Just a Normal Girl 5

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Just a Normal Girl 5
by Brooke Erickson

Sherry had dragged me down to the Workshop. Seems the guy she was so interested in and that she'd told me would be a good addition to our study group was probably down there and had forgotten he was supposed to meet us to study.

Sure enough, he was in the middle of a cluster of guys in lab coats arguing about something. after listening for a bit, I was able to piece together that some gizmo he'd built was ready for testing, but because they weren't sure it'd work right he couldn't just flip the switch.

"So where is this gadget? And what's the deal?"

He pointed at a door on the other side of the room. I peeked in and there was this wall with a viewport in it a few feet from the door. It was just sort of freestanding (but braced). I could see this box sitting on a table a dozen feet from the wall. I guess the wall was the blast shield one of them kept mentioning.

I walked around the wall and looked at the box. I could see a toggle switch sticking up from the top. That was what the fuss was about?

I went back into the other room and looked at Sherry who was obviously getting impatient. Right. The guys were still arguing. Something about remote triggered solenoids?

I stuck fingers in my mouth and gave a LOUD whistle. That got their attention.

"I know how to trigger it safely."

That got a lot of snorts.

Okay, if that's the way they want to be...

"Don't believe me? I'll show you." With that I strode back into the other room.

I took another look at the box and the table. The table was bolted to the floor and the box was in some sort of holder bolted to the table.

"George? It's safe to touch this, as long as I don't flip the switch, right?"

"Yes, but...."

"Watch and learn..." With that, I dug into my purse and pulled out a sewing kit. I carefully knotted the end of a thread around the thickest part of the toggle. I set the spool down, then dug out the tube of superglue I had for repairing add-on nails. A quick bead of glue went over the thread, binding it to the toggle.

I walked back to the blast wall and reached up to set the spool on the top. Then I got behind it, picked up the spool and unrolled another 6 feet of thread and cut it.

I handed the end to George and said "Wrap that around a pencil or something and pull when you want to flip the switch. Then come over to the library to study with us." Then I looked at Sherry and we both walked out the door.

Once we got out into the hall, Sherry lost it. "Devisors and gadgeteeers. You know they'd have spent hours designing some fancy trigger, don't you?"

I nodded. "Or getting a TK to flip the switch."

I swear, sometimes having powers seems to get in everyone's way.

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Comments

A very pleasant read. A

LibraryGeek's picture

A very pleasant read. A short & sweet vignette.

Yours,

JohnBobMead

Yours,

John Robert Mead

Just a Normal Girl 5

Or look in the ACME catalog.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Mundane Utility

That's effectively what she seems to be railing against - people using powers for mundane tasks because they can, rather than because they're the most practical approach to the task in hand. And if you don't get the reference, you haven't dived deep enough into the rabbit hole of a wiki that claims it will ruin your life :)

--B


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Back when I was still active

Brooke Erickson's picture

Back when I was still active as a computer tech, I would get asked by folks what program they should get to do various things. Frequently my reply was to buy some 3x5 cards and a box to store them in, because it'd be far cheaper and more practical for what they wanted to use a computer for.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Here she is to save the day!

A normal visitor from the normal world, she's here with common sense to save the day from the too powerful and overly complicated plans of geniuses. Think of the scene from the Captain America movie where Steve pulls the pin from the flag pole to get a ride back to base. :)

hugs
Grover

There are 4 options to a toggle switch.

Eg. it can be a type that is either on or off.

So there are 4 options depending which way it is mounted.

ON:
1. towards the blast shield wall.
or
2. towards the door.

if it was mounted around 90 deg.

3. towards the left.
or
4. towards the right.

Without this knowledge you wouldn't know which way to pull the cord, when you did you may have to put pulleys in for 3 options if you were behind the shield!

Now it may have been simpler to extend the two wires and toggle switch to behind the blast shield.

The morale is when something looks simple it may be harder than you think.

Of course there other options, maybe that's what they were arguing about!

Some people just can't mind there own business.

LoL
Rita

I'm a dyslexic agnostic insomniac.

'Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there's a dog.'

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Oh, the zeroth draft (what

Brooke Erickson's picture

Oh, the zeroth draft (what was running around in my head before I sat down and started typing) had all sorts of stuff about why they couldn't run wire, and didn't want to to wire in a remote, etc.

But I decided that'd just get in the way. So I stripped all that out and went with the ultra-simple bit you see above.

Heck, if they'd been will to risk fingers/hand and it was a bit closer to the shield, they could have used the proverbial ten-foot-pole.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Sorry Brooke!

I withdraw my comment, It wasn't about your story meaning, just the technical issues!

LoL
Rita

I'm a dyslexic agnostic insomniac.

'Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there's a dog.'

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Yes I got the message also Brooke!

LoL
Rita

I'm a dyslexic agnostic insomniac.

'Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there's a dog.'

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Simplicity

Tas's picture

Just because you can do something in a complicated way doesn't mean there isn't a much simpler solution.

-Tas