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...
Post a Comment
-

It's Friday. I got back from Brazil this morning. I am in the office in the afternoon. Although the flights to and from Southern Brazil are long there is only one hour time difference. That helps a lot. The economy in Brazil is booming by 2010 standards. It has been about 17 years since I was there last. (actually, I felt like this is where I left off) A lot has changed. The food is as good and in likelihood better. There is no understating the food experience of a real Brazilian Churrascaria. They cook different kinds of meat on these swords and carve it at your table as you instruct. The variety and quality is great. The coarse rock-salt laid on the meat is multi-colored very much like Brazilian gemstones and the society itself. It is a wonderful place. I got a bit of a VIP treatment for the photo in the kitchen at one of the best Churrascarias in all of Brazil (Nabrasa in Porto Alegre). I am hoping I can get fish (and eggs) on a sword next time. That would be perfection.

Of course, it is the middle of winter in Brazil. There were complaints of the temps in the low 60s. I got a lot of work done. It is supposed to be 105 in Atlanta today, ouch.

It turned out that the reports from the folks in the ATL airport were talking about a heat index of 105 not 95F. I remember reports in Antarctica of more than 100 below in summer (wind chill F). Please let's all use real degrees whether F or C. It helps working with the standards, not what we feel. It is not to say that what we feel isn't important, but relating appropriately to all of the data is extraordinary.

I am starting to get the hang of picking up my cell in a taxi in a place like Southern Brazil to talk to someone in Europe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
My kayak trip was awesome! So what happens when three restless boys want to do something exciting in Atlanta over the Thanksgiving holiday? Shoot the Hooch. Traverse the Chattahoochee river in grand style. We did it in a combination of couchsurfer, thrillseeker, and urban explorer (mostly Couchsurfer). We met for the first time last week. The participants, one from France (a recent MBA grad from Georgia Tech), one from California (a 20 something Mechanical Engineer) and me. We put in at the Buford Dam at Lake Lanier. We put in illegally since the park was closed. (I mean who would want to use a park on a holiday?) We parked illegally at both ends of the run (not sure of the reasons, but an accumulation of a $50 parking ticket). And, we camped illegally for two nights. So, let's add some danger with two beginner kayakers, and very fast water. It is very dangerous, at least one person has died in the Chattahoochee in the last year from swift water. The risks were fully assessed. This...
Read more
-
Image
The bonfire was a lot of fun. Friends, family and neighbors came over. I felt like a kid. We dragged one of the old geodesic domes on the property to the fire and although everything was still wet from recent rain we got it burning, safely. G. Mills came down and we worked all day Sunday moving the fire around to areas missed and so forth. The picture of the jeep is a fraction of the scrap metal found in the piles. Everything from transmissions to major appliances to pedal cars to weird old farm bits smashed flat was found. Definitely, it was a good time. We don’t often “slow down” to do stuff like this. Slowing down is a weird way to describe it since there was no slowing down at all and there was a bigger utility goal in mind in removing a junk pile. I guess it was just fun and I will leave it at that.
Read more

LavaCon 2025

-
Image
I spoke at the LavaCon this week. My presentation was very well received. There were well over 100 folks who chose to attend my presentation. Afterwards we had a supplier meeting in Cartersville and a hike up Pine Mountain. https://www.lavacon.org/ It was good to enjoy some brief moments with a llama as part of the conference. And it was good to meet up with lots of folks I have got to know over the years.
Read more