EAA Oshkosh 2009

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU0uQki5Dc&feature=player_embedded

Proposal: the 28th Ammendment

We should have a 28th ammendment to the constitution.

28th Ammendment: 

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .

Related articles

• Time for a 28th Amendment (thepetitionsite.com)
• GOP senators push for term limits (cnn.com)

Burn Paper & Oil Change

Up early this morning to get the car to Toon Up for an oil change.  I returned home and drilled 1/2″ holes in the bottom of the new burn barrel and some on the sides.  This should let any liquid out and air in during the burning process.  I installed the barrel on top of three half cement blocks, dumped in some paper and started the fire.  Guess what?  It burned.  We really do not have that much scrap paper to burn because we recycle most paper so maybe this is sort of a folly but we shall see.  Isn’t life exciting?

55 gallon drum

Went to Rural King before church tonight and bought a 55 gallon full metal drum.  The intent is to punch a bunch of holes in it tomorrow and to use it as a burn barrel to burn only paper products (no plastics allowed).  Ok, I know it is not exactly green but do I want to use all the fuel to truck it to a landfill that will allow all decaying matter to slowly seep into the aquifer?  In the long run I think it will save energy while polluting  just a smidge.  To the USA energy is more important than going on a vendetta against burners that live in the far country environment.

We canceled our garbage service 6 months ago and have instituted a rigorous recycling program that includes no special trips to the recyclers – we include this on our weekly shopping trip and to special events like buying a burn barrel.  The result is about 3 -4 shopping size plastic bags that leave the premises each week: That includes glass which the recyclers will not take.  We were pretty impressed with this.  The burn barrel will “take it up a notch”.

Remember that all the new stuff, like the energy efficient light bulbs, contains mercury and other bad contaminants.  Recycling those items to the county recycling agent is a special trip and does not figure into our energy equation but we try to do these trips in an energy efficient manner.

I have two mercury vapor bulbs, many Ni Cad & Lithium batteries that I take to the special place.  The new efficient electric light bulbs will take a special place to get rid of them & I cannot understand the government stance on the subject.  They list all incandescent bulbs as bad but we have a totally electric heat situation and in the winter any light that is on is 95+% efficient in generating heat.  In the summer, we are on DST so the incandescent lights generate heat for only a couple of hours at most.  Be that as it may, the lights we leave on most of the time are the efficient type that contain mercury and cast a greenish sort of glow ( OK, this is not fair) that makes my skin look jaundice.

CWM perfected & related articles

• What “green collaboration” might mean in practice (jamesfallows.theatlantic.com)
• Oil Generator Recycles Plastic Into Fuel (takepart.com)
• A Brief History Of the Light Bulb (time.com)
• Recycled Russian bombs supplying US nuclear power (tech.bl0x.info)
• E-Recycle: Where loads of electronic waste wind up (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Following Trash on Its Journey Through the Waste Disposal System (huffingtonpost.com)
• Lighting: Chandeliers, Blazing With Recyclables (nytimes.com)
• Closing the Waste Management Loop: Creating Fuel From Landfill Gas (treehugger.com)
• The Death of the Incandescent Light Bulb (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Study says LEDs are about as efficient as compact fluorescents, all things considered (engadget.com)

Yesteryear

Hulu Desktop software

I have been using Hulu desktop software for a couple of days now and I must admit I find it a mystery.  I am also not impressed by the 0.9.??.?? software.  When I first tried it the software lead me to some old movies that were mildly interesting.  Today the new V tv series was made available.  I could not get it from the Hulu software but I did get it from Explorer.  It is a complete mystery how I get from point to point with HDS.  There is nothing intuitive about it and the colors are very hard to see on my LCD monitor.  On second thought – wait for a while before you install the HDS.

Waiting for something

OK, I am waiting.  Waiting for what?  Waiting for RTV Blue Silicone Form-A-Gasket to dry.  The instructions say it dries in one hour and fully cures in 24 (whatever that means).  Why am I waiting for it to dry?  OK here is the full story.  I awoke to a drip this morning.  My great plumbing job of yesterday had a very slow leak – about 1 drip per hour or two.

I went in to the hardware and bought a tube of  RTV Blue, came back home, found the dishwasher churning away and no SAM.  So I waited the 2 hours for it to complete its cycle and shut the pump off.  I opened all the valves for the faucets around the house and waited some more for the water to drain from the pipes.  Then I drained a gallon or two from the water heater to break the siphon action and removed the shutoff valve that I installed yesterday.  About another gallon of water gushed out into the pan I had in the cabinet where all the trouble started a few days ago.  I liberally applied the RTV Blue to both the female valve threads and the male nipple and assembled the two parts.  Now I await the verdict – no leak (yes, please) or still leaking.  I hate to even think of the work that is going to occur if it leaks!

Now I am waiting some more.  It is a beautiful day out there and temperatures are in the high 50’s.  What more could you ask for on a weekend Fall day?  NO LEAKS……..

PS:  The Leak appears to be stopped up..Added 1653 hrs 22 November 2009. CWM

Somewhat related articles

• How To Conserve Water Indoors (howcast.com)
• How to pick out a plumber (seattlepi.com)
• How To Fix a Leaky Faucet (howcast.com)

Repair needed

Yesterday we noticed a drip-drip-drip from the downstairs kitchen.  I messed around a bit and learned the secrets of the faucet.  I turned off the water pump and opened the cold water upstairs and down to let the water drain down.  When it slowed to a trickle I removed the cold water valve and it looked ok;  however, I went into the hardware to see if they had a new one and they did.  I bought two – one for the hot and one for the cold.  On return to home I installed both and turned on the water pump.  Drip-drip drip – drat – and back inot town to Menards to get a new faucet assembly, shutoff valves and connector hoses – all for a measley $58.  This would be tomorrow’s project.

Tomorrow (today actually).  Using a couple of small pipe wrenches, I removed the two elbows, installed the teflon tape and the new shutoff valves.  After re-energizing the pump and bleeding out the air, the new shutoff valves were checked for leaks.  The new faucet was installed and the whole assembly checked for leaks.  There did not appear to be any so the job was finished.

The rest of the day was spent sort of cleaning up the house for the Thanksgiving dinner.  Now we are watching Hulu, via the new Hulu Desktop, and this has occupied the past 5 hours.  If this Hulu thing continues we will be real couch potatoes.  Night all.

Related articles

• How To Fix a Leaky Faucet (howcast.com)
• How To Replace a Faucet (howcast.com)

Here is to the heros

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL-0mdEg0U4&feature=player_embedded

East Winds remain

There is a pesky Low that remains down around St. Louis.  It show as a surface low but there are traces of an upper low as well.  Today was intermittant rain and into this evening as well.

Pretty much finished http://www.tsahangars.com site today and got the search engines verified and activated.  All is good at the TSA Hangar Partners, LP.  The site is perched at Live.com and using a “Resource Manager” setup.  I did this so anyone can take over for me.  Life is good.

We were at Church tonight and taking care of the pre-teens.  Had a few sick ones that were picked up early.  All went well and there were 42 tonight.  The weather was warm for this time of year but steady drizzle and sometimes rain were negative factors.  Security duty was without incident with all our people.