The Manic Mechanic

So my weekend was practically bi-polar. Saturday the weather was rainy and cold, I was in a bit of a mood, and I think I did more sleeping than anything productive. Sunday rolled around and the weather was nice once again, but I elected to spend most of the day up in the attic resuming the skylight project that I began last fall. It had gotten too cold and my broken-down body was not up to doing much more work up there post-surgery. I had practically knocked myself out with the work I had done, and winter was a break for me. Hurting my knee at this time sealed the deal.

As it stands, I have a limited window of opportunity for attic work since a sunny, 70 degree (F) day will heat the attic well into the 90s and make life miserable. And a cold, blustery winter day outside is not much better up there either. The other reason for the delay was I thought I had moved all of the electrical wiring from the area the skylights were to be installed. As I dug out more insulation I found four more electric cables in the way. My saving the additional tasks in the project for another day had finally come due, so I climbed up the attic stairs and started at it.

In addition to moving the cables, I needed to bring in a new branch circuit for the skylights themselves. I mounted all the electric boxes and ran the new wiring between them, well out of the way of the skylight shafts I needed to build. I then had to cut the wiring apart and move it to the boxes and new runs. To make life interesting and keep me on my toes, I did all the work with the wiring energized. Yes, the stuff all had full 120 volts as I was cutting, moving and installing the cabling. Being that my (real) work finds me needing to maintain uninterrupted power to certain systems while I work on them, I am very adept at live work. I have yet to get zapped or have my work blow up in my face. My little live wire exercise went off without a hitch. The only disturbance happened when I moved the low voltage wiring for the doorbell and decided to make the bell ring with no one at the door. Kodi was fooled, Jeff wasn't.

I managed to complete all the relocations last night, and was only missing a cover for one of the splice boxes, which I picked up today. I put back most of the insulation after cleaning up sawdust and mouse shit, then removed all the tools and supplies that had taken up residence in the attic for that phase of the job. Now all I have to do is frame up, insulate and drywall the light shafts, and there will be light. I tested the skylight remote operators last night and today, this is going to be pure awesomesauce. The remotes are bidirectional, not only do they control the skylights, but also read back status and other info. The units use an industry standard wireless protocol for home automation, and I will eventually integrate this into the Mayhem Mainframe. The skylights I installed in the sun room about ten year ago are also remote controlled, but use an infrared system much like a television set. The new stuff uses 2.4GHz RF, sorta like WiFi. I am contemplating an upgrade...

This evening Jeff cut some of the grass with the push mower while I get the tractor in shape for the season. This is the first lawn mowing of the season, one of many. Also, the weeds have sprung up in earnest, I hope I am able to rein in some of this before it gets out of hand. Last year I was completely unable to work in the gardens, I think this year I will be able to do some stuff. The yard is in terrible shape, there are busted branches everywhere, and I just began some of the tree pruning and cleanup. We wished there was more help available, but we'll make do just us two.

Other sundry stuff like more doctor visits and errands are on tap for this week. I need to pick up a few bits of lumber for the skylights, and I have a set of shocks/struts to put on the Stratus, and a lot of work on the old Cummins to get that back in usable condition. I hope my rickety old body does not leave me stranded like it has been. It's hell getting old.

The new shingles have arrived for the roof, and the bundles are all stacked on the roofs ready for the work to begin. And, no, I did not lift a single one of them. I did, however, have to move several vehicles as well as drag the trailer out onto the street to make room for the conveyor boom truck used to offload the supplies onto the roofs. Progress is being made!

The parts to repair the water heater also arrived, the repair dude is supposed to show up tomorrow. How much ya wanna bet I'll be doing some of that work too, even though it's warranty repairs! lol

I know, it sounds like I have a strange life, but it's who I am. Makes me happy.

Things have been slowly returning to the normalcy of such happenstance here at Chez Mayhem. Note that I did not use the word "normal" as it generally never applies. =)

I had to reschedule my PT from Friday to Saturday when the folks at G.E. decided to move their warranty repair visit from the morning to the afternoon. Me and the tech had a good talk about what was wrong, how it can be fixed, etc. It also became evident that not only am I on par with his abilities, I might be doing some of the repair work myself. I don't mind a bit.

Speaking of repairs, more and more little things have been breaking down here at the homestead. One of the two wi-fi access points bit the dust, as well as one of several digital TV converter boxes I have attached to perfectly good television sets that I refuse to simply throw away. Also, one of the power supplies used to charge a jump-start battery pack conked out. The problem with all three? Bad capacitors in the power supplies. Each of these seemingly unrelated items use a switch-mode power supply, either internally or as a plug-in box (wall-wart), made in China. The poor quality Chinese electrolytic capacitors literally blow their tops, venting electrolyte gas pressure and die. These items are not too difficult to fix, I have a stock of compatible, high-grade replacement capacitors, and a few minutes spent with a soldering iron generally not only brings whatever the device is back to life, it will not have a recurrence of that problem in the future. In the case of the wifi access point, the wall-wart was not only solidly sealed shut, it also had been potted with silicone rubber as well. Trying to scoop out that mess is not worth the hassle, I can find a compatible power supply as a replacement. In most cases of modern electronic gear that has suddenly quit working entirely or has constant erratic operation, the trouble can be traced to a low-grade, Chinese-made capacitor (or several) in the power supply that has failed in this exact same fashion. Most people will simply throw out the device because the repair, despite being easy and cheap parts-wise (the typical failed cap only costs a couple bucks at best) is too expensive. DIY rules here.

In a related note, I had predicted that DTV converter boxes would become scarce soon after the transition from analog to digital TV. I am surprised at exactly how scarce these boxes have become. No local retails stock them anymore, and can't even order them. Name-brand units are nowhere to be found for the most part online, with a smattering of totally unfamiliar brands to be had otherwise. These off-branded units often come with very low user reviews. I need a couple more of these for two more sets, plus a spare, but I am ready to throw in the towel here. Those days I have gone to the local landfill/recycling center, the 20 foot dumpsters have been brimming with analog television sets, CRT, projection and LCD/plasma. I am willing to bet that 95% of those sets have not a thing wrong with them aside from the lack of digital reception. Such a waste. I refuse to participate.

On the health front, I've been enjoying the physical therapy, along with the e-stim session at the end of the visit. The therapist has realized he needs to set the initial stim level higher for me than most people, and he also gives me control of the box. As I grow accustomed to the level, I ramp up the output to keep the feeling strong. It feels good, of course, but also jump starts (no pun intended) the nerve mending process. This has good and bad points. The good, obviously, means returning to the old me if all goes well. The bad, however, has been a bit more insidious. Since about two seeks from surgery, I've been experiencing strange, involuntary artifacts of the healing process. Just as I begin to relax and fall asleep, my body's IT department decides that since campus is closed, it's time to start fixing the network cabling. I feel little twitches in random areas from the waist down. Odd sensations out of nowhere. The worst are the sudden jumps, kicks and spasms that not only wake me up, but can hurt like hell. My left foot as of Friday has a constant bzzzzZZZZZzzzz, bzzzzZZZZzzzz, bzzzzZZZZzzzz not unlike standing in a motorboat or bus with a raucous diesel engine. I'm taking this as a good sign that the IT department is getting things done, as there is less actual numbness now on that side. So far, an occasional, sudden inability to control my right leg pops up out of nowhere for a few seconds makes life a tad dangerous. I've stumbled and lost my balance a couple times, but nothing bad as of yet. The numbness in my feet is still there, making my walking gait more like a stoner wandering outside a Phish concert.

Jeff and I were walking through Home Depot yesterday as I was picking up more stuff to use on the house fixits. A youngish, bearded guy behind the counter in the door and window section called out to us in praise of our beards and how he no longer feels out of place in the store. Beards seem all the rage these days. Not necessarily a bad thing.

I met today with the roofer to begin work on (FINALLY!) replacing the roofing on the various building that make up Mayhem Headquarters. I have to clamber up into the attic space and frame up the openings under the roof for the skylights and the sun tunnel. This is not strenuous work, but I do need to gently contort myself between the trusses and make myself comfortable for a little while to measure up the spaces, leave the attic to cut the various lumber and plywood bits that make up the framing, then head back up to screw it all into place. There is a huge advantage to this being with the framing in place, I can drill a hole in each corner once the roofing is stripped off, the draw lines on the top of the roof decking once the roof is stripped bare. The resulting rectangles are the rough-in cuts to be made for the skylights. Five minutes with a circular saw and the openings are perfectly made and the skylights only need to be fastened down and the underlayment and flashing installed as the new shingles go back down.

My interactions with the roofer, the guy from GE and the salesmen at Lowes where I bought the skylights and accessories highlight how smoothly things go when I educate myself ahead of time and have all my information ready. The salesdude at Lowes had an easy time with me (and kept reminding me of that fact) because I knew exactly what I needed beforehand and did not have to constantly ask for his opinions or help. Zip, zap, boom it was all done, all the pieces were accounted for and properly sized. My bit of OCD researching and the wonderfulness of the internet in providing all the literature, specs and relevant info instantly made life infinitely easier than the days before when I had to seek out information from distributors, salespeople and manufacturers in person or over the phone, collect all this together to make a decision then still need to get more information regarding my selections to make sure everything is kosher. With all the proper blueprints, specs, installation information and required supplies right in front of me whenever I need it, things have gotten almost too easy. I also minimize interactions with people who might not be in the best of moods, or just plain surly and stupid. But one of the best results from being well prepared is the instant respect I get from the people I am dealing with. I'm less likely to be taken for a ride, or ripped off, and the people doing the work for me don't have to contend with a ditz.

Tomorrow is Jeff's last vacation day out of the last four (excluding Wednesday) he took from work to get away from the hectic nature of his business being an UberChef. I'll miss spending the time at home with him. While we had planned to possibly go somewhere like the beach for a day, we decided just taking time off at home, doing some cool things and just taking it easy was a vacation enough for him. I just hope this week does not turn out to be hell for him. You know how it is when you go back to work after an extended absence. When I finally return in a month or so, it will be a shocker in so many ways. My department has been moved off-campus, no one like it except for the delusional upper management, and my complete loss of respect for everyone there that became cemented during my disability will make returning very difficult, and I will more than likely seek a transfer out of that completely failed hell before it gets outsourced. Won't be easy, but, hey, I've been through worse lately.

Here's hoping for a good week for everyone out there.

So there is a meme running around LJ lately (imagine that). This one asks for a picture of one's self from sometime in the 1990s. I figured it was time to outfit this new backup PC with the scanning software and this was an opportunity to give it a shot.

This is from 1991, when I was building the deck on my house.



In the 80s, I taught myself AutoCAD, which I would run on my whopping 286/12MHz PC. I still have the PC! My major project was this deck. I need to search for the disks containing the drawings. The deck is made with pressure-treated framing, with cedar decking, railings, posts and pickets, with a redwood top cap. I must have done something right, the deck is still standing and solid as ever. It's in dire need of refinishing, however. And only one board in it's over 60 feet of length is showing any signs of rotting. I have replacements.

Yeah, I looked like quite the meathead back then. I guess I still do. I cannot get over how much I was brimming with enthusiasm and energy back then. I thought nothing, nothing at all about undertaking the deck build. But prior to that, I only had a bit of a pause when I decided to take on building my own house. With encouragement from friends, I gave it a go. And, I must have done something right, it's still standing too.

I wish more than ever to be able to have this level of enthusiasm again.