Five Minute Project
Sunday, September 30, 2007 - 06:51 PM
One of the problems with owning vintage real estate is that “vintage”, beyond it’s connotations of “charming” and “classic”, also means “old”. That being the case, it is not uncommon for what should be a five minute project to turn into something much larger.
This past week, the flushing mechanism on our toilet broke. All that was really wrong with it was the wire that connects the lever to the stopper (which lifts the stopper allowing the water to run from the tank into the toilet) broke. It was old and had corroded through.
Now, I could have just replaced that one part. Instead, I figured that I would replace the lever too, since it was also beginning to corrode. Might as well do it all at once, right? It was this desire to do things right, instead of half-assed, that turned out to be my undoing.
So, I went to the hardware store and bought the parts that I would need. I returned home and began removing the old, corroded parts from the toilet. In trying to remove the lever, I found that the nut holding it on to the tank was corroded and fused to the “bolt” part of the lever. It wouldn’t budge. I got a larger wrench, in order to get a little more to torque to try to get it off. I began turning it, when I heard “CRACK"…
Shit. I cracked the damn tank (why are these things made out of porcelain, anyways?). So, I went back to the hardware store to see if they had a replacement tank. The gentleman at the hardware store told me that, even if I found a tank that would exactly fit my bowl, since I had an older, 3 gallon toilet, and all of the new tanks are 1.6 gallon, it probably wouldn’t work properly. I asked him if it was possible to fix the crack, and he pointed me towards some 2-part epoxy putty that might work.
Returning home, I diligently set about working the epoxy into the crack. This took some time, and the epoxy seemed to want to stick to my fingers, not the inside of the tank, but eventually I completed the task. I waited for it to set, applied another layer, waited for it to set again, and let the tank fill with water. Then, I waited…
I waited to see if the crack in the tank would start leaking. Unfortunately, it did. It took a long time, but eventually there was moisture at the bottom of the crack. Ugh. I began looking up tips for repairing a cracked toilet tank. The usual answer was “don’t”. The crack will gradually expand, and eventually you’ll have a huge mess on your hands.
I ended up having to replace the entire toilet. It’s a shame to have to give up a 3 gallon toilet for a 1.6 gallon one. I checked online, and you can buy salvaged 3 gallon tanks, but they’re hard to find (the website I found didn’t have the one for our particular model in stock), and they’re expensive.
What should have been a five minute repair, costing less than $20, turned into most of my weekend and costing over $250.
On iPhone Hacking
Friday, September 28, 2007 - 01:53 PM
I’ve been pretty sick of reading about how upset people are with Apple for “attacking” the customers who’ve hacked their iPhones. I’m not going to go into a long spiel about this, since, as usual, the Macalope hits the nail on the head.
If you broke your iPhone because you installed unsupported hacks, don’t blame Apple.
Also, as far as 3rd party apps are concerned, I’d like to point out that I think, eventually, Apple will put out an SDK and allow 3rd party programs on the iPhone (and iPod touch). I mean, more so than they do now - people seem to be forgetting that there are already 3rd party apps on the iPhone (Apple certainly didn’t write Google Maps) and the iPod Touch (games, anyone?). Plus, if anyone understands the importance of having 3rd party apps on your OS, it’s Apple. It’s just too early for them to allow it, just yet. Be patient!
Above the Law
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 02:39 PM
Here’s a great example of how cops think that they are above the law:
It’s a website actually devoted to cops complaining about getting tickets for speeding and other traffic violations. Apparently, these assholes believe that since they’re cops, they should be given a “professional courtesy” by other cops and not be given tickets.
I say a big F-U to any cop who complains about getting a ticket. And, kudos to any cop who does his job properly and issues tickets to these bastards.
Obligatory Weekly Update
Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 08:31 PM
Well, it seems that I’ve been getting a little lazy in the update department lately.
So, let’s catch up, shall we?
First, I’d like to note that I’ve been uploading photos from Carrie’s and my trip to Wisconsin to Flickr. Some good shots, and there’s more to come.
Second, last weekend I brewed my Vanilla Porter. This time around I used more vanilla. Hopefully I didn’t over do it! I just racked it to the secondary tonight, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Third, I tried the Mystery Ale last night. It turned out pretty good, but it needs a little more time to age.
So, that’s about it for now. I’ll try to be a little more diligent in the future.
Modern Technology
Friday, September 14, 2007 - 07:50 PM
Some things were just better before computers came along. Some things just didn’t need to have computers added to them in the first place.
A couple of months ago, our coffee maker started acting strange. It’s supposed to shut itself off three hours after it finishes brewing the coffee. Seemingly a decent feature, if you forget to turn it off, it’ll turn itself off. What it started doing, however, was shut itself off immediately after the coffee finished brewing. Very annoying. After quite some time of putting up with this, I finally unplugged the thing, let it set a few minutes, plugged it back in and reset the time. It worked fine after that.
Let me sum up that last paragraph: I had to reboot the coffee maker to get it working properly again.
I never had to reboot my old coffee maker (which I had for well over ten years). It was very simple: put in the coffee, put in the water, turn it on. Our new coffee maker has features I will never use. Ever.
A few nights ago I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a pizza. (They have really good, fresh, hand made pizzas ready to be taken home and put in the oven.) When I got home, I set the pizza on the counter and turned on the oven to let it pre-heat. I left the room and sat down in front of the TV for a while. After about 15-20 minutes, I returned to the kitchen to put the pizza into, what I was expecting to be, the pre-heated and ready oven. However, when I got to the kitchen the oven wasn’t on, and it showed “F1” on the display.
The oven was displaying an error code. I could not believe it. The oven was actually displaying an error code. Un-freaking-believable.
I hit the “Stop/Clear” button and preceded to reset the desired temperature. Luckily, it worked fine after that, because I really dread the day when I have to call tech support to get my oven to work.