The rant thread...

Discussion in 'The Water Cooler' started by buckeye, Feb 3, 2013.

  1. picman

    picman Grizzled Veteran

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    Was going to buy some wire to install the new LED lights in one part of the basement. Figured make it look nice, one run of wire yada yada.

    Cripes! Not all that long ago, I could have bought 2 boxes of 250 foot for the price of 50 today.
     
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  2. Okiebob

    Okiebob Grizzled Veteran

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    Retired old men that used to be something when they worked for some national chain. This one in particular thinks I should jump every time he calls. Buddy I already deposited your check, the time of ass kissing has come and gone.
     
  3. opossumhunterNC

    opossumhunterNC Die Hard Bowhunter

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    Craziest thing I’ve ever seen was actually in the last house I lived in. The house was built in the 40’s and had a hydronic radiant floor heating system which is basically a fancy way of saying there was like half a mile of copper pipe looped around in the concrete floor circulating 180F water that came from an old coil fired boiler in the basement. Somebody along the line had done a DIY conversion to make it into an extraordinarily inefficient natural gas boiler (my first gas bill was $1,500. The damn thing had two 750,000 btu gas burners that I sed so much gas it needed a 3” gas line and whenever it was running you could hear the gas meter making this howling noise from 100 feet away). It had this issue the first winter I was there where the whole boiler and pump system would just turn off every night at around 6 or 7pm and wouldn’t turn back on until sometime after I went to bed. Some nights it wouldn’t turn back on at all. Had 2 different Hvac companies come out and try and diagnose it. They searched that house high and low and couldn’t find any timers or anything else that could possibly cause the issue and there was no way to trace the wiring since every wire in the entire house was run with no conduit inside the cmu block walls that were then filled with grout and rebar (House was built during Cold War so every wall, including interior walls, were built with concrete block that had every cell filled with reinforced concrete. Basically it was designed to survive an atom bomb and give you enough time to get to the fallout shelter hidden underneath the tennis courts) One evening I had some friends over and we were grilling out and having a fire on the back patio. One of my friends was walking inside to grab a beer so I asked him to hit the switch by the front door and turn on the flood lights. As soon as I saw the lights turn on the gas meter stopped howling. It kind of hit me that was strange timing so I told him to run back in and turn them off and sure enough 10 seconds later I hear the the gas meter start howling and felt the patio shake from the burner lighting. After seeing that it was pretty easily to figure out that the primary side of the boiler control transformer was connected to a normally closed relay and that relay had its coil connected to one of the exterior flood lights.

    I like to think that was the ultimate revenge of a frustrated dad who got tired of their kids leaving the flood lights on while they were inside and wasting gas leaving the furnace on while they were outside. In actuality I think it was a remnant of an abandoned-in-place boiler control system. That old disused system was 100% line voltage except for one set of 24v input terminals. Those terminals were used for an outdoor air setback. Basically it was meant so that an outdoor thermostat could energize that set of terminals whenever the weather got above a certain temperature and the control system would switch over to a lower alternate water temperature setpoint to save energy when less heat was needed. Since they didn’t have an outdoor thermostat installed anywhere I believe that they ghetto-rigged it by hooking that up to the NC side of a relay controlled by the floodlights. Essentially they figured that the weather is usually warmer during the daytime and colder at night and floodlights are usually off in the day and on at night so they could just use a relay tied to the floodlights to create a day/night setpoint which kind of approximates an outdoor air setpoint. Unfortunately 30-40 years later that old control system was updated to a more modern entirely 24v system. Presumably that was done during business hours, when the flood lights were turned off, so when the installer saw there was already a 24v transformer and tested it and found it was providing power, he just tied the new controls into that moved on to the next job not knowing that for the next 15 years or so (judging by the age of the new control system) that boiler would be shutting off completely every night when somebody turned on the outdoor flood lights. I imagine that there were countless service calls over the years from the previous homeowner all about the boiler not being able to keep the house warm on cold nights but when the tech would arrive the next day he would find that the boiler was working normally. That’s also probably why they added the second 750,000 BTU burner at some point. They were probably shocked to find that even after that upgrade it still didn’t have enough chooch factor to keep the house warm overnight despite the fact that it had 1.5 million btu’s of input, which is about triple what you would need for a 4,500 square foot house even if it had practically zero insulation.
     
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  4. Fix

    Fix Grizzled Veteran

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    Lol I actually get pissed when people leave a message.
    I saw you called, if I cared to hear what you had to say I would call you back.
     
  5. Sota

    Sota Legendary Woodsman

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    I don't listen to the message, if it is somebody I know I call them back and ask what they wanted they usually say well I left a message and I say yeah well I didn't listen to it what do you want? Seems like a lot of the phone calls I get are people that want something from me.
     
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  6. Fix

    Fix Grizzled Veteran

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    That's what I'm saying
     
  7. Sota

    Sota Legendary Woodsman

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    I was on my own this weekend so I went to a local bar to have a burger and a beer. Evidently up here if you buy a place on a lake you are an ass hole. Not a problem I fit that role to a T. `I shop locally and if you think I am an a-hole I got that every day for you.
     
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  8. picman

    picman Grizzled Veteran

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    You are a "fib" in your own state. Bwhahaha
     
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  9. Sota

    Sota Legendary Woodsman

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    Hey if you hate on me because of what I have and where I am at, good please hate me I will throw being a Packer fan on top for you.
     
  10. virginiashadow

    virginiashadow Legendary Woodsman

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    We have some seriously stupid people in this country.


    40,000 youth cheerleaders, coaches, and spectators from across the country are expected to attend the Cheersport National Cheerleading Championship on Saturday and Sunday at Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.
     
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  11. Sota

    Sota Legendary Woodsman

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    -27 degrees.
     
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  12. janesburg

    janesburg Die Hard Bowhunter

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    -12 at my house and then travel north for work to this crap! Yippee!
    Image1613396377.668763.jpg


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  13. Okiebob

    Okiebob Grizzled Veteran

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    -4° here in Oklahoma. Thats cold enough! Thank God for hot tubs! 20210215_073819.jpg
     
  14. GregH

    GregH Legendary Woodsman

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    I do my banking and most of my shopping in BRF since I live about 12 miles from there. I've been hibernating for over a week during this cold stretch. This is the longest super cold spell I can remember. 8 of the last 9 overnight lows have been -20 or lower. Thankfully, it should be over in another 2-3 days. I hate the sound my truck makes when I start it in this weather.
     
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  15. Fix

    Fix Grizzled Veteran

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    My wife took this week off so that we could fell some trees and hang with our youngest as she has the week off. I'm all excited to get some stuff done. The night before(Sunday) she decides we are going to rip our main level bathroom to studs and redo it. I don't get mad... I am zen.
    Quick trip to Home Depot and 1000 later I'm getting pissy but still easy like Sunday morning.
    As we just replaced the Turlit a few months back I said hey babe let's move this one up stairs and toss that one as it's 20 yrs old. Wonderful plan.
    She says hey I'll go check out out. Taking with her a screwdriver. She removes the TP holder and picks at the paint a bit. I'm down stairs pulling the other Turlit to move it to the fully functioning half bath upstairs when I hear.... "Well F%$@" what started with picking at the paint ended up being her peeling the paint off all the walls(which came off in huge rips no idea why) and then she decided well I'm not painting this **** hole unless we update it.
    So far today I have tiled two floors and grout tomorrow then new fans lights vanity's, base and paint. Then we get to decorate. So much for chainsaw week.
     
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  16. wl704

    wl704 Legendary Woodsman

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    The joys of home ownership... And a wife.
     
  17. MUDSHARK

    MUDSHARK Grizzled Veteran

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    Can't live with them & can't live without them.
     
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  18. Tony

    Tony Legendary Woodsman

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    Yep.... been there before ... not your bathroom... you know what I mean


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  19. dnoodles

    dnoodles Legendary Woodsman

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    I think 2013-2014 was worse, brother.
    We didn't have grass showing for over 3 months straight. It was bitter cold. I picked up my pup from the breeder in early January, I don't think he ever saw grass until almost April. I remember it freaked him out.

    Of course I say that as it's 2* outside and we're supposed to get another 4-10" overnight on top of the 4" today on top of the 12" or so already on the ground.
     
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  20. dnoodles

    dnoodles Legendary Woodsman

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    I am about to join you in said misery but at least mine is planned and in anticipation of listing.
    Illinois is *almost* in my rear view mirror. But that will be in the Best Things thread.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2021
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