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Showing posts from June 13, 2010

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...
These quotes are in this order for a reason. The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. --Ayn Rand I want to die a slave to principles. Not to men. Ignorance and obscurantism have never produced anything other than flocks of slaves for tyranny... It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees! --Emiliano Zapata The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on... The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. --Walter Lippman
Here is a very entertaining video that contains a positive message.
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The canoe trip was something for me to tick off the list. We put in in Marathon NY and paddled down the Tioughnioga river to Whitney point. I have been looking at the river for years wanting to do it. The perspective of the world changes so much from the canoe compared to a car. The canoe scraped a bit and we had some tricky maneuvering to do at points, but over all we increased our skill. I drove over that bridge for ten years. It is hard to believe that this is the same bridge from my post January 2008. http://www.theguysatwork.com/blogs/uploaded_images/IMG_7835-794459.JPG