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Showing posts from August 12, 2012

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 oout 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 (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 heating eff...
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I am a bit overwhelmed with work and getting my new house in order. There is only one of me. I do like my current position quite a bit. It is way better than The Raymond Corporation. I am just back from a day trip in Wisconsin. Now that I have the initial salvo of plumbing and electrical work done, I am concentrating on cleaning and organizing. I had some colleagues from Kansas over the other night. That was nice. I expect to do more of that type of entertaining here. Kicking back in the gazebo down by the lake with a Brazilian beer (absolutely not available in the USA) was a great experience. There is electricity in the gazebo and on the dock, but I have to figure out what I need to do to get the lights and what-not working.
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Well, I have almost all the plumbing work done as well as almost all of the electrical work done. I found a bit more of the wiring was ripped out of the house by the foreclosees than I figured. It worked out to be about 50 dollars more in materials (nothing compared to the costs of copper today). On the other side, I discovered the electric is all in for the spa. Not that I have the spa yet. I am certainly gaining on the house. I have my vintage McIntosh audio equipment hooked up to the computer for some really fine tunes and I am adding to the suite of audio equipment. A few more pieces to have it perfect, at least for now. My geese neighbors got in my way this morning on my drive out of my neighborhood. My place is pretty well fenced for geese. I don't need those turd machines making more work for me. I went for an especially nice flight today. Descending over Lake Lanier I couldn't help but think about my boating experiences on lake Ontario and what a step-change I have expe...