Carbon Monoxide!?

-
Image
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...
Post a Comment
-

We are back from vacation. We took an extended time (for us) in Peru and Bolivia (10 days). It was very thrilling, interesting, intense, reinvigorating and exhausting. All at the same time. After flying to and from Lima, Peru we had 4 air segments (not including time in a 172), 4 bus trips, 2 train rides, 6 different hotels and numerous Uber and taxi rides. We spent time in the following Peru cities: Lima (Miraflores & Center), Nazca, Cuzco, Machu Picchu. Also we spent time in Bolivia in La Paz and Tiwanaku.

We hired a Cessna 172 to take us over the Nazca lines, rode the Teleferico (cable cars) in La Paz and spent a lot of time at big-name pre-Inkan archaeological sites in Peru and Bolivia. Of note, we visited Tiwanaku, Puma Punku as well as Saksaywaman and Machu Picchu.

The high altitude was a concern in the Andes. We took Diamox as a precaution, but there is a lot of mystery around what causes altitude sickness (besides altitude). So Diamox is no real assurance of protection. Even packing becomes difficult at over 13k feet. The La Paz airport is one of the highest in the world. After they start the engines on the plane you can subtlety feel the air pressure building while we are still on the runway. The "in effect" hyperbaric airplane ride provides a couple hours of relief after you land at another high altitude. As a pilot, I cannot legally fly at these altitudes for longer that 30 minutes without using oxygen. My Cessna will not fly at these altitudes.

Nazca


The breakfast bar at a hotel.


From our Restaurant table in La Paz.


Supply chain management for bus freight and baggage. We found ours after a prolonged personal search in the belly of the bus well after dark.


Front row in the upper deck of the coolest bus in the world. Although we had a three axle bus, not the coolest 4 axle machine.



El Alto, La Paz.


Bus Station in Nazca, Peru.


Cusco, Peru


Hotel terrace in Cusco (San Blas)


Machu Picchu


Saksaywaman


Alpaca in Peru.


The big stone at Saksaywaman.


The Ponce Stella at Tiwanaku.


Our plane in Nazca.


Nazca "Star".


Cats in Parque Kennedy in Lima.


Puma Punku

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
My kayak trip was awesome! So what happens when three restless boys want to do something exciting in Atlanta over the Thanksgiving holiday? Shoot the Hooch. Traverse the Chattahoochee river in grand style. We did it in a combination of couchsurfer, thrillseeker, and urban explorer (mostly Couchsurfer). We met for the first time last week. The participants, one from France (a recent MBA grad from Georgia Tech), one from California (a 20 something Mechanical Engineer) and me. We put in at the Buford Dam at Lake Lanier. We put in illegally since the park was closed. (I mean who would want to use a park on a holiday?) We parked illegally at both ends of the run (not sure of the reasons, but an accumulation of a $50 parking ticket). And, we camped illegally for two nights. So, let's add some danger with two beginner kayakers, and very fast water. It is very dangerous, at least one person has died in the Chattahoochee in the last year from swift water. The risks were fully assessed. This...
Read more
-
Image
Fairy Tale illustrations by Adrienne Segur This is Tioga. He is unintimidated by a glass tabletop. He frequently knocks over thge llama statuette.
Read more
-
Image
I am in LA. I missed my connection. I did manage to get the red-eye out tonight. So it looks like I get to spend another night on a plane. I slept last night. I probably got 4 or 5 hours of sleep. I caught up with a fellow ice person last night for the flight. We were recounting the experience. Our experiences and impressions were very similar. He was saying that he can't describe a lot of it. He went on to say that even looking at his photos, they didn't tell what he was experiencing. We agreed about how strange it was meeting the winter-overs we were taking over for when we got there in October. "They had that weird stare and they talked ok and everything but there was no emotional content to what they were saying". There is a zombie like quality to some people who spend a lot of time on the ice. After a couple of weeks at pole he was medivaced to McMurdo for altitude sickness (there were quite a few this year). It got better and went back to pole. This guy is a ...
Read more