That's A Weather Scratch

I was planning on a special flight today (actually yesterday too).   I had actually convinced, cajoled, intrigued, and enchanted the entire family to flying with me.

This took some doing as Abby had previously declared she would not fly with me until she graduated high school, on the grounds that she had to accomplish that first.  Tash refuses to fly woth me unless all 4 of us are in the plane as sbhe doesn't want the two parents in one airplane potential problem.  So this took quite a bit of work to pull off.

Destination will remain a secret until I pull it off successfully, but it was to the north to a neat spot the kids have never been to before.

First I booked for yesterday but the forecast was for rain at the planned destination and  thunderstorms here around the time for our return.  Forecast remained the same yesterday morning, so I cancelled and I went to the range instead as a consolation.

And the weather yesterday was, of course, flying perfect. No thunderstorms or rain at either location all day, great visibility, and high ceilings.  It could have worked.

Today's forecast looked great.  All yesterday and yesterday night the forecast was for VFR all the way through.

So, of course, this morning I woke up at 7am to loud bangs from the thunder and great big flashes of lightning. 

Conditions were low IFR with heavy thunderstorms at Pontiac and points to the north along the way with the final destination being clear - but there's no safe way to get there so there's no way we're going.  It's going to improve but will still be marginal VFR most of the day and well below my personal minimums - especially so with the family on board for their first flight.

Another weather scratch.

Argh.

How Much Is That Doggie-Broken Window?

Came home from work to this:

\>

Jett, you see, is rather affronted by squirrels who think they can just go gallivant about his backyard.

This leads to him barking furiously and leaping at them with his paws hitting the glass, repeatedly.

Or in this case paws pushing the glass right through the frame.

This is the second time in two years that he broke this particular pane of glass.

I'm thinking we're going to replace it with a couple layers of poly-carbonate instead of glass this time.

I'm sorry I broke the glass, but you shoulda seen that flippin' squirrel jump when I busted the window!

Well, the hole is now boarded up, as we'd rather not air condition the backyard and it's going to be sweltering tomorrow. Now to go shop for some poly-carbonate.

Meditations On Jett

Or to be more precise, Meditations in Jett.

He ate and chewed up a copy Marcus Aurelius' Meditations in fact.

A hundred-year-old copy of the Meditations, in fact, in a plastic sleeve to keep it in good shape.

If you haven't read Meditations, you should, and since you can download it for free on your Kindle or Kindle app, there's no reason why you should miss the opportunity.

To say that I'm displeased would be a serious understatement. Interestingly, he also chewed on a Latin-English Dictionary. I don't know why he's started eating books in addition to shoes but this needs to stop.

I can only hope that Jett has gained some wisdom by his digesting of this classic work.

I think I'll go meditate on patience and upon this bit of timely wisdom from the great Philosopher-Emperor himself:

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
(Meditations VIII. 47, trans. George Long)

No, It's Really Not Discrimination When You're That Stupid

So I get a call from someone, somewhere in this fine state.

"Can you represent me, I have to go to a court hearing?"

"Ok, And why is that?"

"Cause I didn't complete my community service, but I really shouldn't be treated like this, cause I'm not like I'm a murderer or anything, I'm being discriminated against really."

I then get all the reasons why the community service wasn't done and how the person is being mistreated because of it and how the person had to pay $500 at the previous hearing and the magistrate wasn't very nice.

"OK, so why did you get community service?"

"I don't know, it's not like I'm a criminal or something, or did anything serious, and at the hearing the judge said she was going to make me do community service, I feel they bein' prejudiced agains' me"

"Ok, I understand that, but judges don't give people community service for nothing, what were you charged with?"

"Not doing my community service."

We continue in this vein for awhile and I finally get the person away from the fixation on community service and missing the better part thereof, and back to the question of "What were you charged with to get community service?"

"I don' know, maybe something to do with my drivin'"

"Ok, now we're getting somewhere, what is it about your driving that caused you to be charged with something that led you to get community service?"

"I don' know, maybe cause my driver's license was suspended when I got in an accident, but that wasn't my fault."

Yes, that sound you would have just heard at the time was my head hitting my desk.

I explained that yes, this person needs a lawyer for the hearing, cause they clearly can't represent themselves as they can't even answer a straight question. I named my fee, and suggested the person get going on doing the community service and having the hours done and completed before the hearing. We'll see if I actually get retained.

Do note Dear Reader that this person votes, and, Lord help us all, drives.

If It Wasn't For Bad Luck....

I'd have no luck at all.

Today was stormy with flood advisories.

Much flooding on the roads etc, starting around 5:00 pm.

A lot of flooding is ok, but not inside your office, dammit.

It seems the landlord didn't repair the back-flow valve and sump pump system after the flood that took place last year before we moved in. We had been led to believe before signing the lease that it had been taken care of, and considering they had just redone all the carpeting and drywall in the entire basement of the building, it wouldn't make sense to just leave the problem to reoccur, right?

Apparently not.

At 6pm, with my partner and secretary already having left, and just as I was about to leave the office, I heard a gurgling sound from the direction of the bathrooms across the hallway. Then a rushing sound.

Sewer water then came pouring out of both toilets, and the sink in the sump pump room.

It started flowing out, and fast.

I called the building maintenance guy. His repsonse "Dude I'm home and already drinking, can you go in the sump pump room and attach the hose to a pump and pump it into the sink?".

So I went in and let him know the water was pouring out of the sink and there was already a good three inches on the sump pump room floor and water was pouring out the bathrooms.

"Oh" says he. A real great help he was.

The dirty water continued heading inexorably towards our office. I started looking for a kayak.

I called his manager and explained there was flooding.

He said "Well there's lots of flooding on the roads". "Yes", I said, "and that's normal in a heavy storm, but it is not supposed to be flooding inside the frickin' building!"

Needless to say we're not renewing our lease with these guys.

And while I was talking with them, the water came in, and not just through the door, but through the wall nearest the water:

The smell was terrible. Be glad they haven't invented smelli-vision folks.

My favorite shoes were casualties as I raced to unplug equipment, lift computers off the floor and save what files in file boxes I could. Those comfortable yet classy looking shoes are toast.

Everything wooden is apparently going to be a write-off due to the sewage, the fridge is probably dead, and forget about the sofa.

Thank goodness I insisted when my partner's and my practices merged that all files from the start of the merger forward are stored electronically backed up in multiple locations. The office may be toast, the practice is not.

I really didn't need this right now.

Spring So Close, And Yet So Far

Yesterday, grass could be seen for the first time in months, snow was melting, roads and driveway were clear and dry, the sun was shining and the promise of spring was in the air.

Then today:

Over four inches of snow this morning and it's still coming down.

Thanks to the plow I got stuck in my driveway, then even after shovelling my way clear and with all wheel drive engaged, I then got stuck on our street. This required shoveling to restore mobility. This was a clear portent that it was time to work from home via my virtual office setup -- Yay technology!

Then the fun of trying to get the car back up the Driveway of Doom™. No dice, even in AWD with a running start. Instead of up, the car started going sideways towards the ditch, which was not pleasant.

I then had to shovel even more the heavy wet snow and try again, throw a ton of salt down, and try again even as it kept snowing. Eventually I made it back up.

Quite the workout and the day hadn't even begun.

There's supposed to be 8 inches arriving today, so we're in shovelling distance of breaking the snow record set back in 1880.

Winter sucks.

Home Repair Fun - A Flushing Feeling

Today was, among other things, the day for some needed minor home repairs.

The toilet in the basement had a constant flow issue as the ball-cock wouldn't quite close, causing water to be wasted and a constant drip.

Meanwhile, the toilet in our bathroom had suddenly decided to both become really, really, really loud when being filled, and also taking forever to fill, making you always wonder if something had gotten stuck and the toilet was just continuing to fill and not stop. Looking up the cause on the internets led me to the conclusion that the fill valve was the source of the problem.

In both cases, it was time to replace the fill valves. Should be easy, right?

Well, not so fast. Apparently the plumbing industry doesn't quite believe in standardization of toilet fill valves.

Visit 1 to Home Depot resulted in a replacement ball-cock unit for the downstairs toilet. After having to remove the fittings holding the old one in place with a wrench and some vocabulary while working in a confined space (hand tightened my foot, the last bozo in here sure as heck wrenched on those nuts), I installed it. It went in pretty easy, I even was able to, after a few tries, get the water supply line lined up and tightened with no leaks to the new valve. Testing was perfect, I then went to put the top on...and its too fargin' tall by about two inches! Who knew ball-cock valve towers came in different sizes?

So Visit 2 resulted in that one was returned, and we went with one of the newer style Fluidmaster Tank Fill Valves for it.

Luckily, it, unlike the previous model, was adjustable in height and fit with some minor adjustment. It was a bit narrower in width than the previous one, but the gasket sealed the hole well. A bit of hand-tightening and lining up the water supply pipe, which was a battle and a half to make the new tube and nut work with the existing fill line, and all was well. It works now with no leaks, is quieter, and fills quicker than the really worn-out old valve that used to be in there.

For the bedroom, I went with a Korky Quiet Fill Toilet Fill Valve, hoping it would be quieter.

Again some wrenching was needed to remove the old Kohler fill valve. Then adjusting the new one was a bit of a pain. You had to line up the water level line with the water level line in the toilet tank. The way you did this was pull on the tube and when it was at the right height lock the tube into place by turning it clockwise so it locked into place. Unfortunately, when you go to screw the nut under the toilet tank to put the tube in place, you end up twisting the fill tube causing it to fall out of locked position and fall down. So after a bit more choice language I had that fixed, only to realize I had put the nut on upside down, and yes that actually matters for this model - top side up, no leaks, top side down - you get leaks.

Next after getting the valve properly affixed with the nut in the correct orientation, I ran into another hindrance. Of course, the siphon tube was larger than the existing siphon tube and wouldn't fit the tower on the Kohler Canister Valve in the toilet no matter how much it was crimped into position. This caused more vocabulary choices and exclamations.

Seriously, the plumbing industry can't even standardize on a overflow rubber hose size! Finally, I was able to stretch the old hose over the port on the new valve and force it into place, and all was well.

Now, it runs a lot quicker and more importantly quieter - it was ridiculously super-loud before, now it's quiet and actually fills and stops flowing in a reasonable time.

So, expanded vocabulary and a few skinned knuckles aside, there's now two properly fixed toilets. They were pretty simple repairs that anyone can do, and it does feel nice to know I can fix those problems on my own.

A Cold Home Night

Adding to my Home enjoyment, last night at about 6 pm one of the furnaces conked out. The one that heats the bedrooms, basement and about half the house. From the code its flashing its either the igniter or the pressure switch as it is not firing up any more.

It was working fine right up until I said "You know, why are we paying for the Consumer's Gas Home Appliance plan as everything is working?".

Luckily, I did not cancel it and we have Consumers Gas Home Appliance plan and they will send a furnace guy over.

Unluckily, they were all busy last night dealing with higher priority things like house fires and gas leaks, so as of now we still have no heat in half the house.

So I'm now at work waiting to get a call that they're on their way and I'll dash home to meet them. If I don't get service by this afternoon I might as well cancel the plan, call my friend who does HVAC stuff and get it fixed.

Tell me again how these high-efficiency furnaces are supposed to make everyone's lives better - they certainly don't seem as durable as the old standard furnaces.

Circuitus Burnus Fixus And LED Light Install

Well, my friendly electrician returned today and found the break.

Located in a junction box, one of NINE, yes 9! found daisy chained together in the attic, the Romex aluminum wire had some fine scorching.

So, on the bright side we didn't need to tear through any walls, not yet anyway.

Reducing the load on the circuit was a must, so I completed the install of the LED Lights.

I chose the Ecosmart 6 Inch Bulb LED. With a CREE LED it's the equivalent of a 65 watt bulb with only a 9 watt draw. Much safer and energy saving as well.

The install is however not exactly drop-in. But it is close, especially considering I could do it.

First remove the 65 watt bulb.

Next remove the trim by pulling out the two springs from the slots.

Next unscrew the wing-nut holding the plug in place and pull the plug holder out. Remove the plug from the holder by pinching the two black plastic pieces on the plug.

Next, screw the LED bulb into the plug, expand the three metal wings on the LED Bulb (I found the second position fit the cans best).

Next push the bulb up and twist so the three wings engage the canister, and you're done.

When everything was going well, this took about 5 minutes per bulb. When however I encountered miss-cut holes for the canisters hidden by the trim requiring re-seating the entire canister and trying to make it not fall out of the ceiling completely, stripped wing-nuts keeping the plug holder in place, and other sundry idiocies the house refurbishment monkeys performed, it took longer and enhanced my vocabulary considerably.

The LED lights are quite pleasing to the eye, perfectly dimmable and an easy replacement. Considering the power saving and safety benefits of having them on that circuit it was a worthwhile upgrade.

Circuit Suckimus

So yesterday night we were sitting around and suddenly the lights in the family room went out, along with the electric fireplace and the internet router.

I checked the breaker box and we hadn't blow a circuit breaker but the lights failed to come back on in the room. All other lights and everything else in the house is ok.

So this morning my friend who is an electrician came by. Sure enough its not something simple like my missing a tripped breaker or anything like that.

It turns out that the idiots who refurbed the house before we had bought it were indeed idiots.

First, they put 30 amps worth of lights and plugs on a 20 amp circuit. Bad enough.

Second, and much worse, they did not remove some Romex Aluminum wire from the house but instead tied into it for this circuit. The Romex Aluminum is some very bad stuff.

So, my friendly electrician suspects the wire has broken apart somewhere under the load. The trouble is, the break is not in any obvious spot and may very well be behind some drywall rather than at a junction box or somewhere an easy fix can be made. That is going to $$$uck.

Adding to the fun, the idiots really were screwing with the wiring when they did the job, and its a major pain to trace it, not to mention a slew of junction boxes in the attic. How this colossal stupidity got past the code inspection is beyond me, 'cause it sure doesn't meet code.

Now I'm buying lots of replacement LED can lights to replace the current 65 watt cans on the circuit to reduce the draw, and I will be installing them post haste. Pricey, but the savings in reduced energy and replacement bulbs means the payoff is about 3 years. I can live with that but really wished I could have avoided such an expense right now.

Luckily, there's been no fire due to this idiocy, just some areas of darkness.

A Local Clusterfisk - (No) Doughnuts With Dad Day

So today the kids were very excited - it was Doughnuts with Dad Day at School.

Hosted by the PTO it was supposed to be a fun start to the day with the kids taking their dads in for a doughnut, a craft, and a picture of Kids and Dad together.

So we arrived at about 8:15 and the parking lot was already packed. Luckily, we had walked to the school.

Unfortunately, by 8:16 they announced to the huge line that had formed outside the gym they were out of doughnuts.

On Doughnuts With Dad Day.

That was quite an inauspicious start. Leah was getting upset and Abby was outraged at the lack of planning - "How could they run out of doughnuts!?! It's the Doughnuts With Dad Day!". They announced they would go get more doughnuts and everyone should go get their picture taken with their kids.

So we then left that line and then waited in line by the media center to get our picture taken together -- nothing special but it was ok.

Then back to the gym to await the doughnuts. Inside the gym the kids tried to get in to the tables setup do the craft - building a picture frame out of wooden stir sticks and the all of two tables they had were packed and unorganized masses of chaos. They managed to finally get a spot, with Abby almost elbowed out of the way by another girl but she held firm to her spot and they barely managed to each get for sticks and a bit of glue. I called the project and said we'll finish it at home as it was gettign riddiculous.

Then about all of maybe two dozen doughnuts arrived. By the time we got to the table, there were just two left and I gave one to another dad and daughter who were giht behind us and one to Abby and Leah announcing they could share it as there wasn't nearly enough for everyone. And, they were out of coffee.

At this point Leah lost it as only a six year old can - she had been excited for days about all three of us sitting together and having a doughnut each,and a coffee for me, and having a good time. Instead, Leah had to give away her doughnut to share with another kid (who it turns out had been mean to her), and got only half a lousy doughnut, her dad didn't get any, and she couldn't even do a craft as it was too busy! (Say this sentence in one breath and you'll get an idea how it sounded).

I comforted her by saying I didn't mind and was at least enjoying being with them in the morning and that we'd do crafts and doughnuts together later. That made her feel a bit better and she shared a bite of her doughnut with me. Abby was similarly annoyed but dealt with it a bit better. I then walked them to class and headed to get something to eat and then off to work.

In short, the planning for this event really and truly sucked.

Next time have at least a little planning and either get some RSVP sheets on the announcement form, or at least expect that when you invite all the hundreds of kids in the school to bring their dads, that a lot of them will bring their dads. Failure to have sufficient doughnuts for such a day advertised as Doughnuts with Dad and only two small round tables for crafts in a school with hundreds of kids is just an automatic fail right there. Don't get the kids excited if you're going to dash their hopes so badly.

On the upside, this was a great way to demonstrate the failure of centralized planning, and that yes, the people in charge aren't necessarily smarter or more competent than you.

I've now promised them that on Saturday morning I'm taking them to Tim Horton's for a real Doughnuts with Dad Day. I can guarantee that at the very least Saturday morning together will not suck and will be what this morning was supposed to be.

How To Be A Lousy Parent.....

Lousy as in dealing with a Louse - actually in dealing with quite a number of them....

Lousy as in, Leah waking up at about 6 am this morning saying "Mommy my head itches".

This caused Tash to check her head and low and behold, some signs of lice were detected.

This caused much non-rejoicing, and the whole house being awakened.

It then including a dash to an open pharmacy for purchase of effective delousing materials and a full decontamination of the child in question and of the house that is still going on.

On checking it looks like Leah did a very smart thing in telling us quickly as there were only a relative few present. Smart Kid. She must have caught them quite recently.

Amazingly, no one else in the house has shown any signs of the infestation after being carefully checked so it was caught very early.

However, even though we don't have any unwelcome scalp tenants, Natasha and I have both developed some really impressive psychosomatic itches and desires to scratch our heads now.

We've applied the removal shampoo to Leah's head, combed all of her hair through with a nit comb and killed off the colony as far as we can tell upon very close observation.

So we've been washing the sheets with a sanitary setting on the washer, which takes hours, boiling all hair brushes in the house and quarantining all non-washable items.

I'm now working from home this afternoon to cover as Leah is staying home from school today. In between working I'm shoveling loads into the washer, vacuuming the carpets and spraying all non-washable fabric surfaces. Fun.

So far PETL (People for the Ethical Treatment of Lice) have yet to show up at our door to complain about the multiple summary executions by chemical warfare of the lice. This is just as well as I'm in no mood for a lousy bunch of moralizing idiots right now.

Ah, kids, how very, very, many experiences we would miss without them.