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Monday, Jan. 06, 2003 - 8:40 p.m. How weird, you might ask? Well, for one thing�we had a dog running around inside the building today. Our storage is out in the middle of Bumfuck, so this doesn�t happen very often. There is a small subdivision about � a mile away, but the womenfolk, children, and livestock keep to themselves. In 20 years, I can�t say that I have talked to anyone from those houses more than once or twice. The lost dog was from one of these houses. Craig called the animal control number to check on the owners, and after finding out which house the mixed breed/poodle lived in, he returned him to his home. He knew the owners, and they were glad to get their lost dog back. Before he could return the dog, he drove down to the house to make sure the owner was at home. I filled a bowl with water for the pup, and gave him some scraps from my lunch while we waited for Craig�s return. The dog had to check out the smells in each office, so I now have hundreds of tiny muddy paw prints covering the hallways and floors. Oh well, I needed to wet mop tomorrow anyway. The other odd thing that happened at our NDDOT facility today was the discovery of a 27� television in the break room. I had to ask around a little before I found out that it came for our headquarters building in London. Seems they weren�t using it anymore (they probably have new 35� TV�s in their break rooms now), and reluctantly gave it to our storage. Having a nice large screen monitor at our building makes since because they use our break room for all kinds of training meetings and seminars. The folks from headquarters have always hauled in one of those VCR/TV combos for these meetings, which, in my humble opinion is just silly. Try watching a 13� screen with about 50 other people in a large room some time, and you will see what I mean. So the let us have their leftovers. They sent an old VCR along with it for playing those entertaining �how-to� videos they like to show us all the time. Oh yeah- they also tossed in a rabbit-ear antenna for our viewing pleasure. London has cable(Basic-plus, if I had to guess) on all of their TVs, but you would expect that, wouldn�t you? One problem, though- the rabbit-ears only had about 1� of wire attached to them, and the base was broken off of the frame of the TV. I�m sure somebody down there was laughing when they loaded this setup into our technician�s car. Never fear- I had to run errands this afternoon, and one of the purchases I made was of a new antenna. No, I didn�t spend a bunch of the taxpayer�s money. The new antenna only set us back $7.97. Once attached to the monitor, I was able to pick up the local ABC and PBS station as clear as cable. I could even pick up the distant CBS station well enough to tell what I was watching. That is a major improvement over the $5 auction-bought TV that I donated to the break room a couple of years ago. Before I bought that old RCA, we had our two state-purchased TVs taken away from us as punishment for some transgression we had committed in the past. The two sets they took away from us weren�t new purchases, either. Both were picked up at the State�s surplus warehouse. In their former life, they had been used on a distant air force base. One was dated 1979, the other 1981. They had the old dial-type tuning. You know, the type that made a very audible �click� each time you changed channels? Although neither could pick up our local stations very well, one was so bad the only station we could tune to had its broadcast tower located about 5 miles away. And it was a religious station. PTL, all day , infomercials all night! Thanks, London! They thought they were punishing us by TAKING THESE TVS AWAY? Not hardly. I bought the $5 set at an auction a few months later. The auctioneer had three old sets at this particular estate auction, and he said none of them were suppose to work anymore. Since this one was the newest of the three, I took my chances and bid for it. When we unloaded it at home, I took it to the garage and let it rest for a few hours. When I plugged it in and turned it on, sound came out of it immediately. Sound, but no picture. We already had radios, so this wasn�t an improvement. But after fiddling around with the old knobs on the back (kids, ask your parents about �knobs� on TVs), I brought the picture back to life. The �brightness� knob was turned all the way off, and so was the �tint� knob. With a little adjusting, it still had (and has) a decent picture. This 19� TV has served us well for the past couple of years. With the new arrival, it won�t be needed for the time being. I�m not taking it home, though. As soon as I do, some jackass in London will decide to take their old one back again. We don�t want to be without a TV in the future. We like to watch the local news at lunchtime, after all��..
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