So... What are YOU doing? - Part 5

[Ruth]

Watching Two and a half Men.

 

[tango]

Dinner with friends. The way I felt this morning I was wondering if I'd need to cancel it but felt better by the afternoon, so went on out. Bit of a trek, but worth it.

 

[Ruth]

I am up late watching ID channel. It's addicting!

 

[NewCreation435]

Our summer schedule has started at the office. I won't be driving everyday to so many schools since school is almost over

 

[tango]

Looking out at the sunshine and debating whether to drain my heating loop so I can get on with ripping more walls, or going out in the woods. I need to swing by the church to fix an issue there first, maybe I'll decide when I get back.

 

[tango]

It's Pentecost Sunday so I'll be chanting at church and singing a solo. It will be the first time I'm doing this since I had tongue surgery last September so please pray I don't mess up

How did your solo go?

 

[tango]

More visits to the hardware store for today's episode of Fun With Pipes.

The job should have been simple - drain the heating system so I can take radiators off the walls, and pull down the walls behind the radiators. And the first part was - turning valves on and off to drain the system. Then came the part where it got tricky - opening the bleed valve on a radiator to let air in, and thereby let water out. What I thought was a radiator bleed key turned out not to fit the radiators (despite being among general tools it turned out to be a key for one of the old clocks that was in a totally different part of the house). So off to the hardware store to buy a key, except they didn't have anything that fit. So in the end I tried using a variety of sockets and still nothing fit, so I used a pair of pliers to open a valve. And then the water started to drain out, and continued to drain for nearly two hours.

Finally it was done, so I could flip more valves to open and close different sections and refill the system so I could turn the hot water back on. And then I found one valve leaking a little (I suspected it was faulty, and now I'm pretty sure it is), and for good measure the drain valve also had a slow leak. So back to the hardware store to get a cap to put on the drain pipe, until I can get the valve replaced. Rather annoyingly, that means draining the system again but at least this time the heating loops can be isolated so they don't drain. I just hope I can physically get at it - everything looks like it has been designed to be as inaccessible as possible. I may end up putting an angled extender on it, just so I can connect more useful valves to it.

Now it's in a state where the main water feed into the furnace is turned off because the pressure regulator needs replacing and if I leave the main water feed open it builds up too much pressure, which then releases hot water through the overflow. At the same time the drain valve is still very slowly leaking despite the cap, and of course there's no feed active to replace it. So I need to check the pressure in the furnace every couple of days to make sure it hasn't dropped too low, and topping it up if it has. In a couple of months we're having the thing serviced, and that seems like a good time to get the heating guy to replace some of the more esoteric parts.

 

[Lamb]

How did your solo go?

The solo went well, thanks!! ray:. It took me halfway through the song to remember stop looking at the music (that I have memorized) and look up at the congregation to sing TO them.

The chanting didn't go as well since it's been a long time since I've chanted for the congregation and they've forgotten how to respond in unison! So I'll have to take charge and lead them until they get the hang of it again.

 

[NewCreation435]

The solo went well, thanks!! ray:. It took me halfway through the song to remember stop looking at the music (that I have memorized) and look up at the congregation to sing TO them.

The chanting didn't go as well since it's been a long time since I've chanted for the congregation and they've forgotten how to respond in unison! So I'll have to take charge and lead them until they get the hang of it again.

What kind of chanting? I'm unfamiliar with that

 

[tango]

Another helping of Fun With Pipes. The sink in the bathroom was draining really slowly... obviously a blockage of some type. Usually it's in the water trap underneath but this one wasn't. It turned out it was in the mechanism that lifts and lowers the plug. Taking the water trap off the bottom and taking the plug out completely meant I could shine a light through the pipe (or not, as it happened - it was blocked). Trying to push the blockage down wasn't working so I rolled out a doodad I bought last time I dealt with a blockage - a plastic strip with backward-pointing barbs on it. Poke it through the congealed mass of hair and pull it out. My "prize" - a matted blackened ball of hair and manky accumulated soap suds. Yummy.

At least now the sink drains the way it should. Hopefully I won't have to do that again for a while.

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

I'm just reading up on my results with Living DNA and my LM Genetics K36 Ancestry Report. Last night, I finished up reading " White Trash." by Nancy Isenberg. The depressing idea that the American colonies were partially founded as a dumping place for the British poor and that Washington, Jefferson and the rest of that mob looked with contempt on those who did their fighting for them has really sobered me. The fact that even today there's a 1% that the other 99% of the American population are expected to serve as mindless drones really makes one think. Earlier I was reading about www.democraticrepublicanparty.co.uk that suggests that the British monarchy is out of date and that the British people deserve an elected Head of State. A lot of reading going on today.

 

[tango]

It does often seem like the few at the top push the idea of a dream and the people trying to realise the dream do little more than provide it for those at the top who are pushing it. In that regard it often seems the worlds of commerce and the more prosperity-oriented fringes of the church are very similar.

The British monarchy is dated in many ways but I think the majority of the British people would prefer to keep it. During Tony Blair's government there seemed to be an increasing push from within the government to get rid of the monarcy but in 2002 when the Queen celebrated her 50th Jubilee and there were an estimated million people packed into the area surrounding the palace it showed they weren't really in touch with the popular view on that. Frankly given the prospect of President Teresa May or President Jeremy Corbyn I'd rather keep Queen Elizabeth, thanks very much.

 

[Lamb]

What kind of chanting? I'm unfamiliar with that

Here's a nice video about chanting:

Here is an example (go to 1min mark and 2:24m):

I only chant the Introit, Gradual and the parts in the liturgy where there could be an Assistant (like the Kyrie). I do not do the Pastor's part.

 

[NewCreation435]

Here's a nice video about chanting:

Here is an example (go to 1min mark and 2:24m):

I only chant the Introit, Gradual and the parts in the liturgy where there could be an Assistant (like the Kyrie). I do not do the Pastor's part.

That's interesting does the congregation join with you in the chant or is just you or the choir?

 

[tango]

Trying to figure out why a woodpecker has started pecking my house and what best to do about it.

 

[Lamb]

That's interesting does the congregation join with you in the chant or is just you or the choir?

I will sing 2 lines and then the congregation responds with 2 lines and then it's back and forth. There are a variety of psalm tones that can be used and the organist chooses one that is similar to the key for that specific liturgy.

 

[Lamb]

Trying to figure out why a woodpecker has started pecking my house and what best to do about it.

Bugs! It's trying to get food. I'm guessing you have wood siding? At our previous house, the people who lived there before us had to paint and I'm not sure if they added chemicals to stop the woodpeckers.

 

[tango]

Bugs! It's trying to get food. I'm guessing you have wood siding? At our previous house, the people who lived there before us had to paint and I'm not sure if they added chemicals to stop the woodpeckers.

I figured it wants either food or shelter and probably food.

Most of the house isn't wood, which is what confused me. But I noticed where it was sitting in the guttering it looks like there's just a small edge of wood under the pitched metal roof. The roof could do with some TLC (which will probably mean replacing it) so if I get that done I'll have the wood seen to at the same time. Aside from that I don't know what to do about it, it's in a place where I don't think I can get at whatever means I use. I have a ladder that won't reach and even if I got a longer ladder I think I need to be too far across from where the ladder would go. What I really need is a cherry-picker but sadly I don't have one of those lying around idle.

 

[Ruth]

I am watching the ID channel; all murder mysteries. Also, just ate dinner.

 

[tango]

Trying to figure just how big a wrench I'm going to need to disconnect my radiators from the pipe. These things probably haven't moved in 50-80 years and maybe more, so I have no idea what will happen when they do move. I just hope this project doesn't mean I'm going to need new radiators as well as everything else.