Those moments
When you have the right word on the tip of your tongue?
Worse even when you’re dealing with another language.
The truck I was following had a back brake dragging, and as I pulled alongside I watched it burst into actual flames. I honked and the driver rolled down his window.
“You’re on fire!”
“Que?”
“Fire! Fire!”
He smiles and mimes a gun pointed at his cab ceiling- “Bang Bang!”
I’m temporarily at a loss because I can’t remember the Spanish for Fire. “Mucho caliente!” I holler and he mimes wiping his brow. “Si!”
Oy. Finally it comes to me. “Fuego! Fuego!” I point to the back of his truck. he looks in the rearview and screams- his left back is engulfed. He parks the truck and runs to the back with a fire extinguisher the size of a beercan. A cop is pulling up behind him, and the light changes, so I move on. I never did find out what happened but on my way back there wasn’t a big flaming truck, so I assume he got it out.
Summer has come to the Midwest. Jean Sheperd accurately described it as a 500 lb woman on a camp stool; moist and oppressive. I thank the Lord for the work of Mr Carrier, and the men who bring the oil and coal and uranium out of the ground so we can enjoy that cool.
So long as we can, we should be enjoying it.
You got that square.
I was stopped on an overpass for a couple of hours the other day, pickup and truck argued about a point in space/time. PU lost. But the trucks around me all had Hispanic drivers.
We could all agree though that it was screwed ahead of use and a cervaza would have been a good thing to have.
Other than the cops wandering about cleaning up the mess, it was not bad.
Ah yes, language difficulties… :-) BTDT…
My late father started his career working for Carrier and ended it in the petroleum industry. On his behalf, you’re welcome.
Better add natural gas to that list of energy sources. Days like this all the natural gas peakers are up and running to power the extra load.
Well Said, hat trick, indeed.
Best research I’ve accomplished brings the credit for scaled-up mechanical refrigeration to Mr. Charles Taylor, engineer of the Twenties through the Sixties. A rare bird as both an outstanding mechanical engineer AND capitalist, he developed mechanical reefers in railroad rolling stock, sold the equipment to Pacific Fruit Express, then bought that transportation company. He enginnered the refrigeration for freezer-ships, the famous WW2 “Beef Boats”, and made huge money on that contract for the War Department.
As he was accumulating his wealth before WW2, he built a grand hunting lodge in WA, East of Longview in 1937. Naturally, he put in a large walk-in meat-hanging locker in the lodge, and refrigerated it. He extended the refrigeration to the whole house via a chilled-water system. It being in the West flank of Mt St Helens, there was hot geothermal water nearby, so he had a valve tree to switch the chilled water system over to a hot water heating system almost instantly.
His lodge was likely the first mechanically air conditioned residence in the USA. I’ve been in this house several times, it’s now owned by a good friend of mine.
That is a pretty neat bit of history there, Dog.