Author: admin

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Electrical Storm = Bad Juju

Tonight around 11pm EST, lightning struck… Quite literally, just outside the house.   The TV, DVR, DVD, VCR, all went blank…  Surprisingly we still had electric, which rarely is the case out here in the sticks when we have a bad enough storm.

I ran into the office to check the computers, everything was still up and good.   The cable modem wasn’t happy though.   No blinky lights.   I’ve been here before too.  So I rebooted it.  Amazingly, the power light and the cable light lit up.   But no PC or data light.   I figured the cable network was probably zapped.  Again, not unusual.

Back into the living room to check things there and to verify that the cable was dorked up.   All of the entertainment stuff was plugged into a surge protector, but it was dead, no juice.   I ran down stairs and found a circuit breaker popped…  I’m thinking this is a good thing.

Back upstairs all of our entertainment devices have power, even the TV, but the TV is non-responsive.   You can turn it on with the remote, but that’s it.  No picture, no changing inputs, nada…   Of course this would be our 42” plasma pride and joy…   Our Black Friday special two years ago for $999.  Coincidentally the same amount as our home owners deductible.   Oh goody.

So back in the office to deal with the Internet situation.   The cable modem appears happy on the cable side, but no link for the PC connection.   I swap out the router hoping that it’s not toast.  Nope, nothing I plug into the modem is seen by the modem.   This isn’t good.

30 minutes of troubleshooting with TimeWarner on the phone they finally give in and offer a service call to replace it.   Today is the 9th, and it’s only been the 9th for 30 minutes.  The earliest they can service me is the 15th.   Isn’t that special?   I explain that isn’t good enough for $50/month internet that’s already somewhat flakey.  I offer to come pick up a modem and be compensated for my time to drive there, stand in line and drive home.   They just laughed but did offer to credit me for the lack of service.

I think I’m just about done with TimeWarner, but I don’t think CBell is going to be any better.

Here’s hoping they’ll actually have one when I get there tomorrow.

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7 Days and Counting

The trip is getting closer, right around the corner actually.  We leave next Monday the 14th at 0-Dark Thirty.

Bike is ready, though I need to double check everything and I’ll pack this weekend.

Whilst on my trip I’m going to do everything I can to avoid work.  I will be ‘connected’ when I can be to update this blog mostly and journal the trip.

Technology that’s traveling with me:

IMG_0017

I’m taking a super small HP 2133 sub notebook.  Space is critical and I thought this would fit the bill just fine.  It’s loaded with Vista and I have to say I’m very under-whelmed with both performance and battery life, even with the BIG battery.  But it beats nothing I suppose.   It’s wifi equipped and I’ll be taking my CrackBerry with Verizon coverage and tether-ability.

I’ll also be using the iPhone (current generation) as my primary communications device.

To give you a sense of just how small this thing is, or just how large my D830 is, here’s a shot of both of them with the iPhone as a frame of reference:

IMG_0018   Yeah, it’s tiny.

I’m in the process now of loading up all the prerequisite software which includes but is not limited too:  MapSource with 2009NT maps, Streets and Trips, and other utilities.

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14 days and counting

or there about…

In about 14 days we’re off…  Off to the Bad Lands, MT. Rushmore, Gillette, Wyoming, Yellowstone, Golden Colorado, Pikes Peak and other such fun places.

At a bare minimum we’re going to Gillette and Golden.  I don’t have our full itinerary yet but it’s something like this:

Trip_002

It will be a mix of hotels and campgrounds.   The bike is ready and I’m ready.

I can’t wait.   I plan to update the blog as we travel if I can.

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Alternative heat part II (There is no free lunch)

This weekend we visited Charles Family Hearth and got an education in options.

After careful research we thought for sure we wanted a pellet furnace. Not a stove but an actual furnace that we could tie into our existing duct work.

Our biggest issue is we have an old farm house, it’s leaky, not well insulated and not easy to insulate.  It’s chopped up, not open so it doesn’t lend itself to a stove.  We’d never get the heat distributed.

We currently have oil heat, and last winter we burned through 750 gallons of fuel oil.  We ran out twice.  For the last month we limped along and wore sweatshirts, etc.

Basically our options break out like this:

Technology Pros Cons
Oil Heat Do nothing Go broke.
Wood (whole logs) None that I can see.  Might save some money. We have to buy wood or go get it.  We don’t have woods to cut our own.  Cutting/splitting/stacking wood sucks.  Then transport wood to the basement or where ever the wood furnace is sounds like a real joy.
Wood needs more attention, you can’t leave all day and expect to come home to a warm house.
Corn it’s just like wood pellets It’s as expensive as oil and is apparently very inconsistent.
Propane Easy conversion from oil. Just as costly.
Natural Gas Would Save money It’s not available to us.
Electric (Heat Pump) Should save money Not sure a heat pump could keep up with our drafty old house.  I suspect we’d be on electric auxiliary heat a lot and that’s not economical.  Heat pumps are not ‘warm’ and we like warm.
Wood Pellets Should be cheaper, is a warm heat, but isn’t instant on like oil. We’re already seeing prices of $300/ton (before delivery).  Pellets have been in short supply in recent years.  Stoves/Furnaces are in high demand, allocation is an issue.  Some of the bigger producers are in iowa and were just flooded out.
They are not maintenance free, you can automate pellet deliver, but you still have to maintain the burner and heat exchanger. You have to man handled 7 tons of pellets to get the same BTU’s as 750 gallons of Oil.
Coal Cheapest of all options Dirty as hell, smelly, and you have to handle it which isn’t attractive.
Geo Thermal none for us Far too expensive to install at this stage of the game.  This works best with tight efficient houses, our is the opposite of that.  If I were building new I’d certainly consider this.
External/Outside Furnaces. None to me… If I’m already bitchin about loading a wood/pellet furnace that’s in my house, why in the world would I want to do that in cold and snow.

So right now our run away leading candidate is a wood pellet furnace.

There are a couple brands/models.  Some auto start, some don’t.  Some have large hoppers some don’t.  All require me or someone in our family to be the fuel delivery mechanism at some level.

Some are available, some are constrained.   None are fast heating.  You don’t get the blast of heat we’re used to with Oil out of anything but Oil (or gas).  But they work well if you keep them at a constant temperature and keep them burning (so we’re told).

What are we missing?

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The new car…

So here’s the break down.  We are a family of 7 with 3 drivers now.  Each one of us drives a fair amount, and with gas prices heading north of $4 a gallon we had to do something.

Vehicle Average MPG Mileage $ Status
2000 Ford Excursion 11 130,000 Paid For
1999 Chrysler Cirrus 24 138,000 Paid For
1993 Ford Club Wagon 14 132,000 Paid For

 

Before anyone complains about the Excursion, let’s do a little math.

We have a family of (7), one in a car seat.  To go anywhere as a family you need something this size.  In fact your options are somewhat limited.

Taking two cars that get 25mpg each, nets you 12.5 mpg in the end so there’s no savings.   It’s worth the premium to take one vehicle.

Since everything is paid for, every time we look at new vehicles and do the math…  The cost/payment on something new that would hold us or almost hold us would buy a lot of gas and a lot of repairs.  (We also have to pull a horse trailer and other stuff from time to time).

In any event, having Michael commute to Kings Island for work and down to UC for the summer for his college class and eventually to CCM at 12-14MPG didn’t have me very excited.   The van does have advantages; it’s paid for, is fairly reliable, and is pretty safe as well.

We’ve been keeping our eye out for a good deal on something and finally landed it last week.

2CO

Vehicle Average MPG Mileage $ Status
1998 Ford Escort ZX2 30 88,000 Paid For

 

We now have a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2…  Yeah, the sport model.  It was literally driven by a little old lady to work each day and church on Sunday.  It’s 10 years old and only has 88,000 miles.    (OK, so Melody isn’t that old).

It’s in really good shape for it’s age.  It’s got 10 years worth of scratches and dings but overall was a great buy for us.  With estimated mileage at 30MPG it will pay for itself in 10,000 miles vs driving the van.  So that’s all good.  It is by far the highest MPG car we own, as well as the lowest overall mileage. 

It’s a stick though, and Michael didn’t know how to drive a stick.  We worked with him this weekend and while he did well, we’re not sure he’s ready to take this to the hills of Clifton just yet.  Perhaps next week.