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.

Shrink The Army Even More - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The Detroit Free Press: Budget plan would slash Army by 100,000 soldiers

The plan would have the army reduced to 420,000, which The US Army Chief of Staff and others indicate is too small to fight a sustained major war.

Not to worry though, the smart people figure such a war can't possibly happen:

Even at the reduced numbers, the U.S. military is more than a match for any potential foe, said Gordon Adams, a professor at American University and a budget official in the Clinton administration.

"Who else that we are going to fight in a ground war has 420,000 soldiers?" Adams said in an e-mail. "Silly, really. Of course, we can."

Hmm, how about Pakistan, North Korea, and China for three potential trouble spots with land armies greater than 420,000 for starters? Not to mention we wouldn't be able to commit all 420,00 to one engagement without losing coverage elsewhere, so nations with significantly less than 420,00 troops could still pose a major problem.

But not to worry, The Obama White House experts are now assuring us that:

The White House strategy assumes that the U.S. military will no longer be engaged in long-term operations that are troop intensive. Instead, it envisions smaller, nimbler forces that deploy for short periods.

Yeah, Obama's experts are all set to fight the last war and ignore the current long engagements - see for example Afghanistan, then again they already forgot all about it. There are no guarantees in international geo-politics that you'll only face short, victorious wars. In fact when you shape your strategy for only one option, the ones you don't plan for are the ones most likely to come to the dance.

Anarcho-Tyranny Mexican-Style

Disarming drug cartels is hard and dangerous work.

So, instead of the hard work involved, the Mexican Army and Police is focusing on disarming citizens who have taken up arms for self-protection from the cartels in frustration as the police and army have failed to enforce the law in Michoacan province.

Note the lovely Freep biased headline: Renegade Mexicans refuse orders to give up. Nope, no bias there guys.

Armed vigilantes who have taken control of territory in lawless Michoacan state to keep out vicious drug cartels are refusing to give up their guns in a standoff with government soldiers.

Residents said a tense calm prevailed on Friday as federal police and soldiers were fanned out over region ranches and lemon groves following a standoff between the vigilantes and police that left four people dead in this region 300 miles west of Mexico City.

. . .

This region has been bedeviled by cartels committing crimes against residents who've been caught between gun wars with no help from law enforcement.

Self-defense groups have marched on at least 15 communities over the past 11 months to run off cartel henchmen and kick out corrupt police officers taking bribes to look the other way. People here say the Mexico government has abandoned them and they had no choice but to arm and fight.

The federal government, however, says it will protect the area and is demanding that the so-called community police forces disarm. Mexico has sent soldiers and the federal police into the region to disarm the groups.....

The Mexican army has in fact fired on unarmed villagers and killed four of them in a stand-off on Monday, read the whole article for all the interesting details.

Interestingly, even with Mexico's very strict gun control laws, the citizens are able to get quite a few items on the country's banned list like 9mm ammunition and as pictured AR-15 rifles, one wonders if some of them are Fast and Furious weapons, or did those solely go to drug cartels?

So the government fails to control criminals and lets them rum amok extorting and killing the citizenry, and then cracks down on the citizenry for the effrontery to dare protect themselves.

Oh, and if you don't know what Anarcho-Tyranny is, go check out Borepatch for a succinct explanation, complete with a plethora of examples.

You're Thinking Did I Hold Up One Or Two Fingers? Now To Tell You The Truth I Forgot Myself In All This Excitement....

An acquaintance of mine who took my CPL class related to me why he decided to buy a gun and get training in how to use it:

One very dark night at about 0200 he and his wife hear glass breaking downstairs.

He goes downstairs to check it out.

In the living room a pane of glass is shattered and there's a shape right by it.

He realizes that he doesn't have a gun and all he has on is his underwear so he extends his hand pretending to have one, turns on the just the light in one area of the room so he can't be seen as more than a shadow and yells "freeze".

He then sees a pretty big guy, larger than him and covered in mud and broken glass and in a more advanced state of undress.

The guy actually freezes and appears pretty drunk and or stoned.

So he yells at him to lie down and not move, and he's about to call the cops when....

His wife then enters the room behind him, asks "What's going on?" and she then turns on the all the lights.

This reveals our homeowner standing there posing in his underwear pointing his fingers at the man.

The man quickly catches on and says "Hey, you don't have a real gun!"

Luckily for my friend, the empty-handed home owner, the guy breaking in decides his best move is to crash back through the broken window and flee, and he's later caught by police.

My friend decided that the next time, if there is a next time that it happens, he really didn't want to be caught empty handed again.

Dive 247 - A Deep January Dive in Gilboa Quarry

Early this morning, an intrepid band gathered at Keith's place to load a car with dive gear to go for a dive at Gilboa Quarry in Findlay, Ohio,

Unlike local lakes, the quarry is not frozen over and the latest reports stated it had 39 degree water and good visibility.

We planned to dive the deep section and then move into the shallower areas.

So for this dive we packed full tanks and scooters and all the related gear and headed to Ohio.

We reached the quarry and after filling out the world's most over-lawyered waiver, we headed into the depths.

Sure enough, the water temp was 39 degrees and the visibility was fantastic, probably 80 feet which is incredible.

After a descent of two minutes, we hit a new record depth for me - 118 feet down. The water temp at 118 feet was cooler at 32 degrees.

Scootering around made the dive a lot of fun and let us get around the quarry quite effortlessly. Now I've got some video footage to edit.

Here's Chad showing how to scooter in style.

We left the deep end and headed into the shallows. We dove around and in the Grumman Gufstream

and around and inside the huge Sikorsky Double Deuce CH-37 Mojave helicopter, both at 35 feet depth. The chopper is so big you can scooter right through the cargo doors and out the side without touching any part of it.

In addition to my heated vest, I put a Little Hotties Hand Warmers in each glove. This made a huge difference. With the warmer in each palm of the sealed gloves my hands an fingers actually stayed warm the entire dive. I'd recommend these to anyone who is outdoors in the cold or underwater.

A great deep dive in January.

Dive details
Dive Time: 36 minutes
Water Temp: 39 degrees
Max Depth: 118 feet
Average depth: 60 feet
Breathing Gas used: 1600 Psi

A Man And An Easy One-Dish Comfort Food Plan

It's grey out, local roads were absolutely covered with ice this morning, and it's time for some comfort food for dinner and I'm cooking.

Since I'm cooking it needs be simple.

Chicken Cream of Mushroom Soup and Rice simple.

You'll need:

1 deep oven safe baking dish with a lid
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup;
1 pack Chicken drumsticks;
1 cup rice;
paprika and pepper;
water; and

An oven pre-heated to 375 degrees.

Got it? Ok, on to make it:

First add a cup of rice to the dish.

Next, add the can of soup all nice and gloppy. Keep the can for the next step.

Add a can and a half of water, and use a spoon to scrape out any remaining soup.

Add a good solid shake of paprika and some freshly ground pepper and stir.

Then add the drumsticks and cover with the liquid.

Note that the package claims there's five drumsticks inside, yet there's only four in the pack, so someone can't even count to five out there...

Cover the baking dish and place in oven.

It should be done in about 50 minutes. The rice will absorb the liquid and the chicken will be nice and ready.

An easy, simple, comfort food for those grey days.

Volting Through The Snow, In A Really Limited-Range Car.....

Henry Payne in the Detroit News has an interesting comparison of the three different engine stylings of the same car sold as the Chevy Volt, Cruze or Cruze Diesel.

As most people know, cold kills batteries, and the Volt's winter performance is pretty darn underwhelming:

GM claims the Volt is good for 50 miles on a full charge, but range plummets to around 25 miles on a sub-freezing December day.

25 miles between plug-ins makes the car a no-go for most people who would use it to, you know, drive places, at which point it switches to gas and then the economics of it get even less desirable.

At current gas prices, recovery of the operating price of either the diesel model or the Volt over the standard gas Chevy Cruze is well in excess of the typical expected life of the car - around 13 years plus, depending on the numbers, and the purchase price of the Volt over the Cruze would take 5 years to recover (Yeah, the math in the article is weird and I wonder how they got to those numbers). Anyone want to pose a guess on how many volts will last 13 years without major overhauls?

Now,if you've got the means to throw away money, have an enviro-uber-alles sensibility, and don't have to go farther than 25 miles between plug-ins, then by all means buy the Volt.

For the Volt to be viable, you have to revolve your life around the limits of the vehicle, and most people rarely want to by a car to limit their options.

"For the Volt to work, your life has to be set up for it,” says Devin Scillian, WDIV-TV news anchor, best-selling author, and Chevy Volt evangelist. “And my life is set up for it.”

Most people's lives aren't, nor do I think most people want to switch their lives around just to have a Volt. Cars are supposed to be liberating and expanding your options, not confining and limiting them.

For now the Volt can't be considered a primary vehicle in Michigan unless you have a very limited range commute without much in the way of side trips and have charging stations everywhere you go, and that's not the case for most people.

Some Brits Still Got It.

If you don't know, considering the media isn't covering it now that it's Obama's Good (and Forgotten) War, we're still fighting over there in Afghanistan, as are our allies the Brits.

A British medic was recently awarded the Military Cross for working to save lives under fire on two separate occasions in Afghanistan, and saving an Afghan soldier.

Even better in that Islam-dominated conflict, the medic is female:

The Telegraph: Female medic awarded Military Cross for bravery

The Daily Mail: 'Oh, Kylie! What did you do? Next time, please don’t...': What mother told Military Cross hero daughter who twice braved hails of bullets to tend war wounded

Both stories are worth reading and both give slightly different coverage of the events that led to L.Cpl. Kylie Watson being awarded the Military Cross for both saving lives and engaging the enemy while doing so.

Both stories clearly show that she deserves the award.

Nicely done indeed.

Surprise, Obama's New Promise Zones Ignore Detroit

Obama's new "Promise Zones" conspicuously did not name Detroit, which by any standard needs all the promised help and access to programs that a dying Democrat city can get.

However, when you have a 90% Democrat area that consistently votes lock-step Democrat as does Detroit, why bother trying to buy more votes with a "Promise Zone"?

Let's see where these miraculous promise zones will be, as noted in The Detroit News:

San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

Los Angeles is a Democrat safe-zone, but it likely gives some patronage sinecures, as is Philadelphia (but Pennsylvania itself is a mite purple). But Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma are certainly areas where some Democrat money may buy more votes and some Democrat Senate seats come the 2014 election.

Then again, for all the fanfare with which these Promised Zones are announced, it needs to be remembered that all of Obama's promises come with an expiration date, so the recipients of these Promised Zones probably shouldn't expect all that much.

They Really Should Have Kept The Tip

Apparently meth, in addition to making you lose your teeth and causing anxiety, depression, methamphetamine psychosis, suicide, and violent behaviors also makes you so very, very stupid.

This is aptly demonstrated by a couple meth-heads in Oregon:

The Detroit Free Press: Patrons accused of tipping waitress with crystal meth

A waitress at the Twisted Fish restaurant in Seaside, Ore., got an unusual tip — an envelope full of methamphetamine.

The Daily Astorian newspaper reports the waitress contacted police Friday after a couple included the envelope while paying for their drinks.

The responding officer identified the substance, and arrested 40-year-old Ryan Bensen of Beaverton and 37-year-old Erica Manley of Cascade Locks.

Police said they found more of the drug when searching Manley's purse and the couple's motel and vehicle.

Maybe they wanted speedier service and thought the meth would help the waitress pick it up a notch, but probably not.

Shedding Lots Of Light: The Streamlight TLR-1 HL

I sadly just missed the sale Amazon was having on the Surefire X300, as I decided to buy one right after Murphy's Law showed me his.

All was not lost however, as AMAzon has the Streamlight 69260 TLR-1 HL on sale. This is a good thing considering I had yet to own a weapon-mounted light and the kids like to play with and misplace my old trusty Surefire G2 light on a regular basis, which means it's not always back at the bedside where it's supposed to be. With the light mounted to the Glock 23 in the bedside Gunvault, that's not a problem anymore as it is safe and secure from little curious and prying fingers.

Mounting the TLR-1 to a railed pistol is a snap and easy to do and it fits the Glocks (the one I have with a rail) and M&Ps that I have with no issues. You can also change the mounting key to match Picatinny, Beretta 90two, S&W 99, and S&W TSW rails if needed.

The HL stands for High Lumens, and it is indeed a high lumen beam - 630 lumens, and it truly does throw a ton of light.

So much so I believe it gives off more than ML's Surefire.

Even in a daylight-lit room, when hit with the beam my eyes hurt (note: light was not attached to a gun during this test), with after-flashes remaining long after the beam had passed.

In the darkness, anyone hit with the light is going to be momentarily blinded. This flashlight transforms two CR123 batteries into one solid nasty light beam.

For those inclined to tactical disco, there's also a strobe feature that is not the most intuitive to activate and which I don't think I'd need or use much. Tactical disco? For some, I guess it's all about Stayin' Alive folks.

In addition to strobe, there's also momentary on and constant on modes, and the finger paddles are ambidextrous and easy to reach on either side.

The Glock 23 now has night sights, a laser, and now the light, so I'd say it's pretty much all setup for a nightstand gun now.

But it's A Dry Cold.....

Said no one, ever.

Got up this morning and quickly walked the dog as he didn't like the cold temperature and wind we're having this morning. 

With the wind chill providing a felt temperature of  -35 F, as promised we did the boiling water experiment again today:

As you can see, it worked.

So with schools closed yet again, I'll be working from home.  Thanks to technology, pretty much everything I can do from there I can do from my toasty warm home.

Stay warm out there.

How cold? So cold that Natasha's car battery is cold stone dead and jumping it does nothing.

So How Cold Is It?

With the wind chill, it's currently -40 F. School was cancelled, and will be cancelled tomorrow.

It finally stopped snowing, but we got more than 12 inches of snow and it blew into soem pretty impressive drifts and cleaning the driveway took quite some time.

Now the cold has come to take the snowfall's place. Taking the dog for a walk in thigh deep snow drifts in -40 doth sucketh.

Indeed, it's so cold that we took a pot full of boiling water, threw it up in the air, and it evaporated into mist and not even a drop hit the ground.

Not believing it, we did it a second time with the same result.

I had read about that happening in Alaska, but never thought it would work in Michigan. The kids were suitably awed. I'll try it again tomorrow morning and see if we can get it on video.

That's cold all right.

Snow Dogs

The snow continues to fall so we decided to make the most of it.

The kids are out making igloos out of colored snow they made with multiple dyes, building a snowman and sledding down the Driveway of Doom™. They had a great time indeed, and its good for them to get outside.

Jett not only has been on multiple walks today, but Rocky, a lab-mix puppy from down the street came by so they got to play in the snow.

They get along well, and stay close enough that we don't have to hold their leashes while they play, so they commenced racing through the backyard.

They had a ton of fun running around.

For some reason, the snow really sticks to Jett's coat. It clumps on and does not shake or lightly brush off. We need to watch to make sure he doesn't get too cold with all the compacted snow stuck to him and he does start to shiver after awhile. So this time since he was covered and it would not come off, I gave him a warm bath once he was done playing. He handled the bath like a champ and certainly seemed to like the warm water melting off the ton of snow. He's happily napping now all nice and warm. He had a great time.

Snow is expected to continue to fall throughout the night, but it's already accumulating nicely:

Yeah. That's about the size of it.

Winter's First Snowminorgeddon

With over 4 inches on the ground since it started last night and with snow still steadily falling, we're expecting about a foot plus of global warming and bitter cold to hit today.

This is, according to the religio licta of the Global Warming true believers, due to Gaia crying over all the fossil fuels being burned to save the warmists' icebreaker trapped in Antarctica.

Keep warm out there.

In Detroit, Hell Just Froze Over

Maybe it was the massive snowfall and cold-snap we just had, or maybe it was just the case of an honest and intelligent assessment of reality by Detroit's police chief.

As noted by Murphy's Law and reported in today's Detroit News, Detroit's Police Chief actually and on the record stated that:

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

....

Craig’s statements Thursday echoed those he made Dec. 19 on “The Paul W. Smith Show” on WJR (760 AM), when he said: “There’s a number of CPL (concealed pistol license) holders running around the city of Detroit. I think it acts as a deterrent. Good Americans with CPLs translates into crime reduction.

His honesty and good sense is certainly refreshing.

Perhaps it had something to do with his almost getting car-jacked in Detroit himself recently.

Kudos indeed to Chief Craig. I half expected such a statement from a police chief of a crime-ridden, Democrat-controlled major urban center to only occur when hell froze over, and indeed, perhaps it just did.

Schadenfreude Is A Dish Best Served Ice Cold

Sometimes reality gives you delicious situations that fiction on its best day couldn't even dare to dream up.

The story: An intrepid group of global warming aficionados and true believers travel to Antarctica on a propaganda tour to see what, according to their theory, should be a massive loss of ice and open seas due to their Global Warming Theory.

Cold reality hits and they and their ship, the Akademik Shokalskiy, get completely trapped in a record amount of ice. So much ice in fact that ice breakers cannot get through to free them.

That would be, and indeed is, funny and ironic enough.

But, it gets oh so much better.

Who do they need to reach out to in order to find out actual weather information relating to their plight?

Why, two of the leading real scientists and skeptics of their global warming construct.

You can't make this up.

Go follow the whole thing over on Watts Up With That.

I suggest reading the true tale with a big bowl of popcorn by your side and a nice hot toddy.

Update: And they're finally rescued, by a carbon-emitting, fossil-fueled helicopter.

NSA And The Future Of The American Republic

Both Borepatch and Say Uncle link to the presentation below by Jacob Applebaum discussing the NSA's means and methods of hacking the heck out of the internet, and computers, and phones.

It's worth the hour to sit down and view it in its entirety. Yes, it's real, and it's darn scary.

On the one hand, I want the NSA to be able to listen in and gather signals intelligence on America's enemies.

On the other hand, I'm rather concerned that the NSA seems to have decided that Americas' enemies includes the American people.

Here's a happy thought as we enter 2014, with a congressional election looming and three more years of Obama as president:

Take the presentation's revealed breathtaking capabilities of the NSA.

Now couple that with, for example, the Obama administration's and the Democrat's desire to continue fundamentally transforming America and stay in power. For those on the left reading this blog, switch that to the next Republican president who comes into office.

Next, take the premise that the NSA's data is not just being used for anti-terrorism purposes, and if it actually is for now, good luck on it remaining so locked-down -- such wide-ranging and tasty information obtained tends to be used far beyond its promised original "national security only" limitations -- but is instead being used for political purposes of the party in power such as listening in and discerning opposing candidates' strategy to stymie, delay or defeat them. Much as we've already seen the IRS' power being so used against the Tea Party in the last election. And to that the sweeping ability of the NSA to intercept all internet and phone communication and to deny computer and internet transmissions at opportune times.

Then folks, if that's the case, the only thing left to say is:

Ave Atque Vale Res Publica Americana

Palis Starting The New Year Off With A Blast!

The WSJ: Palestine Envoy Killed in Prague Blast: Authorities Deem Explosion of Safe-Deposit Box an Accident

The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died after sustaining injuries from an explosion at his residence Wednesday that local authorities describe as an accident, not an attack.

"We aren't aware of any evidence indicating that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted with a deliberate aim to harm the ambassador," police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova said.

The explosion happened when Jamal al-Jamal, the 56-year-old diplomat, manipulated an old office safe deposit box, Ms. Zoulova said.

Allegedly that safe, located in what was the PLO's offices in Prague during the Iron Curtain period, when Czechoslovakia was a conveinet shipping point for Semtex and weapons to the PLO from the Soviets, had not been opened in 20-25 years.

Whoever was the Palestinian-Terrorist-In-Charge at the time put something nasty in the safe and just scored a time-delayed own-goal.

Quite the explosive way to blast in the New Year.

Happy 2014!

Happy 2014!

New Years Eve came in quite nicely.

Both kids were awake and at the table when the ball dropped and we all got to welcome in the new year together.

Then it was time for some presents, including a two new special chewable bones for Jett, one fully edible, and the green one simply for gnawing on:

He was quite happy to welcome in the new year.

So now it's snowing yet again and we're relaxing in the cozy, warm, house watching it come down.

Hope you're having an enjoyable and festive first of January.