Good morning!!!!

[Bird]

Got a text message from HVAC contractor this morning. He is picking up new furnace and ordering duct work today.

Is this the contractor provided by American Home Shield?

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 44F @ 5:00AM. Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 53F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Looks like by Saturday the light showers will be over and we'll be in another dry spell for the rest of the 10-day. I like good weather, but we really, really need the rain!

We have the same problem with our governor, and our Speaker Of the House, Bill. Both have been caught breaking the CoVid rules. Rules are for thee, and not for me!:irked: What I don't understand is why people keep reelecting them.

Got the steel cut and welded for two more sets of hoops yesterday, but since I brought home the wrong size bolts and need to exchange them, I need to make a run into town today. Yeah, I need milk and bread, too.

Got a tracking number for the shotgun yesterday, so I'll also stop by the range and let 'em know to keep an eye out for it.

Happy Hump Day, folks!

 

[ronjhall]

Yes. He seems on the up and up. Warned me AHS is slow in getting a replacement furnace. He said he is picking up new furnace from Lennox.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
35 and clear skies, high of 45 forecast.

Not much to report, yesterday went as predicted, some time at the airport, some time helping son play gunsmith. I did start the day by cooking breakfast-

Today will probably be a repeat, except for the waffles. UPS says LED work lights for tractor will be here today, so I’ll fit installing them into the schedule. I’m curious how they will work, they’re 3200 lumens of 6000k vs 600 lumens of much warmer halogen light from the OEM. Their supposed to be a simple plug in direct replacement for the old lights, using the same mounting brackets.

My internet connection has been a challenge over the years, starting with dial up , then 256k DSL, but I was at the fringe distance from the CO, so it didn’t work as advertised, Verizon said that I could live with it or go back to dial up. Next was satellite through Direct TV, download speeds were better, uploads were terrible. Comcast ran cable down my road, but after three different tries to get them to connect me, they initially said it would be $2k to bring it up my lane, I said go for it, they revisited it twice, escalating to 5k, and when that didn’t discourage me, they finally said service wasn’t available to me. About 5 years later Verizon ran fiber down the road. When I asked about getting connected, they scheduled it about a month out. Just before I was scheduled, hurricane Sandy blew through doing major damage to their aerial infrastructure. But after that 2 or 3 month setback, they buried a fiber line back to my house, and connected me with 75mbs service. At no installation charge!. That was direct burial fiber, a few years ago it got cut where it goes into the ground at the pole by the road. They spliced it, but came back in a few months and ran a conduit and pulled a new cable all the way back to the house.
Now I have over 200Mbs. Makes be feel better about being jilted by Comcast.

 

[Popgadget]

Ron, do you plan to continue with AHS when it comes time to renew?
It’s nice to have the coverage, but it sure seems like they make it as painful as possible to use it.
I’m glad that it’s your furnace, and you have an alternate heat source, imagine if it was your well pump.

 

[daugen]

Paul, if they came all the way up your driveway at no charge, what a deal.
I installed LED lights and left original optional light package on, on both tractors, the LEDs take so little power not
hard to do. They were very bright, very white and made the others look like headlights on a 55 Chevy.

Some warm strawberries on that waffle would be very nice

 

[Popgadget]

Paul, if they came all the way up your driveway at no charge, what a deal.
I installed LED lights and left original optional light package on, on both tractors, the LEDs take so little power not
hard to do.

Amazingly, they did it twice. Once with the direct burial and then again with flexible poly conduit with pull boxes every 300 feet.

The new lights are direct replacements for the OEM lights, and use the same bracket, so the old lights have to go away. The new ones even come with a plug to mate with the existing harness.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Good morning, such a nice change this week to have relatively dry weather, even if it is below freezing.

Popgadget, fascinating as it is, I dare not comment on your barrel work in case they call out a swat team to pounce on me for being associated with an Ak47 gun making forum

Sodamo, that Verizon tower looks in a great place for reception. Doubt you will need to, but in that situation tweaking for optimum reception is generally best done at night. Why ? Still air gives more consistent propagation of radio waves ? Nah, just thinking less chance in the dark of you getting caught taking chainsaw to neighbor's trees.

I learned a new term this morning Eric. Fly Tipper?

Fly-tipper caught red-handed and forced to put rubbish back in van

This "Fly Tipper" got caught in the act in Sheffield.

 

[daugen]

Ron, do you plan to continue with AHS when it comes time to renew?
It’s nice to have the coverage, but it sure seems like they make it as painful as possible to use it.
I’m glad that it’s your furnace, and you have an alternate heat source, imagine if it was your well pump.

I saw an ad on tv saying the home warranty company had paid out over a billion dollars in claims.
Big business, lot of insurance sold.

Being in the business, and having taught the "why" of insurance to trainees in Hartford CT, insurance should be used to pay for things
that are major, that would cause losses or responsibilities far more than you could pay for yourself or want to lose as an asset.
So I have never bought extended warranties and always carried high deductibles because that's what my cash/liquid fund is for.
You have retirement money, long term money and short term money. And real estate. Some of that short term needs be be liquid within days if not hours.
I call it the get your kid out of jail money account. Not the I'm going to buy a new truck account.
But it sure could be the I need a new HVAC fund.

Insurance says transfer the risk of loss to us. I say you bet, but not on everything.
I've been making these decisions for 50 years now and I've saved a lot of insurance premiums.
Actually I spent those savings and probably more on higher limits liability coverage, comprehensive medical, etc.
I know for sure I can't afford a hospital bill like I had this year. I paid not one penny on a 300k bill.

Insurance brings one peace of mind. I get it. I taught it. It is sure not a perfect system, one which made me get so frustrated
I sold my insurance agency and ran an electronics business instead. I wanted to deal with a product folks smiled about...

Warranty business is hugely profitable to the insurers.
Important to check AM Best rating of insurance company backing the warranty program.

I'm glad Ron is getting a new heater. Not exactly a magic carpet ride of service though.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Good morning. It was 57° here this morning and overcast .. our high will try to get to 70° this afternoon with a "cooler" front and thunderstorms around 3 p.m. After today .. we'll only get to the 50's for at least a week.

I called the "COVID information" number for our local Community Hospital yesterday. They're on the Texas site as the sole provider of vaccinations in our county. All I got was a recorded message that told me nothing and .. never was able to speak to a human being.

I stopped at the Columbus VFD yesterday afternoon .. to say hello to a couple of FF friends, and noticed that the Texas Department of State Health Services had opened an office, in a former nursing clinic building, across the street. I found their phone number listed on the Texas site and gave them a call. A nice lady answered on first ring and she advised they were expecting a shipment of 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week and were planning on restarting vaccinations by Monday. She said they were taking names and offered to put me on the list. That was easy .. now how long to work my way up their "list"?

Since we'll likely see some rain, in advance of the thunderstorms this afternoon, today will probably be spent in the shop.

Hoping for an excellent "Hump Day" .. for everyone.

Prayers to all.