Internet
My Internet has been until recently always on. My Internet, TV, and Phone (in order of importance) all come from the same company. I have been having connectivity problems for some time, like the last year and a half. Part of the problem is a signal strength causing the TV to not get all of the channels. A few weeks ago the phone vanished. The repair folks came out and replaced the box outside. Got phone, started losing internet between 10 at night until 9-10 in the morning. For someone who is on the web late at night and starts up around 4 am, this was not a good thing.
In the last year every bit of cable and connections in the house has been replaced. I even went and bought a new modem. Getting the provider to recognize it on the network was an exercise of its own.
Here is a real problem as the provider only has techs between 9-7. Since my problem was between 10 at night until 9-10 in the morning you can begin to taste the insanity. So when they come during the day, it is on. sigh…. One of the most annoying parts of these adventures is the playbook mentality of the techs. Not their fault as the company seems to feel this is the one true way. Having has a parade of tech come through doing the same things over and over again, despite the length and breadth of conversations with the tech support folks, the techs show up doing the same damn things over and over again. I have mentioned to them repeatedly that the drop from the alley to the house was the culprit as the wire in the house was new and they could connect from the office to the connection point in the alley. By a process of elimination, whether by Sherlock Holmes or Occams Razor, replacing the drop should solve the problem.
But Nooooooo! The people on the phones can schedule service, but there is no place for notes such as conversations with customers and or more importantly a history of previous service calls. Hence the techs doing the same snoopy dance over and over. This is not a criticism of the techs, as they were all courteous, knowledgeable, and workman like. The problem is a management function like so many of these service industries are.
The business model is simple. Sign us up, provide a product, make money. The connectivity game is not nearly as competitive as folks would have you believe. There is infrastructure such as lines and connections to maintain. Although the mobile phone industry is being savaged by not maintaining the infrastructure to keep up with demand especially in the smart phone category. They are stuck in the modem sales mud hole. This is in the early days of the internet, ISP’s would sell 10 connections for every modem they had under the theory that this was over capacity. Back then you needed a dialer, telnet, and Archie and Veronica were your search tools and browsers fit on a 720K Floppy. Back then we didn’t surf the net. we dog paddled. We lived in the dancing bear universe. We were amazed that the bear danced and didn’t criticize the lack of form.
Providing service in case of connectivity product failure should not (which is of course my optimism, trying the glass half full meme) require a legion of techs who are doing the same snoopy dance, sent out in the field with inadequate information especially after the third service call.
During this period I fslipped off a ladder in the rain. Not far, but screwed up my back muscles something fierce. More on that later.
The second to last tech did call for a maintenance request, where they would ping my modem to see if it was on the network at 2 hour intervals.
Progress I thought… Silly me. They checked it during the day when I had connectivity and closed the ticket. sigh….
While I was hobbling around as I could not sit or lay down for any length of time and I walked around like a real old fart, the last tech showed up in the early morning while the connection was down. Finally the drop got replaced and everything is working great including me, which brings us to seed corn. Gravity
Being a remodeler one has a love hate relationship with gravity. Some times too much, some times not enough. It was raining and I was getting something off a short roof before it rusted. On the way down Gravity farted and I ended up on the ground. Do not use ladders in the rain. Full Stop. Feed Corn
I got up, put things away and went to bed. The next morning it was a 20 minute slither to the bathroom 10 feet away. It went downhill from there. This is a bag of Feed Corn. Denim Cover filled with Feed Corn.
You put it in the microwave oven for 2-2 1/2 minutes and get about an hour of heat. Absolutely wonderful for strained muscles. Plus you don’t have to plug it in. So basically that is what I have been doing for the last month.
I did manage to watch the complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer
. A lot of those large companies resemble vampires and other monsters. If only I had a Slayers Strength and a few wooden stakes…..
The web has allowed folks who are separated by hundreds and even thousands of miles to be neighbors. On the Internet we are next door. Because of our shared interests we form communities where we can share our experiences, point and link to folks whose experiences are worth noting, and build our communities, regardless of physical distance. Strong communities are built by good neighbors.
In scanning a blog the other day from a link that another blogger had posted, I saw an image that looked real familiar. I guess that is because of it being from one of my own my blog postings. I do my own photography, and image processing, which accounts for the raw look of a lot of the things I post here. It only took moments to discover that this was indeed my work.
Without permission, attribution or links to the source.
This is like going to your neighbor’s garage and ‘borrowing’ his tools without telling him. You may get away with this for a little while, but when your other neighbors discover this behavior, your integrity gets called into question. I don’t think that you want to be that guy.
Out here on the web it is common when using images by others to provide attribution and or links to the source of material whether it be words or images. The funniest thing about this situation is that the web is the one place where asking permission is actually easier than asking forgiveness.
Using other people’s stuff without either permission, attribution or links to the source is just wrong.
I am not mad but sad as in my 15 or so years on the web, I have had images stolen, entire postings hijacked, entire websites stolen, been hacked, had somebody take my online identity, do some real evil damage, and had just about every bad thing that can happen to you online happen to me at one time or another. When you are out here long enough, shit happens especially someone as outspoken as I am.
It is a short path from being a good neighbor to being the guy that folks avoid. Online this is even more so as the web has a memory like a herd of elephants.
As I mentioned earlier, on the web we are all next door. You have to decide what kind of neighbor you want to be.
I moved from Typepad on Oct. 16th 2009. You don’t have enough time for me to go through the myriad reasons for this. Suffice to say that Typepad is real tacky even after I left.
Here is a current screen shot of the old URL the headlemur.typepad.com
Basically they are sucking every bit of google juice they can. They are also spying on everybody who lands there with a Quantcast cookie as well. You can view source in your browser over there and see for yourself. Using the 1pixel gif dodge.
Start Quantcast tag
script src=”http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js” type=”text/javascript” /script script type=”text/javascript”
One Project Closer in addition to being a great resource for DIY by actually doing and sharing are kicking it up a notch.
The folks at OPC have opened up a DIY Discussion Forum Here. This is a place for you to ask questions and discuss remodeling projects, from painting to site work.
One of the most difficult remodeling jobs is replacing waste and vent stacks. Most plumbing vents penetrate the roof at some point. This has the potential of leaking. I try avoiding plumbing wherever I can. It is not lack of ability or tools, as I have a plumbing kit and have done it. It is one of those deals where a good plumber is worth every nickel.
One of the latest things I have discovered but not tried yet are Air Admittance Valves which I discovered from the folks at Better DIY. There area number of places where this would be just the ticket. Especially in eliminating roof penetrations.
Besides remodeling I think about building my dream house. One of the things I include is eliminating roof penetrations of any sort. And a Flat Roof scheme. I am an advocate of foam roofing. I live under an aircraft landing patterns and unless the wind conditions are just right, I just don’t hear the planes. My roof are 2×8’s with a 3/4 plywood deck, r 19 insulation and 5/8” drywall. Normally this would act like a big drum, but the foam isolates the noise very well. and The insulation is a plus also. The only current downside to foam roofing currently is needing to renew the roof coating every 5-10 years.
Lasagna is one of those foods that require time, energy, and love. Make your sauce, grate and mix your cheeses, boil your noodles, dry them, assemble the layers, then cook. You can spend a whole day making it. It is not a member of the microwave food group.
The secret to really good lasagna or spaghetti sauces is blending and resting. A good sauce takes about 4-6 hours to cook. It is flavorful and robust at this point. However, resting and putting it in the fridge overnight will stun you with the blending of flavor you get the next day. There are two ways to do this. One day assembly and Two day assembly.
The most involved part of assembling lasagna is the noodles. Cooking, Draining, Drying and using. Or you can try the greatest pasta invention since the noodle was invented. Barilla Lasagne Noodles. These gems are no boiling required. Really!
One day assembly
You make your sauce and cheese mix and begin to assemble your lasagna. Sauce on the bottom, a layer of DRY noodles, cheese mix, DRY noodles and so on. You can Bake and enjoy today or you can put it in the fridge overnight. . The noodles soften with the sauce and moisture from the cheese giving you a firm moist lasagna.
Two day assembly
Make you sauce and put it in the fridge overnight. On the second day, while you put your sauce on the counter to warm up to room temperature, you mix your cheeses. Riccota, Mozzarella, Parmesan or Romano depending on your taste. Using the same assembly method, put it together and pop it in the oven.
Either way, the Barilla Dry noodles are just the ticket for great lasagna.
In remodeling now that we have looked at Framing Nails and Finish Nails, we come to the other nails that may end up on your projects. Up till now we have looked at steel nails used in construction in interior and dry locations. Exterior locations, drywall, paneling and wood to concrete use speciality nails. Here is a photo of probably the most used nails in these categories.
From left to right are Galvanized, ringshank and phosphate drywall nails, and concrete nails. These are the most common types of nails most DIY’ers will need. Below we take a closer look.
Galvanized Nails
From top to bottom we have Sinkers, Roofing, and Exterior siding nails.
Galvanized nails are coated with zinc to inhibit rust and are used in exterior locations. There are three current galvanizing methods, Hot dip, mechanical and electro-plating.
Most framing nails and some finish are available galvanized for locations that are exposed to moisture, like exterior trim, siding and roofing.
The top nail is a 16d hot dip sinker, the middle nail is an electroplated roofing nail, and the bottom is a 4d mechanically galvanized siding nail for siding and or wood shingles.
Quick rule of thumb: if it is outside it needs to be galvanized.
Ringshank and Drywall Nails
Ring shank nails increase the surface area that can be gripped, increasing the friction and resistance to pull out and removal.
From top is a 2” ring-shank paneling nail, a ringshank drywall nail and a southwestern phosphate coated drywall nail.
Ring shank panel nails are used most often in attaching plywood and or particle board sub flooring.
Drywall ring shank nails perform the same function on walls and ceilings. Phosphate drywall nails were developed to minimize rusting behind taping mud, and as far as I know are one of those weird southwestern nail deals. The coating may provide some friction benefit like coated nails, but I do not know.
Concrete Nails
Concrete nails are much harder than regular nails, and eye protection really needs to be worn. You should use eyeware protection in any case in remodeling and construction, but especially when using concrete nails.
The top nail is called a Cut nail. These nails are forged rather than drawn like wire nails. Subsequently they are harder and chip easier than wire nails. These are primarily used to fasten wood to masonry or concrete. Like furring strips to the interior of brick or block houses. Despite having around 4 times more holding power than a equally sized wire nail, they have been replaced by fluted nails, sleeve and wedge anchors for attaching bottom plates to concrete floors.
The bottom one is a fluted concrete nail, doing basically the same thing.
So there you have it. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about nails.
Having explored Framing Nails, I am jumping ahead to Finish Nails. I will deal with the nails between the wood and trim (drywall, paneling,and specialty nails) next post.
Finish Nails are the ‘headless’ nails used primarily for trim work, hence finish. They come in a variety of sizes for fastening things that will be exposed or where materials will be finished such as window and door frames in wood, where a big headed nail may look bad.
Here is a photo of a selection of finish nails from 16d [3 1/2''] to 4d [1 1/2'']. (Note Nails smaller than 1 1/2” are called ‘brads’ and are sold by length.)
They are called headless, but they do have a small head. They also have a diamond point on the other end. I need to take a moment to talk about how nails work.
Nails are friction holding devices. The wood surrounding the nail provides the friction that allows things to stay together and not fall apart. That is it. The little bits of friction and a bit of gravity is the only thing keeping the big bad wolf or storms from sucking your house off its foundation and sending it to Oz or someone else’s house. (Or in my case, concrete anchors, construction adhesives, nails, deck screws, strong tie hangers and brackets…)Relax, they have been doing their job well for hundreds of years.
I mentioned in the framing nail posting how various coatings are used on framing nails to increase the holding power of the nail. Vinyl, Epoxy, Cement. Not so much with finish nails. The only notable exception are galvanized nails for exterior use.
Because nails work by friction, splitting your wood removes the friction necessary to your nails doing their job and makes your work look bad. The closer you get to the edge or end of a piece of wood,(Composites don’t count.) the greater the chances of the nail splitting it, and causing problems. All nails have points, which is good news/bad news. Good news in knowing which direction to point them, bad news for edge nailing including toe nailing which is not used much anymore.
The point of the nail literally cuts the wood fibers as you drive it in. This is a bad thing for the friction game especially if you split the wood. You can minimize this. When getting ready to drive a nail into an edge or end, flip it over and tap the point with your hammer to blunt the point of the nail before driving it.
What this does is push the wood fibers out of the way rather than cutting them maintaining the maximum friction and holding power. I learned this from my grandfather who was a master cabinet maker from Sweden, and it hasn’t let me down yet.
With every nailing operation except for duplex nails, your goal is to drive the nail just below the surface. Occasionally you will slip and damage the lumber with a hammer mark. In rough framing this is not a real issue, as it will be covered by something and have trim.
On trim however, this is an issue. There is a tool for that. It is called a nail set. A nail set is a small tool with a semi flat point to allow you do tap the head of finish nails below the surface of your trim.
You want to take care to just drive the nail far enough so that any filler you use to hide the nail hole will be easy to finish.
For the majority of your home remodeling projects you will only need 2 sizes 8d and 4d
The 8d will cover setting door and window frames, applying 1x-3/4” trims and other areas where appearance is an issue. The 4d will handle all of your case and base work. You will only need to buy these in pound quantities. The only other optional size would be a small box of 16d’s for temporary hangers like coat racks and interior jambs on exterior doors that have 1 1/2 ” or thicker jambs.
![[Google]]( http://www.lemurzone.com/rfg/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
Recent Comments