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 in Porto Alegre Brazil for one night tonight, two work days and one night in the Porto Alegre area. It was a 1.5 hour flight between Buenos Aires and Porto Alegre (over Uruguay). A few more days and I will be in NY and DJ and I will be figuring out where we can go hiking. It looks like I will break 100,000 miles of air travel in a six month period. I am glad it isn't over-the-road like truckers have to endure.

My job is not about traveling. It is about progress in the area of service information for one of the world's largest (and certainly the most intrepid) agricultual equipment companies in the world. I have to travel and meet with folks to strenghten the daily email and telephone conversations as well as make mutual assessments in these efforts. It is absolutely normal for me to make phone calls on my cell to Europe before I am fully awake from South America, to be thinking years ahead with our project schedules, and communicating in the evenings. It is all for the effort and mission.

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