OT - What are you doing right now?

zaphod

 I got a Continental dual fuel furnace and heat pump combo. HP down to 5C and then nat gas below that - HP for cooling in the summer. My wife and I hate the look of the wall units that split systems use.  The thermo is a Tekmar (by Watts) and I couldn't be happier.  House is consistently warm throughout, and the remaining baseboards for the upper floor never go on - the heat just rises. It helps that we have a balcony on the upper floor overlooking the bottom floor vents so the fan on the new furnace shoots the warm up and over the railing into the 2nd floor rooms.

Botch

I used to watch OTA TV years ago, and then ten years or so ago, one by one the channels started going out, and I ended up having to go to Dish, and then paid YouTubeTV, just to get the local channels.
I got an email from my Credit Union Friday morning, they had some suspect purchases on my CC, and yeah I did not make a walmart purchase in Georgia for $200-something dollars. They zapped my CC, and said I'd be getting a new one in 7-10 days. Got an email Friday afternoon from YTTV, my CC had been rejected; I replied back, told the story, said I'd have the new CC in 7-10 days, could they float me until then? At noon today I lost YTTV, so I guess No Floating. 
On a whim I turned off the Apple TV, and set my TV input to the old antenna, and... I'm getting ALL OTA channels again, clear as a bell! 
Now I had to know, so I called a coworker at HAFB who told over my MILCON job when I retired, and asked about the F-22 Radar Test facility, which was a 10-story yuge building that was lined on the inside with RAM (radar-absorbing material) cones, and that building was almost dead-in-between my roof antenna, and the broadcast antennas across the lake on the top of the Oquirrh Mountains. I asked him if it was still in use; the building was repurposed and all the RAM material taken off the walls; that's why I have OTA signal again! 

Now, I have a decision to make. My favorite feature with YouTubeTV is its unlimited DVR; I record my news shows and then start watching them after they're mostly broadcast (ie start watching the 6 o'clock news at 6:30) so that I can skip over the commercials "Siri, skip ahead 4 minutes"; I despise commercials, especially during an election year, and YTTV allows me to do that. But is that worth $75 a month? I dunno, but I have 7-10, er, 6-9 days to think about it. I'm also discovering some "Google TV" channels that appear on my TV, they must be streaming directly into the "smart" portion of my TV, will see what's all there. 
I'm still amazed that that test facility was able to cancel out my OTA signal, but its gone now.  Here's outside/inside pics:
 

 

Legume

Thank you for your service.

WeberWho

A couple spots of rot on the door of the garage. One more layer of wood bondo and I should be done for awhile. I'm not aware of any more rot. 

zaphod

nice clamp. always liked the Jorgensons. got a pair of large, a pair of medium, and some knockoff smalls. The difference in operational smoothness is night and day with the knockoffs.

WeberWho

zaphod said:

nice clamp. always liked the Jorgensons. got a pair of large, a pair of medium, and some knockoff smalls. The difference in operational smoothness is night and day with the knockoffs.

Good to know about the knockoffs. They need some TLC. I need to at least scrape off the glue and a quick sanding. 

ColtsFan

We had a wicked storm come through. We’re sitting at about 7800 of our 30k members without power. In Bloomington they have about 45k without electricity. Gonna be a long few days for some folks

Campbell2N

ColtsFan said:

We had a wicked storm come through. We’re sitting at about 7800 of our 30k members without power. In Bloomington they have about 45k without electricity. Gonna be a long few days for some folks

One of my favorite coworkers from my last job lives in Bloomington. Hope you and him are both fine.  

Botch

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 
Today's good news: the HVAC guy showed up and got my system running; very odd repair: he had to remove two lbs of coolant from the system, it had been overfilled from the get-go.  He took the time to explain how this caused all four previous Error Codes/shutdowns, and it sounds like things should be problem-free for awhile now.  He also yelled at me because my filter was dirty; I guess an annual changeout is too seldom, as sensitive as this system is.  I've changed my Calendar Reminder to do it quarterly (I still think their "monthly" recommendation is a bit extreme).  
A/C; it's a good thing.    

zaphod

can you set the filter timeout by "run hours?" that might work better for you.

WeberWho

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

Dobie

Clearly this was a warning, but decades pass and we think it can’t happen here. It’s been 60 years here in Jacksonville since disaster happened and we’ve been lucky but you never know. 

Botch

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

Yikes!!  

fishlessman

.

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

going to need a taller sign

WeberWho

fishlessman said:

.

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

going to need a taller sign

I was talking to a lady when I stopped to take a picture yesterday and she mentioned that they think it's going to raise another 5' yet. This morning it looked like the water line was up to the lower blue line that happened in 1993 if I'm not mistaken. 

fishlessman

WeberWho said:

fishlessman said:

.

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

going to need a taller sign

I was talking to a lady when I stopped to take a picture yesterday and she mentioned that they think it's going to raise another 5' yet. This morning it looked like the water line was up to the lower blue line that happened in 1993 if I'm not mistaken. 

im kinda surprised the sigh is still there, real estate people tend to remove the flood signs and plaques ....bad for business

WeberWho

fishlessman said:

WeberWho said:

fishlessman said:

.

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

^^^ I grew up on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and seeing the flooding devastation on the news south of Sioux Falls, into Nebraska, and the Blue Earth River in MN (relatives there too) is stunning.  
 

The Minnesota River runs through our town. Here's the picture of the sign next to the bridge when it was being built. 



Here's a picture I took today of the sign and bridge. (There is no water normally under the bridge. The Minnesota River is behind me.)



The water is expected to raise another 5 feet before it crests. 

going to need a taller sign

I was talking to a lady when I stopped to take a picture yesterday and she mentioned that they think it's going to raise another 5' yet. This morning it looked like the water line was up to the lower blue line that happened in 1993 if I'm not mistaken. 

im kinda surprised the sigh is still there, real estate people tend to remove the flood signs and plaques ....bad for business

It's hidden now with the bridge being open. You almost have to know where it is to catch a glimpse of the sign when leaving town. Fortunately our downtown is elevated enough where it doesn't effect daily activity. Just a few select businesses that are off the banks of the river where it's an issue. 

kl8ton

ColtsFan said:

We had a wicked storm come through. We’re sitting at about 7800 of our 30k members without power. In Bloomington they have about 45k without electricity. Gonna be a long few days for some folks

A couple things:
Same storm hit us early yesterday morning.  My 14 YO  had a two hour drive time set up for drivers training at the time it was rolling thru.  While I was driving him to his appointment, we encountered hail, much ponded water, high winds, the tornado sirens were going off (triggered by 70mph wind), etc.  I think over 155,000 were without power according to our utility.  They are getting caught up.  Only 43,000 without power now. 

Your map of dots reminds me of a map an ex-employee just showed me.  He is now a repo man and has a very sweet flatbed truck.  He has to be the nicest, most polite repo driver ever.  His map with dots all over it reflects the number of vehicles he/they are looking to pick up.  

How does your utility prioritize outage repairs?  Is there an algorithm that is used to factor in how easy a repair is vs how many customers would be back online?  Largest power users (industrial) first, then the residential areas? 

alaskanassasin

@WeberWho the construction bridge picture looks like a computer rendering, not the actual bridge under construction. Non the less it looks like you guys are off to a interesting summer.

Battleborn

This was straight BS. Luckily we were training today, so I didn’t have my vest. 

Battleborn

This heat is making people crazy. We have had three Officer Involved Shootings since last Friday with two of those within the last 24 hours. In addition, we were chasing a guy that was suspected in the homicide of 5 people yesterday that ended up shooting himself as we were giving verbal commands to put his gun down. 

ColbyLang

Battleborn said:

This heat is making people crazy. We have had three Officer Involved Shootings since last Friday with two of those within the last 24 hours. In addition, we were chasing a guy that was suspected in the homicide of 5 people yesterday that ended up shooting himself as we were giving verbal commands to put his gun down. 

Read about the shooter and his decision to take his life. Terrible situation. Glad you and your fellow officers weren’t hurt in any of the poor decisions made by that fellow

WeberWho

alaskanassasin said:

@WeberWho the construction bridge picture looks like a computer rendering, not the actual bridge under construction. Non the less it looks like you guys are off to a interesting summer.

You're 100% right @alaskanassasin

I didn't even notice that. I grabbed the first picture I found on Google for a reference picture. Here's a different picture I found online of the actual bridge without any water. 

Botch

This morning I learned that baking powder has a limited shelf life.  Mine expired during the second Bush administration.
This explains things.    

Ozzie_Isaac

Botch said:

This morning I learned that baking powder has a limited shelf life.  Mine expired during the second Bush administration.
This explains things.    

6 months once opened, 3 years unopened.

I usually push things, but 12 years past might be a bit much.

(Also, I just learned all this too.  Mine is also expired)

ColtsFan

kl8ton said:

ColtsFan said:

We had a wicked storm come through. We’re sitting at about 7800 of our 30k members without power. In Bloomington they have about 45k without electricity. Gonna be a long few days for some folks

A couple things:
Same storm hit us early yesterday morning.  My 14 YO  had a two hour drive time set up for drivers training at the time it was rolling thru.  While I was driving him to his appointment, we encountered hail, much ponded water, high winds, the tornado sirens were going off (triggered by 70mph wind), etc.  I think over 155,000 were without power according to our utility.  They are getting caught up.  Only 43,000 without power now. 

Your map of dots reminds me of a map an ex-employee just showed me.  He is now a repo man and has a very sweet flatbed truck.  He has to be the nicest, most polite repo driver ever.  His map with dots all over it reflects the number of vehicles he/they are looking to pick up.  

How does your utility prioritize outage repairs?  Is there an algorithm that is used to factor in how easy a repair is vs how many customers would be back online?  Largest power users (industrial) first, then the residential areas? 

Restorations are based off of ease of restoration and the number of members that would be restored. The challenge we have is that we’re in the worst geographical area to have overhead power. Our area is mostly hills, valleys, ravines and forest. 

This morning we’re sitting at 700 or so still out with over 60 outage locations. So replacing broken poles, running wire and hanging transformers in a certain span may only restore 10 people. Rinse and repeat 59 more times. 

Here’s some pics from my sister’s house about 10 miles south of me. Luckily the race car was in the garage. Their house was salvaged from major damage 

Acn

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Botch said:

This morning I learned that baking powder has a limited shelf life.  Mine expired during the second Bush administration.
This explains things.    

6 months once opened, 3 years unopened.

I usually push things, but 12 years past might be a bit much.

(Also, I just learned all this too.  Mine is also expired)

2nd Bush administration makes it at least 16 years…

alaskanassasin

dang @ColtsFan that sucks for your sister. Ive been in a similar situation and it is not any fun.

alaskanassasin

@WeberWho I would not have even noticed but I was like holeee smokes that's a well-built bridge.

paqman

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Botch said:

This morning I learned that baking powder has a limited shelf life.  Mine expired during the second Bush administration.
This explains things.    

6 months once opened, 3 years unopened.

I usually push things, but 12 years past might be a bit much.

(Also, I just learned all this too.  Mine is also expired)

Really?  I have multiple jars on the go including one that is at least 15 years old, and it is definitely going strong.  I really don’t use much, when making pancakes mostly.  I think that there are two different types, maybe one can last longer?