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...

I ran into this bug this morning in the parking lot in Duluth. I was thinking I had to go to central America to see a land insect this size. That's my shoe there. I almost tripped over this guy. Yes, he was alive. I kicked him to make sure.

Comments

grammachickens said…
Eastern Hercules Beetle??? Common in woods around Georgia.

http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Eastern-Hercules-Beetle
David J. Schinsing said…
An entymologist friend here at REDCOM want's it. If you find another, bag it and ship it straight to REDCOM - you will be paid handsomly.

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