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Showing posts from July 31, 2011

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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Today was an exciting day. I bought some laps in a Winston Cup car at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That was a real hoot. Now that I have had a few hours to think about things I know I could have picked my line better and really optimized. You definitely get going fast, especially since it is only a 1.5 mile tri-oval. You are almost always in a curve.The banks are 25%. They are so steep you can certainly fall down them if you are walking. I understand that I got it up to at least 140 MPH. The car had a lot more to give. When I watch the video I feel like a cat watching a bird out the window. I am grabbing the desk and my breathing changes... what a hoot! It was a great experience. I might do it again. The guy with the Gen 3 T-shirt is Randy Baker. http://www.speedtech500.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136&Itemid=118 After my racing thing I went and toured Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Little White House" in Central Georgia. That was great too....
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I did some tree cut-up in NY over the weekend. In addition to ripping off barn roofs and taking out bridges the storms (a couple months ago) did some damage to trees as you might imagine. This tree has a diameter of 40 inches. I had to borrow an old fashioned crosscut saw to finish the cut off since my largest chainsaw has only an 18 inch bar. Man that is hard work using a hand saw. I need to really appreciate things like chainsaws. There is a lot of firewood in that oak. I think I have a few beams as well for the barn. It was 111 degrees in Wichita the other day. Man, that is hot. Here a few pics from the air taken recently. Not in order, Speedsville, NY; Berkshire, NY; Cincinnati, OH; Atlanta, Ga; Ithaca, NY.
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