I woke up at 5am this morning and was trying to nod off again for another half hour of rest when the ceiling fan and light in my room came on. What the? It wasn't as alarming an experience as you might think. The first question of why there is suddenly light in my room could have many answers, most of which didn't involve a home invasion. Upon opening my eyes, it was clear that the light was coming from the ceiling fan. Ghosts? Or maybe just a neighbour with a remote control using the same frequency. I pulled my remote out of the drawer and turned it off again, wondering if my neighbour's light would also go off. This is how wars get started! I hope this is not a regular event.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Sunday, 2 October 2011
It Seems That I Have High Potential
On my last night in Algiers last week, I was ready for bed and reached over to move the bedside lamp a little closer to the bed. I was literally shocked when the lamp reached out and grabbed my arm, sending electricity through my arm to my chest. I'm not sure whether I pulled my arm away in surprise or the current was above the leg-go current and caused my muscles to contract. In any case, I instantly found myself standing with a sore arm looking fearfully at this ferocious lamp with its metal shade.
It was after 10pm and the other Villa guests were most likely already asleep. I wiggled my fingers, moved my arm, checked that my heart was beating as normally as it ever does. The lamp just sat there on the night stand, its yellow light staring at me. What to do? I must disable this monster. Using a plastic hairbrush as my sword, I stabbed the plastic on/off switch, extinguishing the lamp. I looked around the night stand, using a blackberry to illuminate the darker corners, searching for any other possible source of this mysterious problem. Finding nothing, I thought it best to unplug the lamp. Threat fully disabled.
I went to bed and discovered that electric shock therapy doesn't help you sleep. Should I let someone else know now or wait until morning? My arm hurt, but I was otherwise fine. I probably should have asked someone to turn off the breaker before turning off and unplugging the lamp, but my tired head didn't think of that. I eventually went to sleep.
I reported it in the morning. Somebody told me it was normal, if I wasn't wearing shoes to get a shock. I explained this seemed a larger than normal shock. But who knows, with 220 V maybe static electricity shocks are worse? They threw out the lamp and were having someone check into the wiring. After about 24 hours, my arm didn't hurt anymore.
On the flight from Paris back to Houston, the pickings were slim for movies - this is one of the old planes with only about 8 movie choices for the entire month. I discovered on my last trip back that sad movies are to be avoided - crying on a plane is a bit awkward. I watched X-men: First Class. Hopefully they will change the selection for October. And the meals as well. I looked at the menu and thought, "didn't I just have this?" Chose the lamb this time, not because I really wanted lamb, but because I had already had the chicken, seafood is to be avoided as a result of the movie "Airplane", and the last time I had pasta it ranked considerably lower than KD. Business travel could get old fast.
New jet lag recovery tactic: mold and pollen levels forecast moderate in Houston so took a non-drowsy anti-histamine after second meal (is this lunch or dinner?) on the plane. I was pleasantly buzzed by the time I hit the freeway. Attended the Manhattan Short Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Art with the Canadian Club of Houston that evening. Managed to stay awake, but went home to bed before 10pm. Mountain biking at dawn on Saturday, followed by race committee duty for the Saturday afternoon races at Seabrook. Pizza for dinner with the sailors and home to bed before the Alberta PC leadership race results started coming in. I woke up at 5am central time to find that the folks in Alberta were still awake at 4am mountain time tweeting about Alison Redford's victory. Impressed that Carter had pulled this off.
Puttered around tidying up and Skyping most of the morning and then went out for a mountain bike ride. I decided to try the outer part of the purple loop this time, and then try the orange trail and half of the blue, and maybe return to the green for the finish. The outer part of the purple loop is along the railroad tracks and there was a train going by. It passed and I was cycling merrily along when I started getting tiny pinprick shocks. What the? The exposed parts of the cables were shocking my legs and the metal bar ends were shocking my hands. Hmm....it seemed that this trail was also directly under a major power line, with some lower power lines running alongside. Was there a line down? I kept my hands on the rubber grips, and my legs away from the cables, turned around and cycled back to the parking lot as fast as possible. Who does one tell about this sort of thing?
Maybe the family in the parking lot who seemed to be heading for the trail. So I tell them and their answer is that it has been unusually dry here and they have experienced a lot more static at home lately. I explained that I just moved from dry Calgary and had never experienced this much shock there. Normal they said. I decided to stay away from the power line just in case and went back and rode the inside part of the purple loop, the orange loop, part of the blue, part of the red, skipped the green as my threshold for excitement had been exceeded after navigating the two one foot drops at the beginning of the orange trail, and took my bike in for a cable replacement. In spite of this unusually dry weather, the only place I received shocks was under the power line. Is there something wrong? Or do I just have high potential? Just call me Magneto.
It was after 10pm and the other Villa guests were most likely already asleep. I wiggled my fingers, moved my arm, checked that my heart was beating as normally as it ever does. The lamp just sat there on the night stand, its yellow light staring at me. What to do? I must disable this monster. Using a plastic hairbrush as my sword, I stabbed the plastic on/off switch, extinguishing the lamp. I looked around the night stand, using a blackberry to illuminate the darker corners, searching for any other possible source of this mysterious problem. Finding nothing, I thought it best to unplug the lamp. Threat fully disabled.
I went to bed and discovered that electric shock therapy doesn't help you sleep. Should I let someone else know now or wait until morning? My arm hurt, but I was otherwise fine. I probably should have asked someone to turn off the breaker before turning off and unplugging the lamp, but my tired head didn't think of that. I eventually went to sleep.
I reported it in the morning. Somebody told me it was normal, if I wasn't wearing shoes to get a shock. I explained this seemed a larger than normal shock. But who knows, with 220 V maybe static electricity shocks are worse? They threw out the lamp and were having someone check into the wiring. After about 24 hours, my arm didn't hurt anymore.
On the flight from Paris back to Houston, the pickings were slim for movies - this is one of the old planes with only about 8 movie choices for the entire month. I discovered on my last trip back that sad movies are to be avoided - crying on a plane is a bit awkward. I watched X-men: First Class. Hopefully they will change the selection for October. And the meals as well. I looked at the menu and thought, "didn't I just have this?" Chose the lamb this time, not because I really wanted lamb, but because I had already had the chicken, seafood is to be avoided as a result of the movie "Airplane", and the last time I had pasta it ranked considerably lower than KD. Business travel could get old fast.
New jet lag recovery tactic: mold and pollen levels forecast moderate in Houston so took a non-drowsy anti-histamine after second meal (is this lunch or dinner?) on the plane. I was pleasantly buzzed by the time I hit the freeway. Attended the Manhattan Short Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Art with the Canadian Club of Houston that evening. Managed to stay awake, but went home to bed before 10pm. Mountain biking at dawn on Saturday, followed by race committee duty for the Saturday afternoon races at Seabrook. Pizza for dinner with the sailors and home to bed before the Alberta PC leadership race results started coming in. I woke up at 5am central time to find that the folks in Alberta were still awake at 4am mountain time tweeting about Alison Redford's victory. Impressed that Carter had pulled this off.
Puttered around tidying up and Skyping most of the morning and then went out for a mountain bike ride. I decided to try the outer part of the purple loop this time, and then try the orange trail and half of the blue, and maybe return to the green for the finish. The outer part of the purple loop is along the railroad tracks and there was a train going by. It passed and I was cycling merrily along when I started getting tiny pinprick shocks. What the? The exposed parts of the cables were shocking my legs and the metal bar ends were shocking my hands. Hmm....it seemed that this trail was also directly under a major power line, with some lower power lines running alongside. Was there a line down? I kept my hands on the rubber grips, and my legs away from the cables, turned around and cycled back to the parking lot as fast as possible. Who does one tell about this sort of thing?
Maybe the family in the parking lot who seemed to be heading for the trail. So I tell them and their answer is that it has been unusually dry here and they have experienced a lot more static at home lately. I explained that I just moved from dry Calgary and had never experienced this much shock there. Normal they said. I decided to stay away from the power line just in case and went back and rode the inside part of the purple loop, the orange loop, part of the blue, part of the red, skipped the green as my threshold for excitement had been exceeded after navigating the two one foot drops at the beginning of the orange trail, and took my bike in for a cable replacement. In spite of this unusually dry weather, the only place I received shocks was under the power line. Is there something wrong? Or do I just have high potential? Just call me Magneto.
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