• Re: Hitchhiking

    From JOE MACKEY@1:135/392 to GEORGE POPE on Tue Dec 7 06:06:48 2021
    CP wrote --

    I recall being stuck in one spot for over three hours. I pass that place

    I never stayed in one place -- I have walked backwards 30+ miles more than once!

    Some times I did as well, but one can't legally walk along a interstate. Once at an exit one is pretty much stuck there.
    There are stretches of nothingness in WV were I could safely walk along
    the interstate, unless "Smokey" showed up. When one passed on the other
    side he would smile and wave and keep on going. That happened only once.
    The reason for the nothingness is the terrain where isn't much room for anything due to the mountains. The interstate here goes between and around them.
    Plus the interstate was built around towns, bypassing them.

    My best semi ride (those were rare, asd the laws were tight up here, & the companies had computers in the truclks that noted every unauthorised(i.e. pickup or dropoff stop)

    The one time I was picked up in semi was the driver having a meal and saw
    me get out of one car and walk toward the on ramp and knew I was hitching.

    described a person we knew in detail (personality, especially) the other could usually guerss their first name in one or two tries!

    Fits my theory of personality thesis I'm working on. Needs more data, though.

    Hmm. Does "Doofuss" fall into that area? That is one of my nicknames
    with the chief of police at work. :)
    Joe
    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
    * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 www.doccyber.org bbs.docsplace.org (1:135/392)
  • From Daryl Stout@1:2320/33 to JOE MACKEY on Tue Dec 7 09:51:00 2021
    Joe,

    Hmm. Does "Doofuss" fall into that area? That is one of my
    nicknames with the chief of police at work. :)

    There was a deal on a ham radio net several years ago, where this
    term took on a whole new meaning. It was on a digital mode, using
    what's known as a terminal node controller or TNC...sort of a modem
    for ham radio (1200 baud on the VHF bands). Data was sent in packets,
    so the mode is known as "packet"...but what is sent is what is also
    received. In that regard, packet is the only ham radio data mode that
    is error free. However, some think that "packet" is what you do to
    your ham radio items, in loading up your no longer used items to sell
    at a hamfest. <G>

    I had recently changed my ham radio callsign to WX1DER (that was my
    third one...I was originally licensed as N5VLZ in August, 1991...then
    changed it to AE5WX in June, 2009...then to WX1DER just after Christmas, 2012...and finally to WX4QZ in March, 2019). As a side note, the person
    with that callsign is the ONLY one in the world with it.

    Anyway, on this "packet net", we're typing at our keyboards. The "net control" was the wife of the Sysop of the packet BBS...which is over
    ham radio instead of dial-up phone lines or telnet. The net was done in
    a roundtable format. One ham, Ed, had the callsign KI0HQ. He had wanted
    the callsign K0ED, but a ham radio operator in California already had
    that.

    As a side note, the US is broken down into callsign districts.
    Originally, you had to have the callsign in the region where you
    lived...but now, you can get a vanity callsign for whatever region.
    The only exception is for callsigns in Alaska, Hawaii, or the US territories...if you live outside these areas, you can't get them.

    Back to the net, though...Ed typed "I'm married, and E.D. is not
    an issue". Well, another ham in Minnesota, Roger, KB0SON, thought
    that E.D. stood for "Electronic Doofus" <G>. I knew what it *really*
    meant, so I started chuckling.

    Yet, *I* can relate to that, as electronics was never my forte'.
    I can tell you the colors on a resistor (thanks to Violet <G>...the
    acronym for that is BBROYGBVGW -- each letter is the first letter
    of that particular color)...and that not even an amp of electricity
    can kill you. Plus, I know what a battery is on a schematic diagram...
    but that's it.

    It gets over to the Sysop of the BBS, K.O. (N0KFQ), and all he
    typed was "I'm curious to see how Ed is going to explain E.D. to
    Roger". At this point, I'm chortling with guffaws. <G>

    So, back to Net Control, Billie (KB0WSA), K.O.'s wife. She turns
    it back to Ed, and he types "Billie?? Do you know Morse Code??".
    And, she types "Yes...and I know a lot of other things as well!!".

    At this point, I'm about to pee all over myself, as I'm laughing
    wildly. <BG>

    So, Ed types what E.D. really means on the computer...I'm sure
    Roger was embarrassed!!

    Sadly, Billie passed away several years ago, and K.O. died nearly
    2 years after she did. But, a year after her death (a year before
    K.O. died), I mentioned this on the net again, and K.O. commented
    "it was so refreshing to hear that again...and it happened EXACTLY
    the way Daryl told it". <G>

    The BBS lives on with RF and Telnet access, now in Penfield,
    New York. I alternate Net Control on that net, and I'm also the
    weekly scribe.

    Daryl, WX4QZ

    ... ESC?? I didn't know I was trapped.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:2320/33)
  • From George Pope@1:153/757.2 to JOE MACKEY on Wed Dec 15 11:54:08 2021
    Some times I did as well, but one can't legally walk along a interstate. Once at an exit one is pretty much stuck there.

    Same here, on the on-ramps to the Trans-Canada, but far from towns, nobody cared as nobody saw, & if they did pull over to give me awarning & I explained Iu'd rather get there slowly than not at all, as people who pick up hitchhikers are rare, they generally told me to freely continue as I was. . . :)

    There are stretches of nothingness in WV were I could safely walk along the interstate, unless "Smokey" showed up. When one passed on the other side he would smile and wave and keep on going. That happened only once.

    Yup, same in the Prairiers up here -- big empty space.

    If you ever travel through, always carry a canof tuna with you, as if you get lost, you can eat it for sustenance, then stand on the can to see where Calgary(big space needle in the middle) & Winnipeg(no needle) are.

    The reason for the nothingness is the terrain where isn't much room for anything due to the mountains. The interstate here goes between and around them.
    Plus the interstate was built around towns, bypassing them.

    Normal for our larger freeways, outside of the commuter routes near the cities, too.

    My luck, my rides were going to some obscure turnoff far from civiulizatuion, & I always ghot off where they turned off, so Iu wouldn't be lost (just keep going east out, & west back, with no turns & I knew I was solid at all times, even with no can of tuna)

    My best semi ride (those were rare, asd the laws were tight up here, & the companies had computers in the truclks that noted every unauthorised(i.e. pickup or dropoff stop)

    The one time I was picked up in semi was the driver having a meal and saw me get out of one car and walk toward the on ramp and knew I was hitching.

    Yup, they need a long runout to get back up to speed & back onto the highway, & when still going slow to pick up.

    I was advised by an off-duty trucker in his car, to make conversations at a truck stop, & try to get a ride there, to the end of the trucker's run, as there'll be no extra stops on his compter log, & I'm not slowing him down in any way.

    I never did that as it felt too much like panhandling to me.

    described a person we knew in detail (personality, especially) the other could usually guerss their first name in one or two tries!

    Fits my theory of personality thesis I'm working on. Needs more data, though.

    Hmm. Does "Doofuss" fall into that area? That is one of my nicknames with the chief of police at work. :)

    I'm pretty sure that nicjkmame is universally understood & based more on behaviour & personality than looks.

    It's the concept that led to the creation of the term "Karen" as Dane Cook was saying there was that ONE person at every workplace he'd had & everyone knew her: KAREN!

    That started off as mainly based on behaviour & attitude, but a picture of her slowly developed (crowdsourced, I guess you'd call it)

    Your friend,

    <+]:{)}
    Cyberpope, Bishop of ROM
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)
  • From JOE MACKEY@1:135/392 to GEORGE POPE on Thu Dec 16 07:22:38 2021
    CP wrote --


    If you ever travel through, always carry a canof tuna with you, as if you get lost, you can eat it for sustenance, then stand on the can to see where Calgary(big space needle in the middle) & Winnipeg(no needle) are.

    RFLOL!
    Joe

    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
    * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 www.doccyber.org bbs.docsplace.org (1:135/392)