Whatever

The building that houses the Valve Store(r) was built in 1973. The offices have been updated several times since we’ve been here, but the restrooms have not been touched. With the icky green floor tiles and walls made out of green glazed cinder blocks they could pass for any interior room belonging to a mid-last century institute for the criminally insane.

Until a few months ago.

Both the Men’s and Women’s bathrooms near the front entrance to the building were brought as up to date as possible with the funds available to a Director of Operations at a medium -sized manufacturing facility. The walls and floors are done in brown hued tiles laid in a mix of straight and diamond patterns. There are new sinks, faucets, vanities and high tech textured plastic stall walls too. Now they resemble the restroom of any non-themed casual dining establishment.

We have new hand soap dispensers (both regular and gritty) and hand lotion dispensers. We also got one of those new fangled micro jet engine hand driers. No paper towel dispenser, but sitting on the vanity was a roll of the brown paper towels that goes in one. At first I thought that the dispensers were back ordered, but as the weeks past I came to realize there really wasn’t a spot left on the wall to put a paper towel dispenser.

Then I figured it was the failed Jimmy Carter mandated change to the Metric System all over again; the new metric units would coincide with the old units until a set transition period past then when we would start using Kilometers and Newton Meters, forgetting all about using miles and foot/pounds. Our new jet air drier would co-exist with the paper towels until sometime in the future, then the paper would go away, but because of mental inertia the towels would stay and eventually the air dryer would be replaced by a dispenser.

I was right about everything except for the failed part. The transition period was over; on Monday there was no roll of brown paper towels in the restroom. There was no roll Tuesday. Not today either.

We needed a longer than 25′ tape measure at work to do some department layouts, so instead of buying a 100′ wind up tape we bought an inexpensive laser distance meter. For a little more than twice the cost of a nice tape we bought a Prexiso X2.

It came with an 10 page instruction manual, 4 of which cover how to use it and the rest is full of the usual button meanings, safe practices, battery replacement, troubleshooting tips and FCC compliance statements.

It also came with a 144 page manual that included instructions in 27 other languages (there were about a half dozen I couldn’t even make out.)

My favorite is the one comes labeled GB for Great Britain. If you thought the US is very litigious or has too many government requirements for labeling, the first page and a half of their small print, 5 page segment is several sections of symbols, safety, areas of responsibilities and such. In Section 2, Safety and Dangers you are asked to “Avoid blinding other persons intentionally.” and to “Avoid aiming directly at the sun.”

My favorite comes from Section 3, Correct Ways of Employment, “Use the device exclusively in an atmosphere that is permanently inhabitable by humans.”

Yesterday morning as Donna and I sat outside the south-side DD eating breakfast and reading the paper, a couple exited with their three small children in tow. They ranged in age from probably 3 to 9-years old. She was carrying the smallest kid and he was holding a box with a half dozen donuts, plus a couple coffees and an OJ bottle. The middle child was walking right between them, while the oldest was off to one side carrying his own paper bag and bottle of chocolate milk. About a 4 or 5 steps out of the door, the oldest one says, “Can I have a hamburger?”

When we first moved to town this spot was occupied by a Shoney’s. About a dozen years ago, as Aiken’s population grew bigger, they tore down that building and built a newer, bigger Shoney’s on the spot. Whether due to Aiken’s changing tastes, more competition or the fact that their typical customer just didn’t like the transformation, the new, bigger Shoney’s closed its doors after about five years.

Three years ago they tore down the empty Shoney’s and put up a new building that houses two separate food businesses. One side is a DD and Baskin-Robbins combo. The other is a Five Guys Burgers and Fries, hence the oldest kid’s question.

We finally got around to watching the movie Lincoln tonight. It has been percolating in the rental queue from some time now and it finally bubbled up to the top. I’m glad that I didn’t really pay attention to American History in school because it sure made the movie more exciting. I was on the edge of my seat when they were voting for that amendment thing. And wow, the hero dude gets shot and killed, didn’t see that coming.

All kidding aside, this was a really good movie. I totally believed at times I was watching a documentary, Daniel Day Lewis nailed it. Plus it was kind of fun figuring out who the actors were under all that facial hair. Some were real easy, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens and others were harder, like James Spader as W. N. Bilbo.