Neanderpundit

So thursday night I’m at my customer so late that I end up getting a room locally.

I sit in my room, looking at the PLC program for the device I’m installing, and get a sudden inspiration. I pack up my computer and the interface cord and head back to the customer.

When I get there I discover my inspiration is in fact meaningful, and I try it, and it works. I pack up my stuff, pleased with myself, and prepare to leave.

On the way out, i think “I could probably take a crap”. I put my computer in my truck and come back in to use the facilities.

The place is a ghost town at night, so I choose the handicapped crapper, giving me a bit extra space for the boys. I settle in, and begin to play freecell on the Palm.

Now, these crappers have the now-ubiquitous electronic flushers, once common in airports, now seen almost everywhere.
As anyone whyo has met me knows, I mostly wear black. This is not a fashion statement, I’m always working on something filthy, and black tends to hide the inevitable stains. The problem with wearing black, is that many optic sensors (the kind that are built into automatic flushers) don’t see it very well.

So mid-crap, the toilet thinks, “Well, I don’t see him anymore, he must be gone” and flushes.

I know that I have about twop seconds to move, or the boys will get dunked. SO I stand. And wait. Figuring the flush will soon be over and I can return to my business.

Except the crapper is clogged.

Now, this is one of those wall-hung crappers, and years of being abused has caused it to sag, it’s pointed front end now depositing my most recent bowel movement into my underwear like some demented, filthy gravy boat. I hop away, flip the filth from my drawers onto the floor, and watch as the last of the Mini Wheats from that morning run out of the bowl.

I pocket my Treo.

I put on my safety glasses, more to keep from dropping them than anything.

I cut off my drawers and shake the crap free in an adjoining stall

I use my drawers to clean the rest of the filth from my pants.

I toss the underwear out and zip up my damp jeans, and head back to the hotel. I was glad I’d checked in earlier, the idea of standing at the front desk damp and shit-smelling while checking in did not appeal to me. I washed my clothes in the bathtub and hung them on the towel rod to dry. I haven’t said anything about it till now, because only now do I have a spare pair of clean clothes to wear. Had I blogged this last night,. I might not have made it through friday unscathed.

BP Amoco is going to take big tankers of sludge, back them up to the water’s edge, and start dumping the shit there. Right?

WRONG! Jesus, NOBODY would do that. That is certainly what the press would have you believe, but none of it is true. Here’s what ACTUALLY happens.

Refining uses/requires water for cooling of the refining process. Heat exchangers run water on one side, refined product on the other side, the refined product gives up it’s heat to the water, and the warmed water is poured back into the lake. It’s mixed with cool water so it doesn’t thermally shock the water at the vent.

Sometimes, a pinhole rusts through (lake water is not kind to plumbing) and some product gets mingled with the water. Sometimes it’s just the gasket dressing that causes the contamination. Sometimes the gasket itself. At any rate, it would require a facility as large as the refining facility to filter this tiny amount of contaminant out of the water.

let’s put this in perspective.

You are careful about your vehicle. You change the oil on a regular basis. You’re concerned about the environment so you take your oil in for recycling. When you’re done with the oil change, you wash your hands. The oil on your hands goes down the drain. Twenty other people in your neighborhood do the same. Now, you’ve polluted, on that day, about the same as BP. What will you do about that?

Nobody wants to see any body of water polluted. Trust me, I grew up on a lake so polluted it used to burn. I’m a fisherman and a hunter, and I like to see nature pristine and clean.

But I’m not an idiot. I understand how manufacturing works, and if the EPA says it’s ok, they’re the most restrictive agency on the damned planet, so it’s got to be better than good. Get real.

Having only recently discovered that the proton pump inhibitors I take can cause vitamin B-12 deficiency, which causes numbness in the hands and feet, I figured I’d stock up on some B12 and B6 to see if this would help, while they were on sale. I have had some luck in the past, so I figured why not try again.

So I open the jar in the car driving to rockford today, and proceed to spill the damned thing on the floor, open, so a couple dozen tabs fell on the floor and a solid half dozen directly into my shoe.

I don’t think they help when applied that way.