Cell Phone Takes A Bath

Word to the wise..... Cell phones do not do well in the washing machine :-)

I got rid of my land line a few years ago, so all I have now, is my cell phone. I'm not always able to hear it ring if it is on the other side of the house, so I've sort of gotten in the habit of putting it in my sweatpants pocket, if I'm just lounging around the house.

So, last week, it was the day before the first day of the workweek, which, around my house means, wash day. I wanted to get everything in the "colors", so I stripped off my sweatpants and dumped them in the washer. Yes, that means I was standing there in my underwear..... great visual, eh? Get your mind out of the gutter :-)

Anyway, one thing I forgot to do, was remove my cellphone from my sweatpants pocket. Since the cellphone was turned on, in standby mode, you can imagine what it looked like.... and worked like (NOT) after the cycle. Dead.... no functionality at all. Bummer.

I took it all apart, and sprayed it with some canned compressed air that I have for cleaning out my keyboard, and after several hours, I was able to get it to turn on. Not function, just turn on. No contact list, no battery charge, and I could see water streaks across the display. Not Good (sigh).

One of my coworkers said something similar happened to him, and what he did was put the phone on top of his TV for 3 days to dry it out. The heat from the TV cooked out the moisture. Great, I have flat panel HDTV, which doesn't generate that type of heat. However.... My Cox Cable company digital TV box seems to put out enough heat through it's cooling vents to cook an egg. So, I took my miniature Phillips screwdriver, and took apart as much of the phone as I could, and set it on top of the box overnight.

The next day, I had recovered some functionality. I could receive calls, and send them, but the charger wasn't charging the battery, and I still had no contact list. There did seem to be less moisture streaking on the display, so I repeated the "cooking procedure" a second day. This morning, the battery took a charge, but no contact list. So, I used some Isoprophyl alcohol, and cleaned the contacts of the "smart card", and reinstalled it. still didn't work, but now, it is a couple of hours into the workday, and I just tried it again, and the contact list is back :-)

So, word to the wise.... Never give your cellphone a bath...... I mean, unless you have a high temperature TV or Cable Box :-)

Row Row Row Your Boat, Gently Down The Stream.....NOT!

A few weeks ago, my Adventure Club went up north of Phoenix, to do something I've been wanting to do for awhile..... River Rafting. I know, I know, I've previously written about that time I went (so called) River Rafting in the Grand Canyon, but this was different. The Grand Canyon rafting was with motor powered rafts. While that was fun, REAL river rafting to me means "Paddle Yourself". That's what we did this time.

We hooked up with the Tucson Adventure Club that we sometimes pair up with for these trips, and we drove ~ 2 hours north to an area just above the town of Globe, and started our "Salt River Adventure" just north of the town. We hooked up with a company called "Salt River Rafting" (go figure). They offer overnight and 3 day river rafting on 'The Upper Salt" (Ya like that river rafting lingo, eh?), so this time the club did the overnight. There were 23 of us, 12 from the Tucson club, and 11 of us "Phoenicians".

We carpooled up there with all our stuff, and the rafting company provided wet suits, wet suit booties, life jackets, and even helmets. I was a little "concerned" about needing a helmet, but on the other hand, the thought of bonking my brain on a rock, settled that concern immediately. We all got our paddles, and then hoofed it down to the rafts, where there was ~ 15 minutes of safety and paddling lecture. Basically, keep your hand on top of the paddle, so if the blade hits a rock, you won't get a face full of paddle (good advice in my book), listen for the commands "Right side forward (1,2 or however many stokes), Left side back, All Back etc etc", and most importantly, if you fall out of the boat, point your feet downstream, and float, we'll rescue you (you better).

6 people per rubber boat, plus 1 guide who steers from the back (4 boats total). I'm not sure why, but I always seem to get the front, whether it's rafting or roller coastering, or whatever. No problem, because like they say, "Only the lead sled dog has a clear view" :-) In this case, I was "right side, front". I was pretty confident as we shoved off, because after all, the guide said, the upper section is Class 1's and 2's, the middle is 2's and 3's, and the lower section is 1's and 2's. No problem.... right? I said..... RIGHT?

Yeah, right. About 50 feet from the start, we hit the first rapid. The critical thing they told us for rowers, is for everyone to stroke at the same time. Of course we didn't, and so we got pushed to the right.... right towards a cliff wall. With me being in the front right, guess who is going to be the first "wall kisser". The guide was yelling "Left Back Hard", Right Forward Hard" trying to steer us away, but I could tell we weren't going to have enough space...... so, BONK!! The right front of the boat hit the wall, , then the nose, then the left front, then we were going downstream..... BACKWARDS!!! So, we navigated the first rapid section in reverse, much to the delight and laughs from the other 3 boats in the group (sigh).

Anyway, after a kind reminder from the guide to "paddle together people", we got our timing down really well before we hit the tougher sections of the river. I'm not sure what Class 4's and Class 5's are like, but let me tell you, 2's and 3's were PLENTY of "rapid" enough for me, at least at my relative level of inexperience. By the time we pulled over to the riverbank for lunch, I was ready for a break. The guides actually took care of all the cooking chores, so all we had to do was unzip our wet suits slightly, and lounge around, congratulating ourselves for not drowning that morning. Of course there were several jokes about our boat people "not knowing which way was downstream", but it was all good natured ribbing, so I resisted the temptation to throw them into the river :-)

The rest of the day was spent paddling down through the lower portion of the river, in which 2 of the other boats got stuck on rocks at different times, filled partially with water that need to be bailed out, and nearly turned their boats over, and 2 people from the third boat actually did fall into the river (quickly pulled out). I noticed something funny..... nobody was making jokes about our "backwards boat" when we stopped for dinner..... hummmmmm, I wonder why? At least our boat was relatively dry (hehehehehe).

While the guides cooked dinner, I pitched my tent in a clear sandy area. Man, I love modern tents. When I was a kid in the Boy Scouts, those tents took a long time to put up. now they pop up in a few minutes. I was all set up way before the dinner bell rang. After dinner, we built this huge bonfire from the ton of driftwood on the shoreline, and spent a good part of the evening telling jokes and stories and getting really really....... really drunk. I brought a bunch of beer, and my "Patron Silver" tequila to share, and I drank from other peoples sharing's until I don't even remember going to my tent. Whew!

The next morning, when we woke up (surprisingly, no hangover), the guides cooked us breakfast, and we took our time breaking camp. The only thing I wished, is that we had done the three day, and then after breakfast we would have gone back onto the river for a 2nd day of rafting. Oh well, next time. I hear that the last couple of weeks in March is the best time, because then the water is higher, and the 1's and 2's become 2's and 3's, and the 2's and 3's become 3's and 4's. Hey.... something to look forward to for next year..... RIGHT? :-)

Oh, They Built The Ship Titanic, To Sail The Ocean Blue...

My Adventure Club went down to the Arizona Science Center a couple of weeks ago. They had an exhibit of the Titanic. I was really looking forward to it, since the last time it was in Phoenix..... I missed out on seeing it. I thought it was a once in lifetime chance, so I'm glad it came back.

It was really interesting, they had artifacts that had been brought up from the ship on the bottom of the Atlantic, plus a step by step history of the building of the ship, which gave an idea of why they claimed it was "unsinkable". It actually should have been. Like most tragedies, it wasn't one specific thing that doomed the Titanic, but a series of unfortunate events that combined all together sunk the ship. They also gave you a "Passport" at the start of the self guided tour, with the name and biography of one of the passengers, which you could look up at the end of the tour to see if "you" survived. My person was a 61 year old man, traveling 3rd class, who's cabin was 5 decks down in the ship. Doesn't look to good for him, eh?

There has always been several things that I wondered about that tragedy. Why couldn't they see that darned iceberg in time? What, wasn't it big enough? Sure it was, if the person in the watchtower had his binoculars, that were misplaced in the rush for the ship to leave the dock.

And, why didn't any other ships in the area bang into, or at least see, and radio back positions of icebergs that night? They did, at least the ones that were spotted in the regular shipping lanes. Turns out, the Titanic had deviated from the normal shipping lanes, because they were taking a "short cut", trying to make the trip in the shortest amount of time, to break the current speed record for the trip.

That's the same reason that the warnings about icebergs in the area were ignored, and why the ship couldn't stop in time. The Captain had ordered "full speed ahead", so even when the night watch finally saw the iceberg, and the order for "Hard to Port, Full Reverse Engines" was given, it was too late to stop, or turn the ship away from the iceberg.

Still, even when the ship did hit the iceberg, the ship itself was designed to stay afloat, even with 4 of it's lower compartments fully flooded. Unfortunately, the iceberg ripped a hole in 6 compartments. Too bad they weren't going slower so they could stop or turn away, or had their binoculars, so they could see that iceberg sooner, eh?

And even after impact, the ship didn't sink immediately, so why couldn't they get everyone off the ship in the lifeboats? Because there weren't enough lifeboats, that's why. The ship was originally designed to carry 32 lifeboats, which was plenty for everyone, but due to cost cutting, the final built version of the ship only had 20. So, to save a buck, so sorry for the people who needed those extra 12 boats. Tough luck.

The lifeboat shortage is even more tragic, because it turns out, most of the fatalities weren't from drowning. Most of the fatalities were from exposure to the cold water, and hypothermia. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of sea water, and it was estimated the water temp in the Atlantic that night was less than ~25F. At that temperature, hypothermia will occur in less than 5 minutes. The exhibit set up a simulated "iceberg" that you could touch that was cooled to that estimated temperature. I could only hold my hand against it for ~ 30 seconds before my skin started to go numb. Too bad there weren't enough lifeboats, they might have saved everyone.

So, all in all, it was a very interesting exhibit, and I was happy for those that made it, sorry for those that didn't, and I definately learned allot more of the story, then any Leonardo Decaprio movie could have shown me.

By The way, My 61 Year Old Passenger friend.... Survived :-)

Chocolate Stuff

Chocolate Dog is doing very well. Julie Dog has accepted him, after some initial "What The Heck Is That" attitude. I think she does not feel threatened or intimidated, because Chocolate is a male (different sex), and he's currently smaller then she is.

Chocolate had his first Vet visit. He was a little timid during the visit, probably due to the unfamiliar surroundings. He made friends with the Vet though, when she gave him his first Vet visit - doggie treat. With him, treats do wonders for friend making :-) He weighted 15 lbs, and he got his updated shots, including the rabies. The Vet says he's healthy, and he tolerated the procedures well. I just stepped on the scale with and without him, and 2 weeks after the Vet visit, he is now 18 lbs (+3 lbs) :-)

The biggest effort has been housebreaking. He learned to use the Doggie Door to the back yard, in 1 day, but he initially did not get the idea to go to the toilet outside in the back yard (sigh). Fortunately, after the first day, he had his "accidents" mostly in the kitchen, on the vinyl flooring, instead of the carpet in the rest of the house. So, even though I cleaned up his carpet accidents right away, I'm still eventually going to need to steam clean the living room and hallway carpets. The method I'm using to housebreak him, is the same one that worked with my other dogs, which is, I use a dog transporter crate, that I confine him in at night, and we go outside to the back yard FIRST THING in the morning. I have been leaving him and Julie outside during the day when I'm gone, and on the weekends, I go outside to the back yard every hour, he follows me, and usually does his toilet business then.

I think he's getting the idea, since this week on Thursday, I saw him go outside through the doggie door and do his business outside all by himself, and yesterday (Saturday), I left him and Julie inside, with the doggie door unlocked, when I went Christmas Shopping, and 5 hours later I came home to NO messes :-)

So, he has another Vet visit on December 28, to get his second set of distemper shots. He now accepts me putting on his collar, and he walks on the leash mostly following Julie when we go outside on walks, and Julie and he seem to be buddies, so, all in all, Julie seems to have accepted him, and I think he's progressing faster then either Julie or Max did when they were the same age...

Good Doggie :-)