Thursday, December 1, 2011

"The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth." - Charles Luckman

Sometimes the need to be first leads to self-destructive behavior.

When did they stop listing amp draw on the electrical label of appliances? I changed the bedding this morning and put on the electric blankets so we can cope with the extreme cold (lower 40's) we'll have tonight. I wanted to see how much power the blanket draws; just curious. The label tells me it's 110 watts, but of course it is. This is America, and everything is either 110 watts OR has one of those built-in transformers on the power cord like a printer or laptop. (Dryers and range/stoves are the exception but they have a different plug.) Amperage is what matters so no circuit gets overloaded.
I first noticed the absence of this information when I was looking at small microwaves two weeks ago. How much current does it draw? I have no idea and can't find out.

And speaking of the electric blanket, people who design products should be required to use them, even if they do live in China. The controls each weigh a few grams and are the size of a child's fist. The two cords coming out the back are thick and stiff. Put those together and there's no way that control is going to sit on the nightstand with the bottom down. If they had those cords coming out near the top of the control in back they would weigh it down, but the way it's designed....
Yeah, I know. But it's these little, relatively insignificant things that make me wonder, didn't anybody actually try this?

It's difficult to find jeans to fit when you're tall and skinny. So difficult that I ended up at Walmart. I feel dirty.

The couple in front of me at the register (what used to be called a cash register) took a very long time to complete their transaction. They had several credit cards, some of which had limits on the amount of any single transaction. They didn't seem to know which cards had what limits, so they had to keep trying different cards in different sequences until they found a combination that would allow them to pay for the $500+ worth of merchandise in their cart. While this was going on the line of people at the register was getting longer.
When they finally finished the lady looked back at the line and said, "Smile. This is all for charity, so you should be smiling because of this."
See: non sequitur.

Guys who are bald on top but have long hair hanging down over their collar. Why??
Worse: grossly overweight 80-year old men at the pool wearing a swim suit that, in reality, is nothing more than a codpiece. NO, NO, NO!
Living in Sun City brings a unique set of challenges.

The electric bill that came today is $84, one hundred dollars less than it was during August. Which is to say we spend about $3.50 a day for AC during the summer. In Michigan, where we had a stupid big, if wonderful house, we paid almost $300 a month during the winter months for heat. So we're net $100 per month to the good for utility bills.
Oh yeah. No shoveling in a blizzard, either.

I have to think about things like that when the guy in the codpiece shows up.

3 comments:

Sue said...

Wow. I just learned more about codpieces than I ever wanted to know, thanks to the wonder that is Google.

Anonymous said...

For figuring out the current draw of any device where you know the voltage and the wattage, you take the wattage and divide it by the voltage. If your electric blanket is 110 watts, you divide that by 110 volts and get 1 amp. But for the record I can't imagine 1 amp being enough electrons flowing to produce the heat required to keep your blanket warm.
Mike H.

Jen said...

Quiet, you.

Ever since we crossed the WI border, I've been frEEZing. We left 65° in Maryland to get 17° here. At least it's *above* zero. (That's the dimmest "bright side" I have ever thought.)