Bag of Randomness for Monday, August 19, 2019

  • Unsolicited advice – With any hardship in life, view it in light of eternity.
  • I replaced all of GeedingManor’s fire alarms on Saturday. Truth be told, most of them have been removed for years for going off sporadically despite replacing the batteries and cleaning them. I recently discovered most fire alarms last for only about ten years and mine were more than twenty. The one located most centered in the house is actually a carbon combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
  • My 25-year high school reunion was this past weekend and I have some regrets in not going. I thought it was odd it was not happening during homecoming and it didn’t seem well planned, but I think I got that perception because I’m not on the Facebook which was how most of the planning took place. My good friend Jimi did attend. He said none of our closest friends were there, and that would have been perfect. I already know what’s going on in their lives and get to speak to them at least yearly. I would much rather be forced to see and interact with classmates I literally haven’t thought about since graduation but were in my second-grade classroom. He did inform me that the very first girl I slow-danced with (7th grade) died from cancer.
  • The teachers at the school my kids attend and my wife work at require all tattoos be covered. Some teachers wear a bandaid every day on the same spot. I bet some kids think their teacher never heals, that they are the opposite of Wolverine.
  • Last night I flipped channels between specials about Patrick Swayze and the Cola Wars. The Cola Wars special was fun because not only did it bring back a lot of memories, but throughout the special, they did the blind taste test with executives from both Pepsi and Coca-Cola as well as the contributing journalists.
  • Last Thursday I went to the local TxDOT to renew my drivers license. The plan was to get there before they open, 8:00 AM, to try to avoid being in a long line. It turns out half of Denton County had the same idea.
    • When I walked into the building, I saw that 27 people were in line ahead of me, which I didn’t think was too bad. But then I realized this was only the downstairs line, the line continued upstairs. I didn’t leave the building until 12:24 PM. The workers wouldn’t allow us to line up on the stairs. Basically, they sent us up about ten at a time.
    • Because I expected a long dreadful experience, I didn’t feel like the ordeal was all that bad, unlike many others. My heart went out to the elderly. One man leaned on his walker the entire time. An elderly woman asked those around her to assist her in sitting down on the floor and to get up periodically to use the restroom. I felt the wait upstairs wasn’t as bad because there was a railing to lean against, either with my backside or my forearms.
    • When you stand in that line for that amount of time,  you get to know the people next to you. I was fortunate enough to stand next to this really cool young woman from Argentina who wanted to talk DC vs Marvel and all things sci-fi the entire time.
    • About an hour into my wait, I realized I left some of my required documentation on the counter after an employee came out to tell us to make sure we had all required paperwork. I laid it out the night before so I wouldn’t forget it, and like an idiot, I forgot it. I asked Ms. Argentina if she would hold my place in line so I could drive home and retrieve them and before I could even finish my sentence she said, “Dude, I got you. I got you.”
    • Even though my drivers license wasn’t going to expire for another two weeks, to renew it, I needed to provide a certified birth certificate, Social Security card, or passport. I did have my U.S. Treasury ID with me which shows I have a certain security clearance and my face on it, but that wasn’t considered acceptable ID.
    • When I returned, Ms. Argentina was no longer on the first floor but was looking for me and waving to get my attention to show she was now on the second floor, which is visible from the first floor. After chatting with her a bit more, I asked if she could do me one more favor and accept a Chick-fil-A gift card I had in my wallet. I told her I wanted to express my thanks and that the world needs more friendly souls like her.
    • One dude in line had his headphones on and received a call. I’m guessing because he had his headphone on, he had no idea how loud he was actually talking and how everyone was picking up on his leud lifestyle.
    • The TxDOT worker who processed my request had a flower in her hair and she looked like she might be from Hawaii. Sure enough, she was, and she said she wears a flower in her hair every day to honor her heritage. When she was finished with my request and it was time to leave, I thanked her in Hawaiin by saying, “Mahalo.” She seemed genuinely touched.
  • John Goodman Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters
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5 Responses to Bag of Randomness for Monday, August 19, 2019

  1. Ben W. says:

    Our previous house was about 10 years old when we bought it, and after we had lived there for a month or so, one of the smoke detectors started alarming at random times. Alarming at 1:00 in the afternoon? Not too bad. 3 a.m.? Horrible. I had no clue about the lifespan of a smoke detector, but as soon as I found out I went to Home Depot and picked up a contractor’s pack and replaced every single one. The life expectancy of a smoke detector is one of those things that no one ever teaches you, but once you learn that lesson it’s one you don’t forget.

    I couldn’t care less about high school reunions. My 25th is coming up, and you couldn’t pay me to go. I’ve kept up with my friends and the people I care about, and have no desire to go hang out with a bunch of people who are now strangers to me simply because we grew up in the same city.

    About 10 years ago I worked for a state agency in downtown Austin. There is a tiny DPS office that sits directly in front of the Capitol building, and it serves mostly state employees since it’s a pain for anyone else to get to. That’s where state employees went to get their ID badge issued, but they also did license renewals, and there were never more than 4 people in line. My license has to be renewed in person next year, and I’m dreading having to deal with that. But hey, at least Texas is a conservative, small-government state, right?

  2. Richard Schwarz says:

    carbon monoxide detectors should be placed about 3 feet off floor level and not on roof. Smoke goes up. CO goes down

  3. TXSharon says:

    Too late to help you now, but I just had to go in person for my license renewal, too. I live in Houston, waits times are 3-4 hours or more. I drove 50 minutes to the Brenham DPS office, waited about 30 minutes (in a chair they provided in their waiting area), and was done. Well worth the drive! And I got to stop at Buccee’s, too! 🙂

  4. Bryan B. says:

    Small world alert: someone that I used to work with that I’m Facebook friends with graduated in your class and attended the reunion last weekend.

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