this week's puzzler

True:

San Francisco has an undeserved reputation as a swinging town. Fact is, they practically roll up the sidewalks at 9 PM. So last night Mo and I, after an excellent dinner of too many gnocci and too much pinot noir, went to bed at 9:30. Something woke me up around midnight or so. There's a big walk-in closet connected to our bedroom, and as I lay there, half-awake, all the lights went on in the closet. I turned left, toward Mo's side, and all I saw was covers. So I said, out loud, "Mo, are you all right?" and then the bed shook.

So, what happened?

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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Possibly poltergeist (which to whatever extent actually is true is often involuntary/accidental telekinesis of a household member or very close neighbor, typically of age in range of adolescence to sexual maturity) or more likely result of very recent sleepwalking, but if you have goods that can bump into a lightswitch as a result of an earthquake barely small enough to not make the news or a severe vibration from a winter storm I would consider that to be the preferred explanation.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

I can only make bad guesses as to what you think you are blithering on about.

What's Mo's side of the story?

DNA

Reply to
Genome

I guess you were too drunk to feel the first shock of the 'quake which woke up Mo. She went to hide in the closet and when the real quake came you finally came out of your drunken stupor.

Do I get the prize or is there a better explanation?

--
John B
Reply to
John B

Are Larry and Curly playing pranks on you and Moe again?

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the magnitude-7.9 Fort Tejon quake, which was blamed for just two deaths in what was then sparsely populated California.

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Reply to
maxfoo

Better explanation.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Hallucination ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

The ghosts of all the semiconductors he's sent to kingdom come?

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Actually, I get those (and phosphenes, and auras, too) but not this time.

The explanation is electronic, thus on-topic.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

[snip]
*YOU* bought one of those quarter vibrator beds ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

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| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Reply to
Jim Thompson

A loud noise (car backfire perhaps) turned on the "Clapper" you use to control the closet light?

Reply to
Greg Neill

The "sleep number" beds seem to have an air compressor in them. They make a fairly noisy whine when the number is increasing, and are silent when the number is decreasing (getting softer).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

I slept on one of those in a hotel in SoCal when my nephew was getting married... pretty nice actually.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

After a nice dinner you, your guest and Mo engaged in a stimulating Ménage à trois and you soon fell fast asleep. Your guest and Mo continued their encounter in the closet, as you awoken Mo turned on the closet light and scampered back into bed causing it to shake. You was awaken from a dream that you were living in a world where your designs contained no parasitic components. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Harry

Reply to
Harry Dellamano

Are you going to tell us ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Sure. The lights in the closet are all on one dimmer. The dimmer was somehow left set to just below the "on" threshold, and some tiny line surge or spike tripped it. Cheap diac-triac dimmers have a lot of on/off hysteresis, so the lights came on pretty bright and stayed on. Mo is so skinny that I didn't see her under the covers, and I assumed she had gone into the closet and turned the lights on, so I asked her, pretty loud, if she was OK. She was right there next to me and jumped when I yelled.

Simple.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Sorry, but I like my explanation better. ;-)

--
John B
Reply to
John B

I figured there was a cat involved... that's the source of all our extraterrestrial activities around here ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Aren't we all? ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich, but drunk

The kitty sisters, Ajax and Comet, do tend to walk/jump all over us all night, and purr about 105 dB, but we're used to that, and they can't reach the dimmer.

They did make an enormous crash the other night. Somehow they knocked over the tripod with my Celestron C5 spotting scope on top. Ouch.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

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