Category Archives: Whines

Things that should not happen, not happen that way, that time, that ? etc. Complaint dept.

Tank Tale 02

I inherited some things from my dad.  He was born in 1916, so he spent his mid teens to twenties scratching for necessities of life during the Great Depression.  You may know people who lived that nightmare from 1929 through most or all of the 1930’s, or even into the 1940’s.

They were scarred, their brains turned into amazing machines of how to get by.  How to never, ever waste anything.  Never ever, ever waste.

So among the things i got from my dad was the “Saver Mentality”.  Stuff can be used even when old.  Re-used or made into other useful things, or parts of new things.  See, you thought the 3 R’s were new hip stuff that came maybe from the hippie movement of the 1970’s.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

These are all good things.  We do need to hold true to the 3 R’s, or we will use up and destroy our beautiful earth.  But the original 3 R peeps were not the hippies of the 70’s.  It was those who lived the nightmare of 1929 and the decade after.  Save it, we can use again.  If you reuse things you don’t have to buy them again.  Even the broken things that no longer work can be taken apart and scrapped (recycled!).  My dad made alot of coin by tearing old electric motors (and other broken, or outdated things) apart and separating the copper from the steel to get better prices for the scrap metal.    Save, Save, Save.

Now i don’t like disorganization.  I have many shelves, especially in the basement.  Shelves allow you to save more.  It’s just that i have more to save than i have shelves.  Just so happens that some of the shelves in the basement are in the section where the oil tank is.  One of the sons asked me, “you think the oil tank will fit past the self i front of it?”  I told him – “Ya i think so”.  OK guess again:

Notice how i have hacked the shelf in front of the tank to try and get room to “make the corner”.  N.G.  the tank is lodged against the shelf unit on right, the one in front of it, and the wall behind.  I have already emptied the right side shelf as it needs to be removed.  Such fun!!

 

Tank Tale 01

Involuntary labor.  Forced servitude.  Subjection.  Are we here discussing man’s inhumanity to man?  Nope.  The failure of my fuel oil tank.  How can we use these words, for this subject you say?

Wait, just wait till you hear the tale of woe.

It began one day when i went to check how much oil was left in the tank.  This is a normal operation at my house, as i do not have automatic oil fill up.  I call when i need oil, and to know if i do, the tank is checked with a stick, and the chart consulted to see how many gallons therein.

So as i am checking, i notice the cement under the tank is discolored, damp looking.  I think to myself, my sump pit must be full of water (at the other end of the tank).  Now since i have lived here there has only been water in the sump pit a few times.  Once, maybe twice, have i pumped water out.  But it does happen (rarely), in early spring.  So i quickly go look at the sump pit.  Nothing.  Empty.  Now back to the discolored cement spot.  Looking under the oil tank, there is a drop of oil hanging.  Drip.  Drip.  The discoloration is fuel oil.  Upon further inspection it looks like the tank may be leaking from both the end and the bottom.

So we did not call for any more oil.  I spread absorbent under the tank and placed a shallow pan to catch the drips.  Found a free oil tank on Craig’s List.  Enlisted the aid of my brother in law and got the new (used) tank home.  Then began the sorry chore of ‘making a path’ through my basement.  Some may know the legends of my basement.  The tale of woe begins . . . .

 

Patch patch patch

So we used to have a metal roof on our back porch.  We put metal on because it has very little pitch.  This was when we first got the house back in late 70’s.  Then in 2000 we re-shingled the whole roof.  Huge job which included construction because we removed the metal and increased the pitch of the porch and shingled it all.

Fast forward to this spring.  I am now trying to stop a leak i can’t find in the “improved pitch” porch section.  See its better than it originally was but still not really enough.  When we get enough rain, say 1/4 inch or more, we get water dripping inside in one spot.  Not pouring in but say a couple quarts over the next day or so.  Enough to be quite annoying and it needs to stop, becuz water will destroy things. It’s been dripping for a few years and slowly getting a little worse.

So i go up and hey! look! there’s a staple showing and another spot where a tab is a little broken.  That must b it?  Patch.

Next rain, replay.  Hmmm.  go back up and cannot really see any obvious issues.  But there is a long valley where the porch roof meets my bedroom roof.  Now i had checked in the attic to see if the wet was under the flashing.  No, just above where the drip is.  Makes sense, except when on the topside i cannot see any defects that would let water in.  So next i seal the entire length of the flashing on the porch edge. The water must be getting in and traveling sideways right?  More rain, more drip.  Grrr.

So now i have been filling in the gaps between the shingle tabs.  So far i have done this three more times in an ever widening area more or less centered on the suspect location.  I stopped buying roof tar in the caulk tubes and bought a gallon container.

You can see here the long flashing, the suspect issues i started with, the center area where the fills look neat from the caulk tubes, and the widening area done with the putty knife and the gallon.  Dang i hope this does the trick.  I’ll keep you posted.

More complaints about snow

Woke up this morning, there it was again – snow on the solar panels  –  BOOOO

I hate real winter, you know with actual accumulation of snow.  I like fake winter, when the plants just turn brown and it barely makes it down to the 20’s.  and the snow is just in the mountains.  Though i like skiing, i have more or less given it up.  And its not like i can ski at my house.  Gotta drive to the ski area anyway.

So to me, now, snow is just work.  Extra, unpaid work.  Tired of this winter.

  The good news, it melted as soon as the sun came out.  

Please, enough snow already!

Hey its March 8 (2018) and, well, i for one am pretty tired of the snow.

 

No, wait that happened on the last storm.  Last week.  The march snow is stupid heavy wet stuff.

 

  

Hey look its trying to slide off the solar panels and it kinda stuck.  I used the snow rake to remove the lower section manually becuz it lands on the walk by the door and makes a glacier.  anyway i want spring, spring spring.

Thank you for listening .  It made me feel better that u care.  Right? u care?  well if you live near here u may.  Soon the weather will turn and melt the junk.  Skiiers and Boarders have at it for now.

Till next time then – keep going , love ur family, etc.

Busy Busy

I must apologize for my lack of entertainment lately.

There is so much to do when u are recovering from a sucky too long winter and prepping for a busy summer in the middle of still earning a living by trading your hours for pay and wishing u could be done with that and trying to get the yard ready for building a garage while being slightly jealous of two-thirds of your offspring who already have one at the same time as watching Netflix too much becuz u love scifi and fantasy and then weeding out some of your cue as it seems too long a list even though the stuff u got rid of would likely b entertaining if only i could stay up 24 hours straight maybe i could get more things done.

hey who says long sentences r bad, confusing, fragmented unclear etc?

i just found this cool parable for writing, i like it take a look.

Look Here

 

 

April Morning

Well it truly is spring.  earlier this week it was close to 80 degrees (i think 77 one day and 78 the next.  Then the cold front came thru yesterday.  in about 1.5  hours the temp dropped from 64 to 44.  after another hour  it went down to 34.

Here’s what else came through with the cold front:

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IMG_0282

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When i cleaned off the car i discovered we had gotten about 4 inches of snow. April snow is not really expected here.  but not unheard of either.  A friend got married April 16th about 30 years ago, and they were blessed(?) with a storm of 18 inches of snow.

So i guess this isn’t too bad.  at least i didn’t have to go to work last night or today.

 

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Tick Tock goes the body clock.  The way its supposed to work is, u have a schedule, your biology adapts to that schedule.  After a while u don’t need an alarm clock.  u sleep and wake up, look over at the clock and its like 5 min before the alarm goes off.

(insert normal daily routine, fast forward to bedtime)

Now at your normal time your body (brain) naturally takes a chill pill and drops out of impulse drive (u spent your day at various numbers of warp drive!) and sleep happens without much effort.  The thing is so effective that if u stay up past your “normal bedtime” u may fall asleep almost on your feet. without wanting to. yawn.

Now lets take a visit to my sick and twisted schedule.  First there’s the days of work:  2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. repeat.  btw 12 hour shifts.  add a good sized dose of commute, 60 minutes.  top off with night shift, 6 pm to 6 am.  So basically the days i work i have a 14 hour plus work commitment. Overnight.  now i don’t mind the overnight thing, my ‘natural’ awake time.

and i have sort of adapted to it. but there r complications.  like i like to sleep with my wife when on my days off.  so i try to just nap when i get home around 7am after my work instead of ‘regular sleep’. just a few hours on the couch and then theoretically when we go to bed i sleep at night instead of work at night.  Sometimes it works.

and other times my body just naps and i wake up at say 12:35 am and the body is telling me – “hey why r u in bed, its the middle of the day?”  I can force it back to sleep by staying in bed until boredom shuts off the mind, but that can take hours and i risk waking up my lovely normal schedule wife with my tossing around.

so usually i get up, and now i can blog in the wee hours when in theory i should b sawing virtual wood.  zzzzzzzzzz  zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz

this may b shaving years off my life.  really hope not.

p.s.  –  I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SORT OF SCHEDULE TO ANYONE

thanks for listening, i feel a little better.

 

Seasonal appreciation

Hey just about everybody i know is longing for the end of winter and the start of spring. Ok not just about, EVERYBODY.

but look at what we all want. The end of winter and start of spring. Kind of like if a tree falls in the forest and no ones there does it make any noise?

If we weren’t sick of winter would we really welcome spring so heartily?  Would we notice?  Would it actually be spring without winter to contrast it to? Would u b thinking about all this if i were not asking u? I’m not sure what u would b thinking, but THERE CAN B NO SPRING WITHOUT WINTER.

Sap Shortfall

Well u have already heard me whine about this long cold winter. Heres another issue with the weather: The maple sap that is boiled down to make maple syrup isn’t flowing well at all. A fraction of normal. So it may turn out to be a shortage of Maple Syrup this year.  Can u say price increase?  And despite higher prices the syrup producers will still not made much. Bummer on all sides.