Don’t dunk your remote…that’s better for milk and cookies

Yeah, everybody knows that electronics and water don’t mix. Sure if your camera or cell phone get splashed it’s not a big deal but actually dunking such a device into a glass of water is definitely pushing things. Well a couple nights ago my subconscious mind decided to test logic in what has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done.

That night I laid in bed watching the news or a Mythbusters’ rerun or something else. I can’t really be sure cause at some point I fell asleep with the TV on. Hours later a loud commercial brought out of a deep sleep and I realized that I had forgotten to turn off the tube. Still half asleep I fumbled for the remote and pressed a number of buttons until at last my figures found the power button and the TV turned off. Now in a darkened bedroom I reached over to set the TV remote down on my nightstand.

I could have felt the top of the nightstand and gently set the remote down but this is where my subconscious deemed it a perfect time to see if a remote controller can float in a glass of water. As the remote slipped into the water sitting by my bed I remember thinking, “You idiot, you just put the remote in your water glass,” but I was so tired and out of it that it still took me what seemed like forever to fish it out of the glass. I immediately wondered if I had broke it but left it on the nightstand till morning.

Now all this made me quite thirsty and having already done one stupid thing I began to ponder another. “Probably not a good idea to drink water that’s had a remote sitting in it,” I told myself. But in the end my thirst got the better of me so instead of getting up and retrieving a new glass, I quickly guzzled the tainted water down and went back to sleep.

Well morning came and remote was still wet. I shook my head as I looked at how the remote would have barely fit into the glass. Nothing to do now but to take the batteries out of it (better late then never) and let it dry out for the rest of the day. Now a few days removed from the incident the good news is that I’ve suffered no ill effects from drinking the water after dunking the remote in it. The bad news is the remote has become a paperweight with buttons. So that ends my scientific experiment of dunking a remote in water and it’s safe to say that it’s still just as bad of an idea as it’s always been. Best to leave the dunking to milk and cookies.

Midnight Visitor

A few nights ago my wife and I were both awakened shortly before midnight by someone knocking on our door. They rapped it twice and then rang our doorbell. Our little dog heard that and started barking like crazy. Now we are still fairly new to our area and don't really know anyone who would come to visit in the middle of the night unannounced so I grabbed a baseball bat we had in the bedroom and stumbled still half-asleep towards our bedroom door. Then my wife mentioned, "Maybe you should put some pants on before you go down there," as I was just in my boxers and a t-shirt. So I garbed a pair of jeans and through them on. I opened the bedroom door and started towards the front door. Like an idiot turned on the main light right away so I couldn't see anything outside till I opened the door. No one was there though. Our mystery visitor was gone. The dog and I went outside and looked around but the neighborhood was silent and no lights could be seen except the street lights. My wife said she did see a car driving up the street from our place while I was headed to the front door so maybe that was the person. Hopefully it was just someone who had the wrong house number and knocked on our door by accident. Just to be safe though, I called the local police and reported it. Seems unlikely that a burglar would ring the bell unless he thought the house was vacant and was just checking first. Probably more likely was some young kids looking for trouble.

Saltwater Shower

Gotta mention something funny that to happened to me this morning. My wife thinks I'm going crazy but I tell you my shower water tasted like salt. Now like my wife you are probably wondering why I was tasting the shower water in the first place but I often rinse my mouth with water in the shower for whatever reason and this morning it tasted extremely salty. I turned it off when I noticed this and jumped out to check the sink faucet in our vanity and that water tasted fine (both hot and cold) so I tried the shower again and sure enough I still was bathing in salt water. I tried to determine if it was the hot or cold water and while I didn't turn it to just hot, I did try the cold and it still tasted like the ocean. At this point I decided to just get through my shower and figured afterwards I could always sprinkle a little pepper on my head and call it a day. By the time I rinsed my hair however the salty taste was gone. "Maybe the saltwater came from the ocean" my wife said with a smile. My guess is that it has something to do with our water softener which last I checked actually needed more salt added. Hopefully it's nothing serious and I won't be tasting salt water in my shower again anytime soon.