You might think that being this close to Christmas and all that stuff that I would be doing some exciting things… Well, sorry to disappoint but it was just another boring day..
I could write that – got up, sat around, read email, did a little work for the company (reading their email and answering some), had lunch, fixed something and sat around… but I am too wordy for that… yep, I got some other things to say…
I did get up a bit late – 7:15 – and walked the kitchen until I decided that today was an Oatmeal day. Fixed my morning oatmeal and had breakfast… After that I got on to the company computer and caught up on the emails, sent several answers to past folks. They were wanting info on things I had no connection to anymore, not sure why they haven’t figured out that I am in a different job but they still ask. I politely explained I have no connection to the previous operations and they would be better asking someone that is still there. I hadn’t intended for that to take so long but it all ran until about 11:30AM? strange how time just gets away anymore.
I was in the mood for lunch so asked and everyone decided that we should visit the Great Wall. We really didn’t go all that far as we have a restaurant in town with that name and of course it is Chinese. It was pretty good too, although the price is a bit higher than our other favorite Thai place it was not too bad considering we had pretty good food. The one catching thing was the news channel they had on the big screen TV in there. It was France 24? I had not heard of that one and I had to put up with 9 years of French TV while in Algeria. I did a search for it and found you can watch it on the internet and I am sure that is what were were doing there. It was in English so you have to hunt a little but if your interested – France 24 TV.
I then went on to Lowes to get some repair parts as one of our vents for the Energy Recovery unit had a broken deflector and that would allow rain to get back into the piping… although it is a long way to the unit from the outlet I figures I could get a deflector for it. Once on Lowes I find they did not have the same type of unit. Not even close but I liked their caps much better than what was put in when we built so I determined I would swap the end out. Well that is easier said than done. When they rocked the house they really filled in out to the vent covers and I had to chip out mortar to get to the screws that hold the cap that held the flap… It was not a horrible job but did take a lot longer than I had planned, sure glad I started early in the afternoon. Whew, does every thing take longer than you figure? Sure does for me. But this is what I was into and finished with:
style=”background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px” title=”The broken deflector over the ERV inlet.” border=”0″ alt=”The broken deflector over the ERV inlet.” src=”http://ishmaels.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IMG_4715-1_thumb.jpg” width=”379″ height=”285″/>The broken deflector unit for the ERV inlet side. I also found that I had not cleaned the screen in this we put in to keep the bugs out and it was packed…
style=”background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px” title=”IMG_4716″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4716″ src=”http://ishmaels.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IMG_4716_thumb.jpg” width=”376″ height=”283″/>The replacement unit. Much better cover, greater air flow and a bit more solid. I did change the routing of the screws hold this unit. I can not get to them from the inside not the outside so I can caulk over the outside really good and not worry about having to dig it all out.
While I was out there I figured, better look at the dryer vent outlet as well and found that it had so much lint hung in it that the flapper would not close at all… I had to get a screw driver after it to dig out the packed lint in the hinge to the flapper… I would suggest that if you have a flapper type vent you need to service it every few months just like everything else…Me – I forgot for a long time to check it out, sure glad we didn’t get any critters back up in there, at least I don’t know of any…
style=”background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px” title=”IMG_4718″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4718″ src=”http://ishmaels.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IMG_4718_thumb.jpg” width=”377″ height=”284″/>I didn’t get a picture of how bad it was, a little ashamed I let it get that bad but suffice to say the now closed flapper was sticking out about 2 inches…
I do not like this style of vent cover and may end up changing it also but will “cogitate” on that for awhile.
I know I have posted pictures of our pond and how bad the drought has lowered the level of the water but on the way home from Lowes I took the back road and got this picture of one of the lakes near here and that is really low, I missed getting the picture of a pond that was nearly dry, and in the 6 years we have been here I never saw it more than 4 or 5 ft. down…
style=”background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px” title=”IMG_4714″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4714″ src=”http://ishmaels.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IMG_4714_thumb.jpg” width=”389″ height=”293″/>Not much left here.
The rest of the evening I puttered with a change in the dryer venting, research on the internet and other mundane things… Tomorrow we likely will be off to Dallas for a few days.
WD0AJG