As this ordeal is not over, this information may become dated. I suppose what prompted me to do this podcast was how impressed I was over the police work and investigation on this crime. I am still fascinated by the unknown motive and how this will all play out. As we know with OJ Simpson, a circumstantial case is not a slam dunk. But, I don’t think this suspect will have a cadre of celebrity lawyers either.
End Your Programming Routine: Every once an a while I want to do something different on something that really interests me that is not totally in-line with what I normally do. This is one of those things. At the very least, it should be an education into what tactics the police state potentially has at their disposal. Yeah, you know that cell phone that tracks your every movement and is accessible with a warrant. I doubt that this crime would have been solved 15 years ago. It was made possible by all of the privacy that we have voluntarily surrendered. But, at least in this case it was for a positive reason.
As a person growing up in the pacific northwest, I thought that I was immune to the winter blues. Apparently, if it gets bad enough then it has a technical name called Seasonal Affective Disorder. I don’t feel as though I am mentally effected but I definitely feel sluggish. sometimes.
My solution is to power through by setting goals and achievable milestones. That keeps that ball moving with ‘wins’ so that I can keep those blues away. Today I am talking about strategies and things to consider.
End Your Programming Routine: The silver lining here is that we are on the upswing, it is already late January and Spring is right around the corner. Or at least it getting ready for spring is around the corner. So, we just have to keep vigilant of the potential problems that arise.
Recently, I noticed a problem. It seemed like the first five minutes of the shower was hot and then it went lukewarm. I didn’t think that I was imagining things so I started to ask some questions. Did my wife take a shower before me? Are the kids here? And the answer was no. Hmm, seems like we might have a problem with the hot water heater.
I looked at the date on the water heater, it was dated 1994. So, that is 29 years old folks. The common stated lifecycle is 10-15 years. That means that when we bought the house, we were at the end of the expected duration. But, that is crazy, as long as the tank is not leaking (meaning rusted throughout), then there should be some serviceable parts and some way to check it.
Electric water heaters have two elements at top and a bottom. I surmised that there was a problem with the bottom element because there was some hot water. A quick aside on how water heaters work. Because of the temperature gradient, hot water is on top and cooler water is on the bottom. As you draw from the tank, hot water comes off the top while cooler water is added to the bottom. This actually pushes the hot water out. Time to test things out.
First, take the covers off of the tank. This exposes the elements and thermostats (one per element). Then, with a multi-meter set to resistance (that is the ohm’s symbol omega, sorry I cant add special characters) put the lead on each wire terminal and measure. The expected result depends on your particular element but I was expecting around12 and 13 ohms. From the picture, you can see that the top element measured 13.4 and the bottom measured 0.7 ohms.
If you remember you basic physics and circuits, 1 ohm is a broken circuit. What is likely happened that the element is all gunked up with mineral build-up. But, the element could be burned out and the circuit is completed with the mineral build up, at least that is my speculation.
Had I gotten two good resistance measurements of the top and bottom elements, I might have turned my attention to the thermostat. In theory, those could be tested too, but it is more complicated and I didn’t do it so I am not going to talk any further about it. I am going to attempt to replace the elements.
I say attempt because I hope that I can get the bottom element out. There is a lot of corrosion around the element and who knows what the inside is looking like. I will probably look at the top element and will make a decision as I get there. The replacement I ordered comes with two elements and is billed as a ‘tune-up’.
End Your Programming Routine: If you are interested, stay tuned to follow up on this project. What I am trying to get across today is that things like this are not out of reach of the average homeowner. A little knowledge of how a hot water heater works and what is possible can lead to saving a lot of money. I don’t know this for a fact, but my guess is that a plumber would replace the whole thing because after all, it is three times older than it’s expected life.
Reading Atlas Shrugged gave me a fundamental paradigm shift. Not only did it inspire me to look into philosophy as a discipline but change my appreciation for it in general. I guess it never occurred to me that fundamental understanding of the same definition is critical to proper logical analysis. It sounds so simple but I guess that I have never done it before.
End Your Programming Routine: I think this is where we start the end your programming routine. We need to understand the fundamental questions in life to be able to successfully manage and thrive. I am definitely thinking of doing more in this line, including study of philosophy. I enjoyed it, I hope you do too.
I have tried to change it up from the serious and heavy to the light and fun. So, when thinking about getting ready for New Year’s Eve, I was thinking about how we used to play Cribbage as a family on that particular day. I thought that I might be able to attempt to describe how to play on a podcast. You be the judge.
End Your Programming Routine: Being that this is kind of a game of passing time, you think about what is the value of a game like this. At fishing/hunting camp it is filling out the evening so that you can get to the purpose tomorrow. Or for sailors, it is the same kind of thing. It is a game worth having around in my opinion, whether you are waiting for the ball to drop or holed up in your bunker.
And… welcome to 2023. We are starting the year off by going back to basics by talking about planning. Not to mention, we are almost back to a normal schedule with a podcast on Tuesday. Listen today to learn how I plan to hit the ground running in the new year.
End Your Programming Routine: I have a cloud of tags when I am writing that show my top ten most commonly used tags in my blog. Planning makes that list. Despite that, I don’t remember the last time I wrote or talked about it. The new year is the perfect time to plan but so is any other time of year. The most important thing is to do it and then check up from time to time to see how you are doing.
It’s that time again. We need to celebrate our success and condemn our failures. I talk about the things that I think are the highlights, places that didn’t go the way I expected and plans for next year.
End Your Programming Routine: I am a big believer in checking in the rear view mirror. You cant drive forward that way but you can sure see what you have run over. I suppose the goal for every content creator is to do more of what worked better, try hard to do what you plan or say and figure out what you are going to do next. That is what this is all about
I’ve got a lot of problems with you people. This is my annual airing of grievances. Some of it is pretty serious and some of it was kind of light hearted. But, I like the tradition of Festivus and the airing of grievances. Get ready to get punched in the face if you are taking a stand against me, cause it is on. We will settle this with the feats of strength.
One correction for the OSU Beavers basketball. They won three games, not two. That was my fault for not researching my facts (including my own blog) before speaking. I still contend that this is the worst team in history due to the total number of losses.
End Your Programming Routine: Sometimes there is no changing the programming. Today, I am enjoying some old fashion bitching. That is part of the tradition of Festivus in the first place.
I admit, I am bad at this. It is not like I don’t have good ideas but I either I can’t execute or I don’t have time. I talk about the some today, so I will skip this. I guess the main reason that I did this podcast was to provide helpful information on gift buying before it is too late – from a decidedly male standpoint.
Ultimately, I feel like too many people Christmas shop to check the box. That is just as it is written shopping rather than gift giving. Like all things, the value is not in the doing but the intent. If your intent is to finish then you end up justifying to yourself your decisions. Those end up being disappointing gifts.
End Your Programming Routine: In these times, I wish that I was the kind of guy that was into this holiday. Some people think and plan long before the middle of December about how they want to approach things and what they are going to do. I am just not wired that way. Is is selfish. maybe. I don’t know, but I have to work with what I am.
It is sometimes the little things that move us from one thing to another. I walk through Black Friday to spending some time in the shop. I started work on my sofa table to ultimately hold my Hi-Fi system. This is the final piece in my office setup, but it is a big one.
End Your Programming Routine: Ultimately, we will see if I am right or feel the same way later in life. There a lot of philosophical choices I discuss in this episode. My biggest thing to battle is going to be maintaining progress. Unfortunately, this is a difficult time of year to really do that But, I need to keep pushing every day/week even if it is only 30 minutes a day.
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