Technicalities

December 30, 2008

Weird Stuff That Happens

As I said, the electrician was here today fixing things. Of course they did have to turn off the electricity to work on the lines.

When they started turning it back on, things came on in "shifts". We were in the kitchen and noticed that we had lights and the answering machine was on, but not the appliances. Then the microwave clock came on and the refrigerator fired up.

Then - all by itself, the dryer turned on. And off...

We have an electric dryer and it has a computer in it. One of those that senses the clothes and whether they are dry or not. Yeah, it turned on and off all by itself.

As far as I know, in the few times we've lost power, it's never done that. Let's hope this is not a trend. I don't want it turning on and off at random intervals.

Creepy stuff this electricity.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:20 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 157 words, total size 1 kb.

December 29, 2008

One Way or Another

It's been a hell of a few weeks. I'm so glad December is almost over. I have a laundry list of things to do over the next few days that I have let slide lately.

Tonight I'll be creating my todo list in an effort to get things rolling. That might work. Or not. Because it's all personal stuff and not work related, I tend to not place the same emphasis on it. Not a good thing, but there it is.

I am currently residing in that state of "I have too much to do, where do I start". A place I truly hate. The only way out of it is to start in on something. Therefore, I'm pondering which thing to start first. Once begun, I may be able to keep the ball rolling and finish.

The worst of it is, it likely will not take as long as I think it will to accomplish 80% of the tasks.

So, I'm off to make my lists. We shall see what comes of it all. Right now I'm tired... simply contemplating is sapping my energy. Time to "do" instead of think.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 12:28 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 195 words, total size 1 kb.

December 26, 2008

This and That

What's up?

Well, darling daughter is on her way back home. Today the flight went out as scheduled, so she won't be getting back to Chicago really really late. This is a good thing.

***

On Christmas Eve we had another power outage - it was excessively windy. Power went out about 11pm, came on at midnight for 3 minutes, went out again until 1:30am and has remained on since. This was a neighborhood thing (not just our lines) because everyone around us was down too.

All those blogs I was going to visit - well, I didn't quite get there.

Best laid plans and all that...

***

Found out that Skype charges extra to call cell phones in other countries - over and above the standard call rates to landlines.

Tried to add money to the skype account so we could call young son. Unfortunately, only after trying to add money via paypal, did I find out it would be up to 48 hours before that money showed up on the account.

We ended up driving down to the parking lot of the local farmstand by the highway and calling via cell phone.

Apparently I can't read when I'm in a hurry and missed the landline part of the skype website details.

I want my real phone back.

***

There have been technical problems at work today that make me want to scream. There are days when I really hate computers.

***

Have I done enough complaining for the day?

I thought so.

Now I have to get back to work.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 03:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 265 words, total size 2 kb.

December 13, 2008

Can we have the 2.5 please?

As I am still thumb typing,(by candlelight at that) it will be yet another fun bb post.(On my bb I get my line breaks - but for some reason it all runs together when published. Sorry) We heard on the radio today that 60% of our town has power. I can tell you that they have not reached our street yet. I may be working at Starbucks on Monday. I have pictures once I can get online and get them posted. But today's excursion was out to buy a couple more gas cans. We only had one 2.5 gallon container. We wanted at least 2 more to cut down on trips to buy gas for the generator. The 1.5 gal are too small and the 5 gal are heavy & hard to pour without spillage. Lowes only had 1.5 gal cans - they are on the edge of the major outage area. So we trekked to Home Depot in the closest town that didn't have major outages. Finally found the containers, but the 2.5 were on the very top shelf - the 1.5 & 5 gal were on the floor...figures. Found a guy to get them down. Then a second guy shows up. They were both CERTAIN that the little cans on the floor were the same size as those on the top shelf. We pointed out the numbers... But it wasn't until the one guy got the larger ones down & they could compare, that they believed us.Ho-hum. Anyhow, we now have gas to get us through tomorrow. Goody.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 05:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 266 words, total size 1 kb.

December 02, 2008

Some People Are Overly Vocal

Lately our heater has been acting strangely. Because it resides in the little room next to the television room, we have a more than adequate chance to hear it turning on and off.

At the end of the cycle, the fan blows and cools the plenum for several minutes and then it turns off. Everyone with a heater in the house is familiar with these things. But our furnace suddenly started to kick on the burner at the end of the cycle.... on, off, on, off, in 2 second spurts then the cycle would shut down. Disconcerting to say the least.

So today I had the guy out to look at it. There is no way I want us to have a cold snap and have the furnace die. That would not be good at all.

I kicked up the thermostat to get it going for him, then kicked it down to turn it off. I was never so happy as I was when the furnace performed like a real trooper and did it's strange little on-off cycle. Whew!

Now we come to the guy who was there to fix it. The usual furnace type guy - oil furnace that is. Coveralls, a bit gritty from the soot that an oil furnace kicks out. When my furnace did it's little thing - the guy jumped and said "Whoa!". Which was a bit alarming to say the least.

Apparently he knew the problem though and got to work on it. I could hear him (my office is in the next room over - the furnace room between the television room and my office) as he muttered away to himself. Not words, just muttering.

Suddenly he was talking really loud - I thought it was to me... "HAVE YOU SEEN MY PLASTIC TOOL TRAY?" I went into the room to ask him what he was talking about, only to find out he was on his cell! In my basement!!! He must have an incredible antenna on that phone - I'm lucky to get one bar in my basement... or even upstairs for that matter.

A few minutes later I hear him saying, "that's not good, that's not good at all". These are not words you want to over hear when someone is working on your furnace... It generally means you need a new one. It's about that time I was having visions of dollar bills floating out the window.

Then 3 minutes later he turns it on! It's working fine. I have no idea what was "not good" - he didn't say anything else was wrong except for the ignition dealie which he replaced.

Luckily right about then my husband walked in and furnace guy was able to point out all the stuff he did so I didn't have to try and remember it for later (I really suck at that... especially the part where my husband points at something and says "what's that for?" and I have to say "oh sorry, don't know, I didn't ask him".)

So, all's well. The furnace works, they'll send us a bill, and hopefully we'll continue to stay warm enough.

But if they ever send someone again, I'm gonna hope for a guy who is a little more reserved... it's too nerve wracking otherwise.