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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Asparagus: Did you send the reply email before it and the original incoming email disappeared? Or did both disappear while you were distracted by the cat?

I don't know whether GMail does (or can do ... ) this, but some older dedicated email programs could delete an incoming email along with an as-yet-unsent draft reply if the sender retracted the original transmission before the reply was triggered.
 
They call him Mr Potato Head, but anatomically that's not quite correct is it? He is one whole mass, upon which the various appendages and facial features are placed.
If anything the correct name would be something like 'Mr Potato body'.

You don't know this, his body could be hidden in some sort of crevice in his head.
 
I didn't know where to put this so please move if somewhere more appropriate.

There have been a spate of dog thefts and attempted dog thefts in our specific area recently. They appear to be moving from area to area within Morecambe if reports are correct.

It breeds an exaggerated sense of danger that all of us dog owners are feeling at the moment. It feels like it is contagious. Walking with my dog now if a white workers van passes by I look at the people in it with great suspicion. If every dog owner is doing it they must feel uncomfortable if innocent. I find the almost palpable sense of mass fear and its spread rather curious (it is affecting me too).

I never walk our dog in the dark so am not going to start now. I now wear my steel toe cap working boots when walking her, so someone is heading for a broken leg if they ever tried to snatch her. I have also used a tie fastener between the loop on her harness to the loop behind the leads catch and never walk her anywhere isolated.
 
I didn't know where to put this so please move if somewhere more appropriate.

There have been a spate of dog thefts and attempted dog thefts in our specific area recently. They appear to be moving from area to area within Morecambe if reports are correct.

It breeds an exaggerated sense of danger that all of us dog owners are feeling at the moment. It feels like it is contagious. Walking with my dog now if a white workers van passes by I look at the people in it with great suspicion. If every dog owner is doing it they must feel uncomfortable if innocent. I find the almost palpable sense of mass fear and its spread rather curious (it is affecting me too).

I never walk our dog in the dark so am not going to start now. I now wear my steel toe cap working boots when walking her, so someone is heading for a broken leg if they ever tried to snatch her. I have also used a tie fastener between the loop on her harness to the loop behind the leads catch and never walk her anywhere isolated.
Reminds me of some of the stories in the 'school legends' thread.
 
I had two small strange things happen to me very recently. Not earth-shattering, but still ...

I checked my e-mail this morning and saw I had one from local government saying I owed council tax (I don't) so I dashed off a quick and pithy reply. I say 'quick' but one of our cats was pestering me for crunchy bits, jumping up by the laptop and miaowing so I had to stop and feed her to get any peace. Now the original e-mail, and my reply, have completely disappeared from my gmail account. There is no sign that they ever were there. How can that happen? The distraction caused by Treacle the cat 'anchored' the memory for me, which is handy because otherwise I might think I had dreamt the whole thing. Which I didn't.

The other one was that, coming to bed last night, I tried not to disturb Mrs Asparagus who was asleep. But just as I got into bed, she said very clearly "Max's Rainbow(s)". I said 'sorry' and she repeated the phrase, so I said 'what about it' and she said 'I'll tell you later" then was asleep immediately. In fact I think she was asleep all the way through. I asked her about the conversation today but she had no memory of it and the phrase was meaningless to her. So I googled it and it turns out to be the name of a bereavement group on facebook. We don't do social media and Sue almost never uses the internet. But we have been very involved lately with practical matters relating to a recent family bereavement so that her midnight mutterings seemed strangely appropriate.

Two (very) minor fortean things in 12 hours! I think that's a record for me.
"Owing" some sort of debt/refund is another common scam, (warrant out for your arrest for income tax fraud, owed refund from DVLA or SKY that sort of thing) I'd be careful about replying to these sort of emails and particularly don't click on any links provided in the email. Scammers have become particularly adept at setting up fake Government, NHS and the like websites, so people think they are legit. A recent example was on a car forum I'm on. Someone posted about a car they were interested in buying on Ebay. It was clear it was part of a fairly sophisticated scam and several people pointed this out. The scammer must have seen the thread and responded by setting up an exact copy of the forum with links to (fake) members posts giving positive reviews of their cars. This sort of stuff is becoming common, so you have to be careful.
 
"Owing" some sort of debt/refund is another common scam, (warrant out for your arrest for income tax fraud, owed refund from DVLA or SKY that sort of thing) I'd be careful about replying to these sort of emails and particularly don't click on any links provided in the email. Scammers have become particularly adept at setting up fake Government, NHS and the like websites, so people think they are legit. A recent example was on a car forum I'm on. Someone posted about a car they were interested in buying on Ebay. It was clear it was part of a fairly sophisticated scam and several people pointed this out. The scammer must have seen the thread and responded by setting up an exact copy of the forum with links to (fake) members posts giving positive reviews of their cars. This sort of stuff is becoming common, so you have to be careful.
Most organisations will contact you by letter if it's a real 'money owing situation', as so many people never read their emails. HMRC ONLY contact you by letter - they don't have time for phone calls (and I'm not sure they have computers)...
 
I feel sorry for the bloke at the HMRC who has to get in at 5am and get the boiler fired up.
I mean, those steam-powered typewriters won't operate otherwise!
 
A discarded fridge on the street carries an ornamental sign saying "FRIDGE". With the quotes! This bothers me.
Why would one need a label on the fridge saying "FRIDGE"?
And would one also have ornamental labels for "DISHWASHER" and "DRYER"?
koelkast1.jpgkoelkast2.jpg
 
A discarded fridge on the street carries an ornamental sign saying "FRIDGE". With the quotes! This bothers me.
Why would one need a label on the fridge saying "FRIDGE"?
And would one also have ornamental labels for "DISHWASHER" and "DRYER"?
View attachment 36102View attachment 36103
The only thing i can think is, looking at it, it looks like it may have been designed to blend into a fitted kitchen, maybe the owner had trouble finding it among the other cabinets lol
 
The only thing i can think is, looking at it, it looks like it may have been designed to blend into a fitted kitchen, maybe the owner had trouble finding it among the other cabinets lol
Yes, definitely designed as a 'built in' unit. But evidently designed to be built in to a log cabin.
 
The only thing i can think is, looking at it, it looks like it may have been designed to blend into a fitted kitchen, maybe the owner had trouble finding it among the other cabinets lol
You'd only have trouble finding it once though. I mean, once its geographical position had been established, unless your kitchen is the size of Peru, you're going to be able to find it best two out of three.
 
You'd only have trouble finding it once though. I mean, once its geographical position had been established, unless your kitchen is the size of Peru, you're going to be able to find it best two out of three.
Unless it was built into a holiday rental property?
 
Unless it was built into a holiday rental property?
It's the cold box in the corner. Again, it shouldn't give anyone too much bother. Even if it's hidden behind a fascia, you've only got to open a couple of doors and there it is. Unless it's in a holiday cottage for people with no short term memory...
 
Yes, definitely designed as a 'built in' unit. But evidently designed to be built in to a log cabin.

Or ... A recreational vehicle, travel trailer, or boat. Compact kitchen suites are commonly installed in such mobile platforms as well as fixed locations like holiday or resort cottage / cabins. Such custom kitchen sets sometimes carry labels to ensure users know which items are which in an unusual or non-conventional layout.

NOTE: 'Koelkast' is Dutch. That may be a clue. Motor homes and camping vehicles are fairly popular in the Netherlands. There's also a well-developed boat / yacht industry there.
 
Not sure if this belongs here or somewhere else . . . .

Our microwave oven is possessed by a demon. We've had it for about ten years, and it's been mostly trouble free, until in the last few days it's been acting very strangely. We set the required time, it runs through its cycle and then beeps. We remove whatever's in it - soup, dinner, whatever - then, after a few seconds, the timer beeps again and resets itself to 6.66. Pressing reset gives us the expected "0", but then, after a few seconds, 6.66 again.

Should we be worried . . . . ?
 
... Our microwave oven is possessed by a demon. ... We remove whatever's in it - soup, dinner, whatever - then, after a few seconds, the timer beeps again and resets itself to 6.66. Pressing reset gives us the expected "0", but then, after a few seconds, 6.66 again. ...

Does the oven have an LCD or LED segment display?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_device

If there were a power glitch of some sort it wouldn't be unusual for a segment display to reset with all segments lit by default (for a 7-segment display it would appear to read "8.88"). If your display's upper right-hand vertical segments were somehow disabled it would instead look like "6.66".
 
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1) It's an LED display

2) The RH vertical segments work fine when setting times e.g. "8.00".

3) The default display (to indicate that the microwave is on) is simply "0". Or it was.

4) I don't even believe in demons. At least, I didn't . . . .
 
1) It's an LED display

2) The RH vertical segments work fine when setting times e.g. "8.00".

3) The default display (to indicate that the microwave is on) is simply "0". Or it was.

4) I don't even believe in demons. At least, I didn't . . . .

Don't listen to Enola & his voice of reason. The microwave is undoubtedly haunted or has been possessed by demons via a portal. Either way you need an exorcist to purge it & block the portal. Either that or switch it off at the plug which will stop the demons temporarily.
 
Most organisations will contact you by letter if it's a real 'money owing situation', as so many people never read their emails. HMRC ONLY contact you by letter - they don't have time for phone calls (and I'm not sure they have computers)...

This week my phone rang, the display showed it was a UK mobile number not stored in my contacts.

I answered and a recorded message told them that there was a fraud attempt linked to my HMRC tax return, and that if I did not press "1" to speak to an advisor then I would be fined.

I immediately hung up and blocked the number, suspecting a "phishing" scam.
 
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. . . unless your kitchen is the size of Peru . . .
No, it's the size of Alaska.

There have been a spate of dog thefts and attempted dog thefts in our specific area recently. They appear to be moving from area to area within Morecambe if reports are correct.
What kind of dogs? What size dogs?
I'm wondering if they get kidnapped for ransom (purebred), are stolen to use as "bait" :( for fighting dogs (mutt), or are getting eaten by wild animals (small dogs).
 
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