Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Live and Learn

One of the very few drawbacks to living in America’s Third World County™ has been our experiences with appliance repairmen. We’ve decided over the years that going outside the county is wise, when it comes to appliance repair, whether that’s fridges, washers, or HVAC, etc. Just really bad experiences with execrably poor service from “highly-recommended” locals. *shrugs* Others’ experiences might vary, but ours? Universally poor service from local companies.

So, when cold weather hit and we needed our (gas, forced air) furnace, what happened? Well, first I changed the filter, than tried the furnace out. Right. No air. The fan would not come on, and nor would the burners. Well, since the fan and the gas valve are inter-related, via the control interface, if the fan didn’t work, the burners would not.

So, did I call someone? Nope. Tested the fan with separate power. No joy. Motor out. Replace motor (preferred option)? Nope. The thing’s apparently forty years old (!) and I think I’d have to cut it loose from the fan. Nope. Not gonna.

So, bought new fan.

The mounting bracket on the new (larger, more powerful) fan is almost the right width. wrong configuration. So, cut the mounting bracket off the old fan housing and affixed it to the new one. Fits. Mount the fan, wire it and. . . no joy.

So, I confirmed the old fan was defunct, but now the transformer/switch assembly isn’t working either? Another $25. (Note: 15 years ago, a local ripoff “repairman” charged $95 for the part. . . in an off-brand. . . and still didn’t fix the issue until he checked what I told him to check elsewhere. . . on his THIRD TRIP. HIGHLY recommended by multiple sources. MHWA.) Wired the new control relay in and. . . FAN! But no furnace ignition. Pilot light working fine, but gas valve: no joy.

Hmmm. . . sit back. Check Internet to see if my wiring job was right (the wiring diagram from the control relay mfg. did NOT make sense according to the wiring diagram on the furnace’s service panel, so I had transferred wires one at a time from the old relay. Maybe that was the problem. *heh*) Well, yes and no. It seems a wire from the relay to to gas valve HAD BROKEN and dropped down during my rewiring. (Dark, old eyes–hence difficulty focusing–“headlight” focused in wrong place, etc. I just missed it dropping off the gas valve.) Found it later on the floor and wondered where it had come from.

The ONLY clue I got from my hunting on the Internet was a YouTube video where a guy pointed out, on a similar but not the same, SPDT relay where the gas valve wiring FROM the relay should be connected. Fortunately, he also called it by name, so I could locate the correct place to wire it in on my relay.

At last, joy. Warm last night. Almost too warm for me, frankly. 70°F is just too warm for indoor Autumn living. Heck, places near a register and away from the thermostat have gotten up to 73°-75°! Turned down a tad.

Note: what I learned? Oh, I already knew to do it, but I forgot to take pictures of the installation before I replaced the relay. *head-desk* Oh, well. Would have saved a headache, but all’s well, and all that.

P.S. #2: May also need a new thermostat. Cool temps today, furnace apparently came on a few times, though, and most of the house is at 75° even though the thermostat is set at 68°. It might not be a problem. Could just have been solar gain, since we are fairly well insulated and the house–overall–started out around 70°, with the previously noted “hot spots”.

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Don’t Trust; Verify

Every time I hear someone–especially medical professionals who should know better for many reasons–mispronounce words such as “tinnitus” I bemoan the state of “edumacationism”. (Many medical “professionals” mispronounce “tinnitus” to rhyme with “artritis,” an inflammatory condition, hence the “itis” suffix. Medical professionals, of all people, should know better in the case of tinnitus. Just sayin’.)

When one runs across professionals in a field who aren’t even literate in their own field, turn around and walk away.

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Quick Meal

OK, NOT authentic, but Good Enough in a pinch.

Ingredients:

  1. Emergency can of enchilada sauce (the real stuff takes a while to make; traditional method takes eight or so hours of soaking the peppers to start)
  2. CORN tortillas
  3. Shredded cheese
  4. Diced or minced onion

Directions:

  1. Dice or chop the onions, then place them in a covered, microwave-safe bowl and nuke ’em for about a minute. It’s a sort of faux saute technique. I usually add a wee tad of olive oil.
  2. Place a bit of enchilada sauce on a plate; place a tortilla (flat) on top; a few onions; cheese, another tortilla, etc. Last one in the stack gets sauce and cheese, only.
  3. Nuke the plate. Three tortillas will cook in a wee tad over a minute in a 1000W microwave oven. Four? Add another 20-30 seconds.

Yes, the texture is substantially different to regular, traditional rolled and baked enchiladas, but the favor and nutrition is the same.

Serve with rice (LEFTOVERS! *heh* Remember: QUICK meal, mmmK? 😉 ), refried beans (from leftovers or a can) and some shredded lettuce.

A note about canned enchilada sauce: most is based on tomatoes and water and merely favored to approximate real red sauce. IOW, most canned enchilada sauce is crap. Avoid it religiously. Around here, the only canned enchilada sauce that’s worth buying is this:

Las Palmas

Note that it contains NO tomato product and the only ingredient present in a greater amount than dried red chiles is water, which is normal for real enchilada sauce consisting of simply dried red chiles (rehydrated, softened and blended) and water. The other ingredients listed don’t detract greatly from the flavor. *heh*

SUPER fast faux enchiladas: take some of those frozen flautas that are available nowadays (I think I’ve seen ’em called “taquitos” or some such stupid thing). Cover ’em in an appropriate enchilada sauce you have on hand (red for beef, green for chicken), add shredded cheese and then nuke. I’ve done this when I was in a rush (my Wonder Woman likes to have those frozen things to take with her for lunches, so they’re around). Turns out. . . edible, but not as good, IMO as the “flatpacks” above.

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Is It Just Me?

A quick Q for both of my readers: am I the only one to attach heat sinks to notebook power supplies to dissipate heat in an attempt to make them last longer?

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Everyone’s A Criminal

. . . if the feds want ’em to be.

If you get a pay check as an employee of ANYONE other than a government agency (or as the officer of a corporation), any time the feds want to “get” you they have a neat lil technicality to allow them to charge you with falsifying a “feddle gummint” document. U.S. Code Title 26 Subtitle C Chapter 24 § 3401 (c) Employee: “For purposes of this chapter, the term “employee” includes an officer, employee, or elected official of the United States, a State, or any political subdivision thereof, or the District of Columbia, or any agency or instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing. The term “employee” also includes an officer of a corporation.”

You filled out a W-2 form attesting to its accuracy, claiming to be an “employee.” Gotcha, if they want. . .

OTOH, if you DON’T fill out the form, they’ll get you anyway.

And that’s just one of many thousands of lil “gotchas” the feds have in store for anyone they get a hard on for.

Welcome to the wonderful world of “feddle gummint” anarcho-tyranny.

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Trad-Pubs Just DGARA, Now

I’m used to seeing execrably poor editing from ~80% of self-pub books. I can almost understand lone writers either eschewing the expense of paying for good editing (content, line editing), because it’s expensive. Almost. Some, relying of “beta readers” from among their friends and acquaintances (or merely from semi-random tightwads who want a free read) think they can substitute such beta readers’ comments and observations for decent editing. They’re almost always wrong, since most of their acquaintances are no more literate (well-read) than they are, but sometimes they get a wee bit of help that way.

OK, I can almost understand that mindset, almost tolerate it. I can’t excuse it, though.

But what is worse is that books by established authors from traditional publishing houses are starting to read more and more like sloppily edited (or UNedited) books from self-pubs. Seriously, what’s up with that? Purchasing a book from a tad-pub should come with the expectation of value added in editing, at the very least! The last two hardcopy books I read by [a well-established bestselling author who shall go unnamed] had me wondering if the publisher had simply eaten its editorial staff. In the past, this writer’s books had far, far fewer errors of fact (stupid errors that kick suspension of disbelief off the rails in police procedurals/mysteries), grammar and word mis-usage than I ran into page after page after page in these last two books.

Seriously, is trad-pub simply giving up or does it expect readers to just swallow the crap anfd keep buying its over-priced, value-subtracted offerings?