I Might Be a Redneck

Don't drive this way.

That's a good 4' to 6' off to the side of the car.

I needed quarter round. They had it in 16' pieces. Great! Less splicing. My car isn't 16' long. I only had 4 or 5 miles to go. How hard could it be? In town was fine. Heading out of town and picking up speeds over 40mph got stupid. The whole lot floated and tried to change position perpendicular to the car. I stopped twice to secure. In the end it just required a (really) strong grip by me in the car.

Mailboxes
Telephone poles
Guard rails
Weeds
Embankments
Getting caught

Scared the hell out of me.

Made it home fine. Stupid, stupid move.

- b

Why It's Called Trim

Nothing is cut. It's all trimmed. Little by little you whittle it down to just the right size, angle and fit. Repeated trips to the saw. Painstaking half-a-blade rips, then back up to check. You get it close. Nail it down and move on.

Later you come back with sandpaper and trim some more. Take off the high points. Smooth the rough edges.

An extra hour of patience equals a lifetime of beauty.

- b

Looks Weird

Wow! What a rant huh? Must be full moon time.

Worked on the trim again last night. Didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked, but it's coming along.

Looks kind of weird. I'm not used to our hallway having so much texture.

If you've been to our house in the last year or so, you're going to have to come back. It will be different.

- b

I'm Awake

It's after midnight.
I have an 8am meeting with India (5:30pm their time) tomorrow.
Had an incident today with the new pellet stove.

(Yes. Those are supposed to be horns and a tail.)

I'm not very good at these sort of things, so I'm not looking forward to the phone call.

I came home at 5 today. As soon as I opened the door, I could feel the heat - in the basement. I ran to the stove and found the fan blowing at full power. There was some error code on the controller screen. I moved through the menu and set it to Off (which I thought it was). The screen displayed "Startup" and the fan kept blowing. Inside I could see some part glowing red. The Empty Hopper icon was also displayed. I opened the lid and sure enough the hopper was empty. Nearly 40lbs of pellets gone!

A little while later I put more pellets in - just to see. The part inside was still glowing red. The thermostat upstairs read 87 degrees - poor animals - good thing some windows were left open.

It was about forty-five minutes after I got home and I heard the tinkle tinkle tinkle of pellets falling into the burn box. WTF!?!? Sure enough it was dropping pellets and that part was still red. There wasn't any flame, the fan had quit, but something was happening. The thing was still OFF!

The whole house was hot.

Eventually I unplugged the thing. Eventually I got curious and plugged it back in. I started scrolling through the menus. It has a programmable thermostat, so I started scrolling through the options. This is what I found.

255°F ARE YOU FN KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!

This is the factory default.
Today is Monday.
I have not touched any of the temperatures anywhere in this program.
I had it turned OFF.

I can't sleep, because I don't like these kinds of phone calls.
I can't sleep, because I'm thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened.
I can't sleep, because 255 shouldn't be a fucking option! What kind of moron programmed this thing?

This is what I do. This is how I make a living. I write code that doesn't fuck with peoples lives. I get paid to make sure the code I write gets someones job done, done well and they can sleep at night. What kind of fuck-nut allowed this program to exist? Do they have any idea what kind of damage this could have done? What if I had the air conditioning on? What if I didn't have windows open? What if my whole fucking house burned down?

And it's not like I have kids that tampered with it (another reason 255 shouldn't be an option). It came this way from the factory.

Am I over-reacting?

The max. consumption of this thing is 7lbs an hour. I had nearly 40lbs in the hopper. It ran for nearly 6 hours at full blast. If I came home at 5, then it ran out of pellets at around 4pm. I was told it handles the lack of pellets by quietly shutting itself off. There was a part in there that was still red at 6pm. That doesn't sound like shut-off to me. Now it thinks the hopper is empty, when I've put a good 10lbs of pellets in there. It's running (again) when it's off. What happened? What did it break? Can I trust this thing?

The shop (which I don't currently blame for this) kept telling me how "smart" this thing was. How automatic it was. "Simply dump in pellets, set a temperature and let it go." From the beginning I wondered if it would out-smart itself. It hasn't even been a week. Programs and machines are only as smart as the people that build and test them (i.e. 54:14 PM?).

I'm really annoyed. I need another drink. I need to go to bed.

- b

Partied Like Lohan

Somebody had a few too many Saturday night.

Quotes of the day - in no particular order:

• I'm never drinking again.
• I think I'm still drunk.
• My coffee cup is too heavy.
• Where did everybody go?
• I'm waiting for my head to stop hurting.
• Holy Shit. I still feel like crap.
• Ow.
• I'm worried about the brain cells I killed.

What did I do between periodic administrations of ibuprofen to the wounded? Trim.

- b

The Scrambler

One day everything is smooth. It's all peaches and cream.

Life takes a spin, and all hell breaks loose.

Enjoy the ride.

- b

Nasty

Hate it when that happens.

- b

Last Weeks Cool Tool

I guess I'll call them leaders, but these little wire leader things came with Ben's hitch.

To install the hitch we had to get bolts up and inside the frame of his Jeep through holes just slightly bigger then the bolts. These leaders threaded onto the bolts and allowed you to securely lead (pull) them through the holes of the frame and into the holes for the bolts.

They were really quite clever.

Unfortunately they're a one time deal. You could take the time and unthread them from the bolt, but it's easier and quicker to just pull them off (destroying them). Plus, these leaders only work for these bolts (14M, 1.75 thread pitch).

In the future, if I was working on some other project that had a similar challenge of getting bolts where fingers don't go, I suppose I could make a leader type device with safety wire (though not use it in the traditional sense). Clamp the head of the bolt in the vice and try to wrap the wire around the threads as tightly as possible. Or hell, just duct tape a wire to the bolt - problem solved.

So that's it. Just some extra ideas out there in tool land.

Mmmmmmmm tools.

- b

"...Reproductively Important"

Did the Wednesday night ride, though didn't finish. Guess my skills are a little lacking as my chain ring was completely cooked and would no longer hold my chain. It's been this way for a while. I was hoping I could hold out replacing it before I went away. Doesn't look like that's the case.

Had to wrap the chain around the rear to roll home. Thirty miles an hour downhill on the road with a flapping chain is a little un-nerving.

The Ultimate Frisbee game after the bar was tough. My lack of fitness is really starting to show. The only redeeming move I had was climbing to the roof to get a wild throw. Wild indeed.

Stayed home Thursday to receive our new toy.

For Jen and I it's like a flat panel TV, but better. You can control temps, flame hight, fuel source, etc. It has a controller like a video game and it heats the house. Turns out the brochure and info we had was for last years model. The one we got is this years. It's full of all kinds of new features and heat output. As long as it doesn't out think itself and burn the house down, we should have a nice warm happy life together. Now if it would just get cold.

And our Praying Mantis are getting bigger.

On the pool front, it looks like we might finally be getting our skimmer replaced. I stopped in our local store back in June to discuss this with them. They said yes, it's something they can fix, but might be a while before they get to it. Three months later I got tired of waiting and started calling around. Most places said the job was too big. When I called the bigger places, they said the job was too small. I started getting nervous and angry. Finally went back to our local store and the woman was like "they haven't fixed it yet? How's next week sound?" We'll see. I didn't get a specific day next week or a call back confirming.

Went last night to the Madison Cup. Pretty fun watching the strategy and strength unfold before your eyes in two laps.

Time to give CJ a bath.

- b

The White Album

How bout some links:

Informative, fun and some-what naughty	link 1
Where I'll be Sept. 15 - 16	link 2
Where I'll be Sept. 21 - 23	link 3 and link 3.5
Where I might be Sept 29 - 30	link 4 maybe see link 4.5 Weird huh?
And where I'll be the rest of September	link 5

- b

ps. Yes ChristinA, the underlined things are links you click on. Without clicking, you may not understand the point of the post. Of course that would require you to actually read the links, but who's really paying attention to any of this anyway?

pps. Yes the capital A was on purpose. My posts are full of personal inside jokes that sometimes only I will ever get. It's my way of reminding myself one day about today.

ppps. Any takers on Christina actually leaving a comment?

pppps. Yeah I'm getn' all jiggy wit the HTML. I heard a little of Jay Z's Black album tonight and feeln' a little pimp - brush yo shoulders off...

is it bedtime yet?

Friend in Need

Ben came over to put on his hitch. Really I think he just wanted to play with my air toys.

Not a bad night. Hitch went on pretty well and we had plenty to keep us motivated.

Final product. Time to go home and go to bed.


- b

Down on the DTown Farm

Busy weekend. Jen's mother and grandmother came down and we all worked. Jen's Mom is the weed queen. I mean that in the most respectful way. She breathes weeding. The woman was literally pacing in front of the windows while it was raining and she couldn't be outside.

She'll go to any length (or depth) to pull weeds.

Jen and her grandmother cooked and cleaned all weekend. In tandem they busied themselves about the house making food for the laborers and then cleaning up after them.


Jen pulled double duty and did a little accounting work too.

Besides getting scolded for over-spending, I did a little of this, a lot of this, and some of this. Not to mention running countless circles in the yard (i.e. cut the grass).

Luckily there were some cool refreshments to ease the pain and suffering.

And plenty of coffee (2 cups?) to get things moving in the morning.

Though some of us probably needed a little more.

- b

Enjoy!

Try not to get too freaked out.

-b

Todays Best Tool

I was skeptical at first. Wasn't sure it was worth the $21 I paid for it, but wow this little thing is a gem!

It takes ductwork interfaces like this

And turns them to this.

Voila!

- b

Almost Ready to Go

	Personal Water Purifyer
	Misc. Sterile Hypodermic Needles
	Ultrathon Insect Repellent
	Permethrin Clothing Treatment
	Malaria Pills
	Cipro Pills

Charge up the iPod, get some ear plugs and I'm set!

- b

Saturation Indicator

"Saturation detection and break alert differ by the fact that saturation is when the signal is depleted as opposed to an actual break where the circuit is broken and the signal cannot pass at all. With saturation there is enough signal to operate but the transmitter is designed to notify the owner of a problem."

So the system is working, but some thing's not right? Like installing a banister in a wall with no studs so it only provides the illusion of support?

I could go on, but it's late.

- b

Toxic Cocktails Final

Today was the last of my shots. Good thing too. I'm tired of going home like this.

I have to keep reminding myself this is a business trip - especially when I spend over $200 on bug repellent.

That's right - a business trip.

- b

"Working Late"

Jen's been working late a lot lately. She worked half the weekend too. I hope my bikes are all ok.

- b

To Fan or Not To Fan

One of the things I like about riding bikes is it's mostly stress free. Sure the occasional race can get the gut churning, but you do what you can and it's over.

Home projects are another story. Constantly I'm faced with a decision that's going to cost money and time now and/or more money and time down the road. Take our kitchen exhaust fan for instance. We installed it. There wasn't one here when we bought the house. All that we read said an exhaust fan is good for moisture producing places like bathrooms and kitchens. So we spent the money and took the time to install it. A year and half later it started leaking. We weren't sure where, but suddenly wondered if the time and money were worth it if it's just going to leak (Now that I think about it, it was the damn roofers fault, but that's another story).

Anyway, so we're putting in this pellet stove. Yes another big decision that's costing time and money. To get the most out of our stove we're trying to install ducts above it to take advantage of the convection and move that heat onto the floor above (the floor we live on mostly). Will it work? I don't know. Is all this worth it? I hope so. But what perplexes me most right now is whether inline duct fans will make a difference?

Will they be too noisy? Can I wire them up to a programmable switch synchronized to run when the programmable thermostat kicks up the output of the stove? When not running will they impede the flow of heat too much? Holy cow I could go on and on. The reality is they're only $33 a pop. That's not really a big deal. Installing them shouldn't take too much time either, though the wiring can get tedious and I do have worries about the load on the programmable switch, blah blah blah.

Truth is, I think I'm just nervous about the stove. There are a whole lot of other things that we could have gotten that would have made bigger (more importantly easier) improvements to our house and quality of life. Granted if the stove works, it will all be worth it, but waiting till that cold November night to fire it up and warm things up around here is killing me.

- b

I Had a Vision

For some reason I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this. I was compelled to make it happen.

Admittedly I could have done a better job, but didn't want to spend too much time on it.

- b

A Little Crabby

Jen and I took some virgins down to Maryland to get crabs. Wait! That sounds bad. Uh. Jen and I took some friends who'd never eaten crabs down to Maryland to get the best. That better?


Everyone did very well and seemed to enjoy themselves. We put down 4 dozen #1s (the big ones), though a pretty good many were duds. Oh well. At least we had a good time and christened a new bunch of folks to make the yearly pilgrimage.

- b

I See Stupid People

Do we really need more TVs?


- b

Low Rider

So far I've spent the day torturing myself and my truck.

Had to out-do my dad shoveling 4 tons of gravel by himself by lifting 5 tons of compressed sawdust all by myself. Sure. Sawdust sounds light, but 5 tons of it is still 5 tons.

Only took six and a half hours to do. Probably take all week to recover. Read more about it here.

Meanwhile my neighbor is riding around his yard cutting his grass on his home-made riding mower. He has one of those big - powered walk behinds, but he injured his foot (broken I suspect, on the job) a few weeks ago and obviously can't abuse it. He spent the morning with his table saw, scraps of wood and an old stroller to assemble this thing. Kind of funny, yet very crafty. It's sort of choppered out and slower then normal since it's pulling him and his little cart.

What I don't get is where are his boys? He's got two little boys (under 10) that I'd expect to be pestering him with curiosity as to what their crafty dad is making. No sign of them. Unless they're going to some sports practice, I rarely see them outside. Beautiful day too.

Enough with this. I've still got chores to do.

- b

CJ Status

Roughly six weeks ago CJ broke his toe and got his foot casted. The x-ray then looked like this.

Yesterday he had the cast removed. Now the x-ray looks like this

The break is still there, but shows some signs of healing. The cast is gone and now he has just a bandage. Last night he was still doing the three - legged thing and limping some, but he was also still pretty doped up. We go back Monday to have the bandage removed.

- b

Ultimate Switchbacks

Last couple of weeks I've been running sweep on the Wednesday night ride. I haven't been riding enough lately to keep it pinned at the front. Most of the time it's kind of boring. I go slower making sure I ride as much as I can without dabbing or running over the other people at the back. Last night running sweep provided one of those few moments you rarely see at the front.

After throwing back some beers Mark stashed at the top of 'duez, we headed down in reverse. Like the famous climb it's named after, ours is not without switchbacks. At one particular moment, while taking up the rear, I looked down the wooded hill side to see four trails criss crossing the slope and around the switchbacks. We had enough riders to have at least two per criss cross section. Before me were ten riders in groups of two or three passing by each other in opposite directions as they flowed down and around the switchbacks. It was crazy.

Though not nearly as crazy as playing Ultimate Frisbee in the Victory parking lot at 10:30. In the summer we usually do something ridiculous before we pile into our cars and head home. We've had sprints, flag pole climbs and wrestling matches. The latest starts with a little tossing of a lighted Frisbee then quickly becomes a competitive death match on the pavement. Most of us in flip-flops or some other barely there shoe cover, run dodge, leap, and sometimes tackle for the glory of scoring. It's totally nutty, drunk and a perfect conclusion to our night of hoodlum charades.

Which brings me to another point. Is there anything so sweet as the first drink the day of a hang-over? Finally clarity!

Though clarity can be overrated. Usually just means something needs to be done. Lately it's been this.

- b

Smelly Dog

His cast reeks. Smells like really nasty toe cheese. I don't know how he's able to lay there with his own head so close to it.

Tommorow night the cast gets cut off and we find out how his paw's doing.

- b

Not Well

Talking with someone whose done the whole Hep A/Hep B vaccination thing, I found out the second and third round shots can get difficult. One of the reasons I got those vaccinations was to obviously prevent contracting them, but mostly to avoid their symptoms - extreme lethargy - for months at a time.

Side effects of these vaccinations being little samples of the full blown disease might explain the way I've been feeling lately.

Makes motivating to ride to work difficult when I can't get past the motivation to even get out of bed.

A few cups of coffee (six maybe), strategically consumed throughout the day help, but it's annoying.

Hopefully I bounce back as my plane touches down in Delhi. The lethargy could come in handy on my fourteen hours of flight that day.

I did manage to do a little something last night. My suspension fork's been driving me nuts. Partly the fork is not setup correctly and my cockpit setup isn't really conducive to suspension riding. Either way, I don't really need it before I go away, so I'm back to rigid bliss.

Just as I was finishing up, there was a loud explosion outside and the power went out. No there wasn't any suspicious terrorist activity in Downingtown last night. I think a transformer blew - too many wide screen tvs and air conditioners running at once. Either that or someone else as bored with Monday as I was, got drunk and drove their SUV into a pole (all the cops and fire trucks for our township did parade by last night).


ps.
If anyone has any good ideas or a strong enough back to help me move 150 40lb (that's 3 tons or 6,000lbs) bags of wood pellets let me know. I'm currently running into a lack of resources. Though I'm sure if I double my coffee consumption that day, things should go pretty smooth.

- b

Party Time!

- b

Humility or Masochist?

Take a negative experience in your life, put it to words and music, record it, then perform it weeks on end for a year around the world.

I can't imagine, though it's been done forever.

Ryan Adams - Everybody Knows

You come for me in the worst of places
You come for me, you come and try to take me home
I'm always in need and it's hard to be reciprocating
The fabric of our life gets torn
And everything's changing so how i am to know
How i'm going to hold on to you when i'm spinning out of control
You an i together
But only one of us in love
And everybody knows

- b

Terror Alert

Has Been Raised! Officials in the administration have raised the current Terror Alert Level when security officials discovered and identified the following projectile has hostile.

Officials were quoted saying "We must be diligent in these times of national security. You never know what the Axis of Evil is going to throw at us." Stay tuned for more security and terror updates.


ps. bailed on the Wed. night ride last night. Actually left work early (bad idea) to make the pre-ride/maintenance trip. Didn't feel so well then, had issues with my squishy fork, crashed hard and burped a lot of air from my front tire. Tried going home before the actual ride. Convinced otherwise. Was having fun, but felt sick - like I was drunk without the pleasure of being drunk. Bailed and came home shortly after the start. Driving home wasn't much better. I felt like I do after leaving the bar. In bed by 9:30. Not sure what it was. I'd like to think the completion of my Typhoid vaccination (live cultures) yesterday had something to do with it, but I think it was more a combination of lack of fitness, stress and exertion. I've got to get back to commuting.


- b