Fuck!

[Dr. Pyro]

Oh this is just fucking great. Raccoons got into my duct work at home and tore up the better part of the network. So it's going to cost me $7000 to have it repaired, which will be a week away. And of course fucking insurance (thank you SAFECO you bastards) doesn't cover that. And naturally there's no heat in the house for a week, and storms are supposed to roll in on Friday. Maybe I'll just move in with Ygmir; I know he has heat.

[unjonharley]

Oh this is just fucking great. Raccoons got into my duct work at home and tore up the better part of the network. So it's going to cost me $7000 to have it repaired, which will be a week away. And of course fucking insurance (thank you SAFECO you bastards) doesn't cover that. And naturally there's no heat in the house for a week, and storms are supposed to roll in on Friday. Maybe I'll just move in with Ygmir; I know he has heat.

You will have to muzzle him to cuddle him for heat.. he might bite.

[unjonharley]

Don't let hazmat get down wind of that sewer problem... They are total ass hats..

That back up spill happened in Salem to whole shopping center and homes.. It took two week with me wrangling 100 temps/rent a bums to get some of the stores open.. The food service's just moved out.. It had shot up to the ceilings in some homes..

[ygmir]

yeah Doc come on up!! I'll keep ya fuckin cozy!!

yup UJH.......it happens more that people know, public sewers back up, or reverse pressurize. I've put in several "relief valves" for friends.....essentially, an open main line, lower than the bottom of the house, loosely covered, so if the pressure/liquid get there, it blows open and vents/drains the great majority, if not all (if it's a "super pressure" a little can spit through). I even put them in my septic systems, and it's almost impossible for a correctly made septic to back up like that. cheap insurance, I don't fucking know why everyone does not do it.

[unjonharley]

I was wondering what that extra lid in the yard was. We are on septic..

[lucky420]

ee fucking gad, Lucky!! damn hope it gets fixed.
I know a fail safe trick to help that never happen again, IIRC, you are well above street level, yes?

well the house part is but not the basement. ?

[Joeln]

Fuck me runnin! It's chaos time.
Glad I replaced my car battery a month ago.
Just finished the nightmare plumbing job in my rental house, still have to fill in the trench.
Best of luck to all who are fighting with their infrastructure...

[ygmir]

ee fucking gad, Lucky!! damn hope it gets fixed.
I know a fail safe trick to help that never happen again, IIRC, you are well above street level, yes?

well the house part is but not the basement. ?

Do you have any drawings with elevations?
we could measureit, and such.
is there a cleanout near the road/sidewalk?

[Tin Halo]

One of the battles I'm sword-ing at the moment is an (essentially) unfinished HVAC installation in our 20+ year old house. It's one of those sort of 'raised ranch' styles, where what would be the basement is only about 3 feet into the ground (and you have to climb a goodly-sized set of stairs just to go in the front door). So the downstairs gets converted at some point into living space - Master bedroom, bath, laundry, storage room, office/multipurpose space (where I'm typing from at the moment) - and while the former owner (two owners back, and a construction guy, at that) put in supply vents in the ceiling in the bedroom and office, there's no return air works. As a result the bedroom is usually chilly, even though the furnace is cranking balls. I'm sure the utility company loves us (..."have another steak for breakfast, Jim... champagne?...")
So, in doing some major calculations and discovery tonight, I found that the part of the return plenum that should be our cold air return was covered over, flyingspaghettimonster only knows when. The return ducts for the upstairs are right over my head, but I'm almost sure an 8' upflow return for cold air down here is not likely to be too helpful. So now I gotta scrounge some 8x14 duct and exercise eminent domain over the catbox area, losing a little square footage in that storage area and introducing a minor level of clusterfuck into things, just so the return can be at floor level and efficient.

I like to know things about things but this is more than I ever wanted to know about HVAC.

[Tin Halo]

cheap insurance, I don't fucking know why everyone does not do it.

"Oh, that won't happen to us. We'll be fine."

[^Rhino!]

Lucky -PLEASE READ THIS POST....IT'S FROM ME, AND I HAPPEN TO KNOW QUITE A BIT ABOUT THIS SUBJECT.

NO JOKE. DO YOU HAVE ANY NATURAL GAS LINES THAT GO IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE? NEW ONES? IF SO, THE GAS LINE COULD HAVE GONE THROUGH YOUR SEWER LATERAL IN A SITUATION CALLED A CROSSBORE.

We've had a few crossbores in the Missouri-Kansas area, and several of them have ended with explosive consequences. One lady in Eureka or Gray's Summit, Missouri came home to her house one day, and the toilet had stopped up. She called Roto-rooter to come take care of the clog in her sewer line, which they did, and the line was 'all better and working again'. What she didn't know was that with the obstruction cutter tool that the roto-rooter guys used cut through the obstruction all right, but it was a 4-inch natural gas main. Bubbles probably started coming up through the sewer system, and you know that she probably smelled a horrible odor from the methyl mercaptan that they use to 'flavor' the gas and tell people there's a leak. When the atmosphere of her house got to a mere 2% natural gas, an explosion occurred that killed her, destroyed her home, destroyed another home, and damaged seven others.

Have the city put a TV camera down your sewer lateral from the cleanout vent, or pay to have it done. It's better than being dead.

[theCryptofishist]

fucking hard drive issues...

[lucky420]

Lucky -PLEASE READ THIS POST....IT'S FROM ME, AND I HAPPEN TO KNOW QUITE A BIT ABOUT THIS SUBJECT.

NO JOKE. DO YOU HAVE ANY NATURAL GAS LINES THAT GO IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE? NEW ONES? IF SO, THE GAS LINE COULD HAVE GONE THROUGH YOUR SEWER LATERAL IN A SITUATION CALLED A CROSSBORE.

We've had a few crossbores in the Missouri-Kansas area, and several of them have ended with explosive consequences. One lady in Eureka or Gray's Summit, Missouri came home to her house one day, and the toilet had stopped up. She called Roto-rooter to come take care of the clog in her sewer line, which they did, and the line was 'all better and working again'. What she didn't know was that with the obstruction cutter tool that the roto-rooter guys used cut through the obstruction all right, but it was a 4-inch natural gas main. Bubbles probably started coming up through the sewer system, and you know that she probably smelled a horrible odor from the methyl mercaptan that they use to 'flavor' the gas and tell people there's a leak. When the atmosphere of her house got to a mere 2% natural gas, an explosion occurred that killed her, destroyed her home, destroyed another home, and damaged seven others.

Have the city put a TV camera down your sewer lateral from the cleanout vent, or pay to have it done. It's better than being dead.

Thank you Rhino! I'm having ez rooter out Thursday and will have them put a camera down and thanks for the lingo I can use.

[^Rhino!]

I am relieved that you're doing this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please keep me informed. If you need to talk to me tomorrow night, I'll be at home, and send me a personal message, I'll send you my phone #.

For some reason or another, I was asked earlier this year to be part of a national committee that is being set up with the utility community and interested stakeholders to deal with the sometimes deadly issue of crossbores as a volunteer blue-ribbon committee member. I accepted. If we save one life, it's great. If we aid in public issue awareness, that's great, too. See, that's one thing I got from BRC...when asked, jump right in and work like a mad demon to aid the community.

I know I'll get a great personal satisfaction reward in return. Gotta love it!

Good luck, lucky!

[tatonka]

Fuck the bosses old man died , he was the oldest of 9 boys . His father was a white preacher in the phillipines back in ww2 , the japenese killed his parents and his 3 year old sister and the 9 boys excaped to the jungle. No one would help them, the people called them white monkeys . After the war they came out of the jungle and reclaimed their 2000 acres of property. They did very well for years and then started having trouble with their muslim help. One day one of his neices was kidnapped and held for ransom. Instead of paying they kidnapped one of the family of the kidnappers . They exchanged their prisnors across a river while everyone was under gunpoint. He had a exciting life and was a good man , his kids run the buisness but he was the money in tough times , so I hope his kids ( my bosses ) can be as good as him. His youngest is spoiled rotten , they should just send him a check, and tell him to stay home. He does more harm than good

[AntiM]

Fuck, another water/plumbing issue in the kitchen. I think someone made a fucking mistake.

[Tin Halo]

Not just a mistake, but a fucking mistake. Those are often worse.

[Tin Halo]

All this kitchen plumbing kvetching doesn't help bolster me for swapping out the kitchen sink, which has been on my 'to do' list for longer than I care to admit.

[unjonharley]

AntiM, Your missing a apportunity.. I went into a locating job.. Under the sink floor had rotted out.. So that is where the garbage was dumped.. There was even a stick to push the garbage back into the crawl space.. In the bathroom the vinyl and sheet floor was rotted and gone.. The sub floor was plank.. The boards were rotting away like a boat dock from pee and shower water.. Insurance company was paying to salvage this house.. The story of the house go's on but Wanted to say if your dealt lemons.... Well you know

[tatonka]

[^Rhino!]

Well, FUCK. Kitty-Kate is unwell. She's down to 7 pounds from 11.Thank goodness I caught it in time, and the vet is letting me give her amoxicillin for a urinary tract infection, but she's not eating. She might have turned the corner back towards health, but I'm taking her back into the vet on Friday. Just because. It will hurt me pretty badly if I lose her. She's all I've got here.

I'll do my best to help her any way I can, but she needs burner mojo to make it through, I think.

[Patsh]

Well, fuck, ^Rhino! !!
Sending a big bunch of burner mojo for Kitty-Kate... I hope she really is on the mend!

[pink]

Fuck Rhino, hugs to you and hope your Kitty-Kate gets well quickly. Hint, get some A/D food from the vet. Easy to digest and puts pounds back on sick kitties.

[Ratty]

Oh Fuck. Rhino I hope that little fur ball feels better. Chicken soup always works. (Maybe not the best choice for a dear kitty.)

[ygmir]

sending my fuckin best kitty juju, Rhino!!

[lucky420]

Sending best wishes (((rhino & Kate)))

[unjonharley]

Russ-T-Nails and I are sending some purrrrs for Kate..

[^Rhino!]

Fuck.

Kate took a turn for the worse last night. I took her in this a.m. to the vet. She was jaundiced and almost to 6 pounds. The vet and I had a long talk, and about 40 minutes ago, after I got off work, I had the vet put Katy to sleep. Thanks everyone for your kind wishes from the bottom of my heart. The numb emptiness is there, but I'm fighting it with everything I've got.

It's different in this apartment when I'm all alone.

[unjonharley]

A tear for you, Big Guy... And Happy Tails To You Kate until we meet again..

[tatonka]

think of the happy times