Beep, Flat -- Little Help? And the Project

I was in the geek room at work yesterday surfing some blogs while becoming increasingly annoyed by a small beep, the source of which I couldn't figure out. It was getting on my nerves with its regular beep every 45 seconds or so. It got to the point where I had to fire up my Windows Media Player and don my ear-buds to drown out the sound. I probably could've lived with it if I knew where it was coming from.

About that time, Tracee stopped by to chat about getting some pointers for putting together a website. "Do you hear that?" I asked her after another beep. "That Beep?" she asked. "Yeah, it's driving me nuts" I replied. She said it sounded like an Annoy-a-Tron. She told me that somebody had brought them into the training department not too long ago and it took them weeks to figure out what the noise was. In her case, they were actually dealing with 3 separate Annoy-a-trons.

I lifted the following from the ThinkGeek website; the makers of the Annoy-a-Tron...

Dear friends at thinkgeek.com,

I recently acquired the "Annoy-A-Tron" from your web site. Actually, I acquired two, thinking that perhaps two devices might be necessary to truly splinter the minds of my friends and co-workers. How woefully did I underestimate this powerful tool.

I have watched this simple device transform an (until-now) mild-mannered colleague into a spitting, cussing, paranoid lunatic.

He has ordered all of the staff he supervises (not a small number) to locate the source of the dread beeping before doing anything else (but since they are in on the prank, they haven't been much help). So he waits, white-knuckles gripping the edge of his desk, anticipating the next beep.

He has set a timer on his computer to track the duration between beeps. It hasn't been much help.

My favorite quote so far, nearly bursting that vein on his temple as he shouted it: "That beep has been F***ING with me for HOURS now."

He has called the facilities department to schedule a maintenance worker to investigate.

He speculates that "they" might be doing air-quality testing in the building. This beep must be some device in the ducts detecting dangerous levels of asbestos in the air. Or worse. Radon? Aerosolized mercury? Legionella spores?

The beep means something. What does the beep mean? Is it a warning? It sounds urgent, doesn't it? It's telling us to do something. But what? Replace a battery? Call the authorities? Evacuate the premises? Scrub ourselves with disinfectant and put on haz-mat suits and call our families to give them our tearful goodbyes?

I imagine that soon he will begin to take things apart. He will methodically dismantle all of the electrical devices in his office, creating an unusually precise metaphor for what is happening in his psyche.

I am reminded what a thin and fragile thread keeps us attached to sanity. Today, this tiny little device helped me break a co-worker's mind, and I thank you for the sinfully pleasurable schadenfreude.

My best to you,

John

Seattle, WA

If there was an Annoy-a-tron messing with me I was going to find it.

I spent the next 10 minutes standing on a table to poke around above the ceiling tiles from where the noise appeared to be coming from. No luck. Fellow geek Kelly went and found a flashlight so I could more easily see in the darkness above the ceiling tiles but I couldn't find the little bugger. About the time we were ready to give up Kelly opened a door in the hallway outside our geek room and found the source of the noise. An alarm had tripped to a ventilation system and needed to be reset. The people from Environmental were quickly on the scene assessing the situation. In fact, as I write this today they're still poking around the ventilation alarm.

But all of this got me thinking...hmmm...I could have fun with my own personal Annoy-a-Tron. And I will. 'Nuff said as they say.

I was downstairs in the shop cutting glass last night when my cellphone rang: it was Rachel. "Kev, I've got a flat tire". She was a couple miles from home on her way back from Josh's house. It was cold but not the exceedingly cold we've been experiencing most of the winter. We were maybe in the low teens. She waved me down as I approached her on 175th street. I turned my truck around so I could shine my lights on the front of her car and the flattened tire. I wouldn't need the flashlight I brought.

She said she drove with it flat for a couple blocks before finding a safe place to pull over. Hopefully, it would be repairable; I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

I suppose I expected her to take a seat in my warm truck while I did the work but she wanted to help. It wasn't too long ago that I made her bring some extra clothes along as she headed out the door for dance class in sub-zero weather. She didn't have a real warm jacket on last night but I think she wanted to show me that she was prepared to help however she could.

I showed her where the jack went under the frame and the order for loosening the lugs, jacking the car and replacing the wheel. I know, she should already know this but I'd yet to take the time to show her. She got right down there with me, shivering and all to watch what I was doing.

I stopped before going too far and pulled out my camera. I said, "Hey, this is bloggable." She smiled and let me take her picture.

We had the tire changed with enough time for me to stop by Fleet Farm on my way home to see if they could repair the tire. No such luck. He said there was too much damage done to it from driving on it while it was flat. Oh well. The mechanic at Fleet Farm said that Discount Tire in Burnsville may have the same exact tire and that I should give them a try. I did that after work today and Rachel is back on the road with good rubber all the way around.

I spent this afternoon and evening working on our entertainment center stained glass panel project. I wanted to get a feel for how the colors we've picked out will work together. I've possibly got one change to make. Where you see the dark triangular pieces of glass in the photo to the left, I plan to experiment with some other colors. They're currently a soft shade of lavender. It's a bit difficult to imagine what the finished project will look like from the photo but you get a general idea of the colors we're using. They're more earthy than what my digital camera captured.

I was hoping to have one complete panel done by the end of the week but I don't think that's possible. I'll spend some considerable time on it this weekend but we've got some warm weather moving in and my red Serotta is in need of some attention out on the roads.