ElectroMagnetics

Am I the only one who drains the life out of batteries? I can't seem to wear a watch for more than one or two months before the battery needs replacing. They just go kaput on me. It was so annoying that I quit wearing one. Even a Timex would frequently say Time Out.

Another thing that bugs me is static electricity. I cannot touch, no make that get close to anything metal without that little bolt of lightening leaping across the airwaves to find me. All those metal filing cabinets at work are a source of constant dread to me. I keep my keys in my pocket so that if I must get into a drawer I grab a key and approach the metal and watch the little lightening bolt leap to it. That way the shock that I get is greatly reduced. Still it is a scary thing. Especially if the keys are not in my pocket. My hand will reach for the cabinet, and pull back over and over again, until I get the courage to just bite the bullet and do it. When I have to open something that is wrapped in plastic, watch out. The plastic will cling to me. I can move the stuff from hand to hand without actually doing anything but let the one hand get close to the other. Sometimes this can interfere with my work as I must experiment with it because I feel that there is a point where if I keep my hands at the correct distance from one another I could suspend the plastic in space and time. Alas, the only thing that I suspend is work time, but there are those times when the experiment is more facsinating than the work.

The car I had before this one had electrical problems too. It was an 1984 Lincoln towncar which I got in 1995. My former boss was the previous owner. It had all the bells and whistles that a luxury car should have. It would not start for me on a regular basis. I would have to pop open the hood and jiggle the wires and eventually the beast would start again. It also got frequent trips to the mechanics to try to troubleshoot the problem but I never got any satisfaction out of that. Then one time the car decided to die right at an intersection where I was waiting to make a left turn. It would not start. I was on the famous Route 66 and I was in the way. A police car came along and pushed me around the corner and into a nearby parking lot. When this boat had no power it was difficult to manuever. Steering and braking without that help is very hard on a 5'3" wee body. Back to the shop and a new thick film ignition thingy was installed. Hooray! Problem solved at last! Then my husband and I were out for a cruise through the great Mojave Desert and the door locks start going on and off. They were just clicking away going on and off in a sporadic fashion. We stopped somewhere for a bite to eat and figured when we turned the car off and removed the key it would stop. No way! The car locks just kept clicking away like there was some phantom sitting at the controls that we could not see. When we got home the only way to stop it was to remove the correct fuse, otherwise the beast would have continued on through the night and as it was parked outside (no garage) it would have been vulnerable to the local thieving hoards. They would have seen this barge as a great party car for a night. Well another trip to the mechanics and an expensive new computer just to control the door locks and I decided that this car's days were numbered! So what do I buy. A little 1998 Ford Contour (which I love) that has no, nada, bells and whistles (except the one to remind me that I've left the keys in the ignition, which I am very grateful for but apparently don't always listen to it). The consumer reports magazine reports that this car has problems with it's electrical systems! So far I have been doing okay with it. After I traded in the Lincoln I got a recall notice from Ford, Lincoln, Mercury on it about how the thick film ignition switch was faulty and needed replacing. No kidding! About ten years too late I think. Then I got a class action lawsuit notice from some sharks about it. But after I traded the beast in I chucked all the maintenance records so I get no recompense from there either.