nature rises up to smite us

[the_siobhan]

How the hell are you supposed to be able to read those mercury thermometres? Is there a trick to it? I'm trying to figure out if I am running a fever, and as far as I can tell my temperature is either zero or 42.

Something was fighting in my back yard last night. No idea what because I couldn't find the damn flashlight.

The radio said potential brownouts today. I like how the chances of power failure has become part of the daily weather report.


What I'm listening to right this second: X

Comments

[tristam08.livejournal.com]

I have no idea.
I have a digital thermometer repeatedly tell me my body temp is 95.3 O_o

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You're a lizard?

[tristam08.livejournal.com]

I must be!

[montieth.livejournal.com]

YOu can't find a flashlight? That's 5 McGyver Demerits for you!

Get a 5 D-Cell Maglight. A Substantial woman like you should be able to make VERY good use of such a flashlight, illuminated or not.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

No kidding! I am very displeased.

I'm thinking I need to get Axel his own. That way he a) can't lose mine and b) won't get blamed if I'm the one who lost it.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Nah, he'll lose his and then take off with yours.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

If he touches mine, then he forfeits the right to complain that he is blamed unjustly every time something goes missing.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

You ought to have several around the house as well as spare batteries. A couple of those big lantern flashlights (we can get them here for a couple of bucks from Home Despot and other hardware outlets) are useful for housework, power outages and other issues as well as checking the yard. But a Mag Light is always good to have. Personally, I have one in most of my vehicles in various sizes. The biggest is the 5 D that's in the car.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

I had this idea that every room in the house, or at least every floor, should have it's own 'first aid' box - first aid stuff, but also tools - flashlight, screwdriver, etc. That way, everything's close at hand and there's no excuse not to put things back where they came from.

Of course, now I have one large box with 6 screwdrivers, but whatever.


M.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

We actually have three or four of the garden-variety hardware store type. I have no idea where they ended up either.

My mag isn't a full-sized one - it takes four C-cells. But it's the heftiest one we have, so it's the one that I most want to keep track of, and therefore the one that seems to disappear on a regular basis.

[artistatlarge.livejournal.com]

Love the icon. :-)

I'm doing my bit against power outages today- it was my plan to do laundry, but I won't. Not because I'm LAZY, but because I'm civic-minded.

>:-)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That's very socially responsable of you. :-)

[amon-zero.livejournal.com]

Yay X!!

p.s. that was me fighting in your back yard. Sorry.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

So didja' win?

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

you have a quantum fever :)

you need to collapse your waveform!

[melete.livejournal.com]

I hate those thermometers, I can never read them either. I've had nurses try and show me and it still hasn't helped. I now have a digital one because I never knew what was up. Apparently you are not supposed to read it straight on but tip the reading part up or down from your direct line of sight just a bit. This is what they tell me, I haven't found that it helps.

We had a blackout last night that lasted about two hours. It conveniently started as I was ten minutes in to Battlestar Galactica's season finale. :P I lucked out though as there are still people here without power.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's easy do to but hard to explain. See, one side of the thermometer is effectively a prism. So, at one angle, and one angle only, you'll see a giant huge wide silver stripe, which makes it easy to see how high the silver stripe is.

Remember also to shake down the thermometer before using it -- you want to move all the mercury down to the bulb, because, otherwise, you may get a false reading.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I have spun it slowly around to try and find the correct angle. I have looked at it under a variety of light sources. I have even tried squinting at it not-quite-directly as if it were one of the optical illusion posters.

Nothing. It has defeated me.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And you've rotated it on all three axes, too, right?

It could be broken -- have you noticed any puddles of mercury around?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Well Axel tried to show me how to read it for several minutes without success. So I think it's me.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

Mercury? I think those are the ones where you bite the shiny end real hard before you read it.


M. (helpful as ever)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm not putting it up my bum no matter what anybody tries to tell me.