alaina will have to write: |
I will not keep applying for marriage with my pet sheep |
'What will you have to write on the chalk board?' at QuizGalaxy.com |
Mortimer? Is that you??
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Crisis of the moment: in answer to my hubris, a washing machine is holding my underwear hostage. I'm contemplating the very real possibility that I will have to go commando in Berlin. Sigh... I was soooooooo happy when I poked my head in the laundry room earlier this evening to find only one out-of-order ("Defekt") sign and one other machine in use, of the six provided for all 36 buildings in Studentendorf. And I'll admit it, I got cocky. After the internet failed all day Sunday (I know! I barely survived!) I thought things were finally turning around and running in my favor... (yes, internet is back too... possibly why so few people are doing the wash tonight?)
I'm going to go see if some gentle coaxing or bribery (in the form of a 50-cent-stück) will get me anywhere. So much for choir tonight.
In other news, my cell phone has finally stopped turning itself on and off again for no reason. I blame the Dorfnetz. Had I been able to suitably distract myself during the day Sunday (and it had to be a Sunday, too, when all the shops are closed and there's nothing to do in town) I never would have taken it apart and put it back together again just to see if I could. Well, I could. Or so I thought... but as I said, it seems to be back to normal now.
If only my bike would fix itself in the same fashion. Flora's currently playing this game where on every fifth application of a pedal the chain seems to skip, allowing the foot with which I'm applying force to suddenly drop six inches against no resistance. It's fine downhill or on flat stretches because I can count and go through the motion lightly on the "bad" stroke, thus avoiding knocking myself over, but it's a real bugger on even the slightest climbs. Readers who know anything about bikes at all... should I organize an exorcism, or does she just need more fresh air and vitamin C?
Update: Bribery works. Albeit not very well... yes, my clothing has been relenquished, but the dratted machine withheld the final spin cycle. I think everything is clean, but it's so wet it's hard to tell. And of course, there is no such thing as a dryer here, so I hauled the whole heavy dripping load back all the way across the 'Dorf. I'm lucky my laundry bag survived the strain. My clean pants, on the other hand, got completely soaked up and down the backside in the process. Did I mention that current temps are hanging out just around freezing this week? And that's during the day.
I think I'm going to have to wring everything out in the sink before I can even hang it on the drying rack, so as to avoid waking up tomorrow morning in a swamp. Which may happen anyway, but I can always hope...
3 comments:
Dorfnetz? Is that anything like Deutschband? Because that sucks too.
It means "Dorm-net," ja?
Yeah, same thing... although this is the first time it's gone completely out. Hopefully the only time!
"Dorf" is actually "village," so the name of the dorm is "student village," and apparently we do have our own server, although I had to sign up for a regular Uni internet account before I could get hooked up. I find it amusing that I've gone from a place that calls the entire student body plus the actual residents a "village," to a place where one dorm complex (of very very many) can use the title.
about the bike problem, it sounds like it's a problem with the gear. If one of the teeth is worn or bent or broken, that could be causing the problem, and the solution is to buy a new pedal gear. If the problem is the chain, because the chains sometimes loosen over time, then having a link removed can sometimes fix problems to contiguous pedal motion. I don't recommend doing this unless you can visibly see the chain sagging while at rest. It's also possible that the chain itself has some sort of problem such as the hole for the gear being misshapen or some of the links being stuck in one shape and refusing to follow normal motion. In this case, oiling up the chain (watch your pant legs while pedaling) might work, but replacing the entire chain might be the only option. If it's not one of those three, than I have no idea, and good luck.
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