It’s a little chilly out there this morning, but, otherwise, there’s no weather of note. Here. Things are a bit different in other places, and we’re trying not to smirk too much as we’re just happy spectators for this event that seems to be making its way up the East Coast. The snow is only soreading as far west as Albany, give or take, and here we’re mostly supposed to get some wind (which kinda sucks, ‘cuz it’s already cold enough out – I seem to have turned into a wimp as I silde downhill into my golden years, and 10 degrees with 15-35 MPH wind makes my old bones ache), but Philly, NYC, and other cities up the coast and into New England are experiencing (or expecting to experience) blizzard conditions. Planes, trains, and buses all appear to be grounded (well, trains and buses are always – hopefully – grounded, but you know what I mean), and we have lots of unintentional tourists who couldn’t land in other places, and got diverted here. Lucky them.

The type of wind and snow they’re predicting for these areas would mean we’d all have to get up an hour earlier up here to clear our driveways, but these poor folks have neither the “snow legs” nor the infrastructure to deal with all this – and way too many people (at times like these, there’s a lot to be said for living where there are only a couple of barns and a few cows to watch out for – though those Holsteins can be hard to spot in a blizzard). My apologies to you city folks who don’t know a Holstein from a Guernsey – let alone Black Angus, who is not, incidentally, the child of whom they never speak in the MacFarquhar household – but I guess you can google that if you actually care. I mean, it’s not like you’re going anywhere ’til the snow thaws. Anyhow, I know socialism is bad and all, but up here we have to admit that those socialist snowplows (yep, they even fly the hammer and sickle) come in mighty handy at times like these (even if rich people and teabaggers think somebody else ought to pay for them).

Oh, I bet even Ed Koch would be happy to have a 4WD pickup truck to drive to Sears in right about now.

Speaking of paying for the snowplows and 4WD vehicles, it’s back to work today. I hope things are quiet, because not only do I have on-call support duty, but everybody in my group is out today except for one other person, who sent an e-mail last night that he’s taking today off, too. So, I reckon it’s just me today. And I am not in the mood to deal with much.

If you thought the onslaught of Xmas shopping and “big sale” events would end on Saturday, you’d be wrong. I continue to receive tons of “best sale ever” e-mails. Buy.com, for example, tells me that they have a Brother Labeler for only $15.99. Now, don’t the brothers have enough trouble without people trying to label them?

Fortunately, there’s a story of true love in the news this morning, and it’s enough to melt even the frostiest of hearts on this cold winter day. Yes, Hugh Hefner has given a ring to his 23-yr old girlfriend (whose name doesn’t really matter, does it?). They haven’t set a date for the wedding yet (better make it soon, honey), but it should be a grand affair. Nothing chokes me up and brings a tear to my eye like seeing two kids in love. :love:

Finally, Happy 88th Birthday to Vernon’s dad (at least, I assume that’s who gave Vernon his name). At 88, Vernon’s dad is only 4 years older than Hef, so I think Vernon ought to be a good son, and get his dad a 27-yr old playmate for his birthday. In fact, there’s probably a post-Christmas sale (2-for-1, maybe?), so Vernon might as well pick up one for himself, too.

OK, well, that’s over. A fairly pleasant one, all things considered, though I find it terribly annoying that the day after turns out to be just another Sunday where I have to do laundry and try not to think about having to go back to work tomorrow. Such is life, I suppose. Hopefully it’ll warm up a bit today (not much, they say, but better than the 10 or so degrees it is outside right now, at least), since I should probably go out there and scrape down the driveway a bit, and I have to do all the Sunday supply shopping. By this time next week (well, not exactly this particular time, but next Sunday), it’s supposed to hit 50° (at least until they change their minds, and it turns out not to be so). Even better news is that, apart from a few snow fluffies here and there, this big storm that’s currently sweeping across the South and getting ready to turn up the coast is supposed to stay far enough east to keep us from getting dumped on here.

Not so lucky in other places, apparently. From what they say, NYC is looking at 11-16″ of snow (an irritant here, but a crippling even down there, I imagine; get ready for a few snow days), and New England seems to be about to take a major dumping. Well, sorry for you all, but not terribly disappointed to be missing out on the fun here.

Anyhow, I hope you’re all sleeping off you post-holiday hangovers. The dog decided to get me up at what’s become my usual time (this would have been a rare day where I’d have been willing to sleep in a bit), and now of course he’s gone back to bed. It gave me time to watch the Doctor Who ‘A Christmas Carol’ special from last night, at least. Best Xmas show of the season.

It’s getting late. Guess I’d better get moving.

Despite the fact that Christmas on Saturday sucks, and also despite the fact that there are no Santa signs about the house this morning (other than some rather large, unexplained, droppings in the front lawn) – looks like I shut the pellet stove down for nothing – Merry Christmas to everybody who does that sort of thing. To those that don’t, enjoy the Chinese food.

Yes, the eve everyone the world over has been waiting for (except for the vast majority of humans who aren’t Christian, but, let’s face it, they don’t really count; hell, most of them aren’t even white. Of course, neither was Jesus, but I digress) is nigh. Everyone who’s anyone has today off, so it should be an easy commute for the losers among us (Granny and me, for example) who have to go to work. I, however, am determined to leave work early. In fact, the only reason I’m going in to work today is so that I can leave early and finish my Christmas shopping (which means filling up my gas tank and buying enough food to get me through ’til Monday – and if I’m feeling really motivated, I’ll go and get some lumber from Home Depot, but probably not; I’ll wait and see if there’s a huge sale on it come Sunday). Well, that ans water my office plants. To all those who may have been hoping for a gift (or even a card) from me, all I can say is, “you shoulda known better.”

Other than an always convenient excuse for the government to issue terrorist attack warnings, Christmas to me is just a reminder that my parents are long dead and buried. Ho, ho, ho.

However, it’s not too late to turn me into a true believer. That’s right, Santa, I’m talkin’ to you. If Natalie Wood could get a replacement dad and a new house, I ought to be able to get a little something, too.

For the first time in 14 years, I actually live in a home with chimneys and fireplaces, so I’m pulling my wool socks out of the hamper and hanging them up (my apologies for not having had a chance to wash them), and putting together a list of things old Saint Nick needs to pile up under the tree tonight as I sleep (though without visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, mostly ‘cuz I have no idea what sugar plums are, though I assume it would be unpleasant to get kicked in them).

In the past, I’d have asked for peace on Earth, universal health care, feed the poor, knead the kneady, and all that other liberal claptrap, but it’s a new f*cking world, Santa-baby, and from now on, it’s gonna be all about me, me, me.

Anyhow, Santa, if you want me running around town slobbering about Merry Christmas and sending the biggest frickin’ goose you got over to the Cratchit’s and whatnot, here’s what you’ll have to pony up with tonight (and I get up early, so better hit my house as close to midnight as you can manage).

1. A tree. We don’t have one, so that’s the first thing you’ll be needing to drop off. Don’t be killing a live one, either; some nice fold-up, pre-decorated, fiber-optic, easy to store job would be best. And if you’re not bringing anything else, you can forget this, too. Nothing more pathetic than a Christmas tree with nothing underneath it put a pile of feline yule logs and tinsel-laden cat puke.
2. Clamp on bucket forks for the tractor. They don’t need to be Kubota orange, but that’d be a nice touch. Light-duty ones are fine.
3. A three-point quick-hitch. I only have a couple of 3PH implements (more on that later), but they’re a pain to get on and off, so this would be nice.
4. A backhoe for my tractor. If you wanna spring for an official Kubota one, go for it. Otherwise, this Woods BH6000 will do nicely. Just don’t forget I’ll be needing the rear remotes. Don’t just leave this under the tree, either; better go ahead and have it installed for me. Oh, and let’s go ahead and get the 9, 12, and 16 inch buckets while we’re at it. I probably don’t need ’em all, but you never know.
5. Implements. I don’t wanna get greedy, so here are just a few ideas. No need to get them all (unless you want to; I really have been a very good boy this year). Oh, and make sure they’re all Cat 1 (limited Cat 1 if you have the choice). Let’s see… a PTO driven generator, a PTO chipper/shredder, tiller (get the kind with a slip clutch, not the shear pin – who wants to keep replacing shear pins?), a rear snow blower, um, let’s see…. Well, just go ahead and surprise me. You really can’t go wrong in this category.
6. Stocking Stuffers. Just a few little odds and ends if you have room in the sleigh. A ROPS-mounted work light (magentic is fine), wheel spacers (front and back), tire chains for the front, a set of ag and/or industrial tires (mounted on rims, please – and loaded), a couple cans of Kubota Orange spray paint, and, oh well, use your best judgment. If it fits my tractor, you can’t go wrong. Home Depot gift cards are always good, too
7. A puppy. Some poor, unwanted mutt who needs a good home.

And, oh, what the hell. How about bringing peace on Earth, good will toward men, women, & animals, make it so nobody in the word has to be hungry, sick, ashamed of who they are (or what they prefer to stick their stuff into, or what stuff they prefer to have stuck into them), or alone ever again, bring our boys (and girls, and Mike and Carlos) back home safe where they belong, and show the evil, greedy fuckers of the world like Dick Cheney the error of their ways.

In fact, do that last shit, and you can skip all the other stuff on my list (except maybe the puppy).

Once a liberal, always a liberal, I guess.

Happy Xmas (or whatever it is you celebrate at your place) to you and your family. I hope it’s a good one, without any fear.

Everywhere I look, I see how President Obama closed out 2010 with a flurry of legislative victories. Good for him. DADT was repealed, and this, I guess, was all thinks to him. Although, to an ignorant sap such as myself, it really seemed he could have done much more (and much more quickly), it passed. So we’ll give him that one. Also the SALT treaty was ratified in the Senate. That’s another good thing, too. I guess. Not sure my life will be any different (will this save me money or anything?), but less nukes (assuming this will actually result in less nukes) in the world is a good thing. So that’s, um, good. And, let’s see, I think there was something else in there, too. Puppies? No, that wasn’t it. Oh, that’s right, the 9/11 first responders thing. Two-thirds of the funding was gutted (thanks to those deficit hawks), but four billion dollars is a fair chunk of change.

Hopefully the people that deserve it won’t have to jump through too many hoops to the health care they need. I’m assuming there are some sort of death panels involved, what with it basically being socialized medicine and all, but, well, most of your first responder types are socialists (socialist fire fighters, socialist cops, socialist EMTs, etc.). Except for Gudy Ruiliani, who, as I recall, single-handedly lifted up I-beams and chunks of concrete to free trapped civilians (poor man had all the hair burned off his head in the process, too – and I think he had a piece of debris whack him in the mouth, ‘cuz it looks a little funky and he kinda talks like Sylvester the cat now). All in a day’s work for America’s brave, cross-dressing, adulterous mayor.

So, anyway, woo-hoo to the Prez. Enjoy your vacation in Hawaii. You’ve earned it (heck, I hope you even get lei’d). Personally, I don’t think I’ll be able to take any time off (deadlines coming up, I’ve got the support duty all next week, and everybody else is pretty much out of the office ’til 2011, so I’m stuck with anything that comes up), and, in fact, with Xmas being on Saturday, I won’t even get an extra day off for that.

Of course, Saturday is all shot to hell, because not only will I be forced to throw away several hours of my life “celebrating” (aka, trying not to talk politics while explaining ad nauseum that, no, I don’t want to eat cookies or potatoes or whatever), but I can’t even run to Home Depot in the morning to get shit. And I haven’t had the energy to fight through the throngs of humanity this week to get shit during lunch, either.

With all the septic issues, you wouldn’t think I’d need any more shit, but that’s one of those paradox thingies. Shit is something I have both too much and not enough of at the same time. Go figure. I think it’s a Heisenberg corollary or something – you can know where shit is, or you can know how fast it’s going, but if you know both where it is and how fast it’s going, it’s probably because it’s coming up out of the drain.

Not that I don’t love this time of year, mind you. I love Christmas, and practically shit candy canes from Halloween right through ’til Ground Hog Day (which is slightly painful – but colorful, and a joyous little surprise when you’re opening up the septic line cleanout). :santacool:

I guess it’s the people I love most. Oh, I love the waste of money in the pursuit of unbounded consumerism, of course. And the music. Just can’t get enough of the music (Pomplamoose. I love me some Pomplamoose). And the fact that it’s always fucking dark – dark when I get up, and dark when I get out of work (cold, too). But for me, the holiday season is all about the people.

People picking their noses as they sit slack-jawed and drooling at green lights (hell, I don’t wanna get home anytime soon anyway – “life’s too long, Sonny Jim,” that’s what my ma always said. Until she died). People cutting me off in trafftic as they careen merrily with cell phones jammed deeply into their ears. People holding reunions and hugfests in the entrances (and the aisles) of the grocery store, joyfully oblivious to the fact that, no, they aren’t the only (or at least the most important) humans on the planet. People dragging their screaming kids around, letting them run freely through the aisles, getting in my way and knocking shit over.

I guess I’m just a people person. Ask my wife, she’ll tell ya.

Jesus must be so gosh darned proud of himself (and grateful to his dad) for having had the honor of dying a slow, painful death for these wonderful people. They were so worth it, Jesus!

:jesus:

Soon, though, it’ll all be over. So take a tip from me, and enjoy it while you can. ‘Cuz Christmas season only lasts about six months out of the year.

Much as it pains me to say it, congratulations to the UCONN womens’ basketball team on their 89th straight win. That, of course, breaks John Wooden’s legendary record of 88 straight at UCLA. They haven’t lost since the Final Four in 2008 (and they only lost 2 games that year). Now let’s hope the SU women kick their asses in February (though the Orange women got their own asses handed to them last night by Baylor down in the Bahamas).

I saw an AP story this morning about how Americans have become resigned, compliant sheep when it comes to airport security screening. Not that there’s much of a choice, I guess (except to not go anywhere, which is my solution). So, congrats, America (and to help you along during this holiday travel season, the Huff Post has 10 airport securoty tips to move you along smoothly – I didn’t read them, but I’m assuming they include packing a personal less-than-four-ounce supply of KY Jelly in a clear plastic baggie). Soon you’ll be happily carrying your national ID cards, gladly presenting (without objection) your papers to any minimum wage, officious prick wearing a mall cop uniform, cheerfully submitting to retina scans, and dutifully reporting your suspicious-looking neighbor with the funny accent and/or long hair.

Your government commends you, Citizen!

Not feeling particularly compliant? Well, the Obama Administration is drafting an executive order that will allow traitors like you to be “detained” forever without trial. Oh, not to worry, though: they’ll be doing a periodic review of the secret “evidence” they have against you, and if it turns out you’re innocent, you’ll be among the first to know (at least until we get a Republican in office, who’ll tighten up this namby-pamby liberal nonsense).

Okat, you must be so proud (as usual) of your Senator, Tom Coburn. Oh, excuse me, that’s Doctor Senator Tom Coburn.

Larry David is quite happy that the Bush tax cuts have been extended for another two years. Can’t say as I blame him. But shouldn’t we call them the “Obama tax cuts” now?

I have no idea who Ryan Reynolds is, but apparently he’s married (though not for much longer) to Scarlett Johansson, and is complaining that she “treated him badly” by not making him a priority. Hey, Ryan, did you get laid? ‘Cuz if you did, then boo-fuckin’-hoo for you. Scarlett should treat me so badly. Now move along, please.

Julian Assange is a bit peeved with The Guardian. Seems he’s unhappy that they’ve published details that have been leaked about his rather – how shall I put it – coincidental legal issues back in Sweden (I hope that using the word “coincidental” doesn’t get me on the shitlist with Michael Moore; pondering whether or not there’s just a slight aroma of bullshit surrounding these allegations apparently makes you “pro-rape”).

Anyhow, Assange a victim of leaks to the media. Somewhat ironic, no?

Speaking of Sweden, Swedish medical students got a bit of a surprise when they performed an autopsy the other day – the subject was their former professor (it doesn’t say in the story, but presumably he was already dead, or it woulda been really awkward). Well, that’s life kids. It aint all Abba and over-priced firniture out there. And, difficult as it may have been for you, at least you were on the right end of the skull chisel.

Speaking of dead stuff, does it seem like everybody’s frickin’ dying on us here, or what? Steve Landesberg, Leslie Nielsen, democracy…. Now I know how my parents felt when they were past the half century mark, and the Jack Bennys and Jim Jordans of the world were kicking off (oh, you younger folks don’t understand now, but some day – sooner than you think – you will, and then you’ll remember…well, actually you won’t remember shit, ‘cuz you’ll be old and feeble-minded and too busy trying to find your goddamn keys that you left right over… oh, there they are).

Of course, it’s more than just lamenting the loss of a celebrity. It’s the knowledge that, with them gone, it’s your turn to be stalked by Death. :reaper:

And, really, isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?

Oh well, speaking of walking death, time to get ready to walk through another day of work.

You folks out West stay safe and dry, OK?

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the shortest day of the year. Where I’m at, the sun will be up (if not out) for a mere 8h 59m 51s. But the winter solstice arrives at around 6:30 tonight, and tomorrow things begin to pick up, as we gain an entire second of daylight. Hey, it’s a start. By the time June 21 rolls around, we’ll be getting 15h 22m 08s of daylight up here in these parts. I, for one, am looking forward to having a little daylight when I get out of work. But who cares about that when there a re puppies in the news?

Yes, with typical Kraut efficiency, a Rhodesian Ridgeback in Ebereschenhof, Germany gave birth to 17 puppies, all of whom appear to be doing well. Makes Nadya Suleman seem pretty unimpressive, doesn’t it?

I feel bad about Steve Landesberg. I was always a big Barney Miller fan (as my dad used to say, the only one who wasn’t funny on that show was Barney), and I was really happy to see Landesberg show up unexpectedly on “Head Case” with George Snufalufagus’ wife. He was great in that, too. I never thought Abe Vigoda would outlast Steve. But then again, Jack Soo has been dead for years (esophageal cancer got him, which sucked), and that’s a surprise (I thought them people lived forever, what with eating all that fish and rice and whatnot).

Chalk another big win up for the Obama Administration, this time with Net Neutrality.

Late Monday, a majority of the FCC’s commissioners indicated that they’re going to vote with Chairman Julius Genachowski for a toothless Net Neutrality rule.

According to all reports, the rule, which will be voted on during tomorrow’s FCC meeting, falls drastically short of earlier pledges by President Obama and the FCC Chairman to protect the free and open Internet.

The rule is so riddled with loopholes that it’s become clear that this FCC chairman crafted it with the sole purpose of winning the endorsement of AT&T and cable lobbyists, and not defending the interests of the tens of millions of Internet users.
[…]
For the first time in history of telecommunications law the FCC has given its stamp of approval to online discrimination.

Instead of a rule to protect Internet users’ freedom to choose, the Commission has opened the door for broadband payola – letting phone and cable companies charge steep tolls to favor the content and services of a select group of corporate partners, relegating everyone else to the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.

Obama falling short of his rhetoric and promises. Gee, how unusual. Well, he couldn’t get it passed through the Senate, I guess. Oh, wait. It didn’t have to pass the Senate. Well, I’m sure there’s some reason it isn’t Obama’s fault, and he did every gosh-darned thing he could. Right?

Internet users deserve far better, and we thought we were going to get it from a president who promised to “take a backseat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality.” Watch now as he and his FCC chairman try to spin tomorrow’s betrayal as another “mission accomplished.”

Don’t believe it. This bogus victory has become all too familiar to those watching the Obama administration and its appointees squander opportunities for real change. The reality is that reform is just a rhetorical front for industry compromises that reward the biggest players and K-Street lobbyists while giving the public nothing.

It’s not the FCC chairman’s job to seek consensus among the corporations that he was put into office to regulate. His duty is to protect Internet users.
[…]
Net Neutrality is the freedom of speech, freedom of choice issue of the 21st century. It’s the guarantee of a more open and democratic media system that was baked into the Internet at its founding.

On Tuesday, Obama’s FCC is going to sell that out.

Damn Nigerian mooslam commie librul bastid.

And yet another week begins. Yesterday was a pretty productive day. We went and got the pellet stove from the old house. It’s not an insert, but it it fits pretty OK (just need to close it in a bit when I get around to it), and, more importantly, it works. In fact, I’d venture to say that desptie the fact that it’s about half the BTUs, if works better. More heat, less pellet usage, much quieter, and way less ash buildup on the glass. It was awfully nice to have that fire going again.

Then there was the septic. I pulled the cleanout plug, and it was packed with, well, what that sort of thing gets packed with. So, I use a five foot piece of threaded rod to poke up in there, and got out a nice long, um, “pull,” and then a bunch of water. But the pipe still looked pretty impacted. So, whilst my friend John and I were over getting the old pellet stove, I grabbed a 40 foot “sewer rod” (essential a big wide fish tape), and once we got the pellet stove fired up, it was time to get down and dirty (and wet and stinky).

I’ll spare you the details (I only wish I had video), but using a process of reaming out the pipe and flushing the toilets, we managed to get the pipe cleared as far as I could see. I don’t know if there’s still a problem. One toilet flush with the plug out seemed to more or less go in the right direction, but with the plug in and multiple toilet flushes, popping the plug out showed a lot of water in the line. I’ll give it a few days of normal use, and then see what we’ve got. My hope is to at least get along ’til the weather warms up. We’ll see.

We’re supposed to get a little more snow today. A mere couple of inches, which is fine and dandy. That, I can deal with. Yesterday morning was absolutely beautiful. It was sunny, and with the temperature down below 10°, all the tree branches were coated with ice and snow, and sparkling brilliantly. The snow on the ground sparkled as if it was loaded with diamonds. I can’t describe how gorgeous everything looked. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed the moon lately, but it’s been full and high in the sky, lighting up the snow at night. It’s why I love living where there are four seasons – especially out here in God’s country (God really likes snow, apparently).

I can appreciate the beauty of a big city with lots of lights and stuff, but I prefer nature’s holiday decorations and light show. Even if it means I have to deal with getting to work in some crappy weather once in a while.

Speaking of which, if you happen to be up late tonight, you can catch the first total lunar eclipse to happen on the winter solstice for the first time in over 450 years. It promises to be a pretty one. Totality comes at 2:40 AM Eastern time, so maybe the dog will have to get me up to go out.

Oh well, today begins as every work week ought to: with a trip to the dentist. Woo-hoo.

It’s stopped snowing here (more or less) but not before setting a new December snowfall record at about 71″ for the month so far, and last night was cold and clear – down to the single digits (like, about 3°). This is rather inconvenient, because my pellet insert (yes, brand new, and a pain in the ass from Day One) has, to use the technical term, shit the bed. Last week was kind of tough that way. As I arrived home Thursday evening, I was relatively happy because tomorrow was Friday, after all, the weather was supposed to be sunny, if not warm, and I had a whole bunch of simple little projects I was planning on crossing off my list. I wasn’t even out of the garage when I heard Granny making some rather loud exclamations to the effect of “oh no.” Turns out, she was doing laundry, and water was pouring out of the ceiling (which is not how it’s intended to work).

This was one of the symptoms we had back when the septic backed up, so I wasn’t terribly happy with the prospects of how things were looking. At any rate, I was in no mood to deal with it, and the toilets appeared to be working for the time being, so I resolved to deal with it over the weekend. Besides, I don’t do my laundry ’til Sunday.

Other than that, all seemed OK. We were getting a break from the snow, and things were all comfy-cozy by the glow of the pellet stove. The dog woke me up to go out at about midnight, which is no big deal (a dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do, after all), and I noted that the stove was still running fine, but that the glass could use a cleaning. When I got up the next morning, though, the stove had kicked off on the low temp safety.

Well, not a huge deal. It’s done that before (though not when running on ‘3’ – out of 5), and I needed to clean it anyway. So, I gave it a pretty good cleaning and started it up. After a while, I noticed the burn pot was full of pellets, but not lighting. Sure enough, I’d put the pot in bass ackwards, so I shut it down, put it in the right way, and it lit with no problem. Except, as I soon noticed, the pellets weren’t feeding.

Well, that’s great. No time to deal with it that morning, so I figured I’d deal with it later.

So, to make a long story short, it sounded like the pellet feed motor (which turns the auger which makes the pellets go up and down the chute and crap into the burn pot) was turning, but no pellets. This would require some dis assembly (and pellet removal – I had dutifully filled the hopper when I cleaned it), so, again, another weekend project.

Yesterday morning, I took everything apart, found the auger motor laying on the bottom of the stove, the hollow end of the auger shaft (which, really, ought not to be hollow; this thing is a piece of shit) and the lower brass bushing both torn to shit, and the cotter pin that is supposed to hold the shaft to the motor (really shitty design) broken, but still in the motor shaft. It looks as if the pin got caught up in the auger, jammed everything, and it tore itself up.

Well, isn’t that special?

A couple of calls told me I’d need to deal with the manufacturer – US Stoves – for warranty parts. They don’t work on weekends. Did I mention I have 4 tons of wood pellets coming on Monday? At this rate, they ought to last me quite a while.

OK, on to the laundry drain.

The way they’ve got this thing set up, it drains to a plastic sump bucket, then gets pumped up in the air, across the attic, and then down to the basement and into the drain (and the septic; bad move there). I have to redo that one of these days so it drains outside and not into the septic tank. But that’s for another day.

Up in the attic, they’ve got the drain line vented (not outside, though; just up to the attic), and there appears to be some restriction, because on the second tankful, it pukes out the drain. So we went down to the basement and cut the line down there, figuring it would be full. It wasn’t. In fact, it was dry as a bone. So somehow it’s plugged up in the attic (unfortunately, we cracked the cleanout plug to the main septic discharge line, and water came out of there, too – though the main drains weren’t full). Whether there remains a problem with the septic, I’m not sure. I’m kind of hoping that the tank and or the line just shifted a little, so that water sits in the discharge line, but will still drain into the tank. This may be wishful thinking, I dunno. We’ll see. We did dig out the tank cover and lift the lid. It looks full, but then I don’t rightly know how high it needs to get to drain out, and can’t really tell without, I suppose, jumping in and looking around. And that aint gonna happen.

But, anyway, that appears to have nothing to do with the laundry situation (I also have no idea how that could be plugged, either, unless the line froze in the attic and is restricted – which is a distinct possibility. It wasn’t exactly all down hill up there, so some water would have to sit in the line, which is very close to the soffit, and I can attest to the fact that it was really f*cking cold up there.

At any rate there’s a floor drain in the laundry area that was unused and plugged off, so I put the plug, and it appears to take water OK. Now the washer is piped to that drain, so hopefully I can do laundry. And if it plugs, at least it won’t come out of the ceiling. If the septic is preparing to back up, well, that would really suck, too. And the way things are going, I’d say it’s a distinct possibility.

My inclination is to go and buy a non-piece-o-shit pellet stove from a local dealer that will offer me service, and then save this one for the other fireplace. There’s one close by (a pellet stove place, not a fireplace, though there is actually one right on the other side of the one I’m using now), but that would run me about $2500. Unfortunately, I have $1,000 to pay for wood pellets come tomorrow evening ($936, actually, but who’s counting), County taxes in a couple of weeks (I think that’s $3,000 or more), ongoing dental bills (about $100 a visit – with another one tomorrow), a septic tank pump out (if I need one) would run me, or I dunno, a few hundred, I reckon, and then there’s all the normal bills (like, say, gas and electricity). So I dunno if there’s money for another new pellet stove.

Suffice it to say, there’ll be no Christmas goose for Tiny Tim this year.

On the bright side, I hooked up my new onboard diagnostic code reader to my van and got the code. It was “random misfire detected,” which is what I was hoping to see, what with me replacing the cap and rotor when it wouldn’t start. I cleared the code, and no more ‘Service Engine Soon’ light. So that’s good.

Oh well, I’m kind of scared to face the day here, but I suppose I’d better. I hope this coming week isn’t quite as shitty as last week was.

Sometimes it seems as if life just keep piling shit in your way. Not horrible shit like death and disease and stuff (though sometimes there’s that, too), but annoying shit that you have to keep dealing with, and as soon as you get some of that shit out of the way, and other big pile of shit lands right in front of you. This is how things seem to be around here these days. At least it’s Friday, I guess.

Oops, looks like I forgot to put something up this morning. That’s what happens when you get up at 4AM, I guess. The day just flies by.