kuniform

Shovelled the snow four times in the past four days, and I need to shovel again tonight when I get home. So far, I built some radiator reflectors, which are just cardboard, aluminum foil, and duct tape, put ‘em behind the radiators after clearing out 30 years of accumulated crud. Cleaned the garage, changed bulbs, changed humidifier filters, re-hung a clothesline. Took out part of a wall, and maybe identified my water main.

Now, I was ready to bleed my radiators. And it went well, at first. Then, I was puzzled. I did the first ones, they hissed some air, and eventually made with the goods: some clear water running in a stream. This boy was ecstatic. I moved on to radiator #3, in the living room, which had hot feet, warm ankles, and nothing warm on the rest of it. I turned the valve, PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT air came out. Then… nothing. No water, no more hissing air. I thought the system should recover for the lost pressure by putting in more water, but it was a no go. At least, immediately. Over the past few days I have been cranking the keys at intervals, letting out what air is pressurized in each of the two radiators which do this. They puff out some air, wheeze a little, and then I close them back up.

Either there’s a ton of air in this system ‘cause it’s never been bled, or it’s just seriously whacked. I can’t seem to find any devices to remove air from the system.. the name of that thing escapes me right now, but it should be by the overflow tank. Anyway, I think I know how to bleed system #2, as well, which is the downstairs non-valved system. We’ll see. I’d like to avoid blowing up myself/my house/my family.

Finally, tested the phone line and realized it was the phone, not the line, which was dead.

Now is has stopped snowing. It’s so pretty, but I have so little time to shovel sidewalks!

A buddy of mine does some consulting for AOL, and forwarded me this link: RollingStone.com It’s a pretty interesting interview with Justin Frankel, the kid who coded WinAMP and Gnutella, and took AOL on a $100 million joyride. Go, Justin!

ok… So I am living in a water-heated boiler/radiator building for the first time in.. oh, 8 years? And this is the first one I’ve owned, so I am currently divining the purpose of 85 years of cruft and pipes which tangle in every imaginable direction in my basement.

So far, no matter what else has to happen in the house, I have dedicated 1.5 hrs, minimum, each night to labelling pipes as far as what they do, and where they go. Three nights into the process, I still have not found my water main, though I know where many other things lead. This could be considered bad, especially since we replaced a toilet downstairs without the benefit of this knowledge. One stripped screw and we’d have had a swimming pool in the basement.

Most importantly, I have figured out how all the radiators hook together, and I think I know how to control them, now. If that is the case, bleeding the system and the individual radiators should be pretty easy. I’ll find out if that is the case tonight. In the meantime, I’ve had great luck searching the internet and compiling tips.

Particularly helpful have been:
making a radiator reflector
and maintaining radiators

Do you know of any good links? Do you know anyone who lives in Ravenswood Manor, Chicago, IL who knows where their water main is?

Because of non-temporary insanity, I am going to document our attempts at home improvement over the course of time. So far, tightened all the loose door knobs, watched a bunch of electrical circuits fail, repaired some woodwork and replaced a toilet. Discovered, in the process of doing all these odds and ends, that we have lead pipes in our place. I guess it’s common in brownstones, especially those in Chicago, but a pain in the ass to deal with.

man, i am still depressed after that loss to philly, so no caps in today’s post. all i can say is go for it on 4th and 1 when the game is on the line, not when you have a chance to put points on the board. heck, philly is still philly.

anyway, thanks to sherman for a great season.. i thought it was done 12 weeks ago, and we got a few more chances to see favre do his thing.

more later on andrew fastow and his wife, who robbed millions from hundreds if not thousands of people, but will receive sentencing that pales in comparison to that which a crack dealer would get. doesn’t seem right, but that’s black and white in amerika: 2 forms of justice for 2 colors of skin.