The Daily ACK 2/2/2012 Random stuff.

I posted a photo on Facebook of two older twins. One is trying operating a vacuum cleaner the other one is around a corner with the power plug in his hand.  If life in the future is like that, I don't want to stop living. 

I was never one to pull a lot of jokes on others. I've been on the receiving end of that kind of thing WAY too many time so I can relate to the person the joke is directed toward. (I saw a good friend of mine almost drowned because of a "going away" joke gone wrong)

HOWEVER, there was this ONE time......

I have written that I was once stationed in Alaska at Eielson AFB from Dec 1984 to June 1987.  I worked in the AGE (Aerospace Ground Equipment) shop.  Some bases in some places can have civilians as workers. During the winter in Alaska we had a crew full of the same civilians that came to work for the Air Force in the winter and then worked for the Forestry service the other 6 months of the year, however, we had one civilian who was a full time worker.  The shop once had more than one full time civilian slot and as people left those slots the slots "went away" and were never filled again.  

The one remaining civilian in the AGE shop was one Phillip J. Stonerock (Honest to gosh, that was his real name). We all called him Stoney. He was an odd sort of guy. If he got to the shop first he always put the shop radio on the local Top 40 radio station. If someone else got to the shop radio first, they would put it on the college hard rock station from College, AK and the University of Fairbanks. Stoney would wear his hearing protection all day long to keep from listening to hard rock.

Stoney had a bad habit that didn't endure him to other in the shop. He liked to scratch himself "right there" and in front of ANYONE. Women, men, the Branch chief, the squadron commander..... in an absentminded sort of way.  Did I happen to mention he was odd?

Being on a base at the end of the supply chain could be a pain in the butt most days. We took any parts we felt were usable and put them in a locker with a combination lock on it. We were not supposed "hoard" parts like that but some days it kept us working when shop supplies ran low.  It was a necessary breaking of the rules that most higher ranking people turned a blind eye to, as long as we kept working was what mattered.

The combination lock on that locker was of a type that you could change the combination by  putting the hasp to the left of the lock body, push it into the lock body and turn the rotating numbers to the new combination and then pull the hasp back up and lock the lock...and the combination would be changed. Simple enough.

One morning I got to work early and was working on an H1 ground heater right in front of the used parts locker. Stoney wasn't around. I seem to remember the combination was "6767". I opened the lock and changed the combination to "6766" and went back to work on my broke heater.  Stoney came over to the locker to look for a few parts he needed and he rolled in the combination "6767" and when the lock didn't pop open it was the eighth wonder of the free world to Stoney.  He must of tried that combination 15 times. On the table beside the locker was a ball peen hammer and I honestly thought he was going to beat that lock with that hammer, but he didn't.  When he finally gave up, he walked away mumbling something about going to get the branch chief.....

Once he walked through the double doors toward the administrative office, I walked over to the lock, opened it, changed the combination back to "6767" and locked the lock back.  I went back to working on my heater.

It wasn't 3 minutes that Stoney and the SMSgt who was branch chief of the shop were standing at the locker. Stoney went on to explain that he couldn't open the lock on the parts locker. Over to the locker he went, he rolled the combination into the lock and WHAM...the lock fell open....the look of shock on his face was worth a thousand laughs...but I didn't laugh...I would have given myself away.   As I remember it, the Branch Chief walked off without saying much to any of us.

Stoney was a weird dude. He had one parking spot that he liked to park in because he was a volunteer fire fighter. It was just a parking spot. It wasn't reserved to him or anything. (I do remember he tried to get it reserved to him and the Branch Chief told him "NO"). He liked to back into that parking spot, just in case he got a call on his radio about a fire. The parking spot was in line with the sidewalk and front door of the building.  One morning he pulled in to back into this spot and I was right behind him and right in that spot I went.... Needless to say he wasn't too excited with me for the rest of the day!  Oh well....it WASN'T his spot but he wished it was! 

Ah! to be young and foolish again but now I'm old and foolish......You never can tell what might happen when no one is looking!

J.