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Showing posts from February 15, 2009

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 can tell you I am pretty upset about the state of affairs with our government. Generally, I am upset that i get to keep so little of my wages. Between all the taxes and fees there is little left. There is no check and balance on spending. The folks in government feel they have lost control and must keep increasing revenues to keep the spending going. In NY state 50 percent of the voters are either a govenment employee or an employee paid by tax dollars. Where is the money supposed to come from? I think the more important consideration is that when does a voter really get a say on spending? It in effect does not happen. We may have the chance to vote on a budget, but these budgets are all out of control spending. Unlike most folks I actively participate in my local Government. I believe it is not an us-againist-them situation. We are the government if you get off your butt. There is a huge silent majority that is just plain untapped. I am excited about my vaction in 2 weeks. I have...
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