Tsunami on the Brain

I dreamed last night that I emerged from the subway to find a Mt. Saint Helens like disaster area. Everything was covered in ash and buildings were blown apart. Tsunami on the brain I'm afraid. If the NY Times pictures weren't enough I received this incredible email from my Aunt and Uncle yesterday:

We are safe.  We were staying at a beach in the south called Dickwella, not far from Galle, which you have seen photos of on the news.  the morning of the 26th we took a walk on the beach at 7:30 and I had a swim.  We ate breakfast, packed our bags, and checked out of the hotel having no idea what was about to happen.  We left 15 minutes before the first wave hit and took out the beachside room we were staying in.  I guess you could say that we cut it close!  luck and happenstance with some thanks to God.

Unbelievable.

Commute Radical

I got the question yesterday:

"How often do you ride your bike in to work?"
"Everyday I can."
"What if it rains?"
"I take the train."
"Wait, so how many times have you driven your car to work so far?"
"I haven't driven to work yet."
"What?! You radical!"

The Graphing Calculator

If you haven't read it yet, do. This story is amost too strange to believe.
The Graphing Calculator Story. I found it via Slashdot.

Junior Track Racers

Yesterday Amanda helped out down at the track with a training session for 10-14 year olds. It was a small group, but she had a great time. More details are available on my good friend Steve's Junior Velo site.

Sexual Harassment Training for Nurses

My wife is a nurse at a local hospital in their NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She had to take a mandatory sexual harassment training class last week. Or was it the week before? Anyway all the nurses had to take it. Okay, no big deal. The funny, not so funny part of it all, it was for all employees, the nurses, the janitors, the clerks, everybody. But not the doctors. Imagine that, the nurses taking sexual harassment classes and not the doctors. There something really funny about that.

Happy Birthday Piper!

Piper
Photo by Gerson Goldberg.

Since tomorrow is my youngest daughter's birthday, I need to do the proud father thing and post a picture. I may not be able to call her my youngest daughter all that much longer either!

This is from her birthday party. She had a great time, right up until everyone was focused on her to blow out the candle.

Last Work Free Work Day

I'm probably not going to get much sympathy, but it occurred to me that today was my last work free work day. Back to the old grind on Monday. Sort of. I've got orientation all day on Monday. I'll be hitting the coffee in a big way.

I had to go back and reread this post today.

All in all, I did learn an important lesson. Aside from the usual lesson, that us regular mortals have a really hard time starting up a business when, at the same time, taking a few classes, raising a couple kids, and the wife working full time. Aside from that lesson, the other important lesson is screw the marketing. When you're on your own, for goodness sake focus on what'll keep you up working long after the kids have gone to bed. Because anything less just won't cut it I'm afraid.

Stove problem solved.

After a week, the Viking stove people finally emailed me back with a list of repair guys in my area. Pathetic.

The oven's problem was simply two worn out igniters. Apparently if you use your gas oven quite a bit, they'll only last four to five years. Who knew? Igniters are the small electrical elements that glow red hot and ignite the gas in your oven. This is in place of a pilot light, or a match for that matter back in the day. More expensive, but a whole lot safer. The repair guy I called in said for most people they can last as long as 10 years. I guess we're heavy users compared to the average yuppie Viking owner. The problem I was having with the backfiring was caused by the worn out igniters only drawing about 3 amps of current. The new ones draw 4 amps, and there's some logic built in that closes the gas flow valve below a certain amount, for fear of, well, explosion. The 3 amps ours were drawing was right on the limit. The backfiring was the gas starting, then stopping, then starting again because of this logic. Makes me wonder if this isn't my furnace's problem?

I chalked it up to $120 worth of training, I've paid more for less useful information :) Replacing the igniters was really pretty easy, in four years when they go out again I'll have no problem.

Also picked up this tip: after you clean your stove top, run each burner for about four minutes. Dries out the burner, keeps the stove top igniter working properly and you'll years of rust free operation.

Burners and Igniters

So the furnace is on the fritz as well. After procrastinating for a while I climbed up to the attic and took the covers off the furnace. And once again I'm staring at an electrical igniter and three burners all of which look just like the damn stove. I yelled down to Amanda to turn on the heat, and the fans spin up, the igniter glows, everything is ready but no gas. So I check the two manual valves to the gas line, they're open. I cycle them both, still nothing. Looks like either the control valve is stuck (there's one more electrically controlled valve that sends gas when needed to the burners), or the control valve is not getting the electrical signal to open/close. But since the igniter is lighting up right on time, and I don't have a voltmeter my guess is leaning toward a stuck valve. Diagnosis by way of lack of tools, always a good way to go.

Hmmmmm, so then the question becomes ... do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk? I'm debating taking the control valve apart and see what there is to see. But then it is hooked up to a 1/2" gas line, and even with two manual shut off valves you still get that feeling down deep in the ol' sack so to speak. Do I feel lucky? Well do I?

The rich and famous kill themselves in airplanes because they think their schedule is more important than the conditions. Engineers kill themselves because they just can't resist taking a stuck valve apart. I guess I'll climb back up there and take it apart as well. I'm like a moth to a flame.