If it ain't one thing, it's another
Tony Cooper
set of problems.
Last Wednesday I was up on the roof replacing some shingles. On the
way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the first rung,
and I fell twelve feet. The first eleven feet weren't bad; barely
enough time to get out "Oh, shit!". The last foot, and the resulting
quick stop, was a bit rough. I landed face-down on my chest and had
all of the wind knocked out of me.
The last time I remember having the wind knocked out of me was in a
playground fight in the seventh grade. It's instant paralysis. I
thought I'd broken my neck since I couldn't move, couldn't breathe,
and couldn't feel anything at all. In a few minutes my breath started
coming back and I started making involuntary whooping noises that
scared me even more. It was a full ten minutes before I could get up
off the ground. By that time, I knew I could move all extremities -
even if painfully - and that I would survive to write more off-topic
stuff and annoy the hell out of the regular readers here that dislike
posts about personal experiences.
I called my wife and had her come home to drive me to the hospital.
They use a triage system that ascertains that you are not missing
vital body parts or leaking vital fluids from huge, gaping wounds.
Then, they sit you in the waiting room for six hours while they attend
to the seriously injured. I was seated between a woman who
continually threw up into an emesis basin and a woman that made
sixteen calls on her cell phone to advise all of her friends,
relatives, and acquaintances about her mother who was being treated
for vaginal bleeding. I don't know why she bothered to use her phone.
Her voice was capable of reaching distant counties without use of
electronic amplification.
I got off lucky, though. A couple of compression fractures of the
lower vertebrae and some severely strained internal body parts that
are required to move in any direction. I now walk with a cane and I'm
wearing some sort of body brace that presses uncomfortably into
previously undamaged parts of my body.
Then, insult to injury. My internet connection gave up like an
alcoholic's liver. Brighthouse - my provider for cable TV and cable
modem - was too busy repairing hurricane damage to send anyone out for
five days. Clyde finally showed up, diddled around with electronic
sleuthing equipment for an hour or so, and said my problem was
somewhere else in the system that he didn't have access to. Two more
days to locate and solve the problem.
OK, I do miss you guys, but since I couldn't drive because of the pain
pills and muscle relaxants, couldn't do any kind of work around the
house because all tasks require movement that sets off pain like
bumping a Lexus with a car alarm, and couldn't watch television
because it depresses me about what the television producers think the
American public wants to watch, so I missed you guys *terribly*.
Now that I'm back on-line and have deleted - unread - 242 of the 243
emails in my box, I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
4,244 unread messages.
Oh, yeah, one email that I didn't delete is from
"Dado...@129.250.170.xx" that has an attachment. Subject is "Re:
Test". I didn't open the attachment. Legitimate or identity theft?
For those of you that thought I'd left never again to bother
you.....nyah, nyah, nyah. I'm back.
Arcadian Rises
>
>Now that I'm back on-line and have deleted - unread - 242 of the 243
>emails in my box,
To add even more insult to injury: I'm sure you deleted the email with the
Indian lottery and missed winning about ten million dollars...
Get well soon and feel better!
Richard Chambers
"Tony Cooper" <tony_co...@earthlink.net> wrote
> First if was the hurricanes and the power outages, and now it's a new
> set of problems.
>
[ ... ]
I am sure that I am speaking for everybody in wishing you all the best and a
speedy recovery. Everybody, that is, except for Charles Riggs, Rey, Young
Joey, ............etc. who will just have to contribute their own ideas on
the subject of whether they wish you to recover at all, ever.
Richard Chambers Leeds UK.
John Dean
> First if was the hurricanes and the power outages, and now it's a new
> set of problems.
>
> Last Wednesday I was up on the roof replacing some shingles. On the
> way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the first rung,
> and I fell twelve feet. The first eleven feet weren't bad; barely
> enough time to get out "Oh, shit!". The last foot, and the resulting
> quick stop, was a bit rough. I landed face-down on my chest and had
> all of the wind knocked out of me.
>
message" you turn up. Kinda reassuring.
Glad you're OK.
--
John Dean
Oxford
R J Valentine
} First if was the hurricanes and the power outages, and now it's a new
} set of problems.
Prof. Eff was wondering about that, in case you delete all the old ones.
...
} I called my wife and had her come home to drive me to the hospital.
Wait a second! Your wife the uebernurse drove a guy with a broken back to
the hospital?
...
} are required to move in any direction. I now walk with a cane and I'm
} wearing some sort of body brace that presses uncomfortably into
} previously undamaged parts of my body.
Did you have the cane and brace in stock? Or did you at least get it
wholesale?
} OK, I do miss you guys, but since I couldn't drive because of the pain
} pills and muscle relaxants, couldn't do any kind of work around the
} house because all tasks require movement that sets off pain like
} bumping a Lexus with a car alarm, and couldn't watch television
} because it depresses me about what the television producers think the
} American public wants to watch, so I missed you guys *terribly*.
You missed the "debates"?
} Oh, yeah, one email that I didn't delete is from
} "Dado...@129.250.170.xx" that has an attachment. Subject is "Re:
} Test". I didn't open the attachment. Legitimate or identity theft?
Fake. R wouldn't do that to you.
} For those of you that thought I'd left never again to bother
} you.....nyah, nyah, nyah. I'm back.
Oh, you'll find some other excuse to disappear for a while before
long.
--
R. J. Valentine <mailto:r...@smart.net>
Arcadian Rises
> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>4,244 unread messages.
I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most interesting and
appealling to you.
Skitt
>> From: Tony Cooper
>> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>> 4,244 unread messages.
>
> I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most
> interesting and appealling to you.
There's an extra letter there, but which one is it? Is it the "e", or the
"l"?
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/
Arcadian Rises
>
>Arcadian Rises wrote:
>>> From: Tony Cooper
>
>>> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>>> 4,244 unread messages.
>>
>> I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most
>> interesting and appealling to you.
>
>There's an extra letter there, but which one is it? Is it the "e", or the
>"l"?
I wrote an extra "l", just in case.
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
> "Tony Cooper" <tony_co...@earthlink.net> wrote
> > First if was the hurricanes and the power outages,
> > and now it's a new set of problems.
> [ ... ]
> I am sure that I am speaking for everybody in wishing you all the best and
> a speedy recovery. Everybody, that is, except for Charles Riggs, Rey,
Good man.
> Young Joey, ............etc. who will just have to contribute their own
> ideas on the subject of whether they wish you to recover at all, ever.
Sans gloating:
Time wounds all heels. There *is* a just God, after all.
--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman, Philologist
AUEer Emeritus & Eremitus
Nell
wrote:
You'd better be careful. You don't want to use all the "l"s up, do
you? We can't be having a shortage, you know.
Nell
Anyone who says "Easy as taking candy from a baby"
has never tried it.
Nell
You might have gotten faster attention if you'd been brought in by
ambulance. They would have strapped you on a board.
Sounds like you had a ton of fun. The political brouhaha itself is
enough to give one a pain, either high up on the spinal column or at
the bottom.
Invest in an industrial strength ladder or better, hire someone.
I know--all my ideas have dollar signs. LOL
Take care of yourself.
Harvey Van Sickle
> On 07 Oct 2004 02:25:38 GMT, arcadi...@aol.com (Arcadian
> Rises) wrote:
>
>>> From: "Skitt" ski...@comcast.net
>>
>>>
>>> Arcadian Rises wrote:
>>>>> From: Tony Cooper
>>>
>>>>> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>>>>> 4,244 unread messages.
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most
>>>> interesting and appealling to you.
>>>
>>> There's an extra letter there, but which one is it? Is it the
>>> "e", or the "l"?
>>
>> I wrote an extra "l", just in case.
>>
>
> You'd better be careful. You don't want to use all the "l"s up, do
> you? We can't be having a shortage, you know.
It's happened aready: I'm entirey out of the ittle beggars.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van)
the Omrud
> First if was the hurricanes and the power outages, and now it's a new
> set of problems.
>
> Last Wednesday I was up on the roof replacing some shingles. On the
> way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the first rung,
> and I fell twelve feet. The first eleven feet weren't bad; barely
> enough time to get out "Oh, shit!". The last foot, and the resulting
> quick stop, was a bit rough. I landed face-down on my chest and had
> all of the wind knocked out of me.
Indeed, I was beginning to wonder where you were; no new hurricanes
were being reported. Glad to hear it wasn't more serious.
Also pleased to report that I won't be suffering the same fate as
today there are four (count them) men working around our house,
leaving me to sit quietly in my study, emerging only to refuel them
with Builders Tea and Chocolate Digestives. Two are replacing failed
double glazing units, and two are hacking back the bio mass of shrubs
and bushes which are once again threatening to overgrow the garden.
We keep Builders Tea especially for workmen (the current packet is
Sainsbury's Red Label, 99p for a big box full of tea bags). But what
is it with workmen these days? You used to be able to pick a good
builder from the number of sugars he took in his tea; 20 years ago I
would have been very wary of a workman who took fewer than four
spoonsful. But they must have all been watching Doctor Gillian as
two of those around me today have one spoon and the other two have no
sugar. How confusing is the modern world.
It's also getting rather chilly in the house as there are holes where
there should be windows.
--
David
=====
replace the first component of address
with the definite article.
Robin Bignall
<harve...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>On 07 Oct 2004, Nell wrote
>
>> On 07 Oct 2004 02:25:38 GMT, arcadi...@aol.com (Arcadian
>> Rises) wrote:
>>
>>>> From: "Skitt" ski...@comcast.net
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Arcadian Rises wrote:
>>>>>> From: Tony Cooper
>>>>
>>>>>> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>>>>>> 4,244 unread messages.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most
>>>>> interesting and appealling to you.
>>>>
>>>> There's an extra letter there, but which one is it? Is it the
>>>> "e", or the "l"?
>>>
>>> I wrote an extra "l", just in case.
>>>
>>
>> You'd better be careful. You don't want to use all the "l"s up, do
>> you? We can't be having a shortage, you know.
>
>It's happened aready: I'm entirey out of the ittle beggars.
That must be lllllish. Borrow some of those.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England
Arcadian Rises
>>Arcadian Rises wrote:
>>I wrote an extra "l", just in case.
>>
>
>You'd better be careful. You don't want to use all the "l"s up, do
>you? We can't be having a shortage, you know.
>
You should practice what you preach, Nel.
Harvey Van Sickle
Thank you! Life can now retun to nomal. (Awight: who's nicked the
18th lette?)
Mike Lyle
"Borrow", he says! A handful of lousy ells, and he wants them back! I
tell, you, Robin, your generosity is exceeded only by your beauty.
Mike.
Ian Noble
<harve...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>On 07 Oct 2004, Nell wrote
>
>> On 07 Oct 2004 02:25:38 GMT, arcadi...@aol.com (Arcadian
>> Rises) wrote:
>>
>>>> From: "Skitt" ski...@comcast.net
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Arcadian Rises wrote:
>>>>>> From: Tony Cooper
>>>>
>>>>>> I'm trying to figure out where to start with the
>>>>>> 4,244 unread messages.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm sure you'll start to answer those messages that are most
>>>>> interesting and appealling to you.
>>>>
>>>> There's an extra letter there, but which one is it? Is it the
>>>> "e", or the "l"?
>>>
>>> I wrote an extra "l", just in case.
>>>
>>
>> You'd better be careful. You don't want to use all the "l"s up, do
>> you? We can't be having a shortage, you know.
>
>It's happened aready: I'm entirey out of the ittle beggars.
Reay? I find that a ittle hard to beieve.
Cheers - Ian
John Varela
wrote:
> On the
> way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the first rung,
> and I fell twelve feet.
I hate ladders.
For many years I have had a lightweight 16 foot extension ladder that scares
the hell out of me every time I use it. So a couple of years ago I bought a
really good, sturdy, 24-foot extension ladder. Going up it is almost like
climbing a staircase. The only problem is the thing is so heavy I can barely
manipulate it.
So I was feeling pretty good about ladders when an acquaintance had an
accident in which his foot slipped off of a rung and went through the ladder.
His ankle hooked on the upper rung while his whole weight pressed against the
lower rung, causing the shin to break with both ends of the broken bone
protruding. Now, this man is a doctor with emergency room experience. He was
lying there watching himself bleed and estimating that he had about 15 minutes
before he bled to death. Luckily, a neighbor saw him, dialed 911, and he
lived. But before it was all over with they had to remove the leg at the
knee.
I'm glad to hear that you have a happier outcome, but I still hate ladders.
--
John Varela
(Trade "OLD" lamps for "NEW" for email.)
I apologize for munging the address but the spam was too much.
Tony Cooper
Jesus, John, I still haven't finished shingling the section of roof.
As soon as I'm able to, I have to go back up there and finish the job.
Now I have to do so with your story in the back of my mind.
I used to have a neighbor that was an ophthalmologist. He was leaving
his driveway one evening on his way to his monthly penny-ante poker
game. He'd put some items in the trunk of his car and left his jar of
pennies on the rear bumper. He jumped out of the running car to
retrieve the jar, spilled the jar in his haste, and the car popped
into reverse gear. His right hand was pinned under the wheel. He
lost the use of his hand and his career as a surgeon. He moved away
after that, and I don't know what he's doing now. All for a handful
of pennies.
Mike Lyle
> On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:13:11 GMT, "John Varela"
hate
>> ladders.
>
> Jesus, John, I still haven't finished shingling the section of
roof.
> As soon as I'm able to, I have to go back up there and finish the
job.
> Now I have to do so with your story in the back of my mind.
Shit fire, Tony! Get a professional in to do the lousy shingles! He's
used to it, he's insured, and best of all he's somebody else! If you
were that pushed for fags, and you aren't, what would you do with the
few hundred dollars that you couldn't put off for a few weeks anyway?
Mike.
Tony Cooper
But I like to take on things like this. There was a time when I
brought in someone to do all these type of projects. In the last few
years, though, I've begun to take on projects that I never would have
contemplated before. I just finished replacing the soffits on the
back porch and the adjoining garage side and replaced some
water-damaged wood. It's a bang-up job and looks like a pro did it.
Earlier this summer I re-shingled the front porch and replaced the
underlayment. I'm replacing the structure around the well components,
I plan to install a new hot water heater myself, There's an outside
door to the garage that I'll replace, including the frame, and I
re-routed all the piping for the pool pumps. I replaced some of the
house siding where the Florida wet climate had rotted the boards.
I ripped out the carpet in my office room and put down wooden floors.
Save a few hundred dollars? It is to laugh. You ever done home
repair projects? I have so much money invested in power tools and
other gee-gaws that I could put up a live-in handyman and his family
of seven in my tool shed for what I've spent. I can't put up a new
set of house numbers without going to Home Depot and buying a house
number positioning device with a laser guidance system. I bought a
pneumatic roofing nail gun for the shingles, for Crissake.
I like doing these projects. It's therapy. It took me two days to
figure out how to mark an angle on a strip of siding so it fit with
the pitch of the roof line. They've got this triangle device that you
have to learn how to position to do this. It's tougher than you
think.
Last year I sliced up the fingers of one hand (3 stitches) doing some
gutter replacement, but - oh, the satisfaction of completing a
project.
I hate yardwork. I have riding lawn mower, an electric sidewalk
blower, a gas-powered edger, and all kinds of snips and snaps. I'd
trade 'em all for a sheep if it would get me out of cutting the grass.
I'll look into that when Home Depot starts stocking electric
sheep-shit picker-uppers.
I see guys that love to spend their Saturday afternoons changing the
oil on their cars or replacing their framdoodle with a turbo-charged
framdoodle, but I have trouble finding the hood latch on my car. I'd
take my car in to the garage to have the cigarette lighter replaced.
But, give me a power saw and I'm a happy man. (I have a left-handed
power saw, by the way) Home Depot's now got one with a red he-ne
laser guide that looks almost indispensable to me.
Robin Bignall
I know.
Robin Bignall
Tony was probably putting into practice one of my father's favourite
sayings, "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself". This was
current long before DIY as a killer sport was invented. In this case,
though, I think your advice is sound. Going just two or three rungs up
a ladder makes me dizzy.
Dena Jo
> Last Wednesday I was up on the roof replacing some shingles. On
> the way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the
> first rung, and I fell twelve feet.
Sorry to hear this, Tony. Hope you're up and running again soon.
--
Dena Jo
Email goes to denajo2 at the dot com variation of the Yahoo domain.
Plonk the bastards:
http://www.schmuckwithanunderwood.com/trolls.html
Charles Riggs
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>Tony Cooper wrote:
...
>Shit fire, Tony!
I claim, although I can't find it in a dictionary, the word is spelled
"shitfire". It is an exclamation quite popular in some parts of
America, or it was, and not a request for someone to shit fire, as
Mike's version implies.
--
Charles Riggs
The accented letter in my email address
should be an unaccented letter
Charles Riggs
>On 06 Oct 2004, Tony Cooper, who likes crossposters, wrote:
>
>> Last Wednesday I was up on the roof replacing some shingles. On
>> the way down, the ladder broke just as I put my weight on the
>> first rung, and I fell twelve feet.
>
>Sorry to hear this, Tony. Hope you're up and running again soon.
If he landed on his incredible nose he'll have bounced to safety. A
sore nose though could explain why he has been so testy of late. Hope
your nose is up and running again soon, Coop.
Mark Barratt
> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
--
Mark Barratt
Tony Cooper
wrote:
>Tony Cooper wrote:
>
>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>
>Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one not
called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water heater.
Skitt
> "Mike Lyle" wrote:
>> Shit fire, Tony! Get a professional in to do the lousy shingles! He's
>> used to it, he's insured, and best of all he's somebody else! If you
>> were that pushed for fags, and you aren't, what would you do with the
>> few hundred dollars that you couldn't put off for a few weeks anyway?
>>
> Tony was probably putting into practice one of my father's favourite
> sayings, "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself". This was
> current long before DIY as a killer sport was invented. In this case,
> though, I think your advice is sound. Going just two or three rungs up
> a ladder makes me dizzy.
That reminds me of the mental torture I went through when I was doing some
house-painting work in summers, during my college days. Being up on a high
ladder, painting an old two-story house, made me exceedingly nervous. I am
bothered by heights. Now I don't even want to get up on my one-story
house's roof.
Yeah, I'm chicken.
Mike Lyle
No you're not. Some people can do it, and others can't. With ladder
jobs I use several times as much energy being nervous than I do on
the job itself. My theory, FWIW, is that those who remain nervous
about ladder work are being told by their body-mind set-up that they
aren't as well equipped for it as some others. Look at the way people
with less than average natural buoyancy approach swimming. Horses for
courses.
I once experienced something mentioned by Cousteau in one of his
books. Schnorkelling off Libya, I found myself in a brightly-lit deep
area where the water was so clear that I lost all sense of anything
between me and the bottom, and began to feel vertiginous, as if
looking over a precipice. It was very strange, and interesting, but
not pleasant.
Mike.
John Varela
wrote:
> But I like to take on things like this.
Yeah, I used to do a lot of work on cars until they computerized everything
and nowadays I don't even know what all those gadgets under the hood are.
BUT, with regard to you "having to go back up there and finish the job", I
recall some 30 years ago I had our 66 Plymouth Belvedere up on jackstands, and
I was underneath removing the muffler with a hammer and a cold chisel. The
damned thing didn't want to come off, and as I pounded on it flakes of rust
were falling into my eyes, nose, and mouth. It was miserable work. And then
I had an epiphany. I realized that *I could afford to pay someone to do that
job for me*! I had nothing to prove by changing a muffler myself yet another
time.
Same goes for you and ladder jobs at your age.
Tony Cooper
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>I once experienced something mentioned by Cousteau in one of his
>books. Schnorkelling off Libya, I found myself in a brightly-lit deep
>area where the water was so clear that I lost all sense of anything
>between me and the bottom, and began to feel vertiginous, as if
>looking over a precipice. It was very strange, and interesting, but
>not pleasant.
I've had a similar experience scuba diving at night. Just to see what
it was like, I turned off my light and just hovered. I lost all sense
of up or down or direction. I forced myself to hold the moment for a
while, and finally turned the light back on. I was sure I had drifted
and perhaps turned upside down, but found myself in almost the exact
position I had been in before.
The use of "schnorkelling" fascinates me. We would use "snorkeling".
I see the word is from the German "Schnorchel". Is your spelling the
common European spelling, or just yours?
Wall diving in the Caymans also plays tricks on you because of the
extremely clear water. You can be cruising along at, say 40 feet
underwater, and come to a wall. So you start descending while looking
at the formations on the wall and lose track of how far down you've
gone. It doesn't seem like you've descended more than ten or twenty
feet, but you look at your depth gauge and see you're at 90 or 100
feet down. If you don't check the gauge, you can keep going and
become victim to nitrogen narcosis.
Mark Brader
>>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>> Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
> I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one not
> called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water heater.
This is where someone points out that there are two kinds of water
headers: the demand type heats cold water immediately before use,
while the storage type *keeps* a tank of water hot -- and therefore
really is a "hot water heater".
As usual on this continent, my house has a storage water heater.
It burns gas. A couple of months ago there was an incident nearby
involving a broken water main and a broken gas main, and we were
without gas for four or five days while all the gas company sucked
all the water out of the gas mains. We were warned when they turned
off the gas, and made sure we didn't use up the remaining hot water
before it cooled to room temperature anyway. This turned out to take
well over 24 hours. Try *that* with a demand heater.
Anyway, for what it's worth, "water heater" is what I call the thing.
Mine happens to be rented, and "water heater" is also what it's called
on the bill.
--
Mark Brader | "Courtly love-poetry may first have been written
Toronto | during long periods of abstinence on the Crusades,
m...@vex.net | but it would not have flourished in the cold of
| northern Europe without some help from the chimney."
| -- James Burke
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Maria Conlon
> Mark Barratt wrote:
>> Tony Cooper wrote:
>>
>>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>>
>> Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
>
> I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one not
> called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water heater.
We had a thread about this very topic some years ago. As I said then,
"Whatever happened to the term "hot water tank"? Did it go out of fashion
when the automatic variety became common? Of course, no matter what it's
called, it is simply a device for heating water. And if it's not "ON," it's
simply a container of water. Unless it leaks."
I've heard many people refer to a "hot water heater" or a "hot water tank";
"water heater" seems much less common, in my circle, at least. (My circle is
made up, mostly, of people around my own age (61) or thereabouts. Well, plus
my kids and grandson.)
Maria Conlon, Southeast Michigan, USA.
Spehro Pefhany
<OLDl...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 22:55:17 UTC, Tony Cooper <tony_co...@earthlink.net>
>wrote:
>
>> But I like to take on things like this.
>
>Yeah, I used to do a lot of work on cars until they computerized everything
>and nowadays I don't even know what all those gadgets under the hood are.
>
>BUT, with regard to you "having to go back up there and finish the job", I
>recall some 30 years ago I had our 66 Plymouth Belvedere up on jackstands, and
>I was underneath removing the muffler with a hammer and a cold chisel. The
>damned thing didn't want to come off, and as I pounded on it flakes of rust
>were falling into my eyes, nose, and mouth. It was miserable work. And then
>I had an epiphany. I realized that *I could afford to pay someone to do that
>job for me*! I had nothing to prove by changing a muffler myself yet another
>time.
>
>Same goes for you and ladder jobs at your age.
Here is a story from my friend Brian Lawson:
My "picture -on-the-wall" reminder is from almost 40 years ago, and
still very well remembered to this day. It was in the employee
entrance to an Electrohome factory in Kitchener, Ontario. An 8 X 10
real photo of a ripped off left ring-finger, badly bent up wedding
ring still in place, and one of the tendons about 12" long still
attached to the root of the finger . I still shudder. Attached
caption said that the fellow had been coming down a ladder (remember
the old wooden ones with 1/4" threaded rod cross-ties below every
rung/step) and he had elected to step down the last two steps in one
motion, but his ring caught on a bolt in the ladder stile. I quit
wearing any rings as of that day, and because of it I only wore my
wedding ring on the day we married, for just that day.
I notice that when we pay to have people work on the trees, it's the
young bucks who go up 30 or 40 feet in the air with a chainsaw, while
the old (as in 50 years old) farts stay on the ground, outside of
range of falling branches. Similarly, I won't go up and clean second-
story eavestroughs when an insured company will come and do it for a
couple of hundred dollars a year. I don't miss the smell of rotting
leaves either.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
sp...@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Robert Bannister
> They use a triage system that ascertains that you are not missing
> vital body parts or leaking vital fluids from huge, gaping wounds.
> Then, they sit you in the waiting room for six hours while they attend
> to the seriously injured.
This would not be acceptable in Britain or Australia. We use the
compulsory 2 hour wait, followed by 40 minutes filling in forms before
anyone ascertains whether you are seriously dead or not. In Western
Australia, we have now refined this system, so that you actually sit an
extra hour or so in the ambulance outside before getting to wait in
Emergency.
--
Rob Bannister
Laura F Spira
And some people can do it happily for years and then suddenly can't. We
have had two window-cleaners who, after years of climbing ladders with
no problems, suddenly found themselves inexplicably unable to do so.
Neither had had any sort of accident. Fortunately, both were in
partnership with people who were not similarly affected.
With ladder
> jobs I use several times as much energy being nervous than I do on
> the job itself. My theory, FWIW, is that those who remain nervous
> about ladder work are being told by their body-mind set-up that they
> aren't as well equipped for it as some others. Look at the way people
> with less than average natural buoyancy approach swimming. Horses for
> courses.
Being a very poorly co-ordinated person, I'm sure you're right. There
are many activities which make me nervous and which I am happy to leave
to others.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
Mike Lyle
> On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 20:05:16 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
> <mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Schnorkelling off Libya, [...]
> The use of "schnorkelling" fascinates me. We would use
"snorkeling".
> I see the word is from the German "Schnorchel". Is your spelling
the
> common European spelling, or just yours?
[...]
No, it's not usual, though it is around. I use it for fun. (The
French word for a diver's tube, entertainingly, is _tuba_; but for a
submarine's "snort" they use "schnorkel".)
Mike.
Mike Lyle
> Tony Cooper wrote:
>> Mark Barratt wrote:
>>> Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>
>>>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>>>
>>> Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
>>
>> I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one
not
>> called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water
heater.
>
> We had a thread about this very topic some years ago. As I said
then,
> "Whatever happened to the term "hot water tank"? Did it go out of
Still in use on the Right shore. But British people see very fond of
calling it a "cylinder", even "the cylinder".
Back to Mark's point, sort of. Why are demand heaters in Britain
always gas-fired? My daughter's flat, which I'm renting for the
moment, has electricity only, and uses the alternately wasteful and
inadequate cylinder-with-immersion-heater system. They have electric
demand heaters in Germany, and I'd like to install one here.
Mike.
Frances Kemmish
There are electric demand heaters. My brother's house has showers which
use them.
Fran
Sara Lorimer
> Mike Lyle wrote:
> > Back to Mark's point, sort of. Why are demand heaters in Britain
> > always gas-fired? My daughter's flat, which I'm renting for the
> > moment, has electricity only, and uses the alternately wasteful and
> > inadequate cylinder-with-immersion-heater system. They have electric
> > demand heaters in Germany, and I'd like to install one here.
> >
>
> There are electric demand heaters. My brother's house has showers which
> use them.
Here's one I once encountered in my travels (although not in Britain):
http://ollie.pirate-women.com/hot_water_on_demand.jpg
--
SML
Tony Cooper
I'm planning to install a water heater, and checked into both styles.
My tank is heated by electric power. The on-demand types are
significantly more expensive to purchase but use less electricity in
the long run. At my age, though, I don't expect to be around long
enough to see the break-even point.
There are only two of us in the house, and the unit that I'll replace
heats water only for the guest shower. The other unit, which has been
in place for over 25 years, heats the water for the master bedroom
shower and the washer. It shows no signs of needing replacement.
The unit that needs to be replaced is in the garage, and the case is
rusting. More exposure to humid conditions. The other unit is inside
in a closet and looks brand-new.
Mike Lyle
Holy shit! A Transylvanian youth hostel, was it?
I wasn't thinking of the little shower ones, though: more a
whole-house-serving electric equivalent of the gas "multi-point" (not
those entertainingly explosive old-style things called "Ascots"). We
had one in Australia, and it worked a treat.
Mike.
Sara Lorimer
> Sara Lorimer wrote:
> > Frances Kemmish wrote:
> >> There are electric demand heaters. My brother's house has showers
> >> which use them.
> >
> > Here's one I once encountered in my travels (although not in
> Britain):
> > http://ollie.pirate-women.com/hot_water_on_demand.jpg
>
> Holy shit! A Transylvanian youth hostel, was it?
Similar -- a Cuban "casa particular," or guest room in a private house.
That was salt water coming from the shower head, too. Aaah, how
refreshing.
--
SML
Steve Hayes
>Tony Cooper and Mark Barratt write:
>>>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>>> Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
>> I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one not
>> called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water heater.
>
>This is where someone points out that there are two kinds of water
>headers: the demand type heats cold water immediately before use,
>while the storage type *keeps* a tank of water hot -- and therefore
>really is a "hot water heater".
Here we call the latter device a "geyser" (pronounced "geezer", not "guy-zer".
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Maria Conlon
>
> I'm planning to install a water heater, and checked into both styles.
> My tank is heated by electric power. The on-demand types are
> significantly more expensive to purchase but use less electricity in
> the long run. At my age, though, I don't expect to be around long
> enough to see the break-even point.
>
> There are only two of us in the house, and the unit that I'll replace
> heats water only for the guest shower. The other unit, which has been
> in place for over 25 years, heats the water for the master bedroom
> shower and the washer. It shows no signs of needing replacement.
>
> The unit that needs to be replaced is in the garage, and the case is
> rusting. More exposure to humid conditions. The other unit is inside
> in a closet and looks brand-new.
Do you have hot water in the kitchen? If so, is there a third tank? And what
about the sinks in the bathrooms? Or does "shower" refer to an entire
room/area rather than a fixture?
"On demand" tanks are not a new concept to me, but the last time I actually
used one (though it wasn't called an "on demand") was more than 40 years
ago. It was the kind that required someone to (1) turn the gas on [to the
unit], (2) "light the tank"* with a match, and (3) turn the gas off when the
water was heated. With today's "on demand" water heaters, what is involved
in turning them on and off?
*"Light the tank": that's what we said. It was similar to lighting the
burner on a non-automatic gas cook stove, except the burner was beneath the
tank. I think there was a little door to open in order to access the burner,
but I don't remember for sure.
Maria Conlon
Skitt
I used something similar but little more modern in the Philippines some
years ago. Fresh water, though.
Mike Lyle
> On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 21:56:05 -0000, m...@vex.net (Mark Brader)
wrote:
>
>> Tony Cooper and Mark Barratt write:
>>>>> I plan to install a new hot water heater myself,
>>>> Wouldn't a cold water heater be more useful?
>>> I never looked at it that way, but I've never heard or seen one
not
>>> called a hot water heater. I suppose it should just be water
>>> heater.
>>
>> This is where someone points out that there are two kinds of water
>> headers: the demand type heats cold water immediately before use,
>> while the storage type *keeps* a tank of water hot -- and
therefore
>> really is a "hot water heater".
>
> Here we call the latter device a "geyser" (pronounced "geezer", not
> "guy-zer".
That's terrific! I haven't heard that for years! "Turn on the
Ascot"...BANG!!!
Mike.
Tony Cooper
<mariaco...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Tony Cooper wrote:
>>
>> I'm planning to install a water heater, and checked into both styles.
>> My tank is heated by electric power. The on-demand types are
>> significantly more expensive to purchase but use less electricity in
>> the long run. At my age, though, I don't expect to be around long
>> enough to see the break-even point.
>>
>> There are only two of us in the house, and the unit that I'll replace
>> heats water only for the guest shower. The other unit, which has been
>> in place for over 25 years, heats the water for the master bedroom
>> shower and the washer. It shows no signs of needing replacement.
>>
>> The unit that needs to be replaced is in the garage, and the case is
>> rusting. More exposure to humid conditions. The other unit is inside
>> in a closet and looks brand-new.
>
>Do you have hot water in the kitchen? If so, is there a third tank? And what
>about the sinks in the bathrooms? Or does "shower" refer to an entire
>room/area rather than a fixture?
The unit in the garage furnishes hot water to the kitchen sink, the
downstairs half-bath, and one of the upstairs bathroom sinks. I
mentioned only the shower and the washer because they are the things
that use the most hot water. I should have mentioned the kitchen
dishwasher, but I forgot about it. You really don't use that much
hot water in sinks.
The other unit furnishes hot water to the master bath sink and the
upstairs utility sink. (Our washer and dryer are upstairs) We have a
separate bathtub in the master bath, but we don't use it very often.
I always use the shower, and my wife almost always uses the shower,
but uses the tub once in a while.
Robin Bignall
<fkem...@optonline.net> wrote:
>There are electric demand heaters. My brother's house has showers which
>use them.
My house too. There's no gas supply to the upper floors.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England
Robin Bignall
At a guess, I'd think it to be more expensive, Mike. I had an 'all
electric' house built in France in 1977. There was a price advantage
in such a house (electric radiators being cheap to buy and install),
and cheap electricity was guaranteed for some years, via a 'white
meter' overnight deal for the water heating. But the deal came to an
end, and that sort of house is now not allowed to be built. Two of my
then neighbours have installed gas-fired, pumped-water central heating
using either oil or butane, with the tanks underground. Town gas is
not available. The house now belongs to my ex, her electricity bills
are far more than my gas and electricity combined, and despite being
double-glazed, it feels like an Arctic outpost whenever I go there in
the winter.
Robin Bignall
<mariaco...@hotmail.com> wrote:
A modern 'on demand' gas-fired furnace will either have a pilot light
to ignite the gas, or electronic ignition which creates a spark when
water is drawn through it.
John Varela
> On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 22:49:26 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
> <mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >Tony Cooper wrote:
> ...
>
> >Shit fire, Tony!
>
> I claim, although I can't find it in a dictionary, the word is spelled
> "shitfire". It is an exclamation quite popular in some parts of
> America, or it was, and not a request for someone to shit fire, as
> Mike's version implies.
I agree. And in at least some places, it's pronounced "shitfar". Speaking of
which, I got an email the other day from a high school classmate who has lived
all his life, except for his high school years in Tennessee, in north Georgia
near Atlanta. He tends to spell phonetically, and he spelled "our" the way he
pronounces it: "are".
Robert Bannister
Looks as if I'll have to investigate this. My house is all electric and
I use an immersion heater, which needs replacing about every 10 years.
--
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister
The problem with the "Ascot" type is that, if they are outside, the
pilot light frequently blows out. We apparently have a problem in W
Australia in that nearly 40% of houses have indoor heaters without
flues, which is allegedly a safety hazard. I, unfortunately, have only
electricity.
--
Rob Bannister
R J Valentine
} Mike Lyle wrote:
...
}> No you're not. Some people can do it, and others can't.
}
} And some people can do it happily for years and then suddenly can't.
What's Rey, asleep? I'd expect him to ring in about here.
--
R. J. Valentine <mailto:r...@smart.net>
Steve Hayes
Eh?
Mike Lyle
> On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 21:35:16 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
> <mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Here we call the latter device a "geyser" (pronounced "geezer",
not
>>> "guy-zer".
>>
>> That's terrific! I haven't heard that for years! "Turn on the
>> Ascot"...BANG!!!
>
> Eh?
Sorry, Steve: it's an age thing. The almost ubiquitous brand of
geyser in British digs and places like that was once the "Ascot";
they often took long enough to light for a fair quantity of gas to
build up, and the resulting report took some getting used to.
Mike.
M. J. Powell
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> writes
The report to the coroner?
Mike
--
M.J.Powell
Mike Lyle
When you think about it, it's amazing that so few of that kind of
report were thus generated. We were tough in them days...
Mike.
Mike Lyle
I was thinking of hot water for taps only, not heating (for which she
_has_ got Economy 7 electric storage heaters, and replacing them
isn't on the horizon). Would electric instant tap-water work out
expensive too? I Just find the immersion-heater and cylinder setup
irrational.
Mike.
Joe Fineman
> This is where someone points out that there are two kinds of water
> headers: the demand type heats cold water immediately before use,
> while the storage type *keeps* a tank of water hot -- and therefore
> really is a "hot water heater".
Well, yes, I suppose it does spend most of its time heating hot water
to make it hotter, but its *business* is to heat cold water to make it
hot. AFAIK, the formal name for the device is "water heater" -- at
any rate, the one in my house so describes itself on its exterior, and
MWC10 lists that phrase (and, remarkably, not "hot water heater") with
that meaning. I say "remarkably" because "hot water heater" is not
only very widespread (probably much more common, at least colloquially
in the U.S. than "water heater"), but pretty old; IIRC, Mencken noted
it with amusement in _The American Language_.
Why the unneeded "hot" is so popular is not obvious, but perhaps it is
because hot water is the point of the thing, and once you have said
"hot water" it would seem a little lame to use some general word such
as "source". Another possibility is contagion from the irrelevant
term "hot-water heating", meaning space heating in which the radiators
are fed with hot water rather than steam.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net
||: Insurance, like its moral opposite gambling, stinks of the :||
||: continual temptation and presumption of fraud. :||
Mike Lyle
[...]
> Why the unneeded "hot" is so popular is not obvious, but perhaps it
is
> because hot water is the point of the thing, and once you have said
> "hot water" it would seem a little lame to use some general word
such
> as "source". Another possibility is contagion from the irrelevant
> term "hot-water heating", meaning space heating in which the
radiators
> are fed with hot water rather than steam.
I think that's the point of divergence. The central heating system
produces hot water, all right; but in the domestic sense "hot water"
is what you get out of a tap. I think in some minds it's more like a
hyphenated single expression than a noun with an easily separable
adjective. This hot water comes either from a separate heater, or
from a separate circuit of a single one. On British combined
"boilers" the two circuits will be labelled "Heating" and "Water",
even though both send out water: no more rational than "hot-water
heater", really, but perfectly communicative.
Mike.