Christmas Vibe

Christmas Vibe He is not merely dull in his own right; he spreads that dullness, draining the spark from everyone around him. Welcome to Dull Men's Army.

Moderately dull.
05/14/2026

Moderately dull.

I bought a lock, somehow I set my combination wrong and the lock would not open. Not my first lock. I contacted the comp...
05/13/2026

I bought a lock, somehow I set my combination wrong and the lock would not open. Not my first lock. I contacted the company and they said there was not a super secret way to open the lock. I gave a heavy sigh and said I’d just go through the possible combinations until it opened. It is a four digit lock, meaning there are 10,000 possibilities. The company rep laughed and said “no problem, we’ll send you out a replacement free of charge.” WHAT? I felt rewarded for being incompetent. They sent the freebie. In the meantime, I would diligently go through the possiblities on the mystery lock while watching television. But not Jeopardy, I have to pay attention during Jeopardy. And today was the day! I did it! I opened the mystery lock! All my friends doubted me. Here is the dull part. This may be my greatest achievement. Picture of both locks open.
UPDATE: Wow, this really took off. Great fun and not very dull at all. Sorry? I’ll try to answer a few of the most asked questions.
* I don’t know how long it took, but I’ve had the lock for two months, didn’t work on it every day.
* I went through just under 3K combinations, not in sequence. I chose blocks of numbers such as 400-499 or 8000 to 8999, AFTER ruling out 0000 to 0099. I hoped that doing it in blocks would increase my chances of a quicker success. It did. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
*The combination was not anywhere close to what I thought it should have been. That will always remain a mystery
*This lock is not a primary use lock. My bikes are quite secure.
*And finally, I have sent a message to Kryptonite (can I mention them?) to see about returning the replacement. Of course, I will give them the combo. 😉

I went out yesterday to put out recycling and found this fella in the bin of used coffee grounds heading to compost. I t...
05/13/2026

I went out yesterday to put out recycling and found this fella in the bin of used coffee grounds heading to compost. I took the appropriate photographic evidence, posted it on my story and went about my day.
Later that evening, suddenly wondering if it could get out of the tin, I went to check and *gone!*
My daughter was distressed, as she had already named it Jimothy and was asking to google toad homes to make it more inviting.
It is now just gone 2pm and I have returned to see Jimothy back in the canister, digging down and getting comfy.
So friends of amphibians, how do we make Jimothy more cozy, and is Jimothy an actual name?
F/51 🇨🇦 size 9.5 since kids.

My wife got a fish supper earlier and asked for a pickled onion with it.The guy in the chippie has taken a shine to her ...
05/13/2026

My wife got a fish supper earlier and asked for a pickled onion with it.
The guy in the chippie has taken a shine to her and he's given her 3!
I can't compete against that kind of razzle-dazzle.

When I park my truck at services for the night, my company reimburse the cost. Sometimes at the weekend, a room in a hot...
05/13/2026

When I park my truck at services for the night, my company reimburse the cost. Sometimes at the weekend, a room in a hotel at the services can be dirt cheap. This was the case last night when I parked at Burton-In-Kendal services, £25.99 for a room in the travelodge, which includes parking. Cheap and cheerful, but beats a night in the truck. Nice comfy bed, bath/shower, just space in general is nice.
The only downside was the hotel is old and doesn’t have usb charging sockets, and I don’t carry a usb plug in the truck as it’s not needed (I will from now on).
I asked the nice receptionist if they possibly had a spare, she checked and came back with one. I thanked her and said I’d drop it back in the morning when I checked out, to which she replied no need as it had been in lost property since last summer and was highly unlikely to be claimed.
So if you lost yours last summer, I have it. Finders keepers. Unlucky.
45, size 10, no hotel tonight, it’s £60 where I am parked.

Following a recent post about where we all live it got me thinking about how where I live enables be to be happily very ...
05/13/2026

Following a recent post about where we all live it got me thinking about how where I live enables be to be happily very dull.
I (very luckily) live on the Isle of Skye in the Scottish highlands. While the place itself is far from dull, it very much encourages dullness from its inhabitants.
For example; there is a real necessity to plan. Planning is gloriously dull. You have to plan everything. There are only a couple of shops on the island, one 22 miles and the other 30 miles from me. When it comes to the weekly big shop I get the wonderful task of looking at the fuel gauges in the cars, deciding which car to take as well as assessing whether I need more diesel for the week ahead.
We then get the wonderfully dull mathematical challenge of deciding whether to go to the closer coop or the further coop, where diesel is usually 2p per litre cheaper.
When it comes to the shop itself, you have to plan every bite of food you intend on consuming for the week ahead. We have very few cafes or places to eat, especially this time of year when the island is on close-down. We have absolutely no takeaways that offer delivery either. The island does not allow you to explore any spark of spontaneity as there are simply no services that enable it.
This applies to every aspect of life and it is utterly glorious. It got me thinking about everyone else and whether your locations allow you to live a gloriously dull and happy life or whether you have to fight the urge to be exciting.
33, Size 11, Enjoys making labels for the shelves in the garage.
NB: Picture from my driveway as I arrived home from work for attention.

I like to mix different heights, textures and colors. This bed constantly evolves and these's always something flowering...
05/13/2026

I like to mix different heights, textures and colors. This bed constantly evolves and these's always something flowering from spring till fall. There are 4 hostas, 3 rose bushes, 3 conifers, 2 different irises, a honeysuckle, echinaceas, ajuga, liatris, peonies, clematis, coreopsis, digitalis, Japanese maple, heucheras, carex, and more on the other side.

My tiny purple yarden last year this is the view from my dining room window 😍😍 from Kingston upon Hull in UK 🇬🇧
05/13/2026

My tiny purple yarden last year this is the view from my dining room window 😍😍 from Kingston upon Hull in UK 🇬🇧

Little friend on my hosta
05/13/2026

Little friend on my hosta

So I was experimenting with a new invention I call 'superspeed photography' where the event you are photographing only h...
05/13/2026

So I was experimenting with a new invention I call 'superspeed photography' where the event you are photographing only happens because you are photographing it - because it is triggered by the flash circuit of the camera. I wired an ignition coil in series with my camera flash and was marvelling at the pretty patterns the spark makes when it goes through sugar when the unthinkable happened: A fly landed on the sugar and slowly crawled towards the wires ready to discharge another 30 000v spark through the sugar. I couldn't resist. I call this Schroedinger's fly because it is both alive and dead in this image taken at 1/4000th sec, or is it???

This push pin is one of the most important tools in the kitchen—I use it to pierce jar lids to break the seal if they wo...
05/13/2026

This push pin is one of the most important tools in the kitchen—I use it to pierce jar lids to break the seal if they won’t open. I found that metal-topped thumb tacks just bend when I whack them, but this little flat-topped pin has worked like a charm for 20-odd years now. I just hope I never lose it!
Update: lots of people assume I don’t try other techniques first—this is after the knocking, twisting with a rubber mat, soaking jar upside down in very hot water so the lid expands, etc. have failed. The pickles in question here go into the fridge and are consumed in a matter of days. I’m surprised to hear that everyone else here reuses every single pickle jar lid in their own households, and no one puts opened food in the fridge to keep it fresh for a few days 🙄
Okay, okay, okay! 😄 I have inadvertently riled up the mob that apparently would rather die than discard a jar lid.
In my dull defence I once spent a few hours staring at a counterful of jars of jam trying to catch the moment when the jar vacuum-seals itself with a loud POP as it cools down. I usually hear the jars popping randomly when I’m not looking, but I once witnessed the moment of lid indentation itself. There was excitement in this household, let me tell you.
Another update: people are very worried about the pin hole in the lid. It’s an upright jar—it’s not going to leak. It’s a tiny hole. I’m not using reusing every jar lid for preserves. As Vero Chiara said, “I'd still keep the jar. It would become the kids' bug jar or a bit of freezer tape over the hole. No biggie. Pickles used to come in giant barrels and people would stick their hands in to fish them out.” 🙂🥒
Observations:
1: people hate their butter knives.
2: people would rather chew through shards of glass than be thought unmanly.
Thanks for all the advice, some of which is helpful and worth a try in spite of being repeated here 500 times. You may be dull but you are each lovely in your own way.
Today’s update: Patricia Sais uses an ice pick, which shows true pioneering spirit but may disqualify her as a dull person. In unrelated news, I’m now working on a murder mystery board game.
Monday update: a few people have noticed I’m not a man, and questioned my presence in the Dull Men’s Group. I’d like to point out that in Anglo-Saxon times a ‘manne’ was an owner of property and could be male or female—we know this from inheritance documents (e.g. “she was the second manne”—see Fell’s “Women in Anglo-Saxon England”). Also, and perhaps I should have noted it first, this stellar group is non-dullscriminatory.

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