[GreenKeys] Black tape

[tony.podrasky]

GA OMs;

When I was around 21 y.o. I got a good job at a place
doing communications work for the government.

Well, having been on RTTY for several years, I
"heard it all" from the old timers.

So - when the engineers decided to "mess with me", I
realized it and played dumb:

Hey kid - this roll of 2-copy Teletype paper
is wrapped wrong. Go to the store room and
re wrap it. [NOTE: for those not in-the-know,
if you unwrap the first layer one turn, it
appears that the roll was made wrong - but
if you look at it, you realize that] So I'd
take the roll to the store room, sit back and
have a cup of coffee and a smoke, and go back
in about a 1/2 hour and give them the roll,
telling them how hard it was to fix - but
I persevered and fixed it! They'd all say
what a great job I did.

Then, there was the time that the chad box
was empty and they sent me to get some chad.
That was another great 1-hour expedition to
the break room.

Then, there was the punched tape (chad) that
was "Top Secret" and they told me to take the
chad container and some Elmer's glue, and glue
all the chads back into the tape - so no one
could read what the message was. Well, I could
read ASCII very well - and I saw that it was just
a QBF tape. So I went to the store room for a
couple of hours. I returned with a brand-new
6-foot piece of tape and "showed them what a
good job I had done - why you can't even SEE
where I glued the chad onto the tape!".

They realized that I was just playing
dumb when I had to test the air conditioning units
for the communications shelters. It was winter
time and rather cold in the lab. One of the
lead engineers said: "Just test them for a 1/2
hour - 'cuz it'll get too cold in here".

I looked at the A/C units and out of the corner
of my eye I could see them smirking.

I said in soft-spoken voice:

"Ohhhhh - not to worry 'bout that - because if
they could produce more cold than heat, they
would break several laws - like The First Law
Of Thermodynamics, not to mention The Law
Of Conservation Of Energy in general. - Oh, and
anyway, in a 1/2 hour I have to go into the
sub lab and wind the perpetual motion machines..."

I looked at them with a straight face and watched
the expressions. It was PRICELESS!

We all had a good laugh and became good friends.
I got a university-level education from them!

UE,
K2EAA - TONY
NNNN
ZCZC


On 06/20/2015 03:04 PM, Scott Johnson wrote:
> -Bucket of prop wash and a length of flight line.

-- 
My  dog  is worried about the economy
because Alpo is up to 99-cents a can.
  -That's almost  $7.00  in dog money!
                        -Joe Weinstein