refrigerator not working again

[Stormin Mormon]

Ouch, that's a lot of water. And fluids. After chugging two liters of mean green caffeine, know what I mean, bet that affected the rest of your day?

[Michael A. Terrell]

The same as when I was in the industrail electronics repair business. If our tech missed a problem, all the customer paid for was any additional parts. Id didn't make a lot of difference, since the callback rate was under 1%.

[aemeijers]

Hell, I did that last week, even with a double-dose of the locals- he stuck the probe in, and I about came off the chair. Idiot kept asking me 'do you feel pain, or just pressure?' After I explained to him the lack of a difference, he got out the needle again. Took me a good ten minutes to convince him to give me a prescription for something to get through the next 48 hours- I had to explain to him in very clinical terms why I couldn't take OTC NSAIDs any more, and how they made my face swell up. Damn DEA and AMA have gotten all medical practitioners so scared of being labeled 'drug addiction enablers', that you have to fight to get meds for legitimate reasons.

So why wouldn't they give you any meds?

-- aem sends, still sore just thinking about it all again....

[Michael A. Terrell]

That was gone in the first hour. I was out there for more than eight hours.

[Stormin Mormon]

Isn't that the way. Even after real life dentistry, they won't write a Rx. I've had different dentists, some will write, others will not.

[Stormin Mormon]

I'd hate to think what would happen to a tech who drank only Mt. Dew. That could make for a poor night sleep.

[Michael A. Terrell]

It was an emergency, and the moron Lt. he was replacing was too sorry to restock the clinic at the small Army base in Alaska. There was nothing to prep me for surgery and nothing to prescribe for pain killer afterwards. The fronts of two teeth broke and fell out while eating lunch in the mess hall on a friday, and I had to wait three days for the clinic to open which was only open on Tuesdays & Thursdays. The alternative was a two hour ride on an army bus to Fairbanks on a mostly gravel road that was painful to ride when you were well. I came close to killing the idiot Lt. when he suggested waiting another day for a ride in a helicopter, which was rougher than the damn bus ride. So, I sat there as the Cpt. used what looked like a large Scratch Awl and some pliers to break apart the roots and remove them one at a time. What was left of the crowns crumbled as soon as he tried to pull either tooth.

He kept stopping and asking if I wanted him to continue. I would nod, and try to say yes. As far as pain killers after dental surgery, I didn't start having the prescriptions filled until a few years ago. I've had eight teeth cut out in the morning, and went on to work a full eight hour shift later that day. It wasn't till I became Diabetic that I had to give in.

[Michael A. Terrell]

Actually, I have always slept better when I drank caffeinated drinks. I went two years with no caffeine, and was miserable. I can go right to sleep after drinking an eight ounce glass. It also helps reduce the swelling in my legs if I drink it not log before going to bed. It does more for me than the daily tablet of HCTZ. My body chemistry has been screwed up my entire life. I saw my VA doctor on friday. My sodium & potassium leaves are both a little low, even though I take supplemental potassium, and use more than five times the recommended level of sodium. If I reduce either I get muscle spasms, and a lot of pressure sores.

[Steve]

I only use that stuff in very small amounts on black iron pipe threads when I am running a gas line to a furnace.

I have found where bonehead hacks have put it on service valve caps, service port caps, on the threads of flare fittings(but not the flare itself), and a host of other places it doesn't belong. usually from the mess that was left, it was pretty obvious they got it all over themselves too.

[Steve]

Absolutely.... same here in south Mississippi. BTW, I do recommend spending the $400 for a Seiko divers watch. They last me 15 years or so, anything less will be junk in 1 - 3 months.

[Michael A. Terrell]

I had to replace the gas service to my house in Ohio, years ago. The character from CG&E was a pompous ass who informed me that I had failed the pressure test before he even got out of his truck. Then he said, None of the approzed contractor passed before the third test and no home owner had ever passed the test so I was about to kiss the $75 fee goodbye. The first thing he looked at was the Robroy installation kit, the orange plastic gas pipe and the #12 copper wire that was secured to the pipe.

Well, it did pass on the first try so he went to insect everything else. Then he was standing there in my basement looking at the 21' piece of black iron pipe that ran from a tee at the furnace, directly to the gas meter outside. He finally asked how I got that much pipe into the tiny basement. I smiled and told him it was really easy, after I dug a 30° angled hole beside the meter, and gave the pipe a shove. Then he tried to claim I used the wrong pipe tape, but couldn't deny that the partially used roll was the proper type. All the pipe had been removed, inspected and reinstalled after the old pipe dope was wire brushed from the threads.

He was pissed off, but he had to approve everything and turn my gas back on.

The new water service was another story. :)

[Steve]

Some inspectors get a little full of themselves. The last time I had a run in with an inspector, he was an ass from the start. I pulled *my* code books, and the manufacturers instructions handed them to him and told him to

*SHOW* me where my work didn't comply. He couldn't do it, and had to pass the job. He didn't work there very long after they figured out his resume and job history wasn't what he said it was.

[Michael A. Terrell]

I built UHF TV station in Destin, Florida about 20 years ago. The local building inspector stormed in and ordered me to stop working on the transmitter, because I didn't have a local electrician's license. I laid the original blueprints of the RCA system on the table and pointed to the top left corner that was marked "Electrician. Connect power here:" and tried to explain that i was assembling a piece of industrial equipment. He screamed you're pulling @#$%^&*( wire, dammit, and claimed that I was violating the NEC. I tossed him my copy and asked him to point out which parts I ws violating, and asked how familiar he was with the industrial and theatrical sections. he turned red and said, I don't give a damn, it has to be done by someone with a local license. I smiled and asked him to recommend someone who was bonded for in excess of $1,000,000 for the damage they could cause. he turned bright red and said, This pile of shit isn't worth a million bucks! I smiled and said, I realize that, but if they hook up even one wire wrong, they would destroy the transmitter and that the new one was only available turnkey, which was well over a million. Then I asked, Which one of your local 'Bubbas' knows how to prep and install 30 KV armored HV cable.

then he tried to tell me that the 1/4" steel plate with the control wiring and three 480 V to 120 V step down transmitters had to be taken down and mounted on 1/2" plywood. I told him I would gladly do that, if he showed me contact for his next of kin, and stood in front of the equipment when I removed the braces. There was over a ton of transformers and switch gear on that 4' * 10' plate.

He threw his papers back into his briefcase and yelled, I'll be back in 15 minutes with a cease & desist order! He never came back. ;-)

[The Daring Dufas]

You are VERY welcome, wanna read about my swollen lymph nodes? 8-)

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I don't usually have problems with inspectors. Wednesday and Thursday of last week I had to go out to a new department store to install two kiosks that had to be changed out because there was no UL sticker on the darn things. The guy who had originally started the job, walked when he discovered just how difficult the gear was to setup and get working. The kiosks were quite interesting with a 32" LCD touch screen turned vertically, a laser scanner, mag-stripe and bar-code swipe reader, thermal printer and touch pad mouse. The keyboard is on screen and the contraption is run by an HP/Compaq PC running Win XP. I had to get the network connection up then format and reimage the hard drive for the required task. After going through that, the customer assistance call button would work. I actually worked with U.S. based tech support! I missed my little Indian friends.

TDD

[Michael A. Terrell]

Destin and Sandestin are tourist traps with overpiced condos. They don't want anyone except their G.O.B. doing anything. I went to an electrical supply house where they refused to sell me anything, even after learning that I had an account with their company at another branch in the state. A plumbing supply house refused to sell me some 3" copper pipe for the cooling system. Both changed their minds after I told them I would pick them up over the weekend near home, and send letters to their corporate offices. :)

Even a blind pig finds an acorn at times. ;-)

You need to spend more time at the range. ;-)

[Gunner Asch]

Ayup..same as in the machine tool repair business. Thank Crom Ive not had to eat tooo many such jobs.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

[The Daring Dufas]

I've done repairs to the computer systems at Blockbuster stores and the India based tech support personnel are hysterically funny some of the time, especially when they give me a name. One gal went by "Julia Roberts", a fellow told me his name was "Stalin" and when I asked if his first name was "Joseph", he said yes. One time I went to a store that was so trashed that it scared the Indians so they put me through to a gal in Texas who spent 8 hours on the phone with me while I went through and straightened out the entire point of sale system. A very strange setup with serial and Ethernet on the same Cat5 cable.

TDD

[Michael A. Terrell]

Don't you just love cheap bastards? :(

Have you seen the ads for the new TV show called 'Outsourced'?

[The Daring Dufas]

GAWD! It looks like it will be funny and connect with a lot of us who have to deal with foreigners in order to service technology. I would love to be able to speak Hindi and Urdu, what fun I could have with tech support. 8-)

TDD