60+ year old thread.

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue!

 

Good morning porch folks. Almost a new year. Enjoy one of the last few days of '22!!

 

Cool story.
I'm one of "those guys".
35 years "outside plant"(Splicer,Lineman)
5 years logistics.
Body is shot.
Very,very close to the finish line.

 

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you are entitled to a refund for all missed service, if you document and make the request. They won’t offer, you have to request. More important than the refund you’ll get is the higher priority you will have on their service repair list.

 

My mom worked Ma Bell all her career, like 50 years. She was so good they sent a road grader to our house to pick her up during a blizzard. I remember them old heavy black headsets and the pegboard routers in the office. “Number Please”.. lol. I would sit once in a while and piggy back her headset with one of my own. Dam things weighed like 20 pounds.
I even connected a overseas call once. There was a big pause when I started asking questions lol.
I think like 12…

 

My Mom worked for Bell Canada and transferred to Ct.in the Bell System days. The console was called a Cord board. They have an old one sitting in the office at my warehouse.

 

My sister was a "number please" operator, first job out of high school. She said her supervisor would cruise up and down the office on roller skates, and plug into individual operator's boards to make sure they weren't making personal calls.

 

Never saw roller skates….

 

sixtys/wannabes/MaBellians. The convertible went for inspection and failed, so now it's up on the lift with the wheels off and waiting for brake bits. It was a bit of a shock that it failed because I'm pretty easy on brakes, but that car just likes to have attention paid to it so here we are.

Great story, thank you for sharing it! Back before I flunked out of Scouting we had a field trip to the local Bell Telephone office. I remember a huge, square, wooden box up on legs, with what looked like a bazillion 3x5 cards in it. The lady giving the tour asked my name, flipped a few tabs, and came up with our address. I was completely transfixed. She knew where I lived, with just my name!

Fast forward half a decade and then some. Out here where we live the POTS lines are -- or should be -- as valuable as gold. The reliability and robustness built into them 60+ years ago is still there. I won't be without a POTS line at our house. But since the Ma Bell breakup and all of the mayhem that ensued, the quality isn't there anymore. If you come to my house I'll take you for a ride and within 10 minutes I'll show you half a dozen places where dead trees are leaning on the telephone wires. That never would have happened before the breakup. But then I don't have a $200 long distance bill anymore either, so there's that!

Times change I guess. I wonder if StarLink will take the place of POTS. Kinda doubt it.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!

 

Morning 60+

 

I tend to agree, but there could be a spoiler like Kansas City. The Bucks were a surprise but look at the Rams, it almost seems fixed go from champs to not a chance. The only thing would be if the Vikes make it out to see the NFC title game with the Eagles it could be interesting, Cousins could get his choke crown off his back then we might the Vikings win the super bowl and hell freeze over.
It just seems the older I get the more the cold bothers me. This last cold snap was the 3rd longest in December here, normally we get it January when we get extended negative temperatures. The almanac says we should get one of the coldest winters in awhile.

 

Morning all:

My hunting buddy said that he really doesn't feel like going flintlock hunting unless I want to go, I really don't feel like going either unless he wants to go. Guess that makes it unanimous since neither one of us sounds like we really want to go!
I used to look forward to the rifle and flintlock season, not so much anymore, there's always a chance of getting a deer, but it's getting to be slim pickings in our area anymore compared to years ago.

 

sixtys/wannabes/sports forecasters. Our convertible was due for inspection so I took it over yesterday. A half hour later the phone rang, it was the shop. Never a good sign! Car needs brakes. I thought I had a set of pads here so I told them I'd do the work. Turns out that I don't have all the pads, just fronts. Plus I decided to do rotors even though they'd pass inspection; there is a pretty good lip on them, and I doubt the rears have ever been replaced since 2007. There are wear sensors also. So the car is on the lift awaiting parts. With the holiday that means next week some time. It's also due for an oil change and some other stuff, so I'm going to go hunting for some of that today.

We're staying home for New Year's Eve. In recent years I have been finding a youtube channel(s) with worldwide New Year's celebrations, such as the Eiffel Tower shindig in Paris and the opera house show in Melbourne. It's a fun way to see in the new year without necessarily having to stay up late.

In years past we had gotten together with a group of friends at one or the other of our houses, but COVID kind of broke that tradition and people are going to be hither and yon that night. So we're doing a New Year's Day thing, from 2:00pm until whenever. Super casual, light food, light drinks including plenty of non-alcoholic stuff, just come and hang out if/when you can. Neighbors are invited as well as the usual group of friends. Should be a fun way to start 2023.

 

Goof morning all! Have 4 hours of vacation left I need to use so I'm leaving work at 10:30 this morning. Other half gets out at 11:00. Rode the motorcycle to work this morning as it wasn't too bad, going to go fuel it up when I leave with some non-Ethanol gas before I head home. Looks like we're making a run to Maryland for some Captain Morgan Silver Spiced Rum since they no longer offer it in PA. We make a run every few months and just buy it by the case. Side benefit is alcohol is also cheaper outside of PA.

Thinking of going to Hollywood Casino for New Year's Eve. Never did that before and no other offers came up.

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue! Finally caught the first cold of 22 yesterday. Feeling better today, but more chicken soup should do it.

 

I was born well before we walked on the moon. I got interested in electronics at a pretty early age. Took a book on the subject out of our elementary school library soooo many times, the librarian gave me the book.

Lived in the country on a dirt road. We were dirt poor, but so was everyone else's family in the area. One day a lineman scaled the pole outside of our house and worked up there for hours on a junction box... I patiently waited, watching. When he came down, he gave me two or three feet of multi-conductor cable.

I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. Not only did the lineman do his job, but he also helped push a youngster towards engineering that day.

 

I had a friend in high school that got his Phd in electrical engineering as a mistake from the University of Utah. The kid was brilliant and a risk taker, so he went with it. He made the national news when he died and confessed his crimes in his obituary.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/saltlaketribune/name/val-patterson-obituary?id=11853526

Val had a '56 caddy convertible. Salmon colored and in great shape. I don't know why but one day he decided we needed to swap the engine from a donor sedan. It took five of us forty-five minutes and the caddy was back on the road.

 

Going to be a stormy next several days for at least a week. The storms are lined up out in the pacific. In fact starting today they are calling for an atmospheric river which brings huge amounts of rain and high winds. California and the west is parched from drought so we really need this moisture. Good time to find indoor activities and putter around in the garage.

We don’t go out New Year’s Eve. Use to when younger but now there are too many drunks on the roads, in fact too many drunks everywhere. A friend of mine says New Years Eve is for amateurs. Says that’s when all the light weight amateur drinkers go out and get stupid. We just order take out Chinese food and watch movies. Lucky if I make it up to 10:00pm.

I started a tradition many years ago on New Year’s Day. I make giant pots of seafood Cioppino and invite numerous people over for a Cioppino feed. Cioppino, garlic bread and red wine. People say it’s the best Cioppino they’ve ever had. Once you get an invite it’s good every year after. Very few people ever miss coming back every year. For those who don’t know Cioppino is a tomato based Italian seafood stew with crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops and others. Seasoned with garlic, onion, several other spices and wine. I really look forward to this. Bon Appetit.

A happy and safe New Years to all my porch friends.