Idle-off-topic-chit chat - Part 2

ericnliz

@Verna, I'm pretty sure you left one out.... @Homebodyatheart! I all too often hear the buzzing sound of the Magic Wand & try desperately to head to the idle chit-chat page before the buzzing turns in to a ZAP! It works...sometimes...

Ratkity

I not only appreciate it, but respect it and the owners of magic wands. With great power comes great responsibility. I wonder if the wand owners have spidey senses?

Verna

No, @Ratkity, just the patience to read . And learn a lot by reading, too !

Homebodyatheart

@dragonsdofly @Verna 's magic wand is also used rarely for the proverbial knuckle slapping...in some cases. She's got one repeat offender pretty well trained by now, right my unnamed friend?

ericnliz

Are you trin' to tell me yer knuckles hurt there @Homebodyatheart?

Verna

Here’s how my day started today:

Whew, what a morning! I woke up to very little electrical power in the house. Luckily the furnace was still working so it wasn’t a huge emergency. The lack of electricity in half of the bedroom, none in the living room, kitchen or family room, but the garage had power didn't make sense to me. Give me the 12V DC power of my camper and I can figure it out. But I am not as well versed with AC power troubleshooting. 

I checked the circuit breakers, nothing blown, but I reset the main house breaker anyway. It didn’t help. 

After talking to two electricians (I’ve already profusely thanked them for their advice), I called IPL, the local power company. Within 15 minutes, a repair lineman named Rich showed up. 

He checked the voltage at the meter and told me I had lost one “leg of the power” (one of the two hot cables from the pole was dead). He saw the problem from the ground, got his ladder and fixed the problem. A very good repair tech!

16 years ago when I had my room addition built onto the house, the electrician or the contractor did not call IPL to have the electrical service made permanent. The electrician actually used first aid tape to splice the riser cables to the incoming cables from the pole. It lasted 16 years somehow. There are now three approved splices between my cables and the cables from the pole. Thanks, IPL!

I had intermittent blips of no power yesterday But I thought it was the windy conditions and a tree limb was rubbing along the power lines somewhere in the neighborhood. 

So, both of the temporary splices had been hot from sparking because they were not making contact all the time, with the first aid tape showing burns and bits of sandy grit coming from the splice where the insulation had crumbled from getting too hot. 

Now my only problem is that my Bose Wave Radio is only working as a clock, and I can’t use it for my surround sound now. Nope, there’s no sense in turning it in to insurance because of my deductible. And it’s strange because it was plugged into my fancy smancy surge protector with other electronics and the others are fine. I guess it had reached the end of its expected life. 

So, a lesson learned that strange electrical outages an be caused by what seems to be a “normal” splice to me, but it was such a terrible oversight that could have cost me my house.

ericnliz

All I can say is WOW!!! Glad it didn't start a fire! Have you tried leaving your Bose unplugged for a while? Some electronics have a re-set, but you need to power them down first for a while. Might even give Bose a call & see if they have a remedy available for you. Just a thought. Most of all...REALLY glad you're ok.!

Homebodyatheart

Holy moly @Verna! Part way through your post I wondered if it wasn’t the electric masthead. Ours went bad in our first home, brownout, lights flickering, and a strong hot electric smell. The power company came right out and replaced it that night. I’m so glad yours wasn’t worse! Sorry about your Bose, too! On the plus side now we know there are multiple uses for first aid tape! 

ScottG

And this is why I avoid leaving things to the "pros" whenever possible!  :-)

Verna

Scott, over 30 years ago Daddy and I built a 24x26 2 story garage. It is still standing today, although I no longer own it. I know better than to try to attempt that today!  Or even 16 years ago. 

But anyway, the circuitry in the TV for external speakers is damaged, the TV stays in demo mode (frustrating when banners go across the bottom and top and then one side of the screen is darker for a moment....grrrr!  I left the Bose unplugged for 24 hrs, and it’s still a rather expensive and big clock.  I didn’t realize how much I checked it for the time. I need another clock there. 

I did order a 16” soundbar, but it does not work on the TV (the constant hum on the new soundbar was my first clue the TV was damaged more than I thought) , which showed me a surge must have come through the Bose into the TV.  I have received a very heavy fancier surge suppressor with backup batteries that will replace my current fancy surge suppressor, but it has to charge for 8 hrs before using. It even shows what the incoming voltage is — 124 to 125V.

I’m not going to replace the TV right now since I want to sell my house. I see no reason to buy a new TV if it is just going to sit in a storage facility. The soundbar is light enough to work in the T@B, and it will work on my iPhone and iPod. 

And, with the cost of TV’s so inexpensive today, I still can’t file an insurance claim.  

dragonsdofly

@Verna, oh, good grief, Charlie Brown! Many commiserations and sympathies!

ericnliz

At least the power surge didn't damage your Magic Wand!!!! So, what are you going to do when you sell your house? Full time in your T@B?

jgram2

@ericnliz Off to another topic in the interests of not going off topic on another thread: you’re going to need a bigger bbq soon for EMW rally, so I found this one for you! Maybe you can pass the hat to collect the asking price! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kuYB-8fjok

2Cougs

@ericnliz- @Twojgrams is right.... That would be the perfect set up!  Now to figure out how to pull the WolfT@b behind THAT!!!  You could be the official NuCamp "Cooker guy" and just travel from rally to rally!!!

ericnliz

  WHAT????????????? I'm not cookin' for the WHOLE state of Washington...., or am I? I'm thinkin' I'd need a LOT bigger donation jar! At that price, I'd just have the rallies catered! Besides, they have the WRONG logos on the handles! On the other hand....it does have beer taps.....

Homebodyatheart

@ericnliz I think I’ve seen that in person in Seattle at one of the Seafair hydro races. It was cooking up Johnsonville Brats. You might need a zoning varience and a longer driveway!

ericnliz

NOT!

ericnliz

To all my T@B friends.....Yesterday I put up ALL the hummingbird feeders. I quit counting at 10!

Homebodyatheart

@ericnliz good job! You know Liz is smiling about that!

ericnliz

I even made a spare batch of juice & put it in the fridge! I KNOW she's smilin'!

Ratkity

@TerryV6, you could also take one of those small multi-charge bricks too, just in case!

TerryV6

I have 3 of those...  Are yours working all right? 

Ratkity

3 multi-charger battery bricks? 3 critters? 3 T@Bs (omg... my secret is out)

TerryV6

Well, to fess up, I didn’t know what a multi-charge brick was, so I thought I’d play along.  Now to find you own three, along with your critters, well, I don’t know what to say....

Ratkity

OMG.. @TerryV6, I thought *you* had 3 of everything. I was wondering if you had some sort of #3 issue. I think a true T@B owner should have a clamshell, a 320 (Outback version preferred) and a 400. Of course, I do not have any of those. lol. 

BRB... I have to find out why my 6mo old German Shepherd suddenly got very, very quiet.

TerryV6

No, not a three issue,  just a number 9; number 9: 

Ratkity

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Rearview Camera.

ericnliz

Oh, boy.....she's Baaaack!  @TerryV6, By now, you DO know you're just encouraging her...right?
One more week to the Lincoln Rock 2nd annual Rally! "A campin' we will go, a campin' we will go...."

TerryV6

Okay, I was confused there for a moment.  At one moment I was commenting in Rearview camera, now I am in idle chitchat.  No complaints though.  Best to keep threads on topic.  So this thread has no topic.  Good. 
So, I can say, the 30th was my birthday and I made the number 66.  How did that happen?  The driver upstairs is still 18-25, but the car is showing signs of rust.  Anyway, my wife wanted to know what to do on my day.  I said, lets get in the car and go.  She asked, where?  I said, don't know, that is the beauty of it, and she promised to just let it happen.  (She is a planner - gasp).  We started by going to the library, then to my brothers to drop off a few things.  After that, we had a bite to eat.  I mentioned to my faithful companion that I had read a few things about ebikes and always joked about them being like ebooks, things you can't see.  But I had found out that they are actually a thing.  Instantly I thought they would be a less than ideal item to get exercise on, but the ones I read about were doing the power assist thing.  You could set them to help at about three different levels.  So, it would be possible for an older person to ride up a steep hill with lots of help.  Neat I figured.  
  We went to a bike store to look at some and found that the prices start at about 2 grand or so.  A bit more than I would want to pay.  But, as I looked at them, a woman approached and talked me into taking one for a test drive, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun.  I told my wife that we would put one on the future list, say, if my ship every came in...  But it was a nice time.
Then, we went to the state park to get another sticker.  The good thing about age, is that things start to get cheaper.  13 bucks for the year was something I was happy with.  To top off the day, it was sunny and mild, and the snow had melted.  A perfect day indeed..