I was disappointed to learn that the week of my Jury Duty, there was no District Court being convened.
I was looking forward to hanging some bastard!
Cooling – changed my mind again
I re-thought the evap cooler install. It would be about two weeks before an install could be made. Monsoon season had already arrived, afternoon/evening thunderstorms about every day. It would be two weeks of misery with temperatures running about 102. I am not at all sure that either Annie the Dog or I could have tolerated the heat. So I purchased a 13,000 btu ‘portable’ air conditioner and canceled the cooler install.
The word ‘portable’ simply means that it is a window unit that has been repackaged to sit on the floor. It uses two six inch clothes dryer style tubes to recirculate the condenser cooling air to the outside through a window. I have measured the electricity useage. It is costing me about $33/month, running approximately 7 A.M to 10 P.M. daily.
Why not use a window unit? I have sliding windows, and I have security bars on the outside. Either of which excludes window a/c.
This unit barely cools the living and dining area to a barely acceptable level, make that almost acceptable on a cloudless 103 F day. So I surmise that I will need at least 24,000 btu (2 ton) to adequately cool the same area when I do a permanent install. I will do this by installing a mini split ductless a/c after the a/c season is over, removing the urgency.
Why take this approach?
Because a full house a/c using existing ducts, some of which need replacing, was bid at about $10,000 last year.
The mini-split will cost about $3,000, saving electricity and equipment costs.
These units (including my current ‘portable’ unit) are also heat pumps. At $0.99/kwH I can currently heat cheaper with a heat pump than I can with propane since the cost of propane is closely tied to crude oil prices. And we all know about crude oil prices.
I can cool the bedrooms, unused during the day, with open windows supplemented with box fans after 8 P.M. or so.
Now that I have bored all but the nerds to death, and managed to procrastinate enough by writing this that I have no more time left to do anything today, I will sign off.
I forgot how hot
I forgot how hot this area is in the summer. So perhaps that is the reason that every entry is due to some perceived calamity in my life. For whatever reason, I encountered another IDIOTIC MOMENT today.
So I started the process of purchasing an evap cooler. Annie the Dog (and I) are having a difficult time with the heat which is inching over 100.
So, I went to Home Depot. I was told by two folks that they no longer install evap coolers. In the process I talked to three people, none of which seemed to actually know anything. They got a glazed look and seemed to be making answers up on the fly. I still am not sure that they do not install coolers, but they seemed determined to keep their massive door stops.
So off to Lowes I went. They also had the 12-month-no-payment-or-interest through June 15 deal that I need. There I had to apply for a credit card. The little Hispanic gal that helped me seemed to actually be knowledgeable. She said I could purchase the $37 pre-install visit to appraise the situation and obtain an estimate and still put the purchase on the new card, even though the actual transaction would be after the 15th. Now that was so unexpected that I didn’t trust the good news, getting her and the manager’s name in case…
But the deal almost fell through. Credit rating? Hardly. Not available? Nope. Booked up until December? Uh-uh. Too hot to work in the sun? Perhaps, but that also was not the reason.
I have only one phone number. That is what I said, only one number. The program in their computer for credit approval requires two numbers. Otherwise it rejects the application. I told them I have only one phone. Who can afford the expense of two phones? One of the minions behind the counter raised her hand.
SO IT APPEARS THAT THE CELL PHONE LOBBY IS SO STRONG IN THIS COUNTRY THAT ONE NOW MUST HAVE TWO NUMBERS TO TRANSACT BUSINESS! Or perhaps throw-away phones with temporary numbers are contributing to fraud. Whichever, doesn’t really matter. It inclines me to repeat my occasional mantra: TECHNOLOGY WILL BY THE RUINATION OF MANKIND. Technology is uncontrollable.
I told them to use 999-999-9999, 520-555-1212, the managers phone number, the store number, the sheriff, I didn’t care, but they were going to have a long day if that stopped my purchase.
I do not know what number they got the computer to take, but I have my credit card and a note with managers names on it assuring me that I get the deferred payment plan, though the deadline will be passed.
Now to wait for the call where they tell me that they will be here between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, in June or July.
No fruit in the Sansa Fuze 8GB
Ok, I am closing out this obsession with mp3. The last unit I bought is great, assuming it doesn’t die, and assuming if it does the warranty is actually honored.
So if you are in the market for a mp3 player without the fruit, try the Sansa Fuze 8GB. It:
works basically like most others,
has a substantial, quality feel to it,
bright screen,
nice controls (a menu-wheel that actually turns),
logical menus,
expansion slot (up to 20 GB),
good sound (though I liked the sound of the defunct RCA slightly better as it appeared to be a little more crystal clear),
long battery life,
works great with the free MediaMonkey software (PC, similar to iTunes),
And
Sore fingers, aching knuckles, blown memory
Remember how it was? Well, some o’you doggies may remember, a very few. How your fingers got sore, knuckles swollen, hurting form the cold weather. Working tobacco, corn, other crops, something to tend every season. Life on the farm.
I have some of those symptoms now, two generations since I left the farm behind. But I bet you would never guess that it is associated with gadgets, mp3 players, trivial is the scheme of things, nearly as trivial as the decision between HRC vs. BHO that the democrats have agonized over for months.
A short digression. Many say that there is no favoriticism to the Black candidate. I have a simple test to show you otherwise, at least in the internet media. First, Google “Barack Hussein Obama”. Note how far into the list you have to go before you begin seeing a lot of “Barack Hussein Obama” responses.
Now do the same thing with “Hillary Rhodam Clinton”. Note that you will likely begin seeing hits on “Hillary Rhodam Clinton” much earlier in the result, probably above the center fold of the first page.
What does that tell you? Probably nothing. But it tells me that folks on the web have been walking on egg shells about BHO, at least more so than with HRC. Otherwise, there would be no reason for such a glaring result.
I don’t wanna even mention McCain!
Back to the mp3 saga. Bought a 4G RCA mp3. Bought a 8G RCA mp3. It died within 2 days of receipt. That is the third mp3 player I have loaded. I went to RCA web site. They had the Chinese warranty: nada; zip; zero; zilch; ninguno. That caused me to consider the other, similar RCA with a cautious eye. They both were packed back to Walmart, they were, quite quickly.
So, on a new quest for a reliable, or at least warranted mp3 player of reasonable cost, back to BestBuy I went. Note that this little town has only a BestBuy, and we are lucky to have that.
Upon noting none on display, I asked, “Do you have any 8GB mp3 players hidden away? The kind that are not saddled with a 15% fee on returns? Can be returned under 15 days? The kind that come with a good old American warranty instead of the Chinese warranty? The kind that would inspire confidence in me?” They dug one up from under the counter after voicing skepticism. It had all the above, was sturdy, well featured though more pricey. Still substantially less than the fruit-flavored variety. I got the managers card in case they try to not honor those statements.
My knuckles are sore. You see, I am loading mp3 player number 4, a Sensa Fuze 8GB unit. A cute happy little guy. Made by the same folks that make the memory Sandisk cards. In fact, as an added feature, this little guy can have an additional 12GB plugged into its mind!
Wish I could.
And they ask me what I find to do now that I am retired! Just finding a mp3 player is a full time job.
