So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[Naiwen]

Howdy morning all! How are ye all doing today? Today, as it’s another yet again very cold, dark and gloomy day outside but dry, currently feeling like 6C, just enjoying my new Chinese TV show called “Boss and Me” on YouTube Premium before lulling myself to sleep tonight.

 

[tango]

I got my dead GFCI replaced without any fuss. It's a bit of a drag going through the process of standing in line to return the dead one only to stand in line again to buy another (hopefully good) one, but we got there. Now I just need to get it all fitted and see if my wiring scheme will actually work. I'm not sure it will, even though my electrician friend assures me all will be good. If it doesn't I just need to run different cable and then it will definitely work.

 

[tango]

My wife just had her periodic Zoom call with a few ladies in our Sunday School class. They are doing a series of Bible studies. While she was doing that I got my new GFCI all wired up. Just in case I get any spectacular pops I'll wait until it's light outside to actually turn it all on. This time I've got the front hanging off the box with the GFCIs attached, so I can clearly see there's no chance at all of a stray ground wire touching anything it shouldn't. I've also got the two circuits wired to two breakers, whereas before I had a two-pole breaker. The two-pole approach is better because it means there's no chance of anyone rearranging the breakers and ending up with the two circuits sharing a neutral on the same phase, but it didn't work as expected so I'll try individual breakers instead.

Tomorrow morning is also the time the cable company is supposed to be coming to install a new internet service at church. The first time I waited for two hours and they didn't show up, promised we "were next on the list" and the engineer "would be there soon" so I went back to the church and waited another 90 minuted before giving up. Then they sent a guy who couldn't install new cable despite being told we needed cable installed. Perhaps tomorrow they'll finally get it right. Internet companies seem to be the most useless companies around. Sometimes I wonder if they are run by the government.

 

[Naiwen]

Yo sup there guys man! How are you today? Today, as it’s another awfully cold, wet, dark and depressing day outside, currently feeling like 3C, just relaxing online before hitting the pillow tonight.

 

[Lamb]

Getting groceries today! I'm really trying to avoid buying things to bake more sweets until it gets closer to Christmas

 

[tango]

Getting groceries today! I'm really trying to avoid buying things to bake more sweets until it gets closer to Christmas

If you end up with surplus sweets you can always send them to me. Just saying......

 

[tango]

Lazy ish morning today. Hoping the cable company finally gets their act together today. The guy who is liaising with the company and I are taking bets on what they're going to mess up this time.

Now it's light out I can finish off my coffee and connect up my newly wired GFCIs to see how they work. Hopefully if anything is wrong they will pop their dedicated breaker and not the main breaker. I'm expecting they will simply trip themselves, it's the time I get to find out whether I'm right or my electrician friend is right about whether this setup will actually work.

 

[Naiwen]

Howdy sup there! How are you doing with your day so far? Today, since it’s another very cold, wet, dark and gloomy day outside, currently feeling like 0C, just playing some games on my phone before hitting the sack tonight.

 

[tango]

Lazy ish morning today. Hoping the cable company finally gets their act together today. The guy who is liaising with the company and I are taking bets on what they're going to mess up this time.

Now it's light out I can finish off my coffee and connect up my newly wired GFCIs to see how they work. Hopefully if anything is wrong they will pop their dedicated breaker and not the main breaker. I'm expecting they will simply trip themselves, it's the time I get to find out whether I'm right or my electrician friend is right about whether this setup will actually work.

My grand scheme with the GFCIs does not work. The more I thought about it the more I figured it wasn't going to work. My electrician friend thought it would but I'm not sure he was factoring in the GFCIs. When I connected up downstream sockets a socket tester said they were correctly wired but as soon as I drew even a tiny load they popped the GFCIs. So now I need to run two pieces of 12/2 instead of one piece of 12/3 and also figure out what I'm going to do with not quite 250 feet of 12/3 that I've opened and cut so can't return.

 

[Naiwen]

Happy Thursday all! How are you? Today, just been catching up on sleep because I’ve had yet another bad night again last night.

 

[Lamb]

Slept in this morning and I'm glad I did since it's so cold now. Looking at my crafting forum and I see that my newest craft got more views. Yay!

 

[tango]

Spent a load of time yesterday running 12/2 cable for the project I'd hoped to use 12/3. Then when I went to wire up the outlets I found out I ran out of outlets. So I ran the cable to the next few points I'm planning on installing outlets, and when I've finished my coffee I'll head to the hardware store to buy some more.

I can hardly believe I ran out of them, it seemed last time I looked I had dozens. I guess that's what happens when you get busy replacing the old ones with new ones...

 

[Naiwen]

Happy Friday all! How are you? Today, as it’s yet another awfully cold, dark and gloomy day outside, currently feeling like 2C, just enjoying my usual TV show before heading to bed tonight.

 

[Lamb]

Started the first of three loads of laundry.

 

[tango]

Yesterday I went and bought 14 new power outlets. I got back home to find I actually had two earmarked for the first point, so I ended up "only" using six of the new ones. I now have new power outlets dotted around the room I use as my workshop. I wasn't sure where to run the cable next so closed everything up - if I'd known roughly where it was going next I'd have left a loop of wire to the general area and taped the ends for safety.

In the adjacent room I've got two outlets that are on their own circuit, which really isn't necessary, so I'll consider replacing those with pairs and tieing them in to my nice new circuits. If nothing else it will save me a space on my breaker panel. I'm not yet sure if I'll need the space but it's getting a bit full in there.

 

[Naiwen]

Happy Weekend all! How are you? Today, I’ve just had leftover pizza with lemon iced tea for lunch. Tonight, just relaxing online before heading to sleep.

 

[tango]

Major cleanup in my workshop. Drilling holes to run cables, drilling holes to mount electrical boxes, and pulling down a few straggling laths (and the associated bits of plaster, dust, gnawed nut kernels left by historical rodent visitors etc) meant the place was a bit of a mess. Now it isn't a mess any more, except for the extra shop vac, separator and hoses strewn all over the place because I didn't move them back out yet.

I've also got another growing collection of wood scraps. As I went through the odds and ends of wood lying around I considered whether I was actually likely to use them and if I concluded not I cut them into shorter lengths and filled another bucket. It was only a couple of days ago my friend came to collect the previous lot of scraps, which was five buckets worth. He has a workshop in his garage, and burns scrap wood to keep it warm through the winter.

Today I'm thinking I might do a little more work upstairs - I've found a gap in the exterior brickwork so I want to take down a small section of drywall on the inside around the area to see if I've got any more nasty air leaks. I'm hoping it will warm up enough to spray foam into the gap from the outside before it gets really cold.

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

My work cycle begins again tonight. I normally have four days of work and three days off ( which suits me fine). After a horrid day last Tuesday, last Thursday I was able to have personal Confession and Absolution with my pastor. I can take a lot, but when folks get rude, I tend to respond in kind. That's why the Old Adam in me has to die, to make room for the New Man. Remembering my baptism and praying for a thorough " girding" of the Armor of Light for tonight. Likely will pray about that when I do my daily devotions today.

 

[tango]

I can take a lot, but when folks get rude, I tend to respond in kind. That's why the Old Adam in me has to die, to make room for the New Man.

If it's any consolation you're not the only one. There are a few specific things that will typically trigger some kind of aggressive response from me. Usually things that generate a perception that someone is endangering me or someone I care for, but not always.

 

[tango]

I took down a small section of drywall as planned, hoping to be able to do something with a little precision. And I found..... nothing, except a draft coming in through the gap I made in the drywall. So I took down some more drywall, and some more, and some more, and took the trim off the door, and took down some more drywall, and so it went.

Now I have probably about 50 pounds of drywall in a garbage sack, a few featherboards taken off the wall, and still didn't find what I was expecting. I did find a nasty draft coming around the drywal on the perpendicular wall, found a small hole in the inner face of the brickwork that had a draft coming in through it, and found I hadn't fully blocked the nasty hole in the brickwork that someone made to fit an electrical back box. In time I'll fix it with mortar and cement but for now I've fixed it by stuffing fiberglass into the spaces. Hopefully I can stop it getting too cold in there this winter. Since I drained that heating loop there's no source of heat in the room at all, so fixing drafts could be a quick and easy way to not only save some money but also stop it getting quite so cold in there. Last winter I ran an electric bar heater just to keep the chill off, it would be really nice if I didn't need it at all this year.