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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, how're things on the home front, KIKI?

Going well, I trust?

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Well, thanks to help from a tall person with strong hands I got my front light bulbs replaced. I'd been trying to get the glass shades off for literally months, trying with my hands, using rust-remover, WD40 then thicker oil, and two oil-filter wrenches (one for the fitting and one for the glass). My last effort before calling someone in was going to be heating the outer metal bands up that have the bayonet fittings, that hold the glass in place. But that VERY helpful person was able to take them off by hand for me!

Anyway, I super-cleaned everything up and put some teflon tape around the glass shades where the bayonet fittings are, so with any luck I won't have that problem again.

But there's some other problem I may need to deal with tonight or very early tomorrow. Wait and see.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Also had an ambulance in front of the building when I got in today. Don't know what happened.

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I live on the top street that goes side to side across a hill. Maybe because it's the only through street from one end of the hill to the other, idk, but it seems like it gets a lot of police/ ambulance/ rescue/ fire traffic. Every 3 weeks or so I see flashing red lights shining through the curtains when I'm watching TV as the whatever goes quietly by. I always wonder what's going on, and where.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog this evening.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog this evening.

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Quiet night then.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So cold... 8 degrees right now.

Negative 10 tonight. Negative 20+ with the wind chill...

Think I'll be leaving the sinks running just in case.

]

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So cold... 8 degrees right now.

Negative 10 tonight. Negative 20+ with the wind chill...

Think I'll be leaving the sinks running just in case.

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I checked on WNY, they've got the same thing today/tomorrow. I think they call it an "Alberta clipper"... a big swoop from the north. Bitterly cold, but not much snow.

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Not a fan of the cold. I'll take the lack of snow gladly though.

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Pipes run thru the basement, and house is well- insulated so I guess the pipes don't freeze.

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I have no heat in the basement, due to a 2 duct system HVAC solution Uncle Bob put together, and I still haven't put a furnace on the slab for it in the crawl space. Only heat I have comes from the attic and through 6 ceiling vents in the two bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room and pushes downward. The 2nd duct system would push through 5 vents... One from the lower half of the wall in each large room in the basement, two from the livingroom floor and one from the livingroom kitchen.



My pipes have only froze on me once since I've been here, on a night that was probably a little colder than this one was. Back then though, I kept the thermostat on the 2nd floor 7 degrees colder than I've been keeping it for the last 3 or so winters. These pipes run right along the side of the foundation where it's exposed above the dirt in the front of the house, so sadly except for the foundation itself and the foam I put around them, there is no insulation for them.

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How fast do you have to run the water? Drips?

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I could probably get away with drips, but water is so cheap around here that I leave a trickle going down. About as little as I can get it to go without breaking the stream of water. Fortunately, my pipes didn't burst that one night they froze, but after having to do two emergency sump pump replacements while naked in bitter cold water, I'd rather just pay $1 or $2 more on my water bill just to be safe.

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We're going to get a significant change in terms of dryness; dew point set to fall by 20F and stay dry thru Saturday. My sinuses are going to take a beating. Setting up the humidifier tonight.

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Sorry to hear that. I wish there were a way that we could trade a bit of each other's situations. I get way too much water and you never get enough of it. :(

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Anyone heard from JSF or JO lately? I hope they're ok

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I saw JSF respond to a post just a day or two ago I think. He's no stranger to the cold weather up in Wisconsin, and he's perfectly capable of dealing with anything out of the ordinary. I think he's going to be fine.

I haven't heard from JO though. I hope he's doing alright.



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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Ugggghhh...

I've got to find my mojo.

I've been back from my brother's a week tomorrow, and all I've accomplished since then is snowblowing/shoveling twice and clearing out my pantry. Nothing is getting done.

I hate winter. :(

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

I'm just popping in to say hey all! And that I was able to solve what was looking like a problem before it needed professional intervention. So far, so good!

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'm glad it's warm enough to rain by you Brenda.



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Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

I'm just popping in to say hey all! And that I was able to solve what was looking like a problem before it needed professional intervention. So far, so good!

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Good deal!!

*****

Yes BRENDA, a occasional weather-swap would be appreciated!

I got the humidifier going last night... lay in bed thinking about it for a while but decided it was worth getting out from under the covers. It's just an el-cheapo water-boiler, and it ran out of water partway thru the night, but there was enuf moisture in the air for the night and it made for comfortable sleeping. I'm glad I bothered with it!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Managed 3rd place today at mah jong. Horrible morning for everyone except 1 lady who had 10,000 points in the first hand.

Sun is out now and burned off a portion of the fog. Have to see what happens later.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

As much as I dislike the day-after-day unrelenting heat for most of the year here, right now your weather sounds warm and cozy.

With your thunderstorm, where your clouds WAY up high and all the action WAY up there? Or was everything low and seriously threatening? Because I used to enjoy extreme weather until I had a (small) tornado pass low directly overhead. And that was truly frightening. So I'm curious what your t-storm was like.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Brenda, OMG you are having a foggy time of it!

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Managed 3rd place today at mah jong. Horrible morning for everyone except 1 lady who had 10,000 points in the first hand.

Sun is out now and burned off a portion of the fog. Have to see what happens later.

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Congrats! Sounds like one person had most of the luck, but at least you had some!

Usually when we have an inversion there's bad air quality to go with it. I hope that doesn't happen where you live.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Back home from work. My boss's husband decided today to play around with the fireplace that is in the house. He had a fireplace company come by and talked to the guys in person then after they left, he lit it.

Well, long story short even after talking to the guys he still doesn't know what he is doing. He almost smoked out the living room. They were in 2 separate rooms not far from the living room but they couldn't smell the smoke. I had to TELL him what was happening.

The whole idea behind this is to use the fireplace in the winter as they have a pile of firewood in the yard. They brought it in about 3 winters ago. The last time he tried the fire place, he said he smoked out the living room and their guests had to leave.

ETA: I think I smell a bit like smoke.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Back home from work. My boss's husband decided today to play around with the fireplace that is in the house. He had a fireplace company come by and talked to the guys in person then after they left, he lit it.

Well, long story short even after talking to the guys he still doesn't know what he is doing. He almost smoked out the living room. They were in 2 separate rooms not far from the living room but they couldn't smell the smoke. I had to TELL him what was happening.

The whole idea behind this is to use the fireplace in the winter as they have a pile of firewood in the yard. They brought it in about 3 winters ago. The last time he tried the fire place, he said he smoked out the living room and their guests had to leave.

ETA: I think I smell a bit like smoke.

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There is a lever-activated damper in the top of the fireplace. Normally it is closed to keep cold air from swooping down the flue. It needs to be opened to let the hot air and smoke rise and escape out the chimney. Sounds like he didn't open it.

Another possibility is that the flue is partially blocked with creosote. When a fire is started in the fireplace and wood begins to burn, the oils in the wood volatilize and rise up the flue, but then they meet the still-cold flue surface and condense there. It's like tar. It can create quite a plug! So either you have your flue cleaned or you build a hot enough fire to catch the creosote on fire, creating what is called a 'chimney fire' to burn off the creosote. Small chimney fires are goodvthings.

I did THAT once, accidentally, only it wasn't a small chimney fire, it was loud like a fast-moving freight train, and scary, with flames shooting out the top of the chimney and burning chunks of creosote landing on the roof! But by the time my sis and i got it under control, by god the flue was clean!


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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by Brenda:
my boss is an idiot.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
my boss is an idiot.

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I don't think that is news.

What revealed it this time?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So I wandered into the backyard to see how things were faring without attention.

The grass is tall in some spots and the weeds are taking over but- dang!- wouldn't you know but I spotted a few red, ripe tomatoes on my one tomato bush, and some green ones as well!

I had two tomato bushes last year, both Early Girl, and they grew spectacularly (taller than hubby) and bore prolifically. One bush does what Early Girl tomatoes do in the winter: it died down to the ground. The other, a mere 4' away, is still green and producing. I have no idea what's with that one plant, I'm very happy to be able to harvest garden tomatoes in the dead of winter, but why it wants to be a perennial is beyond me! Maybe I can save some seeds and see if new plants would come true to the original.

Gotta water, tho. Last significant rainfall was late Dec IIRC, and altho we got a good soaking the ground is probably dried out by now.

As usual I over planned my day, assuming I could accomplish more than I was capable of, but I did manage to walk the dog, roast a pork picnic roast, do a kitchen cleanup (the kind I hate the most, a couple of sinksful of cups, containers, caps, jars, utensils, pots, pans... took me almost 2 hours washing!, tidy up the house and make dinner

Have some bills pending in my email, need to unbox a bunch of stuff, freeze the pork, make dig food, fix a sprinkler head, water the property, sort the mail... make dinner tomorrow and Sunday, and... that'll be the weekend. Doesn't sound like much, but I bet I don't get ALLA if that done, either!

Hubby and daughter are working on finishing the platform bed. He just oiled it today with Tung oil, and it is a thing of beauty!!

Most of it is Euro steamed beech. We spent a HUGE amt of time picking out planks at the lumberyard looking for boards that were straight and with good figure and... OMG it's amazing! I'll try and post pix when I get a chance.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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