tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-276527622024-02-22T14:58:17.020-05:00Andrew's Life EnbloggenedMy life. My thoughts. My Coffee Cup Art. See how many times my fish can die in a month!Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.comBlogger484125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-19581618191460677942021-12-01T21:27:00.007-05:002022-07-31T18:32:50.476-04:00My Leaky Roof<p>This post continues the series of <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-avoision-of-covid-19.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">My avoison of Covid-19</a> where I thought that staying the blazes home would be fine, as long as I didn't need to have any service people into my house.</p>
<p>But then I had <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/appliance-troubles.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Appliance Troubles</a> which caused me to have 6 service people into the house. Then there was my <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-basement-issues-part-1.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">My basement issues</a> which brought 9 more service people into my house. Plus two movers and a furnace maintenance person. That's a total of 18 service people in my house in less than two years, compared to 17 the previous 5.</p>
<p>And I'm not even done yet.</p>
<h4>The Roof</h4>
<p>I don't know if it was the siding project a few years ago, or if being home all day during the day, and spending most of that time in an upstairs room lacking in proper insulation caused me to turn the heat up more than I used to, but for the first time since living here, an ice dam formed during the winter on my roof above where I sat at my computer whilst working. I wasn't alone. Other houses had ice dams too. The property management company sent people around to break the ice dams off of people's roofs including mine.</p>
<p>All was well until the Spring. Then one day we got a heavy rain. It was right at the end of the working day. I was still in my office room. A few minutes after the heavy rain started outside, it started raining <i>inside</i>! I called the property management company, but it was after-hours for them. So I called the emergency after-hours number. But, the rain was a short downspurt, and shortly after the rain stopped outside, it stopped inside.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, they sent someone around to take a look. They said they could see some damage to the shingles. Then they did was put some caulking on the roof.</p>
<p>For the next few rainfalls, mostly light rain, all was well.</p>
<p>But then on <datetime date="2021-07-08">July 8<sup>th</sup></datetime>, just as I was soon getting ready to go out and get my second dose of vaccine for Covid-19, the heavy rain started outside. Then it started raining inside again!</p>
<p>After talking to those who had gone before me, I knew that the next day I was likely to feel like garbage. I had everything all worked out. I had finished my shopping, chores, cleaning, laundry, etc. I had it all planned out that for the next few days all I had to do was lie on the couch watching TV feeling miserable. This would totally put a monkeywrench in my plans. Should I cancel my shot and re-book? If I had to move a bunch of stuff out of my office, I didn't want to do it right after getting a needle. (I hate needles! I consider my arm to be ineffective for at least a couple of days after I get a shot.)</p>
<p>I tried. But you needed to cancel within two hours, and it was about 1 hour and 57 minutes. So I decided to risk it.</p>
<p>Anyway, again, I called the after-hours emergency number, and they sent someone over right away. He came in (person 19) to take a look at the damage inside. (At first he wasn't even wearing a mask! I had to ask him to put one on!)</p>
<p>He couldn't see anything from the inside. So he called the property management company and they sent two guys out tomorrow to take a better look.</p>
<p>When they showed up pretty early in the morning on <datetime date="2021-07-09">July 9<sup>th</sup></datetime>, I was only feeling a little tired. The real side effects (fever, headache, chills, etc.) hadn't kicked in yet. These two guys (one of whom was the guy who cut the hole in my basement wall) cut out a square of drywall in my ceiling. They saw that when the guy was clearning the ice dam, he hit the ice dam with the sharp side of the axe, not the broad side. He put a hole in my roof! And now there's a hole in my ceiling! (Now we're up to 21 service people.)</p>
<p>They took pictures to send to the property management company. Eventually, they sent a roofing company around. "Ahhh, finally! They'll fix the roof, then I can get the ceiling fixed!"</p>
<p>And how did they fix the roof? They put more caulking on it. That was it!</p>
<p>The roof no longer leaks. But it's still broken! If they're not going to fix it further, then okay. But they need to send someone around to fix my ceiling.</p>
<p>I'll let you know how it all turns out when it's finally fixed. I may have to live with it through the winter and see if it leaks again. I'm getting really tired of this property management company. I would sell, but the housing market is nuts, and this place has not gone up in value as much as other places. So I'm further behind than before. And there's no way I can sell with a big hole in my ceiling.</p>
<p>Update: On the morning of <datetime date="2022-01-18">January 18, 2022</datetime> I came into my office room to significant leaking. I promptly emailed the guy at the property management company I had been dealing with with pictures and a note saying "Since my roof still hasn't been fixed, it's leaking again into my unit." I got an email back from someone else saying that the person I had been dealing with was now elsewhere. I hope this new guy is better.</p>
<p>He did send a roofer around to fix my roof on <datetime date="2022-01-20">Jan. 20th</datetime>. He cut out a small hole and replaced the wood and shingles. Of course, the ceiling still has a big hole in it. But I don't want to get that fixed until the roof itself is fixed.</p>
<p>Then on <datetime date="2022-01-28">January 28</datetime> we got another big snowfall, and I had more leaking in my roof. So, finally on <datetime date="2022-02-18">Feb 18th</datetime> they sent a couple of guys around to go into my attick and investigate. That was this morning. I'm waiting to hear back what happens next. But I think they'll be waiting for Spring for when everything melts.</p>
<p>Anyway, as of today, we're at 23 people in my house during the pandemic.</p>
<h4>Update <datetime date="2022-04-25">April 25, 2022</datetime></h4>
<p>As I was waiting to hear the next steps, on <datetime date="2022-03-01">March 1</datetime> I got an email saying that we've got a new property management company. *sigh* Will the old company pass all my info onto the new company? And given all the different issues with all the different issues, this could take a while for the next steps. Maybe even go back a few.</p>
<p>After waiting a few weeks for the dust to settle, I wrote to the new property management company to ask if they got any if my file from the old company.</p>
<p>They hadn't.</p>
<p>Now, they have to send roofers around to take another look. They sent two on <datetime date="2022-04-25">April 25</datetime> (just before I wrote this). They took a look and said I'd have to have my front 3 feet of roofing replaced. Apparently, the repair mentioned above didn't have any weather sheilding on it, so it was bound to leak. And, oh look, we're supposed to get 25-30mm of rain today. So probably more leaking.</p>
<p>Now the count is 25 people in my house during the pandemic.</p>
<h4>Update <datetime date="2022-07-31">July 31, 2022</datetime></h4>
<p>Well, after a bit of a wait two roofers showed up on <datetime date="2022-07-21">July 21<sup>st</sup></datetime> to fix my roof. After a few hours of work, they told me they were done. (They didn't need to come in at all, so my count isn't going up.) From my bedroom I could see that nothing had been changed from the underside of the roof. They told me that the previous person to repair the roof only replaced a bit of wood and some shingles. They didn't replace the waterpoof covering that goes between the shingles and the wood. That's why I was getting leaking. But now that's fixed.</p>
<p>So now I wonder: do I wait til we get lots of rain? Do I contact the condo management company to ask that the internal damage be fixed? This would include replacing the insulation in my attic and replacing some damaged (and now missing!) drywall. I am not looking forward to this.</p>
<h4>Pictures</h4>
<p>Here are some pictures of my roof issues:</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMofOk8TdENUygXXjN1rhgH3GY2gONGC6gWFNIcXzizomD23_R0clF45wMEpIkidaBTGr2BAAxXzZD8tOheghOK0NuJXqOrgEQFZfmm8Lnq-uyvvWq9MJcuPoe06FGQ7MvpLC33k-3mha6UhiWGyh6TjRi9SEfHjtwyINxkTF4_A36bhfeTA/s4032/IMG_4107.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Water dripping down onto my window frame on the inside." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMofOk8TdENUygXXjN1rhgH3GY2gONGC6gWFNIcXzizomD23_R0clF45wMEpIkidaBTGr2BAAxXzZD8tOheghOK0NuJXqOrgEQFZfmm8Lnq-uyvvWq9MJcuPoe06FGQ7MvpLC33k-3mha6UhiWGyh6TjRi9SEfHjtwyINxkTF4_A36bhfeTA/w240-h320/IMG_4107.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeDi4dE0cNkVIlPG9-VHrj9sRPSOgTDZgItZPxsbrgVP0HDDKr6ZkKyPKKVno_827u3GOrQZa7O5xKcucEmBBGDDI3LgpfA7tg7CH9DG-IanZbN27kDyACWLg_abqTfBd6EoHtKDzKMLPm7Ou6sNZICW6y8LX5QjK1iszKjgSmva-Sjs-0Q/s4032/IMG_4108.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Water damage to my ceiling above my window." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeDi4dE0cNkVIlPG9-VHrj9sRPSOgTDZgItZPxsbrgVP0HDDKr6ZkKyPKKVno_827u3GOrQZa7O5xKcucEmBBGDDI3LgpfA7tg7CH9DG-IanZbN27kDyACWLg_abqTfBd6EoHtKDzKMLPm7Ou6sNZICW6y8LX5QjK1iszKjgSmva-Sjs-0Q/w240-h320/IMG_4108.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w5-nfcFzT79eDG1_cOAG8qdKbOlfGFtbqaP9hFO39emnNBEmgR6iLSvjcigQ4DGWg1gbwY44RT62Mz2DHoNTzG5FJa2ShEVODXPBlE7x4022THaoMbPrfGkT70ALT_YxuCiBTlK4qBZxYIbCBcEmpv9bfU8Rs_TcEW10y1Z38m6w3e_o-w/s4032/IMG_4115.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Water dripping through my window frame on the inside." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w5-nfcFzT79eDG1_cOAG8qdKbOlfGFtbqaP9hFO39emnNBEmgR6iLSvjcigQ4DGWg1gbwY44RT62Mz2DHoNTzG5FJa2ShEVODXPBlE7x4022THaoMbPrfGkT70ALT_YxuCiBTlK4qBZxYIbCBcEmpv9bfU8Rs_TcEW10y1Z38m6w3e_o-w/w240-h320/IMG_4115.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZ3FH2KEQrVKHg6mIgg2yxYj6acp5ZT4Q3xI_4N5pQyR2rxX0M4LzNc37n39vtLmSLPiD08t5YwVIlcoJ2Fi3z5_FyaGXb0vLAwD_mj3r9J9BXn94CMRndHXkcWipPFXbU7ik7NrF5RkuqsVVa3M2MPCUydDIYkTMwywt0TO0k7Lo5_n9Kg/s4032/IMG_4117.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="The hole in my ceiling the roofers cut out to take a look from the inside." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZ3FH2KEQrVKHg6mIgg2yxYj6acp5ZT4Q3xI_4N5pQyR2rxX0M4LzNc37n39vtLmSLPiD08t5YwVIlcoJ2Fi3z5_FyaGXb0vLAwD_mj3r9J9BXn94CMRndHXkcWipPFXbU7ik7NrF5RkuqsVVa3M2MPCUydDIYkTMwywt0TO0k7Lo5_n9Kg/w240-h320/IMG_4117.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FhvdHUsrmDDtVOPqxR8MIv8xR00rmAafiio74-aH9CpSB07fnE6D5xDgE6J6lW1dkUH5aA8DOlsKfkVmHhc2XHbBxzm7HAABUfFsGHK3CAWEF5vfh1p5knuHm2nocfRbIXbiP-mMcPqhM9DMRRFGlQDYhDU8VGbaLNYpDYvUEtwalxHPeA/s4032/IMG_4119.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A hole in my ceiling showing the hole in my roof, about a quarter inch wide." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FhvdHUsrmDDtVOPqxR8MIv8xR00rmAafiio74-aH9CpSB07fnE6D5xDgE6J6lW1dkUH5aA8DOlsKfkVmHhc2XHbBxzm7HAABUfFsGHK3CAWEF5vfh1p5knuHm2nocfRbIXbiP-mMcPqhM9DMRRFGlQDYhDU8VGbaLNYpDYvUEtwalxHPeA/w240-h320/IMG_4119.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2Wj6DrGlcdF_OiUUBkiWM8txNITEyFDPDi4FaXKpWlsWBIzPS6YWUVrjMy3f_51Y-RMdf4a8NGDXf8ceT7yBfHgZzbDV_h-3MVgq9PSE8vIpS5FZjFjXRYvjfa6pSpWFDUVFx73tN2ZlmYHYPBkZxOi-DIk3fwd6VhxozOzfFpP-MO2h-g/s4032/IMG_4127.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A closer view of the quarter inch hole in my roof also showing damanged wood around it." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2Wj6DrGlcdF_OiUUBkiWM8txNITEyFDPDi4FaXKpWlsWBIzPS6YWUVrjMy3f_51Y-RMdf4a8NGDXf8ceT7yBfHgZzbDV_h-3MVgq9PSE8vIpS5FZjFjXRYvjfa6pSpWFDUVFx73tN2ZlmYHYPBkZxOi-DIk3fwd6VhxozOzfFpP-MO2h-g/w240-h320/IMG_4127.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mr2H03upsz8qvbaFcDESUEYaq0htOnM1ClTlg_N-eEA_vhsNB2m_LKBXdMwpWh0-qEZRqP6H51h7e1y5JrTye8EFqt2fNOJXC_boBXXOB1p-XdpD1rx6m8P5_bFlo122om-Vhj-vnkX9Vj3qTdWBkWhZ3ArVrCb-V0x-EaeHEO0MH41YYw/s4032/IMG_4451.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Icicles almost the height of my window." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mr2H03upsz8qvbaFcDESUEYaq0htOnM1ClTlg_N-eEA_vhsNB2m_LKBXdMwpWh0-qEZRqP6H51h7e1y5JrTye8EFqt2fNOJXC_boBXXOB1p-XdpD1rx6m8P5_bFlo122om-Vhj-vnkX9Vj3qTdWBkWhZ3ArVrCb-V0x-EaeHEO0MH41YYw/w240-h320/IMG_4451.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhinqrdUr9NbwnpMTbz2p0GHD0v0QlFITW3UQIxfCzVibAsG-KhLfN51d0AJl-Nr79UG02mv6BCPayvAgP2zkOXvxKkMbNPulwxH-3bVoBi-jNKPiBUbkvE1jfReCFfbyPOiLFw1zz7mwQAgxZj6gGJE_Hb8GKyBTKbcfQ9r2v6FwXyOl3_xg/s4032/IMG_4454.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Icicles forming from underneath my overhang over my front door." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhinqrdUr9NbwnpMTbz2p0GHD0v0QlFITW3UQIxfCzVibAsG-KhLfN51d0AJl-Nr79UG02mv6BCPayvAgP2zkOXvxKkMbNPulwxH-3bVoBi-jNKPiBUbkvE1jfReCFfbyPOiLFw1zz7mwQAgxZj6gGJE_Hb8GKyBTKbcfQ9r2v6FwXyOl3_xg/w240-h320/IMG_4454.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6yo9RGWzq8A69iaelYHfoHCH_PqBOEjzc4vK0GVx6jBV8DIV5qa4mDXC2SLF5cck8LMWKYCtBOMYWL2d4RQrIk_QKKDpzUAK9l_r37tWQn157O7qG0HLnZnfdvshmzJiANNoEbqSoKOSd2hsQT5l0TipBvHQhJ0MOdNY0-eJLvFLIuji9g/s4032/IMG_4467.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Ice forming on my siding all the way down from my window to the overhang." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6yo9RGWzq8A69iaelYHfoHCH_PqBOEjzc4vK0GVx6jBV8DIV5qa4mDXC2SLF5cck8LMWKYCtBOMYWL2d4RQrIk_QKKDpzUAK9l_r37tWQn157O7qG0HLnZnfdvshmzJiANNoEbqSoKOSd2hsQT5l0TipBvHQhJ0MOdNY0-eJLvFLIuji9g/w240-h320/IMG_4467.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-mvmpErUvpUhoROgIUhV7d4glqDoJ_jPhr8tzok6BzQn0tCigGNMsMP7U7_vIZprNw9EgnalDHuyG3pVoC0HobrsPnxAZrY2fIKR1ALBohoIPhSSixKXRq4poRPrt1sGTVOZVWKkjYcH6RfR67R47XJpO5LFYesWnu2KvsNctiUbk2_H7ZA/s4032/IMG_4457.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A block of wood where the main repair was done." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-mvmpErUvpUhoROgIUhV7d4glqDoJ_jPhr8tzok6BzQn0tCigGNMsMP7U7_vIZprNw9EgnalDHuyG3pVoC0HobrsPnxAZrY2fIKR1ALBohoIPhSSixKXRq4poRPrt1sGTVOZVWKkjYcH6RfR67R47XJpO5LFYesWnu2KvsNctiUbk2_H7ZA/w240-h320/IMG_4457.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMTCzAQQD7dPCDLgfiwybqfdqfDpHOybSN9ht6feFDbzt0BudurVmZHwHxAo5UwaD7bbYEfh0rXg4DKckYwgqhmnN-SoFAIJ641oBXp1EFdAaAzp8sfVfVdh8w0r5wVTYgwMRUKLuVFiRx7UNU6Q1AC9JPShY3hB3XxyN2a1qzd9ULNwMuw/s4032/IMG_4466.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="The wood around the repair is now wet due to melting snow." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMTCzAQQD7dPCDLgfiwybqfdqfDpHOybSN9ht6feFDbzt0BudurVmZHwHxAo5UwaD7bbYEfh0rXg4DKckYwgqhmnN-SoFAIJ641oBXp1EFdAaAzp8sfVfVdh8w0r5wVTYgwMRUKLuVFiRx7UNU6Q1AC9JPShY3hB3XxyN2a1qzd9ULNwMuw/w240-h320/IMG_4466.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9Dyn6SmaRFfOJnGvTxlUiYZ1NqSg0iIdKAdM_EdOnlZc-BAhNvOpxMdQs5rtx7a522HE_xMC_cVJuz6CIkQnN-hBVBUUTqUx8lbnPpr2gMvTzGTWfXHkrGRohwVkV8LxedI_Pn9YO4vlvm7GXcxaLnqOMcIAi7AQyd5QWTsv75UbwEBPtw/s4032/IMG_4458.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Water damage to my ceiling around where the roofers cut." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9Dyn6SmaRFfOJnGvTxlUiYZ1NqSg0iIdKAdM_EdOnlZc-BAhNvOpxMdQs5rtx7a522HE_xMC_cVJuz6CIkQnN-hBVBUUTqUx8lbnPpr2gMvTzGTWfXHkrGRohwVkV8LxedI_Pn9YO4vlvm7GXcxaLnqOMcIAi7AQyd5QWTsv75UbwEBPtw/w240-h320/IMG_4458.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiy9LedIHWN4oezcu8TuWU6mkx7SRykATTa8_OanXidk0zqxCvOGoLaZbdrpA2Aodt0oKPRG1ytrdRV6F4CKSjVm8PDdUrmITjM9CTTrmz7w0_RiDJUybVtX0_XRWg1XSrrB7qjeuLviQJe-kt3Cn4K2ynf8Cf2cA8KJCJaR70WbRxmJNqg/s4032/IMG_4459.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Water damage to another part of my ceiling along the front wall." border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiy9LedIHWN4oezcu8TuWU6mkx7SRykATTa8_OanXidk0zqxCvOGoLaZbdrpA2Aodt0oKPRG1ytrdRV6F4CKSjVm8PDdUrmITjM9CTTrmz7w0_RiDJUybVtX0_XRWg1XSrrB7qjeuLviQJe-kt3Cn4K2ynf8Cf2cA8KJCJaR70WbRxmJNqg/w240-h320/IMG_4459.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-7112376453751770962021-11-26T13:51:00.001-05:002021-11-26T13:51:10.154-05:00My Basement Issues - Part 3<h4>Recap</h4>
<p>As of <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-basement-issues-part-2.html">My Basement Issues - Part 2</a> I found out that my basement does not have asbestos in it, and I've had to have 5 non-appliance service people into my house during the pandemic. But the fix hasn't happened yet. I was contemplating two options: Basic repair, or replace the drywall ceiling with a suspended ceiling.</p>
<h4>The Fix</h4>
<p>I decided that I would rather the suspended ceiling. This would involve someone coming in to remove the remaining drywall ceiling, install the suspended ceiling, fix the hole in the wall, and then paint.</p>
<p>So on <datetime date="2021-09-02">Sept. 2<sup>nd</sup>, 2021</datetime> the demolition guy showed up (that's non-appliance service person #6). Then the next week two guys showed up (#8) to install the ceiling, and repair the wall, and do some painting. And they were fantastic. They just kept going with the paint, and painted my whole basement! They even fixed some minor issues that had nothing to do with the damage mentioned in this blog. A++++ right there. Then on <datetime date="2021-09-09">Thursday, Sept. 9<sup>th</sup></datetime> someone showed up to do the cleanup.</p>
<h4>Total Number Of People In My House</h4>
<p>So that's 9 non-appliance service people in my house plus 6 appliance service people. For a current total of 15.</p>
<p><b>But wait! There's more!</b></p>
<p>My parents sold their house to downsize. In doing so they sent me a bunch of stuff. So two movers had to come in and out of the house. And it was a hot and humid day. <datetime date="2021-09-23">Sept. 23<sup>rd</sup></datetime>. Some of the stuff was pretty heavy, and sometimes the moves had to remove their masks. So that's two more people.</p>
<p>I had just gotten my furnace cleaned and serviced just before the pandemic. It's something you should do every year; and I pay for one of those plans where it's included. So I needed to get my service when the weather started to cool. So on <datetime date="2021-11-10">Nov. 10<sup>th</sup></datetime> the furnace guy came and cleaned the furnace. I stayed upstairs for most of it. At the end I asked a question about installing a coldair exchange in my basement to increase air circulation. I think that question may have been above his paygrade. But anyway, at some points, his mask was below his nose...so basically no mask at all. Now we're up to 18 service people in my house total. That's more than what I've had my entire time in this house pre-pandemic!!!</p>
<p>Here's some pictures of the basement:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUfXBVeOMZLNF61lu8B9T54ufry9z_kS-iQH0xGOJ3_2aHoMKR8VifNySgMjMnFNPafKAeG0gc4YhwZ0vbT9wHRXfjzmdAISriAwCrkWwEw-zt2e9OG_qODSlkBpgZZDvxdK7A/s2048/exhaust-pipe-3.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="One piece of siding not connected to the next, leavaing a hole allowing water to enter the house" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUfXBVeOMZLNF61lu8B9T54ufry9z_kS-iQH0xGOJ3_2aHoMKR8VifNySgMjMnFNPafKAeG0gc4YhwZ0vbT9wHRXfjzmdAISriAwCrkWwEw-zt2e9OG_qODSlkBpgZZDvxdK7A/w240-h320/exhaust-pipe-3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZinpbRUK8fjjmPq1doOfx-thSX4XfFxEK7z7djpEFrhWXmFxHUJU6UCXKcR_XAbaQ_xMjOUOiBRkdvNT_E9IPZIS207ECNNKgrJRNV8ZrG45b4NW7NZYjzXt76-P4X4epJZED/s2048/wet-floor-3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Carpet by wall with big wet spot resulting from water getting in through a hole in the siding" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZinpbRUK8fjjmPq1doOfx-thSX4XfFxEK7z7djpEFrhWXmFxHUJU6UCXKcR_XAbaQ_xMjOUOiBRkdvNT_E9IPZIS207ECNNKgrJRNV8ZrG45b4NW7NZYjzXt76-P4X4epJZED/w240-h320/wet-floor-3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVUeZPMph7Axwxx_BF0H7T46wVc2oR7UcpADQLt21PsOl3zu2Mu30dCB2hgjKOY8supabMcFZZSb9Y2J7oujl1wt-1Xh-hyAW1bNdDKBT62yJy7m1-pF39EY4G8tlujg54RED/s2048/wall-hole-and-ceiling_4.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A big hole in my ceiling and wall from water damage" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVUeZPMph7Axwxx_BF0H7T46wVc2oR7UcpADQLt21PsOl3zu2Mu30dCB2hgjKOY8supabMcFZZSb9Y2J7oujl1wt-1Xh-hyAW1bNdDKBT62yJy7m1-pF39EY4G8tlujg54RED/w240-h320/wall-hole-and-ceiling_4.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy1UXJpNOrbhWw2zztQOFGA88NuKKgjKIUNkVpS9sGofyHyxw_hrAfJS3LuIuM91dsASWohzxHMf3xHJ9V2gSQQcWUBf1ySA9JiipkiB8Z-ljdWiLhjdk2n7DGWTfyXZJ1qob0/s2048/finished-wall-ceiling-2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="The wall all patched up and a nice suspended ceiling" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy1UXJpNOrbhWw2zztQOFGA88NuKKgjKIUNkVpS9sGofyHyxw_hrAfJS3LuIuM91dsASWohzxHMf3xHJ9V2gSQQcWUBf1ySA9JiipkiB8Z-ljdWiLhjdk2n7DGWTfyXZJ1qob0/s320/finished-wall-ceiling-2.jpg"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimslIkMekJC-PzmRrIT1clLJbCK52ej71vZW_BNxmlP1q-wt1BdI0r-TLLUO24iLIYNPJ0eHv_AMxrA-phOUumGOuxq4dicgra3Jb3u8pQ9eb79P5OgbUtt8AU_YQ77-gJ-U1r/s2048/finished-wall-ceiling-2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="The finished basement with clean carpet and a suspended ceiling." border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxxiV4NlzkE9q18-H-YH8yDf4MqmobLCSVwDcQEm3LRUeUEqinWZ14dKGy_4zpbDFOGz6ASRXqcCg7UWw3Hw4uQjI92P5AE7YDQpJITA1-mvLOhfW4qW_7_vYBC1-vVRce47I/w240-h320/finished-basement-2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-75432476993147819382021-07-01T11:56:00.006-04:002024-01-24T18:06:10.708-05:00Netflix Won't Take My Money<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfc4__nvPVVR6DKZot5fRPqmJmenNrH0WyScokZ_bgeAQNbNMeKGwFP2bwPGCP7zw0bYyOMf9c0XhlFViFYxE-knk0MDzL40vL4cdz__1sIrdj0DvyCFTvxi_u40VyNu-aT_Q/s474/shut-up_and_take_my_money.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Fry from Futurama holing out a wad of cash saying 'Shut up and take my money!'" border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfc4__nvPVVR6DKZot5fRPqmJmenNrH0WyScokZ_bgeAQNbNMeKGwFP2bwPGCP7zw0bYyOMf9c0XhlFViFYxE-knk0MDzL40vL4cdz__1sIrdj0DvyCFTvxi_u40VyNu-aT_Q/s320/shut-up_and_take_my_money.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<p>I want my own Netflix account. I don't particularely want most of the other streaming services for reasons beyond the scope of this post. I want Netflix.</p>
<p>A few years ago I had a roommate living here. When he moved in, he brought his Netflix account with him. My TV has a Netflix app built right in. He put his credentials into the TV, and set up a profile for me so either of us could use the account. Then he moved away, but continued to let me use his account. After a while he cancelled it. So I decided it was time to get my own.</p>
<p>On <time datetime="2020-03-01">March 1, 2020</time> I went to <a href="https://www.netflix.com/ca/" target="_blank">Netflix.ca</a> and created an account. When it came time to pay, I noticed they no longer offered the free one-month trial. I was disappointed, but decided to carry on anyway.</p>
<p>As part of the registration process, I had to give an email and password, and it knew I was in Canada, but didn't ask for a postal code.</p>
<p>When it came time to make the payment, I selected the cheapest option ($9.99/month) and filled in the form. After filling in my credit card information and clicking "Submit" I got a vague error: "There appears to be a problem with the payment method you are trying to use."
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ovgef_3OTxOf2pCZyQlJkl6uxQvQrUZDoXJAUwqSZnfhmoqO2M3s_oO5hCMr6uXSh9nj6B1A4t9F6WHcueRjd7wAS-xEUHfp-5xh8LF7_Y8nJZhCzQOTpiE0OjQv9NBKXzlqjP4QyhqxA-ONxlRb9P7Id_trmP6y71Vn8JEXKhgRaks3AQ/s1080/netflix-error.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Netflix error saying There appears to be a problem with the payment method you are trying to use. Update your credit or debit card." border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ovgef_3OTxOf2pCZyQlJkl6uxQvQrUZDoXJAUwqSZnfhmoqO2M3s_oO5hCMr6uXSh9nj6B1A4t9F6WHcueRjd7wAS-xEUHfp-5xh8LF7_Y8nJZhCzQOTpiE0OjQv9NBKXzlqjP4QyhqxA-ONxlRb9P7Id_trmP6y71Vn8JEXKhgRaks3AQ/s320/netflix-error.jpg" width="320" />
</a>
</p>
<p>That's not very specific. I tried a different credid card, a different browser, a different device, etc. etc. Here are the different things I've tried: (Note Netflix Canada only accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and gift cards.)</p>
<ol>
<li>My laptop</li>
<li>Two different desktops</li>
<li>Firefox</li>
<li>Brave browser</li>
<li>Chrome</li>
<li>The Netflix app built into my TV (which just told me to do payment details in my computer)</li>
<li>The Netflix app built into my BlueRay player (which just told me to do payment details in my computer)</li>
<li>MasterCard</li>
<li>Visa</li>
<li>Putting my middle initial at the end of my first name</li>
<li>Putting my middle initial at the beginning of my last name</li>
<li>Leaving my middle initial out completely</li>
<li>MY NAME IN ALL CAPS</li>
<li>My name with only the first letter in capitals</li>
</ol>
<p>Here are the things I have not tried:</p>
<ol>
<li>A more expensive plan. Maybe this problem only exists on the cheapest plan?</li>
<li>A gift card...which may always leave some money on the card.</li>
<li>I switched from DSL to Cable Internet (temporarily) so I'm on a different network. Perhaps with this different network I can hit a different Netflix server that may work.</li>
<li>I recently got an AppleTV and upgraded my iOS. I can install the Netflix app on each, and the app store says it accepts in-app payments. If I can get Netflix to charge my app-store account, which will charge me, then it's not ideal, but I'd go for that.</li>
<li>Use a VPN to try to access Netflix in a different region to see if things could work there. (But they may block a lot of VPNs.)</li>
<li>A friend once told me that you can get these "anonymous" credit cards online and use one of those to try. It seems super-sketchy....but perhaps it's something to investigate.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you Google "Netflix won't accept my credit card" you see that this is a huge problem, and Netflix <em>refuses</em> to acknowledge that the problem may be on their end.</p>
<p>I called Netflix and they sent me a list of questions to ask my credit card companies (and along with the answers of both cards:</p>
<dl>
<dt>Are there enough available funds to cover the charge from Netflix?</dt>
<dd>Yes</dd>
<dt>For credit and debit cards, is the card still valid, or has the financial institution recently issued a replacement?</dt>
<dd>They're all still valid and no recent replacements were issued</dd>
<dt>For credit and debit cards, can the card be used for recurring billing?</dt>
<dd>Absolutely</dd>
<dt>Does the card or account support e-commerce transactions?</dt>
<dd>Absolutely</dd>
<dt>Was the transaction processed as an international charge? Does your account support this?</dt>
<dd>It was processed as a local charge, and I'll return to this question below.</dd>
<dt>Was the transaction declined for any security reasons?</dt>
<dd>No, it wasn't declined. More on this below.</dd>
<dt>Does your financial institution see the transaction attempt from Netflix? Can they explain why it was declined?</dt>
<dd>They see it as accepted. More on this below</dd>
</dl>
<p>I called both my credit card companies about this. And my cards are both properly set up to accept Netflix. The problem is 100% on Netflix's end. Above I mentioned that Netflix no longer offers the 1-month free trial. I think this may have something to do with it.</p>
<p>One of my banks told me they saw a few <strong>Approved</strong> charges from Netflix for $0.00.</p>
<p>Very interesting. Here's what I think is what's happening:</p>
<p>Netflix Canada, years ago, sets up a one-month free trial. But before they give out any free trials to a new customer, they need to make sure that customer can pay in the second month. So they ask for credit card details. They charge that card for $0.00 to make sure it works. I figure the psuedo-code could look something like:</p>
<h3>At Netflix</h3>
<pre><code>
// planRate and ccInfo would be from elsewhere.
// I'm just making them global here so you can visually see it.
global planRate = $9.99;
global ccInfo;
function checkCreditCard () {
planRate = 0; // temporarily set planRate to 0 for the free trial
let approval = getMastercardApproval(ccInfo, planRate);
// the 0 is the $0.00 for a free trial
}
</code></pre>
<h3>At Mastercard</h3>
<pre><code>
function chargeCard (Amount) {
if (applyCharge(ccInfo, Amount)) {
// It worked!
sender.sendMessage(true, ccInfo.number, Amount);
} else {
sender.sendMessage(false, ccInfo.number, Amount);
}
</code></pre>
<h3>Back at Netflix</h3>
<pre><code>
function checkApproval(success, number, Amount) {
planRate = 0; // temporarily set planRate to 0 for the free trial
if (success == true && number == ccInfo.number && Amount == planRate) {
successFunction ();
} else {
fail ("There was a problem with your credit card.");
}
</code></pre>
<p>If you follow that code through you'll see that Netflix is charging $0.00 and then checking to see if $0.00 was charged. Then when the free trial ended, Netflix Canada removed the <code>planRate = 0; // temporarily set planRate to 0 for the free trial</code> from both functions, and somehow the first function didn't make it to every production server. So on some servers, the planRate (say $9.99) is being charged. On others, $0.00 is being charged. Then in the last function, it's checking if the amount charged is the same as planRate. It won't be on the servers that never got the updated code. Since some people hit a server <em>with</em> the updated code they're able to sign up. Netflix sees that some people can sign up, so they don't notice the problem. They see fewer people have signed up than before, but that's to be expected after prices go up, and a free trial goes away. And I suspect the tech support (no doubt outsourced to a private firm in India) has no way of telling Netflix "We're getting a lot of complaints about this. You might want to look into it."</p>
<p>If I'm right about this, then it's the loss of free trial that's the problem. Some people who have complained about this said that the tech support was able to put a one-time charge through and it worked. Someone else mentioned that using the live-chat feature, the tech support guy was able to have the customer fill out a separate form somewhere.</p>
<p>Aside from the list of questions to ask my credit card companies, tech support suggested I use gift cards. I don't want to use gift cards because the amounts you can buy are never exact multiples of the plan amounts! As of this writing, a basic plan in Canada is $9.99 + HST: $11.29/month. If I could get a gift card for $11.29, or $22.58, or $33.87, etc. then okay. Instead I could get one for $30 and charge 2 months to it and have $7.42 left over. If my above suspicions are correct, then I'd be beyond the free trial part so I could switch payment details to my credit card and it would work. Is it worth $7.42 to find out? If it doesn't work then I'll be forever buying gift cards and always having a bit left over.</p>
<h3>UPDATE</h3>
<p>In order to get the actual text of the credit card error for this blog, I decided to try signing up again. Just to get the error! But the registration worked! I now have Netflix!</p>
<p>I don't know why. I must be a poor scientist. I altered two variables:</p>
<ol>
<li>I used Chrome instead of Brave or Netflix (maybe Netflix only specifically supports Chrome and not Chromium browsers like Brave. If this is the case, I should abandon Netflix.)</li>
<li>I tried using my Cable Internet connection (different networks could hit different servers. I'm now on <a href="https://www.teksavvy.com" target="_blank">TekSavvy's network</a> instead of Bell's. (I'm not linking to Bell because I don't want to give them any more traffic.)</li>
</ol>
<p>Now I'll never know if my suspicions about the new code not making it to all servers are correct. Nevermind! I have some serious watchin' to do.</p>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-92042363149461878522021-02-06T12:42:00.004-05:002021-02-07T11:34:18.688-05:00My Basement Issues - Part 2<h4>Recap</h4>
<p>This post is a continuation of two posts: <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-basement-issues-part-1.html">My Basement Issues - Part 1</a> and <a>My avoision of Covid-19</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-basement-issues-part-1.html">My Basement Issues - Part 1</a> I told the story of how a broken furnace exhaust pipe had wrecked a section of my basement ceiling, and how some shoddy work from a condo siding project caused a section of my basement drywall to be torn out. In <a>My Avoision of Covid-19</a> I told the story of how I was hoping to get through the pandemic with as little human contact as possible, and how I thought "As long as I can make it through the next few months without any service people coming into my house, then I should be a-okay. And I've hardly had <em>any</em> service people in the house since I bought over 5 years ago, so I <em>should</em> be fine.</p>
<h4>Old Basement Damage</h4>
<p>Due to the pandemic I had to (or got to?) start working from home every single day from Monday, March 16, 2020 until [insert date here]. My office was down in the drafty, dirty, messy, disrepaired basement. And now that Zoom calls were all the rage, my colleagues got to see the inside of my basement. I tried to keep the damage out of sight, but I wasn't always successful.</p>
<p>One day on a Zoom call, a colleague asked about my basement, and made the comment "Didn't insurance cover that?"</p>
<p>Insurance?! Why didn't I think of that?! I have insurance! Of course, this will mean having people into the house. I wonder, given the time that's passed (about a year) if I'm beyond the window of being able to make a claim?</p>
<h4>New Basement Damange</h4>
<p>Well, I didn't have to worry about that last part because one morning in April I came downstairs to hear a drip drip drip. "Oh no. Not again!" Thankfully I still had my plastic sheets and buckets around from the last basement issue, so the carpet wasn't getting wet. I looked around to see where this water drip was coming from. Remember the furnace exhaust pipe, and the hole in the ceiling to the valve to the pipe going to the back of the house for the hose? That water pipe to the house is about a foot and a half over from the furnace exhaust pipe — right where a lot of the water damage was. Well, that pipe had sprung a leak. Just a leak. It hadn't burst. There was no flooding. just some drips. But listening to that all day was annoying.</p>
<p>I called for a plumber. They weren't able to send one for a few days. So I did what I could to slow, or stop the dripping. When I didn't need running water, I turned the water to the house off. This would slow the drip significantly.</p>
<p>When the plumber got there (This is service person #1. Long story, but two other plumbers came out for another issue. I'll count them here. We're up to 3 service people.) He cut out a bit of the copper pipe and replaced it with a plastic alternative. Problem solved.</p>
<p>(As an aside I learned something very valuable in this process of constantly opening and closing the main water valve that I'll pass along to anyone here who needs to read this. It's normal for bits of debris to get into your water lines. If this debris makes its way to a faucet with a filter, then it gets stuck there and the waterflow of that faucet will be severly hampered. This was happening with my upstairs bathroom sink. To fix this: shut off the water to your house, turn on all taps in the house to drain the pipes. Once all water stops flowing, close all taps in the house <em>except</em> the laundry room sink faucets. These faucets aren't filtered, and they're typically the lowest faucets in the house. Turn on the water. As the water rushes in and fills the pipes, this will cause the debris to go to the lowest point in the house and get flushed out your laundry room sink. That knowledge alone is going to save me hundreds of dollars in plumber calls.)</p>
<p>In July I decided to stop procrastinating and get the house back into a sellable condition. I had gone through a whole year, a whole winter of constant basement monitoring. No new floods from last year's issue. I was now confident that part was fixed.</p>
<p>Now for the fun part: I called my insurance company. I've never had to make a claim before. I didn't know what was ahead.</p>
<h4>The Repair Saga Begins</h4>
<p>I told them the whole story; the exhaust pipe, the siding project, and the leaky pipe. They told me that typically you have to make a claim within a year of the damage. So it was too late for the exhaust pipe issues, and the wall, but I'm still good for the leaky pipe. This works out. They both caused the same amount of damage. As for the wall, since that was from a different incident (same time, different cause, different area) it would be a separate claim. So I made two claims: one for the wall and one for the ceiling. And, yes, that meant paying the deductible twice - and the deductible for water damage is high.</p>
<p>They sent out a contractor (non-appliance service person #4) to take a look and give me an estimate. When the contractor came out he took a look and said "Yeah, we'll have to fix up the ceiling. But the wall? That'll be easy to fix. That'll be well below your deductible, so it won't be worth making a claim." And he was right. So I closed that claim. But there was still the ceiling.</p>
<p>We talked about options. My basement celing is drywall with this swirl pattern that was somewhat popular in the 70s. That makes it harder to fix than flat, or popcorn drywall because the pattern and finish have to match. So one option is to tear out the drywall and replace as it was. Another is to tear out the drywall and replace with flat drywall: no swirls. A third option is to install a suspended ceiling. I like this option if it can be done. Basement ceilings have a lot going on behind them. There are pipes and electric boxes, wires, and who knows what else. You want to be able to access that. And, by code, you have to be able to access to electrical boxes and valves. But with a suspended ceiling, you can just take out tiles. I have that in my laundry room. It's great!</p>
<p>Another advantage of suspended ceilings is that if one gets damaged, it's <em>waaaaaaay</em> easier and cheaper to repair than drywall! (I even helped friends install their suspended ceiling, so I kind know how to do it myself.) If my exhaust pipe issues had happened with a suspended ceiling, when I first saw that discolourization, instead of wondering about it and ignoring it hoping it was nothing, I would have just popped out the tile, and took a look. Finding the break in the pipe would have been easier. And I wouldn't be writing this post!</p>
<p>Anyway, I made the inital call to the insurance company on <datetime date="2020-07-23">July 23<sup>rd</sup></datetime>, 2020, and here we are, <datetime date="2021-01-20">January 20<sup>th</sup> 2021</datetime>. There's been a lot of back-and-forth with the contractor; a few esitmates, and revised esitmates. They took samples of the wall and ceiling to test for asbestos (non-appliance service person #5). Thankfully the asbestos tests came back negative. Today I sent one final question to the contractor ending with something to the effect of "...if this last peice falls into place, then just let me know when you can start!"</p>
<p>For context, all of Ontario has moved from a Lockdown to a stay-at-home order until <datetime date="2021-02-11">February 11<sup>th</sup></datetime>. Since I've lived with a damaged ceiling and wall for nearly 2 years, I'd hardly think of this as essential work. I can live without it for a few more weeks. Even if it has to wait til April (when I predict Covid-19 case counts will start dropping due to vaccinations and warmer weather and people spending more time outdoors), then that's fine with me.</p>
<p>After a week, I finally heard back from the contractor saying that the last peice isn't falling into place. The last peice being the cost of replacement. If I go with a full replacement (drywall with swirls), then all costs are covered by insurance (minus the deductible). But, if I do anything else (such as suspended ceiling), if it's more expensive than a full replacement, then I pay the difference. During the inital estimates, the suspended ceiling was about $600 less than the full replacement. In revised estimates, it's more expensive by about $150.</p>
<p>Thinking the suspended ceiling (what I want) was going to be significantly cheaper than a full replacement, I was ready to just go with that option. Even if it turns out to be more expensive than the estimate, as long as it's less than $600 more than the estimate, it's still covered by insurance. Now that it's more than the estimate, then if it turns out to be even more expensive than the estimate, then that difference comes out of my pocket.</p>
<p>So, it's a question of one risk over another. If I go full repair, the risk is in further damage causing another insurance claim. After a certain point, insurance may no longer cover me, or it may get more expensive. So that is a risk for the future. This could come back to bite me in 4 or 5 years. Wheras taking the suspended ceiling option reduces risk from the future, it places risk today that installation could be more expensive than the estimate.</p>
<p>So, I'm not sure what to do here. I am leaning towards the suspended ceiling option: Take the risk right now.</p>
<p>I'll keep updating this post as things progress.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-40693382839279014712021-01-27T09:11:00.010-05:002021-12-01T21:28:09.625-05:00My avoision of Covid-19<p>Towards the end of the year 2019, a new virus appeared in China, called SARS-CoV-2 which causes a disease called Covid-19. This caused a world wide pandemic in 2020 through at least 2021.</p>
<p>Covid-19 came to Ottawa in early March, 2020, and really started to take off in mid-March. On Sunday, March 15<sup>th</sup> I was told by my team lead at work that unless one was required to physically be onsite to do their jobs, they shouldn't come in. And only those deemed essential should log into the network the next day. And I was deemed essential.</p>
<p>So, on <datetime date="2020-03-16">Monday, March 16<sup>th</sup>, 2020</datetime> I began working from home. (As of this writing, <datetime date="2021-01-20">Wednesday, January 20<sup>th</sup>, 2021</datetime> I have not seen my office since then.) To me, that's the start of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Now, I <em>hate</em> being sick. No matter what. I can tolerate colds, but that's about it. Everything else is just <em>the worst</em>. And Covid is all of that! It's respiratory! It's gastrointestinal! <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/autopsies-reveal-the-terrible-damage-coronavirus-can-inflict-on-your-brain">It's neurological</a>! It's vascular! The list of potential symptoms and effects sounds like a drug commercial. It's deadly in some cases!</p>
<p>I think that the scariest part of Covid-19 is the wide variety of symptoms. Two people get it, one gets a little tired. The other ends up on a ventilator. Another two people get it. One has no symptoms whatsoever. The other has a stroke. "Most" people recover in two weeks (which is really long, when you think about it. The Flu is typically 1 week and is only respiratory. Gastro is usually 24 hours.), but as many as 1 in 3 take longer to recover. Then there's the long-haulers: those for whom symptoms can last for months, or as far as we know, never go away. But since these people don't <em>die</em> of it, they don't show up in the death statistics, and people don't pay attention to them. So it makes look not as bad as it is.</p>
<p>If everyone reacted the same way to the virus, then we'd all have similar-ish levels of caution towards the virus. If it had a 30% fatality rate, we'd all be scared of it. But because of the wide range of symptoms and severity some people say "It's no big deal!" Others are like "We have to shut everything down!"</p>
<p>As for me, ultimately it comes down to: I'm a huge introvert who <em>hates</em> more than anything else being sick. So, yeah. Stay home? Not a problem? Avoid other people? My pleasure.</p>
<p>When this first started, they were telling us to not wear masks "because it can provide a false sense of security, and will cause you to touch your face more". They also thought you could get it from surfaces. Everyone was being really cautious.</p>
<p>As I started thinking through the implications of everyone <q cite="https://youtu.be/3ONjkkv2tXg?t=19">stay[ing] the blazes home</q>. Short term wouldn't be a problem. But what if something broke down, and you needed a service person in the house?</p>
<p> Since I bought the house in 2014 I've had into the house: 2 plumbers, the air conditioning guy with his assistant and electrician in to install the unit (as well as three companies to give bids), and an annual furnace maintenance person. Plus some guys sent by the condo to deal with the siding, which, yes, required some inside work (as explained in <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-basement-issues-part-1.html">My Basement Issues - Part 1</a>). That's 17 that I count. Or, 3.4 per year.</p>
<p>"Okay, this shouldn't be a problem then."</p>
<p>Well, <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-basement-issues-part-2.html">My Basement Issues - Part 2</a> has caused 5 (and counting) service people, and <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/appliance-troubles.html">Appliance Troubles</a> has caused 6 more, totalling: 11 - and counting.</p>
<p>But so far, I've kept healthy.</p>
<hr>
<h3>And Now For Something Completely Different</h3>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/wpEaFmK3lrY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen title="Video of Kent Brockman discussing the words 'evasion' and 'avoision'"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-33550534758818066062021-01-20T22:54:00.006-05:002021-02-06T12:43:30.207-05:00My Basement Issues - Part 1<h4>Background</h4>
<p>I live in a townhouse condo. (ie: I, along with the mortgage company, own the inside and the condo corporation owns the outside.) A few years ago the condo corp determined that the siding on the condos was getting old and needed replacement. So we had this big siding project.</p>
<p>The siding project took <em>forever</em> and could be a series of blog posts on its own. But that's not this story. There were lots of problems with the siding project. A one year project turned into two. When they started the project they found a lot of rot underneath the old siding. And a number of units had rotting rim joists behind the back steps. This required workers to come in, put support stands in the basement to keep the house from falling apart when the old rim joist was replaced/repaired.</p>
<p>Sure enough, my house had a rotting rim joist. I have a finished basement with drywall ceiling (why?! Why would you ever put drywall ceiling in a basement?!). They didn't have to tear out the drywall, thankfully. But they did put up their supports in my basement to do the joist work. They also found a lot of rot on the wall of one of my bedrooms which caused them to have to rebuild the whole wall. (Turns out there was a lot of problems with that wall too, but that's another story.) So, they ended up doing a lot of work on my unit.</p>
<h4>Something's Amiss in the Ceiling</h4>
<p>During the siding project One day I went down to the basement and noticed a slight discolouration on the basement ceiling. "Has that always been there and I've just never noticed?" I wondered. There are a few places in my house where the ceiling has discolourations, largely due to bad paint jobs. They're not moist. They're hard. They've always been there. They haven't changed in years. Was this just one of those? Was this a left over mark from when they had to support my house with the rim joist work?</p>
<p>I came down again a few days later, and it had grown.....I think?</p>
<p>Not too far from that spot is a hole in the drywall where there's a valve for a water pipe for the backyard hose. One day I was sitting at my desk in the basement and I heard a rapid "tck tck tck pshhh". Water was dripping out of that hole onto a cardboard box.</p>
<p>Ohh crud. "Where is that water coming from!?" My strategy of ignoring the situation and hoping it would go away wasn't working very well.</p>
<p>I called a friend to come over and to take a look to see if he could figure out what's going on. It was the middle of the winter. He happened to notice that when my furnace came on, nothing was coming out of the exhaust pipe in the back of the house. The exhaust pipe looks like an elongated S. It comes out of the back of the house, turns up 90 degrees for about a foot and a half, then 90 degrees again away from the house. Except this time instead of turning up after coming out of the house, it turned down.</p>
<p>Back to the basement. A line of drywall, starting from that initial spot to the backwall was now soft. There are parts I could just put my hand through. I tore a lot of that drywall out. Behind that drywall was the furnace exhaust pipe. It was wet. "What's going on?"</p>
<p>I had a protection plan for my furnace where I paid every month so that certain repairs and an annual service are covered. I called the company. They sent someone out. He arrived at 10:00pm on a Monday night. He took a look. He poked his head up into the ceiling.</p>
<p>"Ahhhh, I see what's going on. Somehow the exhaust pipe broke just this side of the furnace room. Now, when the furnace comes on, it's blowing exhaust into the ceiling area, which is warming up the exhaust pipe — which is bringing in cold air from the outside. So the pipe is getting cold, and that's causing condensation around the pipe, which is dripping onto your ceiling.</p>
<p>"Now here's the thing. It's blowing exhaust fumes into your basement. I'm getting really low carbon monoxide readings, but you want lower. So we either have to fix this up tonight, or I have to shut this furnace down until you get it fixed."</p>
<p>It was about -20 out and getting colder. So I said we should do it tonight. (And by "we" I mean "he".)</p>
<p>It took two or three hours. He had to cut out more drywall to get to where the break happened. He fixed it. He told me "This isn't really covered under your plan, but it looks like you've got a big, expensive job ahead of you....so I'm just going to say I did work that was covered."</p>
<p>"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!"</p>
<p>I did whatever clean up I can. I got some mold killer. I sanded down areas with obvious water damage. Then I continued to procrastinate doing something about this. This is way beyond my skills as a home owner.</p>
<h4>A Puddle on the Floor</h4>
<p>Then one morning I came down to the basement and the floor underneath the pipe was wet! "What is going on?!" I checked the exhaust pipe. It was working as expected. It wasn't wet. None of the left-over drywall ceiling was moist. I had a plastic cover on the floor, and it was wet underneath that.</p>
<p>I called the condo corp to ask for them to send somebody out. I really had to wonder if these issues are caused by the siding project. (There had been a number of issues which lead me to wonder, a few of which I'll get to in a minute.)</p>
<p>They sent someone out. They took a look around. The broken exhaust pipe was likely a coincidence since it broke pretty far from the outer wall. But this puddle.....</p>
<p>What was happening was that in the course of a few cold spells and thaws, ice had built up right by the rim joist. Somehow the insulation that should have been there had been brought out away from the rim joist, which allowed that area to get cold. Moisture got in, froze, then thawed. When it thawed, in dripped down the foundation wall behind the drywall, and came out onto the floor below.</p>
<p>The eavestroughs (part of the siding project) had been hung horizontally. Eavestroughs should be hung at an angle so that water flows down towards a downspout and out away from the house. But these were horizontal. This caused melting ice to collect, overflow, and drip down the side of the house. This dripping was happening <em>right above</em> the furnace exhaust pipe. The furnace exhaust pipe was shoddily sealed with tape. When they guy from the condo corp looked at it, he said "I can see right through that. And if I can see through it, water can get in."</p>
<p>To recap: we had the perfect storm: Water was overflowing from horizontal eavestroughs and dripping down right where there was an opening into the house, right at a point where there was no insulation to keep that area warm. At least two of these problems was the fault of the siding company. (The insulation part wasn't their fault.)</p>
<p>I was told that neither the condo corp, nor siding company was responsible for damaged finished basements. "We don't fix basements." I thought that was ridiculous. If a roofing company negligently threw old shingles off of a roof onto a parking lot and damaged cars, it wouldn't matter that they're not a car-fixing company. Their actions would have caused the damage, and they'd be found negligent. Same thing here. If the eavestroughs had been hung properly, that water wouldn't have dripped down the side of the house right at the point where there was an opening. If the exhaust pipe had been sealed up properly, then water wouldn't have been able to get into the house from outside.</p>
<p>I told my story to a lawyer friend and he just kinda said something to the effect of "Yeah, that sort of thing is really hard to fight." It sounded like I'd spend more in legal fees than it would cost to fix.</p>
<p>So I spent the next few months procrastinating doing anything to fix this situation. I had a huge, ugly hole in my basement ceiling, and a big section of drywall beisde the hole with some insulation held in by a clear, plastic sheet. This caused the basement to be somewhat drafty and more uncomfortable than usual. And I didn't want to start doing repairs until I went through a season of snow and meltage to make sure the problem was fixed.</p>
<p>This story will continue in a future post: <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-basement-issues-part-2.html">My Basement - Part 2</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-17256103448502866962021-01-02T18:53:00.009-05:002021-02-06T12:48:57.389-05:00Appliance Troubles<h4>Background</h4>
<p>This is a semi-continuation of <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-avoision-of-covid-19.html">My Avoision of Covid-19</a> which explains that I hate being sick, so I want to avoid Covid-19 for that reason alone. Plus the risk of complications, being a "long-hauler", death, etc. To avoid Covid-19, one must avoid people, and that shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as I don't need any service people to enter my house.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I ended up having more service people into my house since Covid-19 than before. I ended up breaking the story down into 3 posts: <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-avoision-of-covid-19.html">My Avoison of Covid-19</a> where I give an overview and do a count of total service people entering my house; <a href="https://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-basement-issues-part-2.html">My Basement Issues - Part 2</a> where I tell the story of some water damage to my basement and how I had to have contractors in to fix that.; and this post explaining all the service people who had to enter my house due to my appliace troubles.</p>
<h4>The Appliances</h4>
<h5>The problems</h5>
<p>One day I did a load of dishes in the dishwasher, which has worked fine up until this point. When I walked past the dishwasher, I got a bit of a soaker. I looked down and water was dripping from the overhanging part of the door. When the load was done, I opened the door to see that the door seal had come loose. I tried fixing it, and got one good load out of it. When I did the next load, there was a leak on the other side of the dishwasher.</p>
<p>I had also noticed that the elements on my stove stopped working. The small elements were good, but the front elements weren't. The one on the right would never get up to 10. You coudln't boil water. The one on the left was unpredictable. If you put it at 3 to simmer, it would go to 3 and the thing would simmer. For a while. Then the thing on the stove that was simmering would turn into a violent boil. If you set the dial back to Off, then back to 3 it may simmer, or it may boil. You just never knew what that element was going to do. (I guess you could say that it was the element of surprise!)</p>
<p>Furthermore the fridge (which still worked) started getting really noisy. It had always been noisy, and I had enjoyed its white noise blocking out other unwanted noise from neighbours, or the cars outside. But it had gotten worse. It started making a high-ish pitch humming noise which made its way upstairs into my bedroom keeping me up at night. That had never been a problem before.</p>
<h5>The Solution</h5>
<p>When Black Friday arrived, I decided it was time to take advantage of sales. The pandemic was still going on, and I've been a pretty cautious person. (If everyone lived like me, we could have eliminated Covid-19, as well as probably a few other communicable diseases months ago.) So I did my shopping online. I found this frustrating. It turns out that most stores that sell major appliances leave it up to you to get rid of your old appliances. Why? Most people don't have means to do that sort of thing. Some places (ex: BestBuy and Costco) offer removal and recycling services.</p>
<p>I didn't think it was worth getting a Costco membership just for this, so I went with BestBuy. And that's when things got interesting. A few years ago my washing machine needed to be replaced. I bought a new washing machine from BestBuy. I went to a local store and bought one there. I setup delivery, installation, and removal of my old unit at that time. But this time, I did not want to to go a store anytime near Black Friday during a global pandemic. So I went online.</p>
<p>They had sale, and a deal that if you bought three items from one manufacturer, you'd get $300 off (and free delivery). It turns out that the pandemic put a real bottleneck on the supply chain. Many units had delivery dates of "At least April". I didn't want to wait that long. So I looked for appliances from the same manufacturer, with a near-ish delivery date, that would fit in the areas in my kitchen. And the fridge doors must either open to the left, or at least be reversible. (I didn't want to break the bank too.)</p>
<p>I found some stainless steel Whirlpool units. Expected delivery: <datetime date="2020-12-12">December 12<sup>th</sup></datetime>. Right measurements. The only issue: The fridge doors opened to the right. But they were reversible. Okay, sold!</p>
<h5>Delivery, Installation, Removal, and Recyclying</h5>
<p>As I checked out, I kept looking for the "Installation and removal" options. None were presented. Eventually, there was a note saying "Before delivery, you will receive a call from BestBuy to give you a delivery time window, and set up options for removal and installation." Oh okay. I just have to wait til I get that call.</p>
<p>When <datetime date="2020-12-12">December 12<sup>th</sup></datetime> came, I remembered I still didn't get that call. So I called them to set it up. It turns out they needed at least 24 hours to do that. So I asked if my delivery could be delayed until later that week. "No problem! We can deliver Tuesday!"</p>
<p>"Okay, good. I don't need them right now. It's totally worth it if I can have my old appliances removed."</p>
<p>"Yes, of course, sir. Just give me a minute to set everything up."</p>
<p>After he set everything up I confirmed the new day (<datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime>), and that since that was 4 days out, that installation and removal services could be added.</p>
<p>"Oh no, sir. It's too late. It needs to be added earlier than 24 hours before delivery."</p>
<p>"Yeah, but it's <datetime date="2020-12-12">Saturday</datetime> today. <datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime> is 4 days away."</p>
<p>"Yes, but they're already at the warehouse ready for delivery."</p>
<p>"But the only reason I delayed was so I could add those services! What am I supposed to do with my appliances?"</p>
<p>"Well, that's what those 4 days are for. You can arrange something."</p>
<p>Okay, whatever. I'll Google something.</p>
<p>Turns out there are people on Kijiji who will take working appliances and give them to low-income families. But I have come to not trust Kijiji people. They're unreliable. They say they're coming and they never do. I'd rather just have the service.</p>
<p>It was still <datetime date="2020-12-12">Saturday</datetime>. I got a call from the delivery people saying "We're 5 minutes away." And I told them the story. The guy says "Okay, the way it's written here is unclear if you've got removal services or not. I'll call email BestBuy and see what's going on. I'll let you know when I know." (Spoiler alert: he never called me back.)</p>
<p>So after a while I called BestBuy and got someone else. I explained the story, and he said "Oh we can totally add removal services if you want!" Okay, so I did that for the fridge and oven. (I had already gotten rid of my dishwasher. I took it out to the curb on garbage night and in the morning, it was gone.) "Okay, I'll make a note of that, and your credit card for the original purchase will be charged. Also, you won't get your appliances today. Let's set up another day. How's <datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime>?"</p>
<p>"Oh good, thank you. <datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime> works."</p>
<p><datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime> came, but the appliances didn't. I called BestBuy, and it turns out that they couldn't deliver <datetime date="2020-12-15">Tuesday</datetime>, so they moved it to <datetime date="2020-12-17">Thursday, December 17</datetime>.</p>
<p>Okay, <datetime date="2020-12-17">Thursday</datetime>.</p>
<p>On <datetime date="2020-12-16">Wednesday</datetime> I got a text giving me a delivery window which was to from 2:24 to 5:24. On <datetime date="2020-12-17T16:51">Thursday</datetime>, at about 4:51 I got a call from BestBuy asking permission to charge my credit card for removal of 2 items. I said "Go ahead. But my delivery window is almost closed, and I haven't heard from the delivery people."</p>
<p>5 minutes later, the delivery team showed up. But they had no record of removal on their worksheet. So, they offered to move the appliances to another room, or out to the curb where "it won't last the night. Some scavenger will come and take it for scrap.". So I asked them to move the fridge to the curb, and I'd get the guy on Kijiji to come and take it to a low-income family.</p>
<p>"Also, there's a problem with the oven. One of the knobs broke off. It came like that. It's damaged. If you want, just refuse delivery, and I'll make a note, and you'll get another one later."</p>
<p>"Okay, yes, I refuse delivery."</p>
<p>"Okay, I'll leave you with your old oven so you at least have that. And I'll take the old fridge to the curb. And I'll wheel the dishwasher and fridge into their spots." (There were 2 delivery people.) Since they didn't, and wouldn't, take the fridge I called BestBuy to get half the removal and recycling fee refunded. I was told the charges would be reversed on my credit card soon.</p>
<p>(Incidentally, the fridge didn't get taken in the night, and the Kijiji guy waited til the next day afternoon to get it. Shortly after he took it, the condo property management company called me because someone complained.)</p>
<h5>Fridge Door Reversal - Part 1</h5>
<p>Before putting all my food into my fridge, I decided to do the door reversal myself. I quickly ran into problems. At the bottom of the fridge there's a doorstop that must be moved. This doorstop is a metal plate with 2 screw holes. On the front metal piece of the fridge there are two screw holes on each side, and behind them is a little casing with the fridge wheels that also have metal holes. You have to get all three sets of holes aligned to screw the doorstop on. I couldn't get them aligned. I had tilted the fridge back and it was resting on a box so all the weight was off the wheels. It was no good. I still couldn't do it. So I put the doors back on the original way for now. I needed to get the food in the fridge soon, and I needed to eat something, and go grocery shopping before the store closed.</p>
<p>Later on I decided to try it again, but first I'd have to take the rubber stoppers out of the top of the fridge. The rubber stoppers sit on the side of the fridge opposite to the side of the door hinge. You have to take them out, so you can screw the hinge in when you switch sides (and presumably put the stoppers in the other side where the screws used to be.) I tried taking them out. I tried screw drivers, a plastic putty knife, a metal putty knife, thin blades just to get them up a little so I could pull get them out with another tool. I could get them to budge at all. All I was doing was ruining the finish.</p>
<h5>Dishwasher Installation - Part 1</h5>
<p>Okay, defeated by the door, I decided to install the dishwasher. Uninstalling the old was was easy enough. Installing the new one should just be like that, but in reverse. Nope. It turns out you need a special dishwasher installation kit that doesn't come with the dishwasher. Why not?! They know I'm going to need one! (Ugh. If Apple ever gets into major appliances, Whirlpool better watch out.)</p>
<h5>Oven Delivery and Fridge Door Reversal - Part 2</h5>
<p>Okay, <datetime date="2020-12-29">December 29<sup>th</sup></datetime>. Back on the phone with BestBuy to get my new oven. They gave me a date of <datetime date="2021-01-02">Saturday, January 2<sup>nd</sup></datetime>. "Okay, that's fine." I ask about the cost of dishwasher installation, and fridge door reversal. I decide that it's probably worth it. I also mention that I had paid for 2 appliances to be removed, but only one was. I tell them I had called to get the second fee refunded. I'm told "You will see the charge reversed on your credit card in 7 to 10 business days. Due to holidays and weekends, we're at day 6. So wait a few days." At this time, I asked for dishwasher installation service.</p>
<p>"Okay, the dishwasher installation will have to happen a week later, on <datetime date="2020-01-08">Friday, January 8<sup>th</sup></datetime>. We'll try to get the door reversal done when the oven gets delivered, but no guarantees. It may be a separate thing."</p>
<p>So on <datetime date="2021-01-02">Saturday, January 2<sup>nd</sup></datetime> (as I write this) the delivery people show up (well past the end of the window, without having called me.) (Now we're up to 4 service people.) They take away my old stove, and bring the new one in. I ask them if they have "door reversal on their worksheet." Indeed they do. So I quickly empty the fridge. I figure for them it'll be a 15 minute job.</p>
<p>It took over an hour. And they had the same problems I did. They wound up breaking the rubber stoppers and having to just drill new holes. They had to turn the fridge on its back. The guy was like "I don't believe this! The holes don't line up!"</p>
<p>Eventually, with a lot of grunting (and probably some French swearing) they got it done. The guy appologized and took some pictures and said "I'm going to put this in my notes. This shouldn't have been that hard. You should get a discount or something."</p>
<p>I really don't want to get on the phone with BestBuy again. But I have a feeling the fridge door won't completely close on its own to make the seal. I imagine I'll be making a warranty claim.</p>
<p>Let's see how the dishwasher installation goes!</p>
<p><strong>Update: </strong>The dishwasher guy called on the day he was supposed to show up on <datetime date="2021-01-08">Friday, January 8<sup>th</sup></datetime> to ask if he could delay until <datetime date="2021-01-09">Saturday, January 9<sup>th</sup></datetime>. That was fine. So, he shows up on the <datetime date="2021-01-09">9<sup>th</sup></datetime> and asks where the dishwasher will plug in. I show him. It's in the basement. (There's a hole in the floor behind where the dishwasher is.) The guy looks at it and says "Oooohhhh. The cable won't go that far. Do you still have the cable from the last one?"</p>
<p>"No because I'm an idiot and I assumed that an electrical appliance would come with its own cable."</p>
<p>"Yeah it's just dishwashers."</p>
<p>"If Apple ever gets into the home appliance game, Whirlpool is done."</p>
<p>"Okay, anyway if you order a cable from Home Depot, then text me and we'll set up another appointment. It'll take 20 minutes tops."</p>
<p>He left and I went to <a href="https://www.homedepot.ca">HomeDepot.ca</a> and found a good 10 meter cable and ordered it. I picked it up (curbside pickup) the next day. Then I texted him and told him I got a long cable. (We're up to 5 service people for appliances.)</p>
<p>No reply.</p>
<p>Maybe just telling hime I got a longer cable wasn't enough. Maybe I needed to actually <em>ask</em> for an appointment. I texted back.</p>
<p>No reply.</p>
<p>Now, as of <datetime date="2021-01-14">January 14<sup>th</sup></datetime> to at least <datetime date="2021-02-11">February 11<sup>th</sup></datetime> Ontario has moved from lockdown to stay-at-home. So, he may not be able to even come for another 4 weeks. Not that I can know until he gets back to me.</p>
<p><strong>Update: </strong> The dishwasher guy came and installed the dishwasher on <datetime date="2021-01-18">Monday, January 18<sup>th</sup></datetime>. (Same guy as before, but who knows who he's been in contact with in the last week, so I'm counting him again. 6 service people for the appliances.)</p>
<p>But my removal fee has not been refunded. So I called BestBuy (<datetime date="2021-01-20">Wednesday, January 20<sup>th</sup></datetime>. I'm told "You case has gone to the head office on <datetime date="2021-01-15">January 15<sup>th</sup></datetime>, and you should get an email about it by <datetime date="2021-01-22">Friday</datetime> evening."</p>
<p>Yeah. Right. Okay. Whatever you say.</p>
<p>I also tell him the story of the door reversal, and how the delivery guys had such a hard time doing that and took pictures and said they'd send them in. I asked if there was anything in the file about that.</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p><strong>Final Update (hopefully): </strong> I did get the email from head office on <datetime date="2021-01-22">Friday</datetime> that said the refund should show up on my credit card in 3 to 5 business days. It did show up on <datetime date="2021-01-25">Monday, the <sup>th</sup> of January</datetime>. So now, this chapter is complete. The appliacens have arrived, been installed, paid for, registered, and reviewed on <a href="https://www.bestbuy.ca">BestBuy.ca</a>. And the whole process only took 2 months, and caused 6 service people to come into my house during a global pandemic.</p>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-32381798491601568922019-12-10T15:21:00.000-05:002019-12-10T15:40:12.019-05:00Open Office Environments<p>Today there's a real move in the office world to move to open-concept offices: offices with either very low walls, or no walls at all. I think the idea is that it fosters collaboration. There's the often-cited example of how the idea for the iPhone (or something equally revolutionary) coming out of a chance encounter in the hallway.</p><p>But there is so much wrong with this that seems obvious to me (but apparently not to decision makers). For example, using the iPhone-hallway-conversation story, the <i>idea</i> likely came <i>before</i> the hallway conversation; it was simply first <i>expressed</i> then. Who knows under what circumstances the actual idea happened under? (I'd wager it was when someone was taking a shower.) Then, that's just the idea. The implementation would take hundreds of hours of engineering, which would require a lot of concentration.<p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">“ok, this coding interview is just for us to see how you normally approach problem solving”<br />
<br />
* drives home, steps into shower *<br />
<br />
“….sir?”</div>— I Am Devloper (@iamdevloper) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/735859959372472321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<p>Sure. Ideas can take place in the hallway. But don't bring the hallway to my office. I can't concentrate with you collaborating all around me.</p><p>To me, this is obvious. I don't work as well with constant distractions. Neither do you.</p><p><img alt="Dilbert's boss announces the move to an open office environment. Dilbert sarcastically agrees it's a good idea and asks for some dripping water and crying babies. The boss calls him stupid. Dilbert counters that maybe he'll be smarter with more distractions." src="https://assets.amuniversal.com/e54f34106237012ee3c300163e41dd5b" style="width:99%"/></p><p>For a lot of people I talk to, this is far from obvious. Whenever I hear someone say "I think I'd work better in an open-office plan" I want to alert HR. If someone thinks they work better with distractions, they probably cheated to get into the organization because they probably aren't smart enough to have earned it.</p><p>But, like the person who thinks they do their best work under pressure (who is probably confusing the feelings of accomplishment and "phewf" after completion, rather than evaluating hurried work against a control situation without the pressure), there are a lot of people who seem to think they work better with distractions. People are notoriously bad at knowing these sorts of things. Luckily we have science to tell us what really happens in an open-office plan.</p><p>Hearing someone say "I think I'd work better in that kind of environment" is like hearing someone say "I think I'd enjoy a diet of Pepsi and Doritos.". Yeah, it would be nice in the moment, but over time the effects would be horrible. How do we know? Not feelings; Science!</p><p>It seems I can't go two months without seeing another article repeating the same obviousness: open-plan offices are bad for productivity. I want to keep this blog post as a place to collect them. I'll add them as I find them. Feel free to add any other articles, supporting or not, in the comments.</p><p>Before I get to the list of articles, I'll post this above. In fact, this one article sums up everything in the list. There are lots of links to specific articles and studies in this one article. It's kinda all right here:<a href="https://www.workfront.com/blog/what-science-says-about-open-offices">What Science Says About Open Offices</a>. <abbr title="From the article">FTA</abbr>:</p><blockquote>To start, a review of over 300 papers from 67 journals found that open office layouts “were found to be highly significant in affecting occupant productivity.” It added that “sound and acoustic strategies should be given high priority in office design to achieve a high degree of occupant productivity.” In a similar vein, another review of more than 100 studies on open offices found that the layout consistently led to lower rates of concentration and focus, and a third paper, which analyzed more than 50 surveys on open offices, found consistent complaints about noise and interruptions.</blockquote><p>And now for the list:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.inc.com/tanya-hall/all-that-collaboration-is-hurting-your-results-heres-why.html">Too much collaboration hurts productivity</a>.<br />
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.psypost.org/2016/08/how-open-offices-are-killing-us-44478">How open offices are killing us</a> (62% more days of absence due to illness, 85% of people in an open-office are dissatisfied with it, lack of noise and visual privacy - the fishbowl effect, emotionally damaging to introverts.)</li>
<li>In one empirical study it was found that <a href="http://calnewport.com/blog/2018/07/06/open-offices-make-you-less-open/">open office environments <i>reduce</i> face-to-face collaboration</a>. (<a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753/20170239">Link to actual study</a>.) Face-to-face interaction fell by 72%, 56% more emails were sent, and <abbr title="instant messaging">IM</abbr> usage increased by 67% probably because <q cite="http://calnewport.com/blog/2018/07/06/open-offices-make-you-less-open/">When you remove any semblance of structure to human interaction, people get overloaded and withdrawal into private, electronic cocoons.</q></li>
<li><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/07/future-of-offices-design/">What is the future of office spaces?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/22/0213238/will-hot-desking-kill-your-company?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29">Will Hot-Desking Kill Your Company?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20191115-office-noise-acceptable-levels-personality-type">Why office noise bothers some people more than others</a> (It's worse for introverts.)</li>
<li><a href="https://zenbooth.net/blogs/zenbooth-blog/open-plan-office-anxiety-the-top-8-stressors-of-the-modern-office">Open Plan Office Anxiety: The Top 8 Stressors of the Modern Office</a></li>
</ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-42376109348416571722018-11-06T12:11:00.000-05:002019-11-13T23:32:27.547-05:00Dad Jokes<p>Puns get a bad rap in our culture. Someone makes a pun and some people laugh while others groan and tell the teller of the pun to shut up.</p><p>Since people hate puns so much, it's easy to see why we call them "lonely forever-single guy jokes".</p><p><strong><em>NO!</em></strong> We call them "dad jokes".</p><p>Why do we associate this particular brand of humour with men who have (presumably) won the love of a woman, successfully procreated and stuck around? Does becoming a dad give you a bad sense of humour? Or do men with that sense of humour have an easier time attracting women for long term relationships? Is it correlation or causation? And if it's causation, what causes what? Is there an evolutionary explanation? Instead of Googling it, I'll offer my suggestions.</p><p>What's interesting about this question is that girls develop verbal skills earlier than boys do. Women are generally considered to be more verbal and talkative than men (whether true or not). If this is the case, shouldn't women have more word-based humour? Shouldn't we associate puns and groaners with moms instead of dads?</p><p>Note that I am not saying that non-dads can't make "dad jokes". (I'm not a father, but I am an uncle, so my brother-in-law tells me my jokes are "puncles".) It's just that we associate these jokes so strongly with dads.</p><p>First let's define some terms:</p><dl><dt>Dad joke</dt>
<dd>Genereally a bad pun - word-based joke. Example: <p>Child: "Dad, I'm hungry."</p><p>Dad: "Hello, Hungry. Nice to meet you."</p></dd>
<dt>Father</dt>
<dd>A male who has procreated</dd>
<dt>Dad</dt>
<dd>A father who has stuck around and loves his kids and his kids generally see as a fun guy. (This last part is highly debatable.)</dd> </dl><p>Second, some self disclosure: One part of fatherhood that I've almost always felt prepared for is the dad jokes. Those who know me well know this. Recently someone said to me "Andrew, with all your dad jokes, I have to wonder how many illegitimate children you have out there!" Exhibit A: see my <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/there-are-no-anchovies.html">There Are <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">No</span> Anchovies</a> blog post.</p><p>You might suggest that "dad" rhymes with "bad". To that I'd answer "Okay, but why not just call them 'bad jokes'?" Why do we associate those jokes specifically with dads?</p><p>Now let's take a look at some potential reasons dads make dad jokes:</p><dl><dt>Women love puns</dt>
<dd><p>If you've ever seen any listicles on what women like in a man all kinds of qualities come up. But one seems to be very high on the list in just about any survey: a sense of humour. (It's often said that men also want a woman with a sense of humour, but women are looking for a man that can make them laugh, and men like a woman that they can make laugh.)</p><p>Based on my personal, non-scientific observations women tend to read more fiction. They talk and text on the phone more. They appreciate - nay - are <em>moved</em> by poetry. They probably have a larger vocabulary. They're more word-oriented than men are. It makes sense that word-based humour would appeal to women.</p><p>So a man who can come up with puns on the spot would be hot stuff in a woman's eyes. She should marry him faster than he can make another pun.</p><p>It has been my experience that women find my jokes a lot more funny than most men do. Back in college I would make a pun and guys would say "Shut up, Andrew. You're just not funny." But they had to raise their voices to be heard over the laughter of the women around. The laughter of the women encouraged me to ignore the men. (Perhaps the men were just jealous?)</p></dd>
<dt>Women hate puns but assume that other women hate puns more than they do</dt>
<dd><p>Perhaps my above observations about women being word-oriented was just generalization? The idea that <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-have-something-to-say.html">women have twenty thousand words to say in a day and that men only have five thousand</a> has been debunked. Perhaps the laughter of women I mentioned above was from polite women? Perhaps women don't like puns all that much. Perhaps a woman may think "He thinks he's funny. He's not. In fact, his puns kinda drive me up the wall. But you can't have everything. I'm going to have to put up with <em>something</em> unattractive. I guess I can put up with his jokes. At least our kids will find him funny. For a while. And until then, his chances of cheating are pretty darned small. I mean, what woman <em>would</em> find him funny?"</p><p>If this hypothesis is true, then a lot of women are using this strategy.</p><p>It's also worth noting that this is the hypothesis most consistent with my observations and experience.</p></dd>
<dt>Being a dad creates that kind of humour</dt>
<dd><p>Look at the different ways moms and dads deal with their kids - especially very young kids. Dads seem to have a fun streak. They fly their kids around like an airplane. They hang their kids upside down and make their kids giggle uncontrollably. They blow on their babies' stomachs making a farting noise. Laughter ensues. Generating laughter feels great. It's addicting. They want more. So, in a positive feedback loop, dads do more of this kind of thing.</p><p>But what's a dad to do when their kid becomes too big to fly around like an airplane? When peek-a-boo looses is lustre?</p><p>They go cognitive. Dad jokes are pretty safe. Less chance of injury to the self than slap-stick. (And let's face it, you're getting too old for that kind of thing.) Teasing runs the risk of hurting your child's feelings. But puns? The only victim there is the helpless, innocent English (or other) language.</p><p>(Side note: I'm told that in Quebec dad jokes are called "<span lang="fr-CA">Joke de papa</span>". So, this isn't just an English thing.)</p><p>At first, kids find these puns funny. But then they grow up, and instead of laughter, they cause groans. (I guess you could say that when that happens the kids are all "groan up". (Exhibit B).)</p></dd>
<dt>It's an age thing</dt>
<dd><p>Earlier I mentioned that in college my male peers did not appreciate my particular brand of humour. But women did. A few years later, and I've noticed that many more men appreciate my humour. I am hanging out with older men than I did in college - both non-dads of dad age, and dads. (They're probably stealing my material. They're welcome to it.)</p><p>So, either I've gotten better, or older men appreciate my humour.</p><p>I don't think I've gotten better. In fact, I'm still using the same old material. To me, the best puns are the ones that occur to me on the spot. They don't necessarily get the laughs, but they make me feel the best, like I've beat a hard level in a video game. There's a sense of accomplishment.</p><p>It could be that I remind college-age people of their dads. The boys groan and the girls laugh as they're reminded of their own dads. Then eventually, men grow to appreciate their dads as much as the women did and start to find my puns funny.</p><p>Or it could just be that the 20 year old male brain hasn't developed enough to appreciate puns.</p><p>Either way, it seems that eventually men grow to appreciate dad-jokes. By that time they may have kids of their own, and they start making their own dad jokes.</p></dd>
<dt>The Repeated-Exposure Effect</dt>
<dd><p>Coupled with the "It's and age thing" hypothesis, it's possible that many people of a certain age make "dad" jokes, but you've mostly heard them from your dad. Same with your friends; they heard them from their dads, and yours whenever they hung out at your house. But you didn't hear them from non-dads because you didn't hang out with many non-dads (of a certain age) when you a kid.</p><dt>A "wrongly persecuted group"</dt>
<dd><p>This is not my reason, but a friend suggested that his may be the case.</p><p>As I write this, I realize I forget what that means. All I can think of is a re-wording of the Repeated-Exposure effect. Ie: lots of people make puns, but you mostly hear them from your dad, so using the Availability Heuristic, you mis-attribute them specifically to dads.</p></dd>
<dt>The Vicious Cycle Effect</dt>
<dd><p>It is often said that women are attracted to men that <em>subconsciously</em> remind them of their fathers - or at least <em>some</em> aspect of their fathers. It could be his hair, or lack thereof. It could be his nose, or the exact position or colour of his eyes. And it could most certainly be his sense of humour.</p><p>Long ago, some guy who was strong and fast enough to become head of his tribe also happened, by mere coincidence, to have a terrible sense of humour. ("How did cavemen say 'goodbye' to each other?" "I'll B.C.-in' ya!"* Nyuk nyuk nyuk.) Despite those kinds of jokes, he did manage to attract the cave-women in his group and procreate to his heart's content. While passing on his survival genes, he also passed on his joke-generating genes, likely on the Y-chromosome. (The joke-appreciating gene is likely on the X-chromosome allowing everyone to know how bad dad jokes are.) His sons also managed to survive and pass on the joke-generating genes.</p><p>Meanwhile his daughters were subconsciously attracted to other men who carried the joke-generating gene.</p><p>This continued for many years, each generation exacerbating the problem continuing on the vicious cycle until we arrive at our current situation: dads can't help but to tell bad jokes.</p><p>* (Exhibit C)</p></dd> </dl><p>So there are my hypothesis as to why we associate puns and groaners with dads.</p><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-27639930552870924302017-12-27T19:00:00.000-05:002017-12-27T19:00:09.058-05:00I'm An Artist Too (169)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8YYd7ARy6bbsYXXlvXa6sdQMplLcQVQXRh44O_ZpK7rd1Ojw2Huir3u8yR83F9dpplRSCuqmRoi2hBYPJiaQIhLaiTcnMgrffCDBw7J0NjEGJeqL4Zz5T_4lDzQamXTJu0BU/s1600/IMG_2152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8YYd7ARy6bbsYXXlvXa6sdQMplLcQVQXRh44O_ZpK7rd1Ojw2Huir3u8yR83F9dpplRSCuqmRoi2hBYPJiaQIhLaiTcnMgrffCDBw7J0NjEGJeqL4Zz5T_4lDzQamXTJu0BU/s320/IMG_2152.jpg" width="320" alt="In 2007 you connected to cool people on Facebook because you liked them. In 2017 you don't connect on Facebook so you can continue to think they're cool." title="We'll connect on MySpace"/></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-3306877886391481992016-04-06T08:00:00.000-04:002016-04-06T08:00:02.102-04:00I'm An Artist Too (168)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqZWP0Nhd2f3sEKshNUlS_2pDRP7N7-_91kCquLYeEhuRZNGnDXfugXrhSS2KIYKn1dN0mXgP-2RRIDJjakxGtgxSkFaO_irqHIjMT5G7IDaqrWJbl-1B4au7eQWlWPH4Kdz2/s1600/IMG_3310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqZWP0Nhd2f3sEKshNUlS_2pDRP7N7-_91kCquLYeEhuRZNGnDXfugXrhSS2KIYKn1dN0mXgP-2RRIDJjakxGtgxSkFaO_irqHIjMT5G7IDaqrWJbl-1B4au7eQWlWPH4Kdz2/s320/IMG_3310.JPG" width="320" alt="A customer in a diner asks for his unusual."/></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-56901193191160372972016-03-30T16:46:00.000-04:002016-03-30T16:46:00.173-04:00I'm An Artist Too (168)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp40x6T2u9CczUDipK9ie9H52I2OJC51f2IJ2rB-kIlVoBArZj0wXYyD-FQ5Dr-UvqAujoDlpTvtsOJadrsAPUOMbQvICFGEAjj_j4wmPcRg4x4bhloE5bFkuE5y9YZAt5huR/s1600/IMG_3314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="CONE!!!!" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp40x6T2u9CczUDipK9ie9H52I2OJC51f2IJ2rB-kIlVoBArZj0wXYyD-FQ5Dr-UvqAujoDlpTvtsOJadrsAPUOMbQvICFGEAjj_j4wmPcRg4x4bhloE5bFkuE5y9YZAt5huR/s320/IMG_3314.JPG" title="I'm cone insane with all these ice cream puns." width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-26940851369639607482016-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:002016-03-23T08:00:03.119-04:00I'm An Artist Too (167)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44AC0JJoM8Yex7u2uD-lY3JNgyciEa7APeQ-EMAEAFPjtdiZsSrPh0A2JhKXoOThblypcq3sQP1JNhpNtGu72qitXVQncqPOygv_z-Iv4XRSZtxdSXrkyufPB9rYwggmNPE01/s1600/IMG_3315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="SUNDAY!!!!!!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44AC0JJoM8Yex7u2uD-lY3JNgyciEa7APeQ-EMAEAFPjtdiZsSrPh0A2JhKXoOThblypcq3sQP1JNhpNtGu72qitXVQncqPOygv_z-Iv4XRSZtxdSXrkyufPB9rYwggmNPE01/s320/IMG_3315.JPG" title="I think I'd rather have Ice Cream on a Monday" /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-11634350529145022202016-03-16T08:00:00.000-04:002016-03-16T08:00:14.244-04:00I'm An Artist Too (166)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiourIwX5QV_LHMI4_Uu9yiE3zQsnfMIh6O1TahmFpGoQlkyoFMsifoW-9dPBX3ZNy0xzA5xyGD4zSCPLGJMTaspr8BeAVh5QnFBjI-qLCTqjUwP0CJIINKw3X8ggKWPwa1U4xO/s1600/IMG_3317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ice cream Sandwich" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiourIwX5QV_LHMI4_Uu9yiE3zQsnfMIh6O1TahmFpGoQlkyoFMsifoW-9dPBX3ZNy0xzA5xyGD4zSCPLGJMTaspr8BeAVh5QnFBjI-qLCTqjUwP0CJIINKw3X8ggKWPwa1U4xO/s320/IMG_3317.JPG" title="You scream, I scream, we all scream for a BLT." /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-42410107038133757232016-03-09T08:00:00.000-05:002016-03-09T08:00:05.682-05:00I'm An Artist Too (165)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMf7yYIQt_hwbcIrH0_KZjtDbuFLCawJkWw0D3f9mvxlaF3gX-hNYgmyBgbwW3X0fR09FWtejwS_2W_BLfxoQ-bqTlPw3hLMsMYEZ3cx4pcpzRFPKyA3p_lUDmMkcjarNaMw04/s1600/IMG_3316.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Ice Cream Headache" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMf7yYIQt_hwbcIrH0_KZjtDbuFLCawJkWw0D3f9mvxlaF3gX-hNYgmyBgbwW3X0fR09FWtejwS_2W_BLfxoQ-bqTlPw3hLMsMYEZ3cx4pcpzRFPKyA3p_lUDmMkcjarNaMw04/s320/IMG_3316.JPG" title="I shouldn't have eaten that ice cream so fast." /></a>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-29618917476493900882016-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:002016-03-02T08:00:04.874-05:00I'm An Artist Too (164)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFYsYyJ2sW5i8yhxNPppO1K12kKVmumrd8x6WZYLf58j3Mqg7IZ_v1v1H0skd6zbZdHKH2-S12AJT8VxUsk38iE48zdsCdgGbzwB8pMmY4VQt2sQBzXexzYJzjQWhEDevRT4l/s1600/IMG_3313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sole Shoe vs Shoe Sole" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFYsYyJ2sW5i8yhxNPppO1K12kKVmumrd8x6WZYLf58j3Mqg7IZ_v1v1H0skd6zbZdHKH2-S12AJT8VxUsk38iE48zdsCdgGbzwB8pMmY4VQt2sQBzXexzYJzjQWhEDevRT4l/s320/IMG_3313.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-26851598984062367812014-10-07T12:05:00.007-04:002020-10-22T19:29:43.399-04:00Q: Can I Please Get Some Quiet? A: Heck no!Sound follows me around. No matter where I live, no matter what I do, noise follows me. I don’t know if that’s because I’m sensitive to noise, or if a life of being followed by sound has made me sensitive to noise. I had one roommate with a sound system that had eleven large speakers. Even when the gain was low, the volume was so high! You do <i>NOT</i> need eleven speakers that size unless you’re running a theatre or stadium or something!<br />
<br />
Below is a list of places I've lived since moving away from home. The stories are very abridged. Generally I'll describe a single incident or two. Those incidents were typically ongoing in each place. It wasn't <i>one</i> night of being kept awake by a stereo or barking dog. It was a reoccurring, ongoing event.<br />
<br />
Most places looked really good when I moved in, but were torturous when I moved out. (I believe sleep deprivation is a form of torture.)<br />
<ol>
<li>The first place I lived away from home seemed good when I moved in. It was awful for many reasons when I moved out, and I should have moved out sooner. As for noise, the landlord used to wake me up with an air horn if I ever dared take an afternoon nap.</li>
<li>Then I lived in a place that wasn't too bad, noise-wise. The only thing that really sticks out for me was when one of the kids was visiting a neighbour, the father would yell across the neighbourhood instead of using the phone. My job had erratic shifts then. One day I'd work 4 hours in the morning. The next day, 8 hours in the afternoon. Then maybe back to the morning. There was no consistency. I was getting up at 3am sometimes, so I had to go to bed early. Sometimes I would be woken to the sounds of the father beckoning the son to come home.</li>
<li>The next place I lived seems like a real blessing at first. Then I got a roommate who had a sound system that consisted of eleven woofers. Even when the dial was down to 1, the volume was still high. Then when the other roommate moved out he was replaced by someone with more of an active social life, with the desire to use the house as a hosting spot. Larger gatherings at the house ensued until finally the "party of the year" happened and I spent the night sleeping on a friend's couch at their apartment. This experience turned of me off of living with people.</li>
<li>But, alas, my roommate days weren't over. I ended up living with a young couple. They were, and still are, friends. Their place was great when I moved in. I had the option of taking a room in the basement, or a room upstairs. I took the room upstairs. We all worked/went to school in the day. Then they switched to the afternoon shift at their jobs and would come home at 1:00pm playing the TV rather loudly in the next room. I couldn't sleep.
<br />But no matter. The basement bedroom was still available. I moved to the basement room to get away from the noise. But since allowing me to get sleep is a mortal sin, they took on some cat-sitting duties. They already had two cats and one of their cats would fight with the cat they were sitting. They would chase each other all across the floors above me, and down the stairs to the basement and back again. All. Night. Long. There was also the neighbour who would put her dog outside and let it bark. She would do this before she left for work at night, and when she got back in the morning. The only way to get 8 hours of sleep was to go to bed right when she left for work. Sometimes she would leave her dog out so long I'd get frustrated and let it in myself.</li>
<li>By this time my friends were saying "Oh, Andrew, you just complain too much! None of your places can be that bad! You're just too sensitive." Then I subletted for a couple of friends in a nice apartment for a summer while they went back home. It was wonderfully quiet for the first two months. I made a point of talking about how much I was finally really enjoying life because I could <i>finally</i> get some sleep; at night and afternoon naps to my heart's content! Then "the heavy weight champions" moved in upstairs. (My friends' name for them. Not mine.) The (rather large) kids would stomp around making a terrible racket until 10:59pm. It started when they moved in. They moved in at about 10:00pm with a stereo blasting.<br /><br />
That was a terrible situation which lasted for me for a month until I moved into my first one bedroom apartment. Apparently there was some domestic abuse, and drug usage going on up there. They were eventually evicted and the kids were taken away by Child Services, but not until well after my subletting situation ended and I had moved out.
<br />
When my friends moved back in, they complained about their upstairs neighbours and I would say to our friends "SEE?!?!?! It's <b><i>NOT JUST ME!!!!!</i></b><br />
At this point I started to realize that noise could really lower quality of life. As I looked for my next place to live I would ask landlords how quiet the place was. One landlord told me "Oh, it's really quiet! You won't hear a thing. Well...if someone in another unit is watching TV, you'll hear it."<br />
<b><i>WHAT??!?!!</i></b> That's not quiet! Quiet is when your neighbour has a party, and the most upsetting thing is that he didn't invite you, not that it's keeping you awake. Quiet is when your neighbour is a professional drummer and you have no idea.
</li>
<li>I found a one bedroom apartment in the building beside the place I was subletting. That made for an easy move.<br />
I had been assured that the place was really super quiet with few noise complaints.<br />Then I moved in.<br />
The apartment had walls that were so thin I could hear when my neighbours (a young couple) would fight — and when they'd make up. (It didn't help that the boyfriend's name was Andrew.)<br />But they weren't the real problem. It was the apartment two floors up and one over. They would play their music so loud it would rock the building. One night we fought all night. They'd play music. I'd call the cops. The cops would show up. I'd buzz them in. A couple of minutes later the music would stop. 15 minutes later it would start again. Rinse. Repeat until morning. One time they all just passed out, and the supers had to cut electricity to their room to get the music to stop.<br />
Oh yeah, and the apartment across the hall from mine had been converted into a metal shop. They would cut metal first thing on Saturday mornings.</li>
<li>Then I moved in with Craig. We moved into the apartment where the <quot>heavy-weight champions</quot> lived. It was on the top floor. I knew that it would be mostly quiet. I never heard the neighbours on the sides. (Actually, right next to our unit was a storage closet, so that takes care of that!) This was the good place. It was good when I moved in, and mostly good when I moved out. It's the best place I've lived since moving away from home. It had it all - cinder blocks between units, a balcony, reasonable rent, free parking, good landlords (most of the time), the best layout I've ever seen, and location. And Best. Roommate. Ever.
<br />
Every now and again Craig and I would be sitting in our living room and I'd be annoyed and say "I wish they'd turn that music down! It's really annoying me!" Craig would say "What music?" I'd tell him to listen. He'd say "Oh....<i>That</i> music! That's bothering you?"<br />
See, our apartment building was one of four buildings, each shaped like a capital L arrange in such a way to form a large rectangle from above. We were in one corner. I was hearing music coming from the building kitty-corner from us. It was then that I realized I had super hearing.<br />
There were some problems there but they were mostly fixable. The people at the end of the hall were noisy. Funny thing is: they weren't the tenants. The units were rented by a construction company and the company would put its employees there. It's really hard to evict a personal tenant. It's easier to evict a business. And if they get in trouble, those people lose their jobs. They had the most to lose, yet they were the worst!
<br />
Someone, towards the end of the year - around exam time - got two little dogs that would yap constantly if they were left alone. The yapping could be heard all over the building. She (the owner of the dogs) was eventually told to either get rid of the dogs or move out. I'm not sure which she chose because I moved to Embrun to live with the McQueens.</li>
<li>At first it was great at Chez-McQueen! It was nice to be living out in the country in a big house with a loving family. (They have since moved away and I miss them terribly!) But living in the basement was noisy. Foot-falls and dropped items above on the hardwood floors would be amplified downstairs. Hearing a pin drop was no problem! In my first semester there, it wasn't too bad. We all went to bed at night and got up in the morning. But semesters after that we all seemed to keep different schedules. Sometimes they would stay up in the room right above my bed working, talking, or having a movie night. Every time someone would lean back in the office chair, the creaking would go down through the chair to the floor and be amplified in the basement.<br /><br />
Eventually I moved upstairs to Bruce's room after he moved away for school. Then a garage band started practising across the street. Goodbye afternoon naps! Robin would often listen to music in her room or the bathroom when she was at home - and sometimes when she wasn't. Jane would have late-night Skype sessions with her boyfriend in BC when she was at home. (The time difference allowed those conversations to happen pretty darned late. I was getting up at 5:30am to catch an early bus, so I was going to bed at around 9:30pm - which was 6:30 in BC.)</li>
<li>Then I moved to where I am now. I was told the walls were cement. I found this to be false within my first week. Drywall and insulation. If it's up to code (50 STC) then it's <i>just</i> up to code. My bedroom neighbour had a dog that would yap for a half an hour every night between 11:00 and 11:30. There has been a constant stream of noisy neighbours on my living room side (with the exception of one. I miss her!).<br /><br />
The latest thing is my bedroom neighbour — who has been quiet for the past few years — has a really noisy air conditioner. When the compressor kicks in it causes a very loud omni-directional hum in my apartment that can be heard everywhere in my apartment. It sounds like a Mac truck starting up outside my apartment. And she runs it in all kinds of weather. Even when it's below 10 degrees! Open a %#%&'n window!<br /><br />
Before moving in I asked about noise complaints. I was told they hardly ever got any. I found out why. One time when my neighbour was blasting music at night in her bedroom (with a shared wall to my bedroom) I called the super. It didn't get any quieter. I slept on the couch that night. When I saw the super next, I asked what happened. He said "Well, I came up and stood outside the door and couldn't hear anything, so I left."<br /><br />So, apparently those "quiet enjoyment of living" clauses in my lease only apply if I live in the hallway. I also guess that's why they don't get many noise complaints. People quickly learn that they're wasting their time complaining!</li>
</ol>
And that's it so far. I've pretty much given up. I don't know what to do next. By the time I was at Chez-McQueens I was fed-up with noise. That's when I realized that the universe had been intricately designed to prevent me from sleeping. I am now beyond fed-up. I am at breaking point. (You've just <i>read</i> that long list. I've <i>lived</i> it.)<br />
<br />
So when I flip out over a little bit of noise, it’s not that little bit of noise. It’s years and years of mounting annoyance. That guy who sits next to me and talks on his cell phone on the otherwise quiet bus is a piece of straw testing the structural integrity of the camel’s back.<br />
<br />
And at this point I can’t help but being cynical. I have friends that live out in the middle of nowhere. I’m convinced if I moved out there, someone would buy the field across the street and set up something really noisy. Everywhere I’ve lived has looked great in the beginning, but quickly degrades. I feel like I've asked all the right questions, but I either get incomplete or erroneous information.<br />
<br />
What's the use of moving? I feel like there's nothing I can do to prevent the likes of Led Zeppelin from moving in next door. Even if I move into a quiet place, history has taught me that noise will appear. And it will be worse than the last place I've lived. It's getting progressively worse. And my tolerance is wearing thin.<br />
<br />
You're probably also thinking "Why don't you just wear ear plugs?"<br />
<br />
The only people who say that are people who have never used ear plugs. Ear plugs muffle sounds - mostly high pitched sounds. Bass and air conditioners are low. I put in ear plugs with my ear protectors I got when working around jet engines when I worked for Air Canada. All they do is cut out white noise, allowing the annoying noise to come through louder than before.<br />
<br />
Besides that, I have a weirdly shaped ear. Ear plugs constantly fall out of my ears. And it's annoying to sleep with ear plugs. In order to get my ear plug to stay in on that one side, I have to sleep on that side, with my ear lobe folded over to hold the plug inside.<br />
<br />
The following is a list of places I haven't actually lived, but have stayed and have had noise issues:<br />
<ol>
<li>When I was subletting for my friends that summer, I ended up becoming friends with the supers - a young couple. They asked me to house-sit for them (ie: be a part time superintendent of the apartment building) over the Christmas break while they went away. I agreed. I found out on Christmas night that there was a pyromaniac living in the building. He lit a fire in the hallway at about 2:00am. When the fire department came and took care of the fire, and turned off the alarm, being the temporary Super, I couldn't just go to bed. I had to deal with the firemen.</li>
<li>I went to an open house at a duplex. The neighbours on the other side came over to see <quot>how the other half lives</quot>. I asked how quiet it was. "Oh, super quiet! We don't hear a thing! Well....we hear if the neighbours are snoring. <b>AGAIN! That's NOT quiet!</b> I should have bought the place, and set up my drums in the living room. When they complained I would have said "<quot>Hey, you said this place was quiet! This shouldn't be a problem."</quot></li>
<li>While, technically I do not live at Uncle Joe's, it is a secondary home to me. I pretty much spend half the year here. Last winter, an across-the-street neighbour got a dog, which she would leave out barking for a half an hour or so at night. And the the neighbours on my bedroom side have got to be the noisiest people in the whole neighbourhood (which is infamous in Ottawa for being quiet, and liking it that way! A lot of complainers, they say.). You'd think that in the winter people have windows closed and they stay inside. Not them! There's a couple of elderly people who watch TV late into the night with the volume blasting. If my window is open (for a bit of fresh air) I can hear their TV.<br /><br />
And the younger folks in that house created a fire pit in the back yard, so as long as it's not snowing, or insanely cold, then often on weekend nights they go and have parties in the backyard while I'd be trying to sleep. Recently, the day after I came back from a long, tiring weekend trip I was so tired I just needed a rest. As I slipped into a nice afternoon nap they decided to have an outdoor party where the speakers shook the ground. There was nowhere in the house I could go without hearing and feeling it. (Even as I write this at 12:30am, they were out on their balcony yakking away until just a few minutes ago.)</li>
<li>A friend of mine has an apartment downtown. She has accepted a one year assignment out of province starting this fall. Knowing my pain she wanted me to sublet her apartment where she <quot>"never hears anything."</quot> She went away for the weekend a couple of weeks ago and offered to let me <quot>"test drive"</quot> her place. I did. I was woken up at 12:20 on Friday night to the sound of voices in the next unit. At 3:20 I gave up and went back to my own apartment to sleep. She apologized and was adamant that almost never happens. She hadn't heard those neighbours in two years. I went back the next day, and the weekend did get progressively better. But I'm still not taking that apartment for the year!</li>
<li>About a month ago (from when I wrote this) I went to an open house to a town-house condo near where I live. I was assured by the agent (who also lives in that set of condos) that the dividing walls were made of cinder blocks. <quot>"You'll never hear anything! I never do. These owners never do. You won't need to do any sound proofing. It's fine as it is</quot>." I did not pursue that particular condo but I found another one in the same area. An end unit. I got as far as the home inspection where it was revealed that there were no cinder blocks between the units; just drywall, studs, and insulation.<br />I'm getting really tired of being lied to about these things. Most people are not as sensitive to noise as I am. Just tell me the truth. Someone else will rent this apartment or buy this house. </li>
</ol>
I've noticed that people generally assume that every body else has the same level of noise sensitivity that they do. I'm really careful about being quiet because I assume my neighbours hate my noise like I hate theirs. But they assume I don't mind their music and sound of dogs barking. (I do. I hate it.) My living room neighbour thinks that pounding on the wall is the universal signal for "Hey, I really like this song. Please turn up your volume so I can more fully enjoy it." For me, it's hard to conceive that people might not mind my noise. For others, it's hard to conceive that a barking dog is like nails on a chalkboard.<br />
<br />
A friend was over at my current apartment when my living room neighbour started playing their stereo one evening. She saw my reaction. She said "That's not normal! You weren't just annoyed. Your face went red. Your lip started quivering. Your voice changed. The content of what you were saying wasn't you. You got hot, like feverish. Your shoulders got all hunched. Your breathing became shallow and quick. You looked like you were on the edge of a full-on anxiety or panic attack!"<br />
<br />
It's frustrating living in a world where people don't even believe that such a reaction <i>can</i> be caused by noise, and they blame me for "over reacting."<br />
<br />
Our money-driven world seems obsessed with cramming as many people in as small quarters as possible (think airplanes and new condos), don't do a thing beyond legal minimum requirements to reduce annoyances, then wonder why air/road/other-rage is such a problem!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-25228608425089321242013-07-10T09:24:00.000-04:002013-07-10T09:24:00.273-04:00I'm An Artist Too (163)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMD6mLnW0lBq94XHmjSuAy8rErai72nAKopJvlmCxgmn4ec_v1Z03geGGOV-ZbfK87Vz7YIHorBO-CpGY1SqnwbC186AnvCUOGUimvCe_z4HrFLXlGlPrfmyDaXkrHmMtrPJ_k/s1600/IMG_3093.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A TV director is arrested at the airport because he said he was going to shoot a pilot." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMD6mLnW0lBq94XHmjSuAy8rErai72nAKopJvlmCxgmn4ec_v1Z03geGGOV-ZbfK87Vz7YIHorBO-CpGY1SqnwbC186AnvCUOGUimvCe_z4HrFLXlGlPrfmyDaXkrHmMtrPJ_k/s1600/IMG_3093.JPG" height="240" title="And when I yelled 'Cut! Cut! Cut!' that meant something else too. Seeing my friend, Jack, getting on the plane didn't help either." width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-56466297776734556252013-07-03T09:23:00.000-04:002013-07-03T09:23:03.943-04:00I'm An Artist Too (162)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwAZ8-fCIC-Dvy6yVOFPJGNuuczRznH1_7fvu0VvLcSBZ607X1kZM1mP0HsRhAeH0ikvAfBG4LJLUMELWUATA2Am0kMB7cjelfxqxgDJY5cXBm2Yd2tBh3rZ9vrnAdaTI-XAS/s1600/IMG_3092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two cows on a date in a restaurant deciding how much to tip." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwAZ8-fCIC-Dvy6yVOFPJGNuuczRznH1_7fvu0VvLcSBZ607X1kZM1mP0HsRhAeH0ikvAfBG4LJLUMELWUATA2Am0kMB7cjelfxqxgDJY5cXBm2Yd2tBh3rZ9vrnAdaTI-XAS/s1600/IMG_3092.JPG" height="240" title="How dairy tip so little" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-7408721863763428392013-06-26T09:22:00.000-04:002013-06-26T09:22:00.569-04:00I'm An Artist Too (161)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEginkjAcf4_JBt69WOEW1EQYY6VCSPBYsSTO7TyuckEd0AsrdNK5oZb3Rf8VWBxZIEmRdUG4A3HejKbOGznoaFLWp4IfojwfTBhdvxIVP4snlAHp7lotYMt-zceaGOTrpL7S2l4/s1600/IMG_3091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Spiderman caught in a web of lies such as 'I'm not in love with Mary Jane.'" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEginkjAcf4_JBt69WOEW1EQYY6VCSPBYsSTO7TyuckEd0AsrdNK5oZb3Rf8VWBxZIEmRdUG4A3HejKbOGznoaFLWp4IfojwfTBhdvxIVP4snlAHp7lotYMt-zceaGOTrpL7S2l4/s1600/IMG_3091.JPG" title="Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Spiderman!" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-9623491890422528202013-06-19T09:21:00.000-04:002013-06-19T09:21:00.025-04:00I'm An Artist Too (160)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRxSe3KytxXMP_6xe-AOJKqS8nMWhkg-3VGuvfeVykx_wfZsfxOZf9WRa0pTpwntJ6W7jz6fQqgonsJhdZCI1eLg676tkmJzy4HELrL1z6K7lM0RiG-4mR2d0TUft7Qk2kOtS/s1600/IMG_3090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRxSe3KytxXMP_6xe-AOJKqS8nMWhkg-3VGuvfeVykx_wfZsfxOZf9WRa0pTpwntJ6W7jz6fQqgonsJhdZCI1eLg676tkmJzy4HELrL1z6K7lM0RiG-4mR2d0TUft7Qk2kOtS/s320/IMG_3090.JPG" alt="World's Colliding" title="You're killing Independent Andrew!"/></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-41020162011677357672012-11-21T09:17:00.000-05:002012-11-21T09:17:00.167-05:00I'm An Artist Too (159)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_IlKc6ZWEqNJ7m3WbBA6egkXN3MFwOeHmIA37NV6QgO8FB0CL_t9ltclYfkOjBCwqI4-uturN5mM3zU6aJOQwWpPQjVgEupMEXKDtD7Rp_X0AuIn1CzhXPD10BFkQqU3UjXX/s1600/IMG_3085.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
<img alt="A smiley-face man tells his well-drawn friend that his face is so basic because he shaved with Occam's razor." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_IlKc6ZWEqNJ7m3WbBA6egkXN3MFwOeHmIA37NV6QgO8FB0CL_t9ltclYfkOjBCwqI4-uturN5mM3zU6aJOQwWpPQjVgEupMEXKDtD7Rp_X0AuIn1CzhXPD10BFkQqU3UjXX/s1600/IMG_3085.JPG" title="I moustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later." width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-90049893594347254052012-11-14T09:22:00.000-05:002012-11-20T17:56:32.408-05:00I'm An Artist Too (158)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yVhIqYi295aY5iLRmc4w-DY_RtfMh1TKRBNaLqbpKDdr1X_AoZq_4VM4-rhuiXw-bIUu9CL36A8r4GQMXbLHsYlZDn04F4BkRi4Mszh1O_MOcv5KTSkjxJ_JgLDlf_bipptX/s1600/IMG_3088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yVhIqYi295aY5iLRmc4w-DY_RtfMh1TKRBNaLqbpKDdr1X_AoZq_4VM4-rhuiXw-bIUu9CL36A8r4GQMXbLHsYlZDn04F4BkRi4Mszh1O_MOcv5KTSkjxJ_JgLDlf_bipptX/s1600/IMG_3088.JPG" width="320" alt="A house with an airplane wing on it. The caption says I've added a wing onto my house." title="There once was a mouse-over that lived in a house..."/></a></div><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-86346575839154449942012-11-07T09:21:00.000-05:002012-11-20T17:56:32.404-05:00I'm An Artist Too (157)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZuw_ZGw2n9279d2cQ0_lNMQbvgazEumCOWvt0aQhHwS5r_F6_ymaIxpRVKx2YrMM4ULZM2LL8Bq-XCLQiRoqXZ4IXKhZeBslyQ0fBhPFfdIPfpfX0UmkQVOvWOhLvZqJPVds9/s1600/IMG_3087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mr. Falcon's superpower is that he can turn pages in a book without licking his thumb." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZuw_ZGw2n9279d2cQ0_lNMQbvgazEumCOWvt0aQhHwS5r_F6_ymaIxpRVKx2YrMM4ULZM2LL8Bq-XCLQiRoqXZ4IXKhZeBslyQ0fBhPFfdIPfpfX0UmkQVOvWOhLvZqJPVds9/s1600/IMG_3087.JPG" title="Licking your thumb prevents mouse-overs from showing up." width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27652762.post-88693979243438011152012-10-31T09:19:00.000-04:002012-11-20T17:56:32.406-05:00I'm An Artist Too (156)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFd0k1DGDvkfSJz84CAzY1ZTu0t6yTwZsTX2ZQiQxo4hgPvhjhzo6SDzC89Bd-3qsJA4fbEZ6jrXk-zhlTLWLqs1Eh9dqEds7SnNFb_KWME-MFpVqakT1D4gTx0bSQSYwYo_of/s1600/IMG_3086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A man in a bowl with a sail adrift at sea saying 'I'm getting tired of this bowl ship!'" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFd0k1DGDvkfSJz84CAzY1ZTu0t6yTwZsTX2ZQiQxo4hgPvhjhzo6SDzC89Bd-3qsJA4fbEZ6jrXk-zhlTLWLqs1Eh9dqEds7SnNFb_KWME-MFpVqakT1D4gTx0bSQSYwYo_of/s1600/IMG_3086.JPG" title="I hope I don't run into any bull sharks!" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin-top: 2em; border-top: thin solid #808080; width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Original post hosted at <a href="http://mrfalconblog.blogspot.com">mrfalcon.blogspot.com</a>.</div></div>Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04514165266439789328noreply@blogger.com0