When kharma bites you in the butt

I was at a gas station last week and I watched an older gentleman trying to remove his gas cap. I found it amusing because I could hear the clicking of the cap as he was turning it tighter rather than loosening it. I would have gone over and pointed out the mistake, but I couldn't trust myself to not be laughing out loud. He finally figured it out as I got in my car to leave.

Flash forward to today. I believe I drove over a nail as I drove down my driveway. I had to wait for a couple of minutes for a hole in traffic so I can get on the road (the street I live on is a state highway and one of the main roads in my hometown). By the time I pull out and drive 1 block down the street it's obvious I have a flat. I pull over and start to change the tire. I try to break the lug nuts loose and they are not coming loose. I was even standing on the lug wrench and jumping, the nuts don't loosen up. I walk home, get my big cross-style lug wrench, and it still won't budge. Frustrated and tired, I call AAA to ask for help, and tell them the service truck might need a big breaker bar (I don't have one). So while I wait for the help to arrive, I finally calm down and start thinking logically about the situation, and I realize that I was turning clockwise! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Sum it up, I turned turned the lug nuts counter-clockwise and got them loose (with extra effort after working so hard to tighten them) and was removing the flat as the service truck arrived. Last week I was chuckling at somebody who couldn't loosen a gas cap, today I can't remember lefty-loosey, righty-tighty. It all just drips with irony.

Anybody else wish to shed their pride and share a similar story? It might make me feel better. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Naw, you know BF the rest of us are golden. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

But seriously, the wife and I go to her sisters for Easter weekend and the place is a complete mess I mean terrible and they have three kids and lots of animals, we're talking a real menagerie here rabbits, cats, birds, fish etc. and the whole place just smells like a Zoo. So while we love our family and sympathize with her sister and her husband that it's just too much to take care of, we were ribbing each other about it privately and thanking God that we're not in the same boat. Turns out that when we get home our largest of two cats who has a medical condition that calls for a special diet (intestinal problem) has taken a huge crap on the bedroom floor and vomited in the kitchen which has apparently offended the small cat who in retaliation proceeded to pee on the couch several times. This is absolutely uncommon behavior for both cats and after several hours of cleaning as well as laundering everything and bagging the slip cover to take to the drycleaner (about a $35 bill) I can only chalk this up to Kharma which my wife and I have shared a good laugh about since our humor returned. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Pretty good huh? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Later,
TSG /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have had situations where someone did not offer me a ride on Kauai, when we were going to the same destination. Shortly thereafter, Their truck was broken down, bigtime, along side the road.

I have always been without Karma. The instance you mentioned, plus the one I did, are what I call Instant Karma: just add one drop of water!

I think if we invented an Immediate Kharma Machine, we would solve a lot of the problems of human behavior in the world. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

"What goes around, really goes around"... Forgot what movie that quote came from.

But the times I get an itchin' to tell somebody that they're turning the wrong way on a street or are reading the directions wrong, I try not to say anything. Knowing I might turn around and do the exact same thing and have somebody badger me for it...

I don't know of any event that preceded it to call it "goes around comes around" but I was merrily welding #9 3/4 F mesh onto a door and got very nearly done before realizing it was on the wrong side.

Then a couple weeks later I did it again. THIS time I flung the damn door about 20 feet!!!

Before you ask, these are doors to cages for the protection of vending machines. The Bad Guys go to great lengths to steal MAYBE $100 from a machine. We go to pretty great lengths to stop them. Short of a torch or a BIG ARSE crow bar (or a truck and chain) you ain't getting into anything I build!

I thought I made a mistake once.......but I was wrong! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

Joe, you reminded me, about 15 years ago, I used to work for a vending machine co, (everything, video, pinball, prize cranes, co-cots, cigs, you name it.) and my boss designed a cage system which I cannot for the live of me remember the material it was constructed of, but even a sawzall couln't penetrate it. Broke many blades, and nada. It was some kind of grid, which could only be cut with oxy-acetylene torch. Used for making platforms for chemical reactor towers. Anyway, some enterprising individual (thief) was very clever in that he used perchloric acid to penetrate our fortresses, and required no muscle, just apply and wait it out. The investigators at one of the "scenes of the crime" told us it was a mixture of perchloric acid and some sort of petroleum jelly based product to facilitate the application, but said that it probably took less than 20 minutes to eat through this stuff. Amazing what lengths people will go through to get a couple hundred bucks, esp since it is ALL COIN. Not to easy to haul away inconspicuously. The only other thing that could cut through, believe it or not, was a high-speed (>10,000 RPM) grinding wheel. But that is very noisy and generated a spectacular light show of sparks, making it a poor choice if you wanted to maintain a low profile while perpetrating such a criminal act.

Just thought I would share my experience in the vending business and show what great lengths people would go through for a seemingly petty amount of cash.


Ed.

[ QUOTE ]
e=mc² said:
Joe, you reminded me, about 15 years ago, I used to work for a vending machine co, (everything, video, pinball, prize cranes, co-cots, cigs, you name it.) and my boss designed a cage system which I cannot for the live of me remember the material it was constructed of, but even a sawzall couln't penetrate it. Broke many blades, and nada.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to work for a vending machine company in Alaska at about the same time too!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
We didn't put these "cages" on the machines though, altough a pop machine with a broken meter was repeatedly pilfered by a "technician" who also knew the meter was busted. So (we're pretty damned sure) he emptied most of the cashbox into his pockets every week instead of into a collection bag & truck safe where it belonged. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
I think the business owner caught him in the act one day, and subsequently fired him. That cash meter in the pop machine never got fixed, but the collections on that machine went way up after catching & s**tcanning the thief. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
(That much I know because I counted all the collections every Sunday.)

After moving to Seattle in the mid 1980s, I got a job at Music-Vend and learned how to drill out Ace locks, but never had to face a machine with a "cage" around it. So I probably would have broken a bunch of sawzall blades too while figuring out how to get into the machine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
Then again, I refurbed mostly video games and pinballs; it wasn't very often I got candy machines or pop machines or cigarette machines or dollar bill changers that needed TLC and some spare parts to get back into working order.

[ QUOTE ]
e=mc² said:
...snip...It was some kind of grid, which could only be cut with oxy-acetylene torch. ...snip....

[/ QUOTE ]

VERY little is safe against an Oxy-acetylene torch - Cast Iron is one of the harder things to "burn"

I remember when "Citadel" bicycle locks were fairly new, my (then future) Brother in law lost the key to his lock. He went to the local bike shop, and they said it would take hours, and you would wear out a lot of hacksaw blades

I had the lock of in about 3 minutes after I got to his house - 2.5 minutes to setup, light and adjust the torch, and about 30 seconds to cut the lock

I also had 2 or 3 other ways to remove it handy - Take a disk grinder and cut it (slower, but more common), or take a car jack, and pry it apart

Then of course, in those days, I used to know a guy who could get his hands on C4 - that would have worked too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[ QUOTE ]
e=mc² said:
Just thought I would share my experience in the vending business and show what great lengths people would go through for a seemingly petty amount of cash.
Ed.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the last couple of years in Japan there have been a rash of thefts against bank automatic teller machines here in Japan - the ones in question are usually stand-alone, ie not built into the wall of a building or anything.
The thieves first steal an excavator, drive it to the ATM site, demolish the ATM machine, and drive away with the cash box..
Until now its been fairly successful because the excavators they steal are from construction yards where security is fairly lax, after all, who would want to steal an excavator /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif..
They usually pick ATMs in business areas which are pretty deserted in the late hours, and apparently are able to smash the machine quickly enough that they are gone by the time Police can respond, ie within 5 minutes or so.
Although some experts say that there is no way they could do it that quickly, and the Police are just trying to cover up their slack response time..

Graham

[ QUOTE ]
KC2IXE said:
Then of course, in those days, I used to know a guy who could get his hands on C4 - that would have worked too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I can imagine.
"I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I got the chain off. The bad news is that the chain is all that's left.."
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Graham

I had another "if not Kharma" ... something the other night.

I had picked up the Mamma Mia Soundtrack CD and played it in the about 3 month old DVD player. No sound came from the right hand speaker. My speakers are 20+ year old Optimus T-120s so it seemed a change was in order.

I got a pair of new RCA 12inch woofer speakers at Ratshak. Hooked 'em up and STILL no right speaker. Thought "damn, my reciever is dying". I can't get a good look at the back of my reciever without a mirror. I looked and looked some more before finding the the plug for the right channel from the DVD was plugged into Video In. DOH!

Of course I dindn't find this out until having the balance turned most of the way right, and the volume pretty darn high... and hit the tuner switch with my arm... Damn near busted my head when that thing started blaring!

I want to take the RCAs back. But SO says we needed new ones anyway (cosmetics). ARGH!

I ain't getting rid of the Optimuses anyhow!

I should mention I supose..

In the 5 or 6 DVDs we've watched, we never noticed it. Perhaps because of the center channel and the surround speakers. And that single T-120 was still pounding out strong base.

But anyhow, I'm glad it's fixed!