Carbon Monoxide!?

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Weird. The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured out what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared, I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace draft (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heat...
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I am getting packed up to leave San Diego. The CIDM (Center for Information Development) conference was good. Next year the conference will be in Atlanta. The weather was great. San Diego is in the tropics after all. Bill Hackos and I had some great discussions regarding Baumol' diesese. One of the things that is interesting is that almost everyone was a farmer just two generations ago. These displaced workers are not really considered displaced anymore are they? I have a Dentist Appt tommorow morning. I should have the last of the PQ materials in the mail after that. I am thilled to be going. I am thinking of how it might change me. This is a good thing. I am thinking about presenations I will be giving after I get back. I certainly enjoy giving presentations. The experience will be good material. I was thinking about a motivation speaker I saw a few weeks back. The theme of the speech was "getting a front row in life." I like the concept, but it falls short of where I want to be. I don't want to be sitting and watching. I want to be "doing." I want to make a difference. I want to go to Antarctica.

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Carbon Monoxide!?

-
Image
Weird. The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured out what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared, I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace draft (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heat...
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