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Showing posts from January 1, 2006

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 oout 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 (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 heating eff...
No images for this post. Brother James sent me a couple of candlesticks from Tanzania (he was installing a printing press for an Arab) and an awesome book about about contemporary life in Antarctica. When trying to explain to a bank customer service representative why you don't have a phone number or why your address has a U.S. postal code but that you can't step into the nearest bank branch to re-key your PIN because the bank cancelled your old cash card, the freindly customer service rep (ed. probably in India) will hang up on you about 50% of the time as soon as you utter "Antartica." After trial and error, the best workaround solution when trying to conduct business from Antarctica is to say that you are at a "foreign military installation." Johnson, N. Big Dead Place. (2005).Feral House. Los Angeles. My siblings are a different bunch of folk, I am proud to be associated with them.