Life's little mysteries

[EJC]

This week I rebuilt the pallet changer clamping mechanism on one of our machines at work. After placing the 75 Kilo part back on the machine and loosely inserting the bolts. I went to dial in the component. This involves running an indicator over a machined surface to check it's alignment. Over a 30 inch (76 cm) travel the dial did not move, this shows it was within 0.0005"/.00127cm of being perfectly aligned to the axis of travel. I had to check the dial to ensure it was working.

That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

I'm an aircraft mechanic. I was in the cockpit jump seat riding back from Las Vegas to Calgary 10 years ago. We were flying through thin ice cloud at high altitude. The pilots occasionally turned on lights to check the wings for ice accumulation which would light up the whole cloud around us for a few seconds. We knew from listening to air traffic control there were no other aircraft within many miles of us. A few minutes after one of these checks as our eyes became adjusted to the dark the cloud lit up even though our lights were off. Was it the military stalking us or the mother ship signalling?

[Greg_Nuspel]

That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

No the part has about 1/8 clearance on the bolts so it was magic.

[kat]

I don't know if this is included in this theme or not but ...

I remember visiting grandma's house one year and sitting in the living room listening to the old newfie music. And out of the corner of my eye..the rocking chair starts rocking. Now I was the only person in that room.

What caused that chair to rock? Maybe the heat started in the register, vibration from people dancing in the kitchen..I don't know.

For a slight moment I felt panic then I realized that was grandpa's rocking chair. So I started to sing and clap away just as he did many times in that chair.

It's official..I am a loon.

[Iguanasan]

That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

I'm an aircraft mechanic. I was in the cockpit jump seat riding back from Las Vegas to Calgary 10 years ago. We were flying through thin ice cloud at high altitude. The pilots occasionally turned on lights to check the wings for ice accumulation which would light up the whole cloud around us for a few seconds. We knew from listening to air traffic control there were no other aircraft within many miles of us. A few minutes after one of these checks as our eyes became adjusted to the dark the cloud lit up even though our lights were off. Was it the military stalking us or the mother ship signalling?

I'd say it was static electricity - lightning. Or maybe it was the mother ship

[Michaelaw]

Cool story EJ and I'm baffled. I only know that it would have been very cool to be you at that moment in that jump seat. I got really cool images in my mind of the pilots turning on the lights and what that would look like from your perspective. I was thinking along Igy's line but realized I'd probably have to have been there to even hazard a guess. The long and short of it is, it was a mother ship!

[crystalb]

About 9 years ago, we were driving home from Lethbridge Ab, at about 5:00am.
It was still dark out, not daybreak yet, and we seen a white light flashing on the left side of the road above the ground. (we thought it was a tower with a blinking light on top, not uncommon)
As we drove on the light then flashed on the otherside of the road, then again high in the sky on the right side of road and then again high on the left side and then was gone. At each stop it stayed long enough to blink 3 or 4 times, and it did not blink while it moved between the points. All of this happened in a span of maybe 6 seconds

May it was a fancy new military plane? But knowing Canada, probably not
All of us in the car seen this and we still can't figure it out....


*Cue twilight zone theme song*

[Xenos]

I'm a dog lover and have always been good with dogs. Even dogs who are known to be violent. I had met a wolf when I was 18, a guy who lived in the country used to breed it with other dogs and I was amazed by it. He moved while I lived in Saskatchewan a year later and I'd always hoped to get to have an encounter like that with a wolf again.

A few yrs ago I was driving through Crowsnest Pass (Hwy 3) heading to a buddies wedding in Lethbridge. I was driving through the mountains and that thought came to me and I voiced it to the girl who was riding along with me.

About an hour later between Grand Forks and Creston I saw something laying on the shoulder, road kill I thought. As we passed I noticed the head lift and saw those yellow eyes look right at me, felt like they looked into my soul. I hammered the brakes and jumped out of the car and walked back to what I saw. It was a wolf laying there. It growled at me as I walked up to him and I stopped and thought "Oh ****."

I got down on my hands and knees and stayed still for a couple minutes. Hoping for the wolf to relax. He didn't. He growled a couple more times while looking at me. He kept looking at his front foot and knawing at it. I started whistling softly and moved towards him. I got right beside him. He looked at me and snarled. I'd never seen teeth like that. I almost crapped my pants while thinking "What the **** am I doing." That's when I noticed there was a big piece of metal sticking out of his foot.

I put my hand out to him, he sniffed a couple times and seemed to relax. I pet his side for a minute or so and started up his body toward his foot. I took a couple minutes to reach his foot and started stroking it. After a couple minutes, I grabbed the piece of metal with my fingers, pet his cheek, then gripped his paw and pulled the metal out. He growled, barked and snapped at me, grazing my hand. I swear only one tooth hit me, it sliced like a razor blade. He ran about 10 feet and stopped.

Shana was outside the car when this happened. She saw it all and thought I was hurt bad. I was still sitting on the ground. All of a sudden she spoke, "Glenn. Turn around reallllllllyyyyy slow." I turned to see 4 wolves, 3 were kind of average size like the one with the injury and one was HUGE. The wolf that had the metal in his foot walked toward me and stopped about 5 ft away. The other wolves moved closer. They were making noise, sounded like growling, whining and crying all mixed together.

Shana thought I was a dead man when the huge wolf walked right up to me, face to to face. I stayed as calm as I could, trying to not show any fear. It sniffed me a couple times and then sat in front of me and looked at me. The one that I helped came over beside me and licked my face a few times. The big one stood up and let out a blood curdling howl and they all trotted off on their way.

I sat there for a few minutes in awe before I got up and got in the car and drove on.

Last year I ran into the guy I knew from 15 yrs ago who had the wolf. We got talking and he said he'd taken in a wolf that had been injured and needed care. It's foot had been sliced badly by some kind of "blade" near Creston. He asked me if I wanted to come by and see it. I said sure. I wasn't even thinking of the incident when I'd been driving through the pass.

I followed him to his house, about 5 miles from where his old place had been. Got out and we went to the kennel. We walked in and he told me this one was a little grumpy sometimes and to avoid his left front paw. I looked at him and asked if that had been the injured foot. He said yes. I got a shiver and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I told him the story and he was gobsmacked. Didn't know what to say. We went into the kennel and closed the door. The wolf looked at us and came over to us with a light limp. He sniffed at Gord and then turned and sniffed me. I put my hand down my side for him to sniff. When he did, he looked up at me rather quickly, made eye contact with me with those yellow eyes, wagged his tail, moaned and lay down and rolled over into submission for me, all in about 5 seconds. I lay down beside him and was able to give him a belly rub and he licked my face before getting up and walking around.

Gord was amazed. He said he'd never seen a wolf do that, ever. He told the conservation officer about and he was shocked as well. He didn't believe him until a few days later I went into the kennel unacompanied (against the conservation officers wishes) and sat down and the wolf came to me and licked my face.

The wolf passed on about a year ago.

I always get a shiver when I hear a wolf howl in the wilderness.

[Mad Aussie]

Bloody Hell Xenos ... you're nutter! As soon as I read the wolf was lying down by the road my first thought was "where's the others?" I was thinking classic wolf strategy ... decoy in the prey and then pounce with the rest of the pack.
That's some story!
Xenos the Wolf Whisperer!

[casil403]

Wow Xenos...I got shivers now too! GREAT story!