If you've called our office before, you might have an idea what this page is about.  You might even have come to the website looking for it.  If not, you're probably thinking that an "On Hold" page on a website is a really bad idea.

When you call Silver Creek Engineering, if someone isn't able to help you right away, you'll be given the option of waiting: you'll be "on hold".  Well, we decided some years ago that a few jokes and thoughts on life would liven up the time.  Unfortunately, since we really don't want to keep you waiting, we sometimes have the annoying habit of picking up your call right before the punch line!  (Of course, it might help that the jokes haven't changed in several years-we do what we can.)

Anyway, for those of you who need a punch line, or just a corny laugh, here is the script, straight from "On Hold" to you.

A minister, a doctor and an engineer were golfing when they were asked to let the foursome behind them play through. "They're firefighters who lost their sight saving the clubhouse," the course manager explained. The minister vowed to pray for them. The doctor decided to try to restore their sight. The engineer paused. "I don't get it," he said. "Why can't these guys play at night?" We here at Silver Creek are not that callous; however, we do take pride in efficient management of our clients' resources while providing solutions to their engineering needs.

Three engineers stumbled over an old lamp, releasing a genie who granted each one a wish. "I want to spend my life on a yacht with no money worries," said one engineer, and she was gone. The next asked for a mansion and a beautiful wife, and disappeared. The third, a project manager at Silver Creek Engineering, made his wish. "I want them back in the office after lunch to finish this project." You may not want one of our project engineers as your appointment secretary, but we bet you'd love to have one managing your engineering needs.

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were told to find the volume of a red rubber ball. The mathematician measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral. The physicist put the ball in water and measured the total displacement. The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his Red-Rubber-Ball Book. At Silver Creek Engineering, we take pride in efficiently providing solutions to our clients' engineering needs -- whether we have to read the Red-Rubber-Ball Book or write it in order to develop those solutions.

An engineer was about to be guillotined.  At his request, the executioner put him on his back under the blade.  But miraculously, the blade stopped two inches short of his neck.  The crowd roared in astonishment at the miracle and demanded his release.  Suddenly the engineer shouted, " Wait, I see it!  Your rope gets caught in the top left pulley!"  What can we say?  We're engineers -- we love what we do and we can't help but give it our best, even in the most trying of circumstances.

Have you heard about the three statisticians who went deer hunting with bows and arrows?  The first statistician's arrow landed five meters to the right of the deer.  The second one shot, and her arrow landed five meters to the left of it.  So the third one jumped out of the bushes and shouted, "We got him!  We got him!"  Here at Silver Creek Engineering, we're engineers and we know that in the real world, you have to be right on target to do a job well.

When Hurley Smith began his engineering career in 1933, white shirts were the uniform and pens and pencils were the tools of the trade.  The result was stained and frayed pockets.   Being an engineer, Hurley looked for a way to eliminate this inconvenience.  He retreated to his attic and used his wife's iron to heat plastic rectangles so that he could bend them into the signature flat piece and overlapping flap that slip into a shirt pocket.  A patent for "The Pocket Shield or Protector" was granted to Hurley in 1947.