Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Now, The Stereo.

Well, I managed to not go out last night and still call in sick today. I just could not sleep last night and 5 a.m. comes pretty early on 2 hours of sleep. So, here I am.

I have a company vehicle that I drive around and sit in all day almost everyday. It has a stereo. Not just any stereo. A stereo from hell. If I hadn't had 4 seperate vehicles since I started with this company 2 1/2 years ago, I might have considered replacing it with my own money. But, I know as soon as I do they will call me and I will have to switch vans again, because I have already had this one fo a year and a half.

What are the problems with this stereo you ask(I hope you are asking, if not I am going to tell you anyway. This is my blog and I can do what I want.)?

1) It turns off when I hit a bump, sometimes not even a bump. Sometimes it turns off when I go from one concrete square to another. Sometimes it even turns off when I am making a turn. I guess the G-forces are too much.

2) It is only am/fm/cassette. I don't own any cassettes, 200 CDs, no cassettes. I don't want to get an adaptor, because with it going out all the time I don't know if I would be stuck listening to nothing if for some reason it ate the thing when the stereo stopped.

3) Reception sucks. When everyone else is recieving a strong signal, my radio is going from static to clear and back again.


Imagine, if you will, a grown man driving a minivan, beating the shit out of his dahboard. That is what people driving near me see everyday. It is the only way to get my stereo to turn back on. It is the submissive in our relationship and definitely seems to enjoy the beatings.

This beating method was only discovered by accident, when an employee(with anger issues greater than my own) was borrowing my van on my day off. The radio went out during one of his favorite, conservative radio talk shows. He could not have this, so he beat the radio into submission. At least, now I have a way of turning my radio back on quickly and don't have to wait for it to decide to come back on on its own(sometimes this would take weeks).

Yesterday, I was sitting in the middle of East Jesus(this is a frequent occurance with my job), when while listening to a song, my stereo went from U2 to talk radio, to static, to some weird style of music I have no idea how to describe and back to U2. How many stations can be sharing one bandwidth in one area. Hell, for a moment I thought U2 was possessed.

Sometimes I listen to my portable CD player but, this is harder to do in the summer cause it is 100+ degrees in the van on a hot day and the less I wear the better. That even includes those little headphones. So, now I am in for a long summer of listening to crap, when, of course my stereo is agreeable to it.

12 Comments:

Blogger Danikabur said...

I feel your pain. That would drive me NUTS. (more nuts than I already am)

11:33 AM  
Blogger Dirty Gypsy said...

That sucks ass. It seems like there'd have to be SOME solution to your problem. I'd rather be a little uncomfortable with the headphones than not have music, though. Man. If my job didn't allow me to listen to whatever I want all day (and thank GOD that it does), I'd be a stark-raving looney right about now. (Shut up.)

1:32 PM  
Blogger DJJD said...

Lets see, 101+ degrees in a van, radio doesn't work, in a VAN, your bathroom consist of a hefty trash bag and somehow I'm more of a loser than you! Ha! My day begins somewhere around 8AM, I stroll into work around 9:30ish, I sit in a very comfortable chair with the A/C set at a nice level (I assume a little cold for some of the women), I either stream my audio from the net or bring in an mp3 cd with about 115 of my favorite songs. Go out to lunch, come back work out in the office (yep we have a gym on our floor) and leave.

6:34 PM  
Blogger Larry said...

Yes but I get a hell of a better response when tell people what I do and I defenitely have better stories. Have you ever followed someone to nashville and stayed at Opryland for free? How about following someone from Michigan to the Gulf shore 50 miles from New Orleans the weekend before fat tuesday? I think not, computer programmer(you guys are a dime a dozen).

BTW if I give you my resume do you think your company is still hiring.

8:51 PM  
Blogger duff said...

perhaps the whole u2/talk/something indescribable/u2 medley was really just one of bono's latest experimentations. perhaps there was some sort of subliminal message tucked into u2's latest single, and you, my clever friend, were able to pick it out with no effort.

if the voices on the radio start telling you to run over people, though, don't do it.

11:32 PM  
Blogger Sunny said...

I used to have the same problem with my last car. Unfortunately, no amount of beatings would fix it - I tried, believe me, I tried. Like yours, it'd go out for weeks at a time, and cut in and out in areas of perfect coverage. I feel for you.

Interestingly enough, the clock was also broken. The only way to see what time it was was to turn the radio (if it was working at the time, mind you) on full blast for a few seconds. It was basically a question of (if the stereo was working that day) deciding whether knowing the time or going temporarily deaf was more important that day.

Thanks for stopping by :)

6:43 AM  
Blogger -G.D. said...

That's just awful...no wonder you are a bit depressed...

6:47 AM  
Blogger Larry said...

DUFF: That Bono is one slippery fella. I would never have noticed if you didn't point it out.

SUNNY: I am thinking, if I was deaf, then I really wouldn't be able to complain.

G.D.: I'm not really depressed, just a bit unsure of myself at times, and every once in a while a little lonely. To be honest with you it has been a long time since I have been this happy.

12:57 PM  
Blogger Larry Jones said...

My solution is in this post on my blog. Of course, the equipment named is now obsolete, and it never was as cool looking as an iPod, but you get the idea...

12:57 PM  
Blogger Larry said...

LJ: I also have an MP3 player, but, to make it worth bringing I would have to get a better one(only 256K right now) and still wear the earphones.

2:02 PM  
Blogger duff said...

that's what i'm here for, larry. :)

5:59 PM  
Blogger Byagi said...

My car may have had many many issues, but the radio was the ONLY thing that ever worked. My priorities were skewed, I suppose. As for East Jesus, it's a boring drive but not a bad place to live...

6:44 PM  

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