More carpet-prep, boat guide-ons, gable fan/house fan planning, ‘This American Life’, boat-seat quick-release, cable-box trouble, ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’
(posted from home)
(This post covers 24-30 April, 2008)
-------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 30 April-
Today was ‘Day of the Cable Box Fiasco’. While I was in Florida, Labashi told me our cable box started showing an odd message and it was happening quite a bit. She’d be watching a channel and it would suddenly blank out and a message would pop up saying ‘If you’d like to subscribe to this channel, call 800-(something)’. Then the picture would come back within 3 seconds. I told Labashi to boot the box and that took care of it for awhile. But lately it started again -- about once a week --- so I called the cable company.
Today the cable guy came and replaced the set-top box. He said the problem should be fixed with a 2 May software release but he’d take care of it now by swapping in an older-generation box. He said it would operate exactly the same and left it on a cartoon channel. He was a very talkative guy and we got caught up in talking about my occasional internet halts so I didn’t check it out thoroughly. But after he left and I began changing channels I could see a very definite change for the worse in display quality. It was like going backwards in time from digital to analog cable.
I contacted the cable company and asked if I could just bring the box in and swap it for the new-generation one and take my chances on the odd-message thing. If I had to choose between rebooting one with a good picture and never having to reboot one with a bad picture, I’ll take the reboot one. I went to the local office and swapped boxes. But when I hooked it up, I had the message “Your cable has been disconnected, please call us.” When I called about that problem I learned the clerk hadn’t established the box correctly in my account but that was then fixed within a few minutes. So now I have a new cable box but not a lot of confidence that my problems are over.
I mowed our growing-out-of-control lawn that afternoon and that evening we watched ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’ on a Netflix DVD. This movie certainly had the talent—Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and director Sidney Lumet. I liked the film as it played but afterwards thought it a little contrived. Mr. Lumet makes a point of calling it a melodrama (in the Extras interview) and I think that helped me decide I’d have preferred it not be so over-the-top, so melodramatic. Of course the plotline demands it be melodramatic—two sons conspire to commit the perfect robbery (of their parents’ jewelry store) and naturally it all goes wrong. So the entertainment trick is to take unexpected twists and turns. This all just reminds me a little too much of ‘Twilight Zone’. But I did very much enjoy watching Mr. Lumet at work. What an interesting, talented guy.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 29 April-
Today I took Labashi’s desktop PC to the shop for a memory upgrade I ordered last week. My laptop loves the additional memory I added to it last week and I found we could upgrade hers from 512KB to 1.5GB for $68. She edits photos and does some fancy Quark documents so the additional memory should be welcome.
My afternoon project was installing quick-release seat brackets on the boat-seat pedestals. In Florida I was frustrated by the fishing seats. Here I was carrying around four seats and only one fanny the whole time (mine!). The stern fishing seat was too close against my left side while steering and the front one blocked my view while running, even when folded down. By putting quick-disconnect brackets on the seat pedestals, I eliminated the plush fishing seats (whose padding soaks your fanny after a rain anyway) and will use the unpadded navigation seats when we fish. And for short moves we can drive without moving the nav-seats by simply sitting on the platform the seats mount on (the seat brackets slip off without tools). I found the unpadded plastic seat plenty comfortable (I was in it for 12 hours one day in the Everglades) and won’t miss the padded ones.
That evening we watched ‘The Alaska Experiment’, episode 2. Those folks are in for some trouble.
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 28 April-
I spent the morning in additional research on house fans and gable vents. I had more or less settled on a gable fan but as I went into further detail, I decided the existing gable vent is too small. And when I saw a warning not to exceed the capacity of the intake ventilation, that turned into having to determine how our house stacks up. That led to questions about the calculations and rules-of-thumb and to such esoterica as “net free area”. For example, if you are trying to figure out how many square inches or square feet of ventilation you have and your house has perforated soffit, you need to know the ‘net free area’, or number of effective square inches of ventilation (NOT including the metal of the perforation). I eventually stumbled onto this page on the web: http://superioratticfans.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=46 and it was a great help. This also led to calculating whether we have sufficient ventilation for our roof-ridge venting (we had a new roof put on several years ago and opted for ridge-long venting but had never discussed the intake-vent requirements with the contractor). After all this, I determined that our soffit vents do indeed have enough venting to allow the roof-vent to work properly and would also be sufficient for a gable fan. But since I’m not anxious to cut into the gable-end of the house to install a larger vent (I’m not a fan of working from a ladder) so looked further into the whole-house fan idea.
I had thought I might install the fan in the attic entry-way but after taking measurements and looking in detail at the manufacturer’s web site, I found I couldn’t get the 24” fan up through the opening. Though my roof trusses are 24 inches apart, the front closet-wall was placed only 20” from the back wall and that’s insufficient room to get the fan up through the opening. I did find Home Depot has an expensive double-fan unit which I could fit into the space but one of the reviews says it’s very loud—like a very loud bathroom fan—and can be heard throughout the house. So between the fact that I would not be placing the fan in an optimal place (and don’t want to cut into my hallway ceiling), the fan’s expensive, it’s objectionably loud, and only marginally effective most of the year, I think I’d better look for other options. I suspect I’d get more bang-for-the-buck from blowing in additional insulation. I also want to look into increasing the soffit ventilation to help the passive roof-vent work better.
That evening we watched two more episodes of ‘This American Life’ and two of ‘Weeds- Season One’. GREAT viewing. ‘Weeds’ is certainly politically incorrect but is hilarious.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 27 April-
I spent the morning on the web and wrote an interim blog entry. Labashi and I then spent the afternoon plugging four holes left in the sub-floor by the removal of vents. These vents had been installed by the previous owner when he designed and built a wood stove with a built-in fan and then installed the ductwork and registers to distribute the heat to the upstairs rooms. We found the woodstove too smoky to use but kept it in place for years in case our electricity (and therefore our electric heat) went out for an extended time. But as we started re-modeling, we pulled out the under-floor duct work and insulated those areas and we sold the stove last winter. Now that we’re about to replace the carpet, we removed the registers and today filled the holes with ¾” plywood ‘plugs’. To do that we bought a 2’ x 2’ handy-panel and cut the 4”x 12” plugs as well as 3”x7” supports from it. We screwed two cross-supports below each opening and then screwed the plugs to them, making the area strong enough to support anything which might happen to be placed there.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘This American Life—Season One’ on Netflix Instant Movies. I had the DVD version in my Netflix queue but it has not yet been released so I was very surprised to find it available on the Instant Movies section of Netflix. Anyway, we LOVED it. It’s great to finally see Ira Glass after listening to him quite a lot on ‘This American Life’ podcasts. It’s great to see that the crew has done a fantastic job of transitioning from sound-only to the world of sound-and-video. The photography is incredible and very nicely complements the commentary. VERY HIGHLY recommended.
-------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 26 April-
I spent most of the day stripping and re-painting the rusty fishing boat guide-ons. I had bought these low-profile bunk guide-ons at Cabela’s last summer and love them. They are wonderful for guiding the boat onto its trailer, particularly when I’m loading single-handed. But I was amazed to see how badly salt-water caused the mounts to rust. I launched (and retrieved) in salt-water five times in Florida. After the second or third time, I noticed rust on the guide-on mounts. I finally got around to refinishing them today.
After unbolting them, I spent an hour or so in front of the grinder, using the wire-wheel to strip the rust and remaining paint from the mounting arms, plates, and bolts. I had planned to coat them with Rustoleum primer and black paint but when I saw how badly the old paint flaked, I went to the web for a better solution. Some sites recommended cold-galvanizing (zinc-rich) paint and I remembered using that on one of my sailboat anchors. I checked the anchor and it looks good after many salt-water dunkings. And when I saw I don’t need both a primer and topcoat with it, that settled it. I rode the KLR in to Home Depot and picked up two cans.
I found painting with the cold-galvanizing paint to be a bit tricky. The paint is just a carrier for zinc powder and it’s tough to control. The carrier is thin so the paint drips very easily if you hold the can too close to the object. And if you hold it too far back, the powder can land already dried out. The finish is also relatively thin once complete and doesn’t do well if bumped or scratched. But the good news is it’s a flat-gray finish and I can just spray on some more. I think the key to this being a good finish for the guide-ons will be upkeep, i.e., taking care of any scratches or dings before they get a chance to rust heavily.
That evening we watched several of the Discovery Channel programs on Alaska Week. Hmmm.
-------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 25 April-
This morning I rode the Concours down to the shop for its upcoming service appointment. I had checked with the shop to see if they had a loaner or rental trailer so I wouldn’t chance overheating the bike but they didn’t have one. I wasn’t relishing the thought of removing the bed-platform from Mocha Joe, removing the windshield from the bike, and loading the 600-plus-pound behemoth into the van so yesterday I took it for a ride near home to see how bad the overheating is. The bike did indeed run quite a bit hotter than normal but seemed (marginally) ok so long as I could keep moving and maintain airflow through the radiator. The cooling fan doesn’t work so any stops result in the temp-needle zooming immediately for the red zone. Today I left in the cool of morning and took the back roads to the shop rather than deal with the red-lights and heavier traffic of the ‘town’ way. Labashi followed me. I had warned her we might have to stop somewhere and wait for the bike to cool down, perhaps more than once. But the plan worked out well—I made it without stopping. The needle would head for the red-zone as I’d go up a hill but would also retreat as I’d go down a hill. I made it without hitting the red-zone at all. This HAS to be a sticky-thermostat problem.
On the way home we stopped at Home Depot and Lowe’s (I’m SO glad they are just down the street from each other) to look at whole-house fans and gable-fans. We avoided using air conditioning (and installing our two room-style air conditioners) last summer but only because we spent the months of July and August on the road. But I’d still like to delay the inevitable use of the a/c units this summer by pushing hot air out of the attic. We have an attic entrance above a closet and could put a whole-house fan there but that has some problems. The fan would be blowing up against the roof (there’s just enough clearance for me to get up there) and I’d have to make a frame which I could move out of the way to use the attic entrance. All in all, I think I’ll just try a gable-fan this year and see how that goes. I’m still looking for the ‘right’ fan but want to install one before the weather gets hot.
That evening we finished up ‘The Wire- Season Two’.
-------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 24 April-
I spent the morning updating the blog. Labashi and I then moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom and down to the basement (in preparation for carpet installation). We were both dreading the prospect of moving the larger dressers and cabinets, mostly because our hallway is narrow (and newly painted) and our stairs steep. But it went well. We learned it was smarter to exit the front door at the bottom of the steps and re-enter the house via the mud-room door around the corner rather than try to make the narrow turn at the bottom of the stairs. I did manage to whack the paint in the stairway turn with a corner of our bedroom tv so that will need to be fixed after we get things back in their places.
That evening we watched Survivor and an episode of ‘The Wire-2’.
========= end of post ==============
(posted from home)
(This post covers 24-30 April, 2008)
-------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 30 April-
Today was ‘Day of the Cable Box Fiasco’. While I was in Florida, Labashi told me our cable box started showing an odd message and it was happening quite a bit. She’d be watching a channel and it would suddenly blank out and a message would pop up saying ‘If you’d like to subscribe to this channel, call 800-(something)’. Then the picture would come back within 3 seconds. I told Labashi to boot the box and that took care of it for awhile. But lately it started again -- about once a week --- so I called the cable company.
Today the cable guy came and replaced the set-top box. He said the problem should be fixed with a 2 May software release but he’d take care of it now by swapping in an older-generation box. He said it would operate exactly the same and left it on a cartoon channel. He was a very talkative guy and we got caught up in talking about my occasional internet halts so I didn’t check it out thoroughly. But after he left and I began changing channels I could see a very definite change for the worse in display quality. It was like going backwards in time from digital to analog cable.
I contacted the cable company and asked if I could just bring the box in and swap it for the new-generation one and take my chances on the odd-message thing. If I had to choose between rebooting one with a good picture and never having to reboot one with a bad picture, I’ll take the reboot one. I went to the local office and swapped boxes. But when I hooked it up, I had the message “Your cable has been disconnected, please call us.” When I called about that problem I learned the clerk hadn’t established the box correctly in my account but that was then fixed within a few minutes. So now I have a new cable box but not a lot of confidence that my problems are over.
I mowed our growing-out-of-control lawn that afternoon and that evening we watched ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’ on a Netflix DVD. This movie certainly had the talent—Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and director Sidney Lumet. I liked the film as it played but afterwards thought it a little contrived. Mr. Lumet makes a point of calling it a melodrama (in the Extras interview) and I think that helped me decide I’d have preferred it not be so over-the-top, so melodramatic. Of course the plotline demands it be melodramatic—two sons conspire to commit the perfect robbery (of their parents’ jewelry store) and naturally it all goes wrong. So the entertainment trick is to take unexpected twists and turns. This all just reminds me a little too much of ‘Twilight Zone’. But I did very much enjoy watching Mr. Lumet at work. What an interesting, talented guy.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 29 April-
Today I took Labashi’s desktop PC to the shop for a memory upgrade I ordered last week. My laptop loves the additional memory I added to it last week and I found we could upgrade hers from 512KB to 1.5GB for $68. She edits photos and does some fancy Quark documents so the additional memory should be welcome.
My afternoon project was installing quick-release seat brackets on the boat-seat pedestals. In Florida I was frustrated by the fishing seats. Here I was carrying around four seats and only one fanny the whole time (mine!). The stern fishing seat was too close against my left side while steering and the front one blocked my view while running, even when folded down. By putting quick-disconnect brackets on the seat pedestals, I eliminated the plush fishing seats (whose padding soaks your fanny after a rain anyway) and will use the unpadded navigation seats when we fish. And for short moves we can drive without moving the nav-seats by simply sitting on the platform the seats mount on (the seat brackets slip off without tools). I found the unpadded plastic seat plenty comfortable (I was in it for 12 hours one day in the Everglades) and won’t miss the padded ones.
That evening we watched ‘The Alaska Experiment’, episode 2. Those folks are in for some trouble.
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 28 April-
I spent the morning in additional research on house fans and gable vents. I had more or less settled on a gable fan but as I went into further detail, I decided the existing gable vent is too small. And when I saw a warning not to exceed the capacity of the intake ventilation, that turned into having to determine how our house stacks up. That led to questions about the calculations and rules-of-thumb and to such esoterica as “net free area”. For example, if you are trying to figure out how many square inches or square feet of ventilation you have and your house has perforated soffit, you need to know the ‘net free area’, or number of effective square inches of ventilation (NOT including the metal of the perforation). I eventually stumbled onto this page on the web: http://superioratticfans.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=46 and it was a great help. This also led to calculating whether we have sufficient ventilation for our roof-ridge venting (we had a new roof put on several years ago and opted for ridge-long venting but had never discussed the intake-vent requirements with the contractor). After all this, I determined that our soffit vents do indeed have enough venting to allow the roof-vent to work properly and would also be sufficient for a gable fan. But since I’m not anxious to cut into the gable-end of the house to install a larger vent (I’m not a fan of working from a ladder) so looked further into the whole-house fan idea.
I had thought I might install the fan in the attic entry-way but after taking measurements and looking in detail at the manufacturer’s web site, I found I couldn’t get the 24” fan up through the opening. Though my roof trusses are 24 inches apart, the front closet-wall was placed only 20” from the back wall and that’s insufficient room to get the fan up through the opening. I did find Home Depot has an expensive double-fan unit which I could fit into the space but one of the reviews says it’s very loud—like a very loud bathroom fan—and can be heard throughout the house. So between the fact that I would not be placing the fan in an optimal place (and don’t want to cut into my hallway ceiling), the fan’s expensive, it’s objectionably loud, and only marginally effective most of the year, I think I’d better look for other options. I suspect I’d get more bang-for-the-buck from blowing in additional insulation. I also want to look into increasing the soffit ventilation to help the passive roof-vent work better.
That evening we watched two more episodes of ‘This American Life’ and two of ‘Weeds- Season One’. GREAT viewing. ‘Weeds’ is certainly politically incorrect but is hilarious.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 27 April-
I spent the morning on the web and wrote an interim blog entry. Labashi and I then spent the afternoon plugging four holes left in the sub-floor by the removal of vents. These vents had been installed by the previous owner when he designed and built a wood stove with a built-in fan and then installed the ductwork and registers to distribute the heat to the upstairs rooms. We found the woodstove too smoky to use but kept it in place for years in case our electricity (and therefore our electric heat) went out for an extended time. But as we started re-modeling, we pulled out the under-floor duct work and insulated those areas and we sold the stove last winter. Now that we’re about to replace the carpet, we removed the registers and today filled the holes with ¾” plywood ‘plugs’. To do that we bought a 2’ x 2’ handy-panel and cut the 4”x 12” plugs as well as 3”x7” supports from it. We screwed two cross-supports below each opening and then screwed the plugs to them, making the area strong enough to support anything which might happen to be placed there.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘This American Life—Season One’ on Netflix Instant Movies. I had the DVD version in my Netflix queue but it has not yet been released so I was very surprised to find it available on the Instant Movies section of Netflix. Anyway, we LOVED it. It’s great to finally see Ira Glass after listening to him quite a lot on ‘This American Life’ podcasts. It’s great to see that the crew has done a fantastic job of transitioning from sound-only to the world of sound-and-video. The photography is incredible and very nicely complements the commentary. VERY HIGHLY recommended.
-------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 26 April-
I spent most of the day stripping and re-painting the rusty fishing boat guide-ons. I had bought these low-profile bunk guide-ons at Cabela’s last summer and love them. They are wonderful for guiding the boat onto its trailer, particularly when I’m loading single-handed. But I was amazed to see how badly salt-water caused the mounts to rust. I launched (and retrieved) in salt-water five times in Florida. After the second or third time, I noticed rust on the guide-on mounts. I finally got around to refinishing them today.
After unbolting them, I spent an hour or so in front of the grinder, using the wire-wheel to strip the rust and remaining paint from the mounting arms, plates, and bolts. I had planned to coat them with Rustoleum primer and black paint but when I saw how badly the old paint flaked, I went to the web for a better solution. Some sites recommended cold-galvanizing (zinc-rich) paint and I remembered using that on one of my sailboat anchors. I checked the anchor and it looks good after many salt-water dunkings. And when I saw I don’t need both a primer and topcoat with it, that settled it. I rode the KLR in to Home Depot and picked up two cans.
I found painting with the cold-galvanizing paint to be a bit tricky. The paint is just a carrier for zinc powder and it’s tough to control. The carrier is thin so the paint drips very easily if you hold the can too close to the object. And if you hold it too far back, the powder can land already dried out. The finish is also relatively thin once complete and doesn’t do well if bumped or scratched. But the good news is it’s a flat-gray finish and I can just spray on some more. I think the key to this being a good finish for the guide-ons will be upkeep, i.e., taking care of any scratches or dings before they get a chance to rust heavily.
That evening we watched several of the Discovery Channel programs on Alaska Week. Hmmm.
-------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 25 April-
This morning I rode the Concours down to the shop for its upcoming service appointment. I had checked with the shop to see if they had a loaner or rental trailer so I wouldn’t chance overheating the bike but they didn’t have one. I wasn’t relishing the thought of removing the bed-platform from Mocha Joe, removing the windshield from the bike, and loading the 600-plus-pound behemoth into the van so yesterday I took it for a ride near home to see how bad the overheating is. The bike did indeed run quite a bit hotter than normal but seemed (marginally) ok so long as I could keep moving and maintain airflow through the radiator. The cooling fan doesn’t work so any stops result in the temp-needle zooming immediately for the red zone. Today I left in the cool of morning and took the back roads to the shop rather than deal with the red-lights and heavier traffic of the ‘town’ way. Labashi followed me. I had warned her we might have to stop somewhere and wait for the bike to cool down, perhaps more than once. But the plan worked out well—I made it without stopping. The needle would head for the red-zone as I’d go up a hill but would also retreat as I’d go down a hill. I made it without hitting the red-zone at all. This HAS to be a sticky-thermostat problem.
On the way home we stopped at Home Depot and Lowe’s (I’m SO glad they are just down the street from each other) to look at whole-house fans and gable-fans. We avoided using air conditioning (and installing our two room-style air conditioners) last summer but only because we spent the months of July and August on the road. But I’d still like to delay the inevitable use of the a/c units this summer by pushing hot air out of the attic. We have an attic entrance above a closet and could put a whole-house fan there but that has some problems. The fan would be blowing up against the roof (there’s just enough clearance for me to get up there) and I’d have to make a frame which I could move out of the way to use the attic entrance. All in all, I think I’ll just try a gable-fan this year and see how that goes. I’m still looking for the ‘right’ fan but want to install one before the weather gets hot.
That evening we finished up ‘The Wire- Season Two’.
-------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 24 April-
I spent the morning updating the blog. Labashi and I then moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom and down to the basement (in preparation for carpet installation). We were both dreading the prospect of moving the larger dressers and cabinets, mostly because our hallway is narrow (and newly painted) and our stairs steep. But it went well. We learned it was smarter to exit the front door at the bottom of the steps and re-enter the house via the mud-room door around the corner rather than try to make the narrow turn at the bottom of the stairs. I did manage to whack the paint in the stairway turn with a corner of our bedroom tv so that will need to be fixed after we get things back in their places.
That evening we watched Survivor and an episode of ‘The Wire-2’.
========= end of post ==============
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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