Tball, scouts, etc.

John Oliver wrote:
> On Tue, 08 May 2007 23:29:57 GMT, "m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
> <"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>Quick repair, even if pricey. They're all done save for
>>installing a properly sized vent grate over the new return air
>>flow hole in my hallway ceiling (so it will look puuuuurty) and
>>having a county inspector come out and do a "duct test". Testing
>>to make sure the ducts are properly sealed, for energy
>>efficiency, I believe.
>
> Ah well - it may have been expensive but it sounds as if they did it
> right. You shouldn't have many problems for some years.

That is the plan. It better not have problems, not at that price!

And the duct test is mandated by law, here, I do believe.
California is more on the ball about encouraging energy
efficiency than many USA states. :>

>>Getting the whole unit up and over the house without touching
>>house, or tree in yard, or anything, requires a long crane arm,
>>since the unit was installed on the side of my house that faces
>>away from the road where the crane was parked. Swing-y, swing-y,
>>whee!
>
> Did Pepper have good time barking at all those people?

My dog? Bark at expensive staff people that have been invited
(nay, paid to come) here by his loving mistress?

Errr, yes. Barked himself into exhaustion, yesterday. I was
home more today, so less barking. I think one of the
installation guys is scared of Pepper.

He, um, behaved himself when I was there to supervise. Um.

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

On Tue, 08 May 2007 15:23:47 -0700, Edna <huelsenbeck.RemoveThis@gmailDOT.com>
wrote:

>In article <8th143pq7dg3mnps2j5mejrcjgmfl3igij.RemoveThis@4ax.com>,
> John Oliver <aussiejohn67.RemoveThis@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>
>> The joys of home ownership. You should ask Mummy Az about home grown
>> electric wiring!
>
>Aren't older houses fun? We have an outlet upstairs (a fancy GFCI one
>with a reset button) that turns itself off periodically for no reason at
>all. Of course, our network printer is connected to it, so I keep having
>to run upstairs to restart it. And then there are the light switches in
>the living room--neither one works unless another switch in a different
>room is already on...
>
>Edna

We had fun with the wiring here, too. The previous owner believed
himself the kind of handyman who could do ANYTHING. Unfortunately the
results spoke for themselves.

Like the reading lamp in the bedroom - that only worked if the
overhead light was on. WHY one would want the reading lamp AND the
overhead on I have no idea! Especially as the position of the
overhead means it shines in ones eyes when trying to read in bed.
Fortunately, that one was easily corrected.

Or the switches that were wired to the mains, but not TO anything in
particular. So the switches were live...

Or the air con that was fitted and wired in with an extension cord
from which the plugs had been cut off, not proper electrical flex.

We just last week needed to replace the fitting and switch for the
light in the girls' bathroom as it was intermittently cutting out. The
electrician couldn't find a *reason* for it to be doing that, it just
was. So replacing the two seemed the best option as the wiring itself
was fine. So far it's working OK now.

Az
(trying hard to type with a kitten pouncing on my fingers as they move
over the keyboard)
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

"Mummy Az" <manth.TakeThisOut@westnet.com.au> wrote

> Like the reading lamp in the bedroom - that only worked if the
> overhead light was on. WHY one would want the reading lamp AND the
> overhead on I have no idea! Especially as the position of the
> overhead means it shines in ones eyes when trying to read in bed.
> Fortunately, that one was easily corrected.

I've got one of those too... the desk light in the study only
used to work when the main light was on. (The whole thing
is kaput now... something seems to be wrong with the fitting
so I'm not using it.) My guess is that someone wired it in
parallel with the main light circuit while the main light is
wired in series. Grumpy gripe and all that.
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

>> The joys of home ownership. You should ask Mummy Az about home grown
>> electric wiring!
>
> Aren't older houses fun? We have an outlet upstairs (a fancy GFCI one
> with a reset button) that turns itself off periodically for no reason at
> all. Of course, our network printer is connected to it, so I keep having
> to run upstairs to restart it. And then there are the light switches in
> the living room--neither one works unless another switch in a different
> room is already on...

GFCI works by comparing the amps going out of the plug to the amps
coming back. If they vary by a few milliamps it trips.

The basis is that if some of the amps (a measure of the number of
electrons going by) drops then the missing electrons may be going
through a body (not a good thing) and stops them all.

Soooo, if the GCFI keeps tripping then there just may be an intermittent
ground fault and those annoying trips may be keeping your abode from
burning down (although that is not their main function - it is to
protect people)

More here:
http://www.codecheck.com/gfci_principal.htm

> Edna


--
I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Patron Saint of Hair Color Changing
Currently: Dark Violet Red with
Lot'sa Violet Black accents,
Very Purply looking See here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14163655@N00/338135186/
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing".

I dye my hair so much my driver's license
has a color wheel. Nancy Mura
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

> Quick repair, even if pricey. They're all done save for installing a
> properly sized vent grate over the new return air flow hole in my
> hallway ceiling (so it will look puuuuurty) and having a county
> inspector come out and do a "duct test". Testing to make sure the ducts
> are properly sealed, for energy efficiency, I believe.

Am I the only one thinking
"AFLAC" ?

: )

--
I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Patron Saint of Hair Color Changing
Currently: Dark Violet Red with
Lot'sa Violet Black accents,
Very Purply looking See here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14163655@N00/338135186/
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing".

I dye my hair so much my driver's license
has a color wheel. Nancy Mura
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

>>> Hectic here, too, for very different reasons. End of
>>> semester grading crunch (wait, *why* did I hand out all
>>> those homework assignments? And what made tests seem like a
>>> good idea, again?),
>>
>> Because the school requires them?
>
> Oddly, no. At least, not explicitly, as far as I know. (There
> is a strong expectation, of course.) But there are a limited
> number of "sticks" one can use to make sure students who don't
> attend lecture/ read textbook find some motivation.

And if they are not paying out of their own pockets, money will not
motivate either.

>>> On the upside, watching a honest-to-goodness crane swinging
>>> a new heating/AC unit onto my roof (and the old AC unit off)
>>> this morning was a treat for me. I love big machines. :>
>>
>> We've been dealing with vehicles here. Hubby's car is down
>> completely (luckily it is only a 1.5 miles to where they park
>> the company vehicles) and we had the van in for AC repair
>> estimate today. We have no AC this summer.

The hecticity here has been:
1) Middlest child and fiance came to visit for a week, with two kids.
2) Spouse is now in Oregon to attend said son's wedding this Saturday.
Since the teenager does not seem to understand 'chores' I get them all.
3) Back-inherited the computer I gave to my daughter, I have no idea
where to put it yet - it occupies my kitchen counter right now. I spent
a few evenings cleaning and disinfecting it, OS-wise. Still considering
a complete wipe of windoze, to Ubuntu linux, since not too sure of the
validity of the XP install. Just been studying up on partitions etc.
4) Upped the RAM in the main computer by 5x, 512MB to 2.5 GB. Plan on
updating the ubuntu on it too, studying that partitioning thing again. I
plan to do it better this time.
5) Installed a wireless router for my son's visit (see # 1 above). I
gained a lot of experience in 5 hours one evening. Youngest can also use
his Sony PSP to go online wirelessly.

> Ouch! And you have kids, who will maximize the "fun" of no AC by
> telling you, many times daily, that it is hot.
>
> Of course, kids don't seem to feel heat the way adults do. I've seen
> kids running around, shrieking happily on a lawn, on days when I feel
> boiled enough to want to hide somewhere dark and quiet.

1) Kids tend to have a better surface area to mass ratio and cool off
quicker.
2) Kids will enjoy activities that involve water - sprinklers, water
slides, water balloons, etc. We have a water slide in our back yard for
the grands to play on.

--
I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Patron Saint of Hair Color Changing
Currently: Dark Violet Red with
Lot'sa Violet Black accents,
Very Purply looking See here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14163655@N00/338135186/
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing".

I dye my hair so much my driver's license
has a color wheel. Nancy Mura
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

Kat Hein wrote:
> m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage] wrote:
>
>>> You'd think that, wouldn't you? Too bad no one told mother nature.
>>> *G* Sun-Today it was 90F+, same with last weekend. Since Megan is
>>> more inland, it was probably hotter there. The weekend before THAT
>>> it was cold and rainy. California isn't having much of its usual
>>> moderate weather this spring- it's either hot or cold. I assume
>>> that's how she discovered that the AC is shot.
>>
>>
>> Fortunately, I'm one of the world's more tightfisted people when it
>> comes to using up power, so I haven't turned on either the heat or the
>> AC since winter ended.
>
> It must have been warmer on your side of the mountain than mine! LOL I
> don't care what the calendar says, when it's rainy and 50 outside and
> damp and 60 inside it's winter. We put up UV-blocking film on our
> windows (that full southern exposure isn't always a plus in CA.) so
> we've been a lot cooler when it's sunny and it keeps the warm in better,
> as well, but when it's 90, it's time for the AC to come on.

I certainly haven't felt chilled in the past week. (Pant, pant,
guzzle water.) I have ceiling fans, and I've been running them.

My south-facing windows are thoroughly shaded by the patio roof,
so I don't get the full southern sun exposure through the windows
-- thankfully. I had the paint trim repainted last summer,
because the southern exposure had worn it away way, way, way more
than on any other side of the house.

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

Aaron wrote:

>> Quick repair, even if pricey. They're all done save for installing a
>> properly sized vent grate over the new return air flow hole in my
>> hallway ceiling (so it will look puuuuurty) and having a county
>> inspector come out and do a "duct test". Testing to make sure the
>> ducts are properly sealed, for energy efficiency, I believe.
>
>
> Am I the only one thinking
> "AFLAC" ?
>
> : )

It still amuses me that duct tape is not supposed to be used on
ducts. Apparently, someone at some point had done just that --
part of the "creative" engineering of my ducts that meant I
needed to have the whole shebang ripped out.

quack, quack.

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

Aaron wrote:

>>>> those homework assignments? And what made tests seem like a
>>>> good idea, again?),
>>>
>>> Because the school requires them?
>>
>> Oddly, no. At least, not explicitly, as far as I know. (There
>> is a strong expectation, of course.) But there are a limited
>> number of "sticks" one can use to make sure students who don't
>> attend lecture/ read textbook find some motivation.
>
> And if they are not paying out of their own pockets, money will not
> motivate either.

Even if they are. The money was paid two-plus months ago, it's
been a while, memories are short...

<snip>
> The hecticity here has been:
> 1) Middlest child and fiance came to visit for a week, with two kids.
> 2) Spouse is now in Oregon to attend said son's wedding this Saturday.
> Since the teenager does not seem to understand 'chores' I get them all.
> 3) Back-inherited the computer I gave to my daughter, I have no idea
> where to put it yet - it occupies my kitchen counter right now. I spent
> a few evenings cleaning and disinfecting it, OS-wise. Still considering
> a complete wipe of windoze, to Ubuntu linux, since not too sure of the
> validity of the XP install. Just been studying up on partitions etc.
> 4) Upped the RAM in the main computer by 5x, 512MB to 2.5 GB. Plan on
> updating the ubuntu on it too, studying that partitioning thing again. I
> plan to do it better this time.
> 5) Installed a wireless router for my son's visit (see # 1 above). I
> gained a lot of experience in 5 hours one evening. Youngest can also use
> his Sony PSP to go online wirelessly.

Busy!

>> Of course, kids don't seem to feel heat the way adults do. I've seen
>> kids running around, shrieking happily on a lawn, on days when I feel
>> boiled enough to want to hide somewhere dark and quiet.
>
> 1) Kids tend to have a better surface area to mass ratio and cool off
> quicker.
> 2) Kids will enjoy activities that involve water - sprinklers, water
> slides, water balloons, etc. We have a water slide in our back yard for
> the grands to play on.

Oh, if they were shrieking their way through a lawn sprinkler, or
in a water fight, the running in hot weather wouldn't have
surprised me as much. It's the fact that the activities were
*dry* that caught my attention.

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

"Aaron" <kemtek.1.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Aren't older houses fun? We have an outlet upstairs (a fancy GFCI one
>> with a reset button) that turns itself off periodically for no reason at
>> all. Of course, our network printer is connected to it, so I keep having
>> to run upstairs to restart it. And then there are the light switches in
>> the living room--neither one works unless another switch in a different
>> room is already on...
>
> GFCI works by comparing the amps going out of the plug to the amps coming
> back. If they vary by a few milliamps it trips.
>
> The basis is that if some of the amps (a measure of the number of
> electrons going by) drops then the missing electrons may be going through
> a body (not a good thing) and stops them all.
>
> Soooo, if the GCFI keeps tripping then there just may be an intermittent
> ground fault and those annoying trips may be keeping your abode from
> burning down (although that is not their main function - it is to protect
> people)

<safety-officer-mode>

One alarming possibility is that there is an intermittent connection between
the service entrance and the outlet. Some designs of GFCI outlets will trip
not only when there is a net current flow but also when the device detects
that the wiring is incorrect (e.g., neutral/phase reversal or grounding wire
not connected).

Another possibility (based on the age of the house) is that whoever
installed the GFCI outlet found that there were no ground wires from the
service entrance to the outlet location, so a substitute was created by
running a wire to the nearest water pipe, and since then the connection has
corroded. Using a water pipe for this purpose violates the National
Electric Code, which most jurisdictions have adopted in whole or in part.
(NEC requires that ground wires run with the neutral and phase leads. It
does include, however, a special clause allowing a ground wire to be run
separately when replacing a 2-pin socket with a 3-pin model and only two
wires service the original socket...but regardless, the ground wire cannot
use plumbing runs as conductors.)

Or, of course, the problem might be a faulty GFCI device that's tripping
when no real problem exists.

My suggestion would be to invest in an inspection of the electrical system
in the house. Not what I would expect to be everybody's favorite way to
spend money, but I would consider it money well spent for the peace of mind.
Also, having an inspection of the entire electrical system might yield a few
bucks lower premiums on the homeowners' insurance policy.

</safety-officer-mode>

Joe Morris
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

In article <olh243df1smcbja3gbrj0b182rrr3mdrl8 DeleteThis @4ax.com>,
Mummy Az <manth DeleteThis @westnet.com.au> wrote:
> Or the switches that were wired to the mains, but not TO anything in
> particular. So the switches were live...

I think we have a couple of those, too. Some of them might be connected
to one of the outdoor outlets. No one, however, has discovered any
function for the switch in the middle of the family room wall, next to
the TV.

Edna


---|)--- Edna Huelsenbeck (huelsenbeck@gmailDOTcom) ------------
---|---- Goddess of the ABML Out-of-Practice-Musicians Band -----
--/|---- Member, Brute Squad, Mommy Division --------------------
-| |')-- Provisional Member of the Sisterhood of Mess -----------
--\|/----Official Bard of the Book and Bridle -------------------
|
'
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

In article <10v0i.12162$pW5.2750@trnddc07>,
"Joe Morris" <j.c.morris DeleteThis @verizon.net> wrote:
> My suggestion would be to invest in an inspection of the electrical system
> in the house. Not what I would expect to be everybody's favorite way to
> spend money, but I would consider it money well spent for the peace of mind.
> Also, having an inspection of the entire electrical system might yield a few
> bucks lower premiums on the homeowners' insurance policy.

Hiring an electrician is already on our to-do list--the home inspection
last fall turned up some other "interesting" electrical items. Nothing
that's an immediate danger, but stuff we want to take care of. Now we
just have to get around to it (along with all the other to-dos).

Edna


---|)--- Edna Huelsenbeck (huelsenbeck@gmailDOTcom) ------------
---|---- Goddess of the ABML Out-of-Practice-Musicians Band -----
--/|---- Member, Brute Squad, Mommy Division --------------------
-| |')-- Provisional Member of the Sisterhood of Mess -----------
--\|/----Official Bard of the Book and Bridle -------------------
|
'
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc. 

On Thu, 10 May 2007 15:46:13 -0700, Edna <huelsenbeck.RemoveThis@gmailDOT.com> wrote:

>In article <10v0i.12162$pW5.2750@trnddc07>,
> "Joe Morris" <j.c.morris.RemoveThis@verizon.net> wrote:
>> My suggestion would be to invest in an inspection of the electrical system
>> in the house. Not what I would expect to be everybody's favorite way to
>> spend money, but I would consider it money well spent for the peace of mind.
>> Also, having an inspection of the entire electrical system might yield a few
>> bucks lower premiums on the homeowners' insurance policy.
>
>Hiring an electrician is already on our to-do list--the home inspection
>last fall turned up some other "interesting" electrical items. Nothing
>that's an immediate danger, but stuff we want to take care of. Now we
>just have to get around to it (along with all the other to-dos).
>
>Edna
__
/ \
|TUIT|
\__/

Hope that helps.


--
"Oh Buffy, you really do need to have
every square inch of your ass kicked."
- Willow Rosenberg
 >> Stay informed about: Tball, scouts, etc.