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Post by bunbun / Hank on Dec 9, 2023 16:28:58 GMT -5
Trevor, wondering if things are different up your way. The one thing I've noticed this year is the absence of Christmas trees. Christmas is just a bit over two weeks away and in years past every organization and his brother, the Kawanis's, Elks, VFW would be selling trees from some corner of the shopping center parking lot as a fund raiser, this year, NADA, ZILCH, NUTTIN, ZERO! Not a one to be seen. Another thing I have not seen is ANYONE hauling a tree home tied to the roof of their car. A common sight in years past.
Stopped at Tractor Supply a couple of day ago and they a few trees out front they wanted $65.00 for. Which I thought was OUTRAGOUS! So maybe that is the problem, these organizations don't wanna buy a bunch of trees wholesale and get stuck with em on Dec.26 cuz no one can afford the damn things. Or maybe everyone has gone artificial since you can use the same tree over and over and save a ton of money.
I think the last time we put up a tree was back in 2012 when the kids from Texas stayed with us. But for the two of us, why bother, it just turns into a cat playground, and you are forever picking ornaments up from the floor, and sometimes the entire tree depending on how many cats decide to chase each other thru the branches at the same time.
How about you and the wife, with the kids grown and gone, do you even bother?
HANK.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Dec 9, 2023 18:05:18 GMT -5
We never had a lot of live tree sales in this area. Just about anyone who wants a live tree goes to one of the tree farms in the area. That way, they can cut their own, and get that experience with the horse drawn sled and all that other crap. That is what my son and his family do. Us, we have artificial. Have since I was a young teenager. We still put up a tree, as we host xmas day with my son and his family. As a matter of fact, we even bought a new one a few years back, and use the old one out on the front porch. It was/is a shorter one that we would always put up on an end table. Now I put it on the file cabinet on the porch, and it's just a bit taller than me. We have a pre-lit 6'er in the house. I still put up lights every year. Lots of people around town have huge displays now. It's nice driving around at night checking them all out.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Dec 10, 2023 17:53:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I hear ya about the light displays, some are pretty nice. Have you ever watched the Great Xmas light fight? It's on tonight, SUNDAYat10:00PM ch5 (ABC) Some of these folks go to EXTREMES. Last Sunday they showed a house in Texas where the folks had 400 drones, computer controlled that when in flight would configure into Santa and the reindeer, frosty the snowman, a giant Xmas tree, snowflakes, etc. it was freakin awesome. all with color changing LED's. It's probably online some where if you wish to check it out.
HANK.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Dec 10, 2023 20:13:15 GMT -5
Nah, I don't get into it that much to watch it on TV. I just like driving around with the dogs at night and looking at what is local. When the weather is crap, or I am too tired, I take them for a drive instead of taking them for a walk. Hey, I finally finished my house rewire! For the rest of this year. More or less. I still have to stop and buy some covers to close up some junction boxes tomorrow.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Dec 12, 2023 3:12:36 GMT -5
Glad to hear you got your rewire job finished. So what's next, patching all the holes in the wall you had to make to get the wire from point A to point B? How long has it been since you moved into this house, 6 or 7 years now? I know it was before the covid bullshit of 2020. I remember the pictures you put up of your basement. It looked like the plumbing had been done by the Three Stooges on an acid trip. God, what a mess that was.
You must have gotten that place for a hell of a good price, cuz if a realter had shown me that place one look at that plumbing nightmare would have me running out the door screaming. Course at my age having the bedrooms on the second floor wouldn't work anyway, these old legs ain't gonna handle that many steps on a daily basis. Gotta wonder what they were thinking when they build the place. The knob and tube tells me it's old and air conditioning was NOT common back then and since warm air rises sleeping on the second floor in the Summer had to be like trying to sleep in a sauna.
Probably should go back to bed, getting tired now. Hate this shit, pop wide awake in the middle of the night cuz I was hungry. Didn't eat dinner last night, just wasn't hungry then, had a big lunch, so at 3AM the ole tummy is screaming, hey, remember me?
HANK.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Dec 12, 2023 21:06:06 GMT -5
Yeah, it's been almost 6 years. Will be exactly in 4 days. Got the keys on the 16th of December. Been just over 3 years since I did the panel swap and really got into the rewire. Before that, it was just all the new lines for the kitchen. And I am still not actually done. Just done for this year. I won't touch the last 3 pieces I have left until probably March or April. And two of those are the only ones I will have to open walls for. Everything else was done while keeping the plaster intact, except the holes I cut for new boxes. Good thing the wife got me one of those oscillating tools for xmas a few years ago. (for just that very reason). It took longer, and cost more to do it that way. But I also didn't have the added cost and PITA of repairing walls.
Yeah, we got the place for a great price. $31,500. Put almost $10,000 into it before we moved in. That was all the plumbing, gas lines, water tank, total gut of the kitchen and laundry room. Bathroom floors, painting all the walls, and some new light fixtures, and all new appliances.
As for hotter upstairs in the summer. That is very true. Though this year was better since I have been insulating the attic. But before that, there was a huge, whole house fan up in the attic. I guess the point was to suck the cooler air from the first floor up to the 2nd floor and blow all the hot air out the attic. I don't know, as I never plugged it in and tried it. Looked pretty sketchy to me.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Dec 25, 2023 7:28:40 GMT -5
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Dec 29, 2023 3:32:10 GMT -5
Here we are once again, it's 3:00AM and I'm wide awake. Fell asleep last night in the recliner while watching TV, went to bed early as I was tired, so a short while ago my body said "git your lazy ass up, you've had enough sleep." So, here we are, with a glass of milk, munching on some chocolate chip cookies and playing on the computer.
Hey Trevor, I'm curious, mailed you guys a Christmas card on Dec 13th. has it arrived yet? If so, GREAT! If not, well maybe next year I'll send em out around Halloween hoping you'll get it in time for Christmas.
Heard an interesting story on CH. 8 news last night before dozing off. It seems a robot at the Tesla plant down in Texas attacked and injured one of the engineers. Kinda sad when ya think about it, we know all the mechanics in the world HATE your dumb ass's, but it's gotten so bad that now you're pissing off the robots too? tsk,tsk. It's bad enough to be on Santa's naughty list. But when you get on the TERMINATOR'S naughty list you in a world of SHIT! Better watch out, AI will get you!
HANK.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Dec 29, 2023 10:55:39 GMT -5
DECEMBER 29TH
ANSWER: CRAP EGYPTIAN TOMB PAINTINGS DEPICTED A WATERMELON HARVEST 5,000 YEARS AGO, BUT THERE IS ON IMAGE OF A MELON-HEADED GODDESS THAT SPHINX!
ACCORDING TO CUSTOM, TYING A RED CLOTH AROUND THE RIGHT HORN OF A BULL AT NIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE ENSURES ARGENTINES A HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.
IS THIS CRAP OR FACT?
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Post by Sir Trevor on Dec 29, 2023 20:41:22 GMT -5
Pretty sure we got the card. Will have to confirm with the wife tomorrow as she is in bed now. But I do remember her saying something. IDK The whole month of December is basically a blur. Between the mandatory OT at work, finishing projects here, and trying to do all the xmas shopping.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Jan 10, 2024 22:11:07 GMT -5
well, here is a weird one for ya, yesterday I lost power in my office. Completely, no lights, no outlets, nothing. First thought, storm knocked out a transformer somewhere, high winds, driving rain, a real shitty day, not my problem, CEI will fix it sooner or later. Problem is EVERYTHING else on that power pole works. The garage attached to the office works fine as well as the workshop and everything else.
OKAY, so it's a blown fuse, no big deal, replaced the fuse, still no power, and the original fuse checked OK on a continuity test, HMMMM! Got voltage to the fuse socket,so where do we go from here?? Called my buddy Frank, since he did the rewire job back in 2016 when we installed the new drywall ceiling and he seems to think we may have to cut into the ceiling and open a section up to have a look see if some critter maybe gnawed on a wire or a wire nut came loose in a junction box or something stupid like that, cuz he is kinda scratching his head also. Will keep ya posted when and IF we figure out what the hell is goin on. Hope I don't need to call in an electrician as the last time I did that he charged me WAAAAAY more than what I feel the job entailed and what he did DID NOT entirely solve my problem I was having at the time. I had to call in CEI for that, which cost me even more money.
Not having a great start to 2024.
HANK.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Jan 11, 2024 18:52:21 GMT -5
Hmmm. This sounds like something simple, though the tracking it down might be a PITA. Seems to be localized to just one circuit. How many outlets and lights are we talking about here? Are any of the outlets GFCI?
I would start by pulling the outlets and doing a visual to make sure they have good connections. Then test each for power at the wires. If they are run in series, one bad unit early in the circuit could kill the rest of the circuit.
You say there is voltage at the fuse socket, with a fuse in place are you getting current out? After that, I would do whatever I need to follow the circuit.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Jan 11, 2024 19:28:44 GMT -5
Frank and I McGyvered up a repair and got EVERYTHING up and working for the moment, Tomorrow Frank is coming over and we hope to get it fixed correctly. What we did today was back feed it. Frank made a special extension cord with two male plugs. One end we plugged into an outlet in the garage and the other end we plugged into an outlet in the office and all five ceiling lights now work as well as the microwave and the fridge. We tossed a couple of ideas back and forth and THINK we know where the problem is. It has to be an open circuit as a short would pop the fuse and that IS NOT happening.
to answer your questions: No GFCI! Had some in the bathroom at one time but proved to be a pain in the ass, so they got the boot. and yes, we had power into and out of the fuse. We think (and hope like hell) we have the problem narrowed down to one junction box high up on the wall (so no drywall cutting if we are correct) Frank had to run into Cleveland to deal with a leaky pipe in one of his rental houses so no time to really do anything major with things today. Will keep ya posted with what we find out.
HANK.
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Post by bunbun / Hank on Jan 12, 2024 16:34:16 GMT -5
Trevor, you are going to laugh your ass off when I tell you what we found. In all your house rewiring life I bet you never encountered something like this.
If you remember, and it has been a while since you've been in that garage, that is where the power from the pole comes into the building and branches out from there to all the other buildings circuit breakers. On the garage side above the office door is a junction box where the wires enter the office above the ceiling. Frank cut a hole in the office ceiling and found another box with wires running out in four or five directions to other lights and switches. With our special cord back feeding current to the office everything checked good. unplug the cord, no power at the box in the ceiling or the one above the door. Check the power at the fuse box, power to the fuse, power out of the fuse, but NO power at the box. HMMM! Plug extension cord back in with fuse in place, power to junction box above door and power to outward side of fuse. Remove fuse. Power into fuse, no power on outbound side. It should have power from the back feed. HMMM! Broken wire in the conduit maybe? At this point we think we are closing in on the problem.
Frank is now examining the wire in the fuse box closely for a break and guess what we found? An electrocuted MOUSE!! But NO broken wires! He then follows the conduit the wire goes into to a box on the wall with two on/off switches in it, both in the off position. One switch controls a flood light mounted on the outside of the building.
Wanna know what the other one controls? ALL THE POWER GOING INTO THE OFFICE! He flips it to the on position and the office lights up. (extension cord was disconnected at this time)
Frank's theory: A broom or some item that was leaning against the wall fell and shut the switch off. I don't buy it, the switch is above my head and NOTHING leaning against that wall was tall enough to do that.
My theory: Mouse climbs up broom handle, jumps to switch box and weight of mouse turns switch to off position. Does not take much effort to flip switch. Mouse then jumps from there to nearby fuse box where he enters thru open knock out hole in top of box, he then touches both a hot and a ground and ZOT! one dead mouse. He was dead, but NOT mummified like he had been dead in there for a long time. So, you were correct, it was a very simple problem (turned off switch) but it did take a bit of screwing around to find the problem.
Next thing: Patch hole in ceiling when weather get warmer. Temporarily patched with thin piece of wood at the moment.
HANK.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Jan 12, 2024 18:44:37 GMT -5
Might want to plug that knock-out hole in the fuse box when you get a chance.
Glad you got it all sorted.
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