To you two to four semi-regular reader – sorry…I’ve been in a writing dry spot. I’ve been reasonably busy at work lately, and at home I’ve been too distracted by the heating situation (still not resolved).
I’ll do a little som’n-som’n on Saturday, and it’s possible I’ll find something to write about as soon as 10 minutes from now.
Alright, go ahead and laugh at my, “I’m still here,” post.
Alright…here’s the story…
Close to two weeks ago, I wanted to check out my furnace before turning the heat on for the first time of the season. So I went down to my basement to discover a small amount of moisture around one of the bottom corners of the furnace. Having had a small fuel oil leak in the past few months, I decided I’d call up the home warranty folks to send somebody over. A gentleman came by a week ago today. He noted that the moisture was water, and wasn’t a serious problem. Then he manually fired up the furnace to confirm it worked. It turned on, and he commented that it was burning fuel, but not particularly well. It worked though. Then he moved over to the side of the furnace.
“Whoa! You two – go over there!” he shouted to his assistant and me as he motioned towards the stairs.
It turns out that exhaust was coming out of the pressure relief valve into the basement, and not venting up the chimney as it was supposed to.
A duct issues from the top of the furnace composed of an elbow and single piece of straight ductwork that enters the base of the chimney. The contractor pulled off the elbow and showed me a large amount of debris. Indicating, appropriately, that he wasn’t a chimney expert, he said I should have a chimney inspection since it appeared that the liner had collapsed. He was crouched down taking notes and was about to leave when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
“Hang on a sec…come here. You see that on top of the controller? That’s silt. And see here, too? Higher up. This furnace has been under water. You can see rust in places where it shouldn’t be, either, considering this furnace is only three years old. And see, this is a New Yorker furnace. They’re usually green. This is gray. It’s been painted over.” He pointed to a portion of the furnace behind the pressure gauge where the sneaky painter missed a spot.
Hooray. My chimney needs relining in order to use my furnace which may or may not completely fail in near future.
After having a chimney inspector visit this past Monday, Val and I essentially decided that we’re going to forget about our current heating system and go for a dual-zone heat pump if we can swing it. I’d rather spend three or four times as much for something that adds value to my house instead of a big chunk of change out of pocket to fix something that could still break in the future.
So I had a contractor come by today, and I have another one coming by tomorrow for estimates on installation.
It’s not that Val and I were never planning on putting in a better heating/cooling system, but man. We sure weren’t expecting to go for it this soon, and certainly not while we’re relying on two space heaters to keep us warm in a rapidly cooling October 
I spent the weekend reveling in God’s creation and the company of some fine friends.
Valerie and myself, along with three other couples and the parents of on of the wives stayed in the parents’ cabin on Spanish Oak Mountain in North Carolina. About 30 miles from Boone, this retreat was situated in the middle of glorious hard-wood trees at the peak of their colorful leaf-changing process. The weather was cool, and the air was crisp. We attended two local craft-ish festivals containing equal parts kitsch, serious artisanship, and carnival sillyness. I positively love little celebrations of local culture, and the Valle Crucis Country Fair as well as the Wooly Worm Festival did not disappoint.
Walking through the woods with several fellas I looked up to in college was time well spent, and playing guitar in the freezing night around a struggling would-be bonfire was fun despite the numbing finger tips.
Rarely has it been so difficult to return to the “civilized” Atlantic Coastal Plain.
As a follow up to that Weird Al video posted below, I thought I’d link to the Slate article that led me to it in the first place.
Well written and nostalgic, the article reminds me of why I’ve always respected that man. Maybe I need to watch UHF soon…
You know it’s a slow Friday when I’m postin’ TWO videos! I just ran into Weird Al’s video, “White and Nerdy.”
Check it.
Or rather, not denied…Below is one of the best interpretations of Stairway to Heaven I’ve heard/seen.
And these two, Rodriga y Gabriela, are freakin’ amazing. Look for more of thier stuff on YouTube. I’ll be looking for their CDs in music shops ASAP.
So I went to the protest. I arrived at about 4:30, after finding a great parking spot two short blocks away. I met up with Jake, and we were there for about two hours, during which Dave joined up with us as well. I saw the president’s motorcade arrive, and I saw it depart.
I also saw what was prety odd, even considering this was my first protest. I saw what was essentially a crowd of people airing their sundry grievences; not simply war protest, but pro-choice demonstration, pro-gay demonstration, pro Palestine, pro etc. I thought I might whitness this, and it almost prevented me from attending. I am, after all, a fairly “fundamentalist” Christian who opposes abortion and homosexuality. But I attended anyway because I wanted to show solidarity against a misfit leader – a criminal politician who has crapped on the Constitution and the rule of law while deceiving his “base” of conservative Christians and “middle America.” That was important to me, and I feel that was accomplished.
Despite the long row of coach buses blocking the view between the protesters and the venue. Despite the rather intimidating National Guardsmen with their machine guns and body armor.
I’ll be on the lookout for more activities in the future, and I hope to attend more.
Alright, I’m gonna try my hand at some gin-u-wine activism today.
I’m going to try to attend a protest of Bush and his war policies today by the Science Museum of Virginia, where’s he’s scheduled to appear at a fund raising event for Senator Allen.
The rallying point for the protestors is the corner of DMV and Broad, but the proximity to the Science Museam makes me doubtful that anybody will be able to get that close. I’ll take the back way to get there, though, so here’s hoping I’m even able to get my car close enough to park!
I remember many months (or maybe a year?) ago, a friend of mine told me about a neat trick on Google’s main search page.
If you entered the phrase “miserable failure” and clicked the “I’m feeling lucky” button, you’d be taken directly to the Whitehouse front page.
Well, as of today, it still works the same way.
Tee hee!
I’ve become absorbed in the NBC tv show, “Heroes.”
The acting isn’t particularly great, the direction is a bit clichéd, and the characters aren’t too deep (yet). I mean, the general concept is almost a direct rip-off of the X-Men, and unapologetically so; certain people experience genetic mutations which provide them with extraordinary powers. They even reference X-Men in the first episode.
So why the heck do I watch it?
The method of story-telling is enthralling. Each episode so far rotates through the main characters, showing between 5 and 10 minutes of story per person. Just enough plot is revealed for each character to whet the appetite of the viewer.
I guess I’ll see how the series progresses. For now, I can’t stop watching it.