Nothing to Post This Weekend

1/18/2020

My boiler stopped working yesterday morning, shutting down my heating system, and as a result I spent all day yesterday arranging for repairs before the house chilled to the point of becoming uninhabitable. The circulator failed, resulting in an electrical malfunction that only managed to avoid catching fire because the valve above it leaked, extinguishing the sparks. This resulted in a busted circulator and a blown fuse. The circulator was easy to repair, according to the HVAC specialist, but the stupid special little fuse took two hours to replace because no one in the area carries that particular type and it had to be procured from twenty miles away. This happened simultaneously with the much-delayed closing on the house I have been trying to sell since last summer and with FedEx delivering my repaired computer. It was a busy morning that slid into a busier afternoon when the ongoing legal issues I have faced entered a new phase when the complainer (whose name I no longer use) demanded the removal of his name from every URL ever published on this blog. Despite the hardships, by the end of the day, I had a working furnace, a working computer, and only one house. My lawyer also drafted a response to the complainer. But I had no time to write, so I have nothing else to share this weekend except that my publisher has asked for revisions to my Legends of the Pyramids book and I now must work on that since I have a working computer again.

73 Comments

Crash55

1/18/2020 09:53:49 am

Wow that was a sucky day. Glad to hear you got your furnace fixed, the closing done and a repaired PC. Good luck with the rewrites. I am sure the denizens of this blog will find some way to entertain themselves.

Jim

1/18/2020 10:55:13 am

Ouch,,, regarding the furnace, been there done that.

My solution was to buy a small inexpensive 220 volt (perhaps 240 in the US?) electric heater with a plug in that fits either a 220 volt clothes drier plug in or the 220 volt Kitchen stove plug in.
You may have to rewire the plug or have someone do it for you as it can be a little tricky with the 3 phase wiring sometimes going from 3 to 4 wires, but it is well worth it as it will keep your house from freezing up.
They are small, inexpensive and give you peace of mind. I wouldn't be without one.
I also built a 40 foot extension cord for it so I could place it upstairs using the basement dryer plug in and still have a functioning electric stove.
Key, is buying the right plug as there seems to be a multitude of different 220 volt plug ins, welders, dryers, etc etc.

https://www.amazon.ca/Dimplex-DCH4831L-4800-Watt-Portable-Construction/dp/B002SG7EWG

Yikes, these have more than doubled in price since I bought my last one.

Crash55

1/18/2020 11:01:54 am

Jim,

There are plenty of 115V space heaters available in the US. I use one in the basement as supplemental heat instead of increasing the overall house setting.

Extension cords are generally viewed as a no-no with space heaters. The big issue is that most people use too small of a gauge cord and wind up overheating it.

The space heater is a good idea but for safety's sake I suggest 115V and preferably no extension cord.

Jim

1/18/2020 11:35:00 am

"Extension cords are generally viewed as a no-no with space heaters."

Using an appropriate gauge wire extension cord nullifies this problem.
A 110 volt electric heater will use up to around 1500-1750 watts and needs an appropriately robust extension cord to carry the load.
Ditto with a 4500 watt 240 volt heater, however by using 240 volts you halve the actual amps needed, making it easier for a smaller gauge wire to carry the load.
It's the amperes that create the danger, not the voltage.
If you use the same (or greater) gauge wiring as your household 240 volt wiring there should be no problem.

Brooksie

1/18/2020 11:48:56 am

Wow, there has finally been a subject discussed here that you blue collar ham and eggers have some trifling of knowledge regarding, but this doesn’t look like a blog for inept handymen to have dick measuring contests, does it?

Crash55

1/18/2020 12:03:08 pm

Jim,

Not saying you can’t do it, I have an extension cord on my space heater. I made sure it was the correct gauge to carry the load.

That being said the information on most heaters and put out by fire depts in the US is to not use one because most people don’t know how to properly size extension cords.

Yes a 240V heater will require less amps but you have at most two places to to plug it in. Zero if you have gas appliances. Also you have to be willing to wire plugs or extension cords. I know minor electrical work, however not everyone can do that properly. In my current house, the breaker kept tripping every time I used auto clean on my oven. Turned out that the previous owner didn’t properly connect the pig tail, so it kept shorting out.

115V has the advantage of having a plug for it in every room and the most you need to know is to use the proper gauge extension cord.

Either option is fine provided you know the advantages / drawbacks of each.

Jim

1/18/2020 12:31:24 pm

Certainly Crash, each to his own, speaking from my own experience, I have found my solution to be far superior.
I actually lived in a house with a broken furnace for a couple of weeks in the dead of our extremely cold Canadian winter.
When I arrived there were 3 110 volt heaters and after the first night I knew it was untenable and was quite worried about the pipes, toilet etc freezing and bursting.
I installed a 220 volt heater and the difference was great, even with the smaller 110 volt heaters unplugged
Now, I know that 3 1500 watt heaters will give you as much heat as 1 4500 watt heater but still there was a large difference.
I suspect having 1 large central heater as opposed 3 smaller ones spread out did a better job of keeping the thermal mass of the entire house warmer and really did make a big noticeable difference in the temperature.

Crash55

1/18/2020 01:26:07 pm

Jim, glad your solution worked well for you. You do however appear to have the correct skills to implement it. I haven’t seen any mention of such skills by Jason (or the average person reading this blog) and would hate to see a house burn down due to improper wiring. Space heaters claim lots of houses each year: https://www.ishn.com/articles/107909-space-heaters-cause-majority-of-fatal-house-fires

I would have thought distributed heating would have worked better than point heating. I wonder if the 115V ones were really putting out 1500W. Could also have had something to do with placement.

Anyway hopefully no one on this blog has any further furnace issues this winter and the issue becomes moot.

Professor Feelgood

1/18/2020 02:12:51 pm

Brooksie,

In American English the concept of ham and egger is synonymous with blue collar. This type of redundancy makes you appear to be illiterate.

Jim

1/18/2020 02:39:18 pm

Crash55

It wasn't available to me at the time, but now 3 to 4 prong adapters are available as well as appropriate extension cords. I shutter to think what they cost though.

https://www.amazon.com/slp/4-prong-to-3-prong-dryer-adapter/g9pp2r4be8xv58v

Anyhoo, I love my "mini furnace" and it has pretty much paid for itself as I charge a flat case of beer rate for a no time limit rental to friends and neighbors.

Brooksie

1/18/2020 08:49:47 pm

Professor Feelsdumb, when I referred to the two dolts as “blue collar ham and eggers” in the earlier comment, I skillfully employed the art of repetition in a manner that added emotional force and intellectual clarity to the thought — it’s a form of synonymia that’s been used by many of the greatest writers in history. I’m glad that the figure of speech worked on you!

Kent

1/18/2020 11:03:05 pm

Yeah, no, you fucked up the ham and egger thing.

A "no limit rental" is also known as "a gift". I just buy beer.

Brooksie

1/18/2020 11:53:42 pm

According to multiple posters here, you’re an alcoholic, habitually drunk, regularly inebriated, booze guzzling sot who is essentially unemployable and who lives with his mother rent-free — so I’m going to ignore anything you have to offer, particularly when it consists of nothing more than a bald assertion.

Butthurt cream salesman

1/19/2020 12:31:35 am

Brooksie,

You are not one of the greatest writers and so the continued redundancy makes you appear iliterate. Perhaps this explains your frustration with your station in life and need to compensate by lashing out at others.

Hope this helps.

Brooksie

1/19/2020 12:37:21 am

Kent may be a drunk, but I’m guessing that he at least understood the joke that went over your head.

Merl thoreau

1/19/2020 12:47:56 am

Brooksie,

In American English it is "booze-guzzling." You know the rest.....

Brooksie

1/19/2020 01:29:59 am

You know what? You’re exactly right! I’m so quick to nitpick others that I’ve opened myself up to being closely scrutinized. And if I’m not absolutely perfect in my own writing, then people will justifiably call me on it — as you just did. You sure put me in my place and I now feel quite humiliated.

Sean Connery

1/19/2020 01:31:04 am

I'm living rent-free with a mother....Brooksie's mother!!!

I'll take "Men who haven't said that," for $1000, Alex.

Hah, hah, hah.

Shane Sullivan

1/18/2020 11:03:29 am

I'm glad to hear you've got most of that straightened out. Good luck with the book revisions and legal problem.

Machala

1/18/2020 11:49:59 am

It's been many, many years since I have wrestled with furnace problems.One on the joys of living in warm climes most of my life. However, I did live in an old Cape Cod house in Connecticut years ago that had a very persnickety oil burning furnace that always chose to go on the fritz when there was a blizzard or an record freezing temperatures.
You do have my sympathies and I hope everything gets back to near-normal soon.A couple of adults can weather the cold much better than a toddler, so I understand your concern about getting it repaired rapidly.
Hope everything works out with the "nameless" lameness asshole who is giving you so many headaches. Nuisance suits are called that for a reason. They are a major pain in the ass and waste of time and money ... but that is of course, what the idiot wants you to do. ¡Buena suerte!

An Anonymous Nerd

1/18/2020 11:56:14 am

The Fringe is well-funded, so the legal system more-often works for them than on the side of accuracy. Remember James Randi and Uri Geller? It's very depressing.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Brooksie

1/18/2020 01:38:17 pm

Given that Jason has been kowtowed and intimidated into no longer using the moron’s name on the blog, the dingbats have already won a victory of sorts.

Brooksie

1/18/2020 01:43:21 pm

I meant of course that Jason has been forced into kowtowing.

We Dont need no education

1/18/2020 02:45:26 pm

Poor Brooksie. It takes two attempts for her to articulate a basic concept.

E Bronte

1/18/2020 03:37:17 pm

It's the Internet Grammar Nazi Boomerang Law at work here. You call someone a slob for having a ketchup stain on their collar only to have someone point out the huge brown stain on the seat of your pants.

Yes,

1/18/2020 03:43:54 pm

E Bronte, it is the internet. But Brooksie started the whole thing in the comment section of the previous post.

Brooksie is the grammar Nazi.

E Bronte

1/18/2020 04:03:37 pm

Yes we are on the internet and yes I was writing in reference to Brooksie's conduct here. I hope this helps.

Oh, sorry, E Bronte,

1/18/2020 04:12:31 pm

It does help.

Jason Colavito link

1/18/2020 06:53:41 pm

No one is stopping me from using Pulitzer's name. I mentioned him by name when he showed up on the Science Channel last month. I just don't use his name in this context because I have no interest in giving him more publicity and having my posts show up in his daily Google scan for his name. He's a bit like Beetlejuice in that sense.

Kent

1/19/2020 01:10:40 am

"No one is stopping me from using Pulitzer's name. I mentioned him by name when he showed up on the Science Channel last month. I just don't use his name in this context because I have no interest in giving him more publicity and having my posts show up in his daily Google scan for his name. He's a bit like Beetlejuice in that sense."

When you say "this context" which context did you not use his name in when you used it in this context?

SMFH alarms going off all over the three inhabited planets. WTF?

Kent

1/19/2020 01:04:44 am

"AN ANONYMOUS NERD
1/18/2020 11:56:14 am
The Fringe is well-funded, so the legal system more-often works for them than on the side of accuracy. Remember James Randi and Uri Geller? It's very depressing.

-An Anonymous Nerd"

I remember that Geller had to pay Randi substantial sums on three separate occasions and Randi never had to pay Geller ANYTHING.

So stop being a stupid fucking idiot.

Sean Connery

1/19/2020 01:39:36 am

I had to pay Kent's mother substantial sums on three separate occasions....for abortions!! Hah, hah, hah.

I will take "who hasn't said that" for $800, Alex. Hah, hah, hah.

Kent

1/19/2020 02:39:39 am

Dad found that a good solid knee to the belly sufficed and passed it down as a family tradition. I've killed multiple babies using that method. Don't you fucking hate women?

Kent, I know you hate women,

1/19/2020 03:25:51 am

which is why you're am incel MGTOW.

Sean connery

1/19/2020 12:16:46 pm

A knee to the stomach works wonderfully....as foreplay with your mother. She loves it rough. Hah, hah, hah, hah,Ha

An Anonymous Nerd

1/19/2020 12:22:54 pm

*sighs* There you go again.

Yep, Mr. Randi won. Mr. Colavito probably will win his case too, if it even comes to a case. But the point is that the well-funded can make life Hell for the non-well-funded and make them spend time and money that, in a rational world, they should not have to spend.

Not to mention that all it'll take is one bad decision by a Judge.....

-An Anonymous Nerd

NO SHORTAGE OF SPAM AGAIN ON THIS BLOG

1/18/2020 01:48:40 pm

BLAH-BLAH-BLAH
FULL OF DUNCES

Duh, duh dunce

1/18/2020 03:48:58 pm

Greetings fellow dunce!!!

Hi Kent

1/18/2020 04:19:22 pm

Nice to meet your girlfriend, Brooksie.

Kent

1/18/2020 05:18:30 pm

I find that getting a metal box, running a pipe from it to the outdoors and burning stuff in the box works.

Advanced wiseman

1/18/2020 05:38:32 pm

Why don’t you try out that method on your brain?

Crash55

1/18/2020 06:57:36 pm

@Advanced Wiseman

Do we really want to let that much hot air into the environment?

Jim

1/18/2020 07:35:21 pm

At least give him credit for using a metal box this time.
Last time he built a woodstove out of oak.

Kent

1/18/2020 08:21:46 pm

So Jim, what is sex with someone under the age of consent like? Is it worth it?

Sean Connery

1/18/2020 06:18:16 pm

Only advisable if you stay high on crack for days at a time and will be awake when the cardboard box catches on fire. Just like at Kent and his mother's house. Hah, hah, hah.

Kent

1/18/2020 08:20:03 pm

So on your planet metal and cardboard are the same thing? Okay, got it!

Sean Connery

1/18/2020 08:49:59 pm

No but in the homeless encampment where you and your mother live a cardboard box and a home are the same thing. Hah, hah, hah.

I'll take Kent's Mother's Metal Box for $500, Alex. Hah, hah, hah, hah.

Sean Connery

1/18/2020 08:55:16 pm

How would I know what materials the plates in your head were made out of?

Hunter Biden

1/18/2020 09:32:56 pm

Oh dear, the last time that I ran pipe into that particular metal box it wasn't long before something felt like it was on fire.

Can't Yet Think Of A New Handle

1/18/2020 09:56:19 pm

Oh god, I'm just floored with dying of laughter.

I mean, WTF is this blog, anyways?

For fuck's sake, this is a riot, I wish I knew anyone outside of you fuckers that I could share it with.

Thank you, Jason!

CAN'T YET THINK OF A NEW HANDLE

1/18/2020 10:08:11 pm

Some of you right now, are about to go all, like: "Share it with your Mom!".

Stop yourself right now.

I will share it with my Mom, and post her feedback here. Thus sending you all deeply in to a Mom-regret spiral of unending Mom-doom-porn.

So just slowly, with intention: Back. Away. From. The. Keyboard.

There ya' go.

Rock doc

1/18/2020 11:05:54 pm

I share everything with my waitresses who are essentially my moms!

Sean Connery

1/19/2020 01:12:43 am

According to the doctor down at the free clinic this isn't the only thing you are sharing with your mother! Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah.

Anthony Warren Warren

1/18/2020 09:42:08 pm

Without mentioning any names, here is some bitchery.

https://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog

Hal

1/18/2020 11:07:17 pm

Hate blog with deranged and hate filled followers.

Jim

1/18/2020 11:08:40 pm

Required reading on the latest buffoonery of he who shall not be named.

What a Putz.

An Anonymous Nerd

1/19/2020 10:27:04 pm

Your favorite Fringe celebrities most-likely neither know you, nor care about you.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Machala

1/20/2020 04:11:27 pm

Doesn't everyone think that Jeffry Joven Philyaw aka Jovan Hutton Pulitzer aka J. Hutton Pulitzer, J. Jovan Philyaw or Jovan is litigious, attention-seeking. insecure little putz ?

Jr. Time Lord

1/19/2020 12:00:31 am

"My boiler stopped working yesterday morning, shutting down my heating system, and as a result I spent all day yesterday arranging for repairs before the house chilled to the point of becoming uninhabitable."

The stove and a couple of strategically-placed fans always works in a pinch.

Sr. Time Lord

1/19/2020 01:16:06 am

No need for fans, just jam your head in that sucker. Get a good jam on!

Crash55

1/19/2020 09:38:30 am

Using the stove can be dangerous with a young child in the house.

Jr. Time Lord

1/20/2020 05:42:35 am

"Using the stove can be dangerous with a young child in the house."

No more so than space heaters. Especially open-faced units from the late 70s. I remember ours quite well. You could suntan with that thing.

Crash55

1/20/2020 08:41:13 am

Yeah if you have an old one or an industrial one. The comments about space whatevs wee suggesting Jason go buy one. Somehow I don’t see him buying a 1979’s version. The couple yea old one I have doesn’t have the same exposed heating elements

Jr. Time Lord

1/22/2020 04:26:28 am

"The comments about space whatevs wee suggesting Jason go buy one."

No argument there. My suggestion related to not buying one and going with what's on hand. Not everyone can afford to go out and buy space heaters and appropriate extension cords. If the house is small enough, a cloths dryer and some pantyhose works wonders. Simply remove the ventilation tube and cover with pantyhose as an air filter. If the dryer is in the basement or anywhere near the heating unit, the vent tube can be hooked up to one of the distribution tubes. I would still use some pantyhose/nylon stocking as an air filter though.

Toilets can be dangerous to children left unattended too. I was giving the blog owner more credit as an attentive parent, and not assuming him to be a lackadaisical imbecile incapable of caring for a child.

Doc Rock

1/20/2020 09:17:19 am

All this time I thought the legal difficulty was with Wolter. But then again the craziness tends to all bleed together and it is six of one or a half-dozen of the other.

Murgatroyd

1/20/2020 10:02:47 am

Bad luck, Jason - domestic and office catastrophes, and having to look after a toddler into the bargain ... (Our boiler broke down the winter before last - but friends and neighbours kindly rallied round with an assortment of electric heaters).

Anyway: glad you got things under control in the end.

If it hasn't been suggested already, I suppose you could refer to the Nameless One as "Voldemort."

Kal

1/20/2020 03:13:37 pm

You commenters have all become licensed furnace repairmen, (but doubtful any of you actually have ever fixed one), but just joke about online lawsuits eve once, and be harassed for giving unwanted advice about obvious legal issues, such as libel as relating to blogs. Then you also have the haters going back and forth tossing "yo mama jokes"? What, are you all school age but in the special school mentally?

Sean Connery

1/20/2020 04:30:20 pm

There's a different repairman's truck parked in front of Kal's mother's house every day. Hah, hah, hah, hah.

Coneheads would be funnier

1/20/2020 05:32:42 pm

You come across as a 13 year old kid who just watched an old SNL skit and decided that the premise of the stupid joke was so funny that you have to repeat it every 20 seconds.

Sean connery

1/20/2020 08:19:58 pm

Oh, did I offend you? I assure you that it wasn't my intention. I offer you my most sincere apology. As a peace offering let me treat you to a pint....of your mother's breast milk. Just pumped by me. Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah.

Try something new

1/20/2020 10:03:10 pm

Rather than offending me, you simply annoyed me in the same way that a forced viewing of a Gallagher comedy routine would. Then again, there are a few old farts here who quote stale, butt-rock lyrics who’d probably appreciate your boring act.

Sean connery

1/21/2020 09:32:57 pm

That's strange because your mother loves being bored by me. Hah, hah, hah.

Kals Mother

1/20/2020 09:11:21 pm

You know you've reached the bottom of the social ladder of the internet when you are forced by some obsession or clinical issue to rant at perfect strangers when you think you are right about something random of the internet. It proves nothing.

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