Annoyed Thoughts: archive 1

Almost all the utilities are gas. We are upgrading because we are likely to want an electric car in the future, and we decided to replace the retaining wall, and that meant it was time to update the electric.

We’ve had no troubles at all with 100 amps.

The stove died between when the electrician shut off the power, and when he turned it on. I don’t think he wired anything wrong. I think he did something that created a temporary surge.

But the odds that the stove just randomly died the morning the electrician was playing with the power seem remote.

To be clear, i don’t think the electrician touched the wiring past the old circuit box. He was installing a new box, at the other end of the house (old electric came in next to the gas. For some obscure reason, that’s no longer code) and connecting the two boxes.

Oh, you’re not doing a 200A panel, you’re keeping the existing 100A panel and adding a second one. At any rate, he shut off power for however long, and then restored it. I know some people recommend unplugging things when there is a widespread power outage because of surge risk. I’m not sure if voltage would spike when you add a panel and turn the juice back on, IANAE. You mention the screen is shot, small electronic things like that are (afaik) less robust than, say, your toaster.

Seems like a very good chance that the electrical work caused this, but you’re probably SOL on proving that and getting them to pay for anything.

That’s why you create a throwaway e-mail address for this kinda stuff. call it mybathroomreno2022@yahoo.com or something,

When you are done with it, just never look at it again or delete it altogether.

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Yeah, I have one of those 2

I bitched to the general contractor, who is making noises about trying to fix it.

We’ll see. I suspect I’m SOL re the stove. I’m really unhappy, because i love that stove, especially the oven. It heats very evenly and food comes out great.

It’s also making me glad to have gas. At least the burners work, with the aid of a match.

Does it have a fuse? I don’t know how to check for that kind of thing on a stove but it might make for an easy self fix if that is the problem. Christmas lights have fuses and cars have fuses so I don’t know why a stove couldn’t too.

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Try to organise 11 guys for a week camping in the bush. Plus two students who need pickup at different times, an hour round trip each time. My spouse just got a 20 minutes foaming rant over supper lol.

Small example. We need my double burner camp stove. Ok. And a camp griddle. Ooook. So we need a separate burner for water? That’s pushing it. But now we need a full sized BBQ? Seriously?

But wait there’s more. Now they want to, on top of all that, bring a smoker. Because they want to do brisket. Jeez. And who is looking after the brisket all day when we are supposed to be in the bush hunting?

Don’t get me started on the wood for heating the tents.

Where do you put the ice cream machine?

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In fairness, we do bring up a heavy duty generator to run the large coffee machine. that’s a luxury nobody’s willing to do without.

I would have thought a pot, a thermometer, and some kind of drip/press would be lighter than a coffee machine and a generator.

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Yeah, coffee on a camping trip is easy. Heat the water on the stove or over the fire and use a French press. Or percolate it over the fire or stove. That might be more efficient for 11 people.

Of course I like mine iced, so I just bring cold brew and keep it in the cooler, but hot coffee while camping is pretty straightforward.

Jet boil + instant coffee when camping.

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That works too. Last year I made Starbucks iced via, but that’s getting harder to find. :grimacing: And I had to add milk, which was a more annoying process than it is at home.

This year I tried Starbucks Cold & Crafted On Tap which has a variety that is lightly sweetened with milk already added. It was perfect since I was camping for like 3 days in the middle of a 12 day road trip when it wasn’t conducive to bringing stuff from home already cold. I guess the only non-perfect thing about it was that the cardboard box got demolished. I need to find a tray that fits inside the cooler to keep stuff cool but not have it sitting in ice water. I think they used 2% milk, but close enough. At least it wasn’t cream.

When camping closer to home I just make a pitcher of cold brew at home and add sweetener & milk to the pitcher before I go.

I should correct,clarify. We being one of those large perculators you’d see at a community centre. It’s the first thing running at 5am.

My green card expires in 2 weeks along with my driver’s license. The process to renew it involves waiting until at least 90 days before expiry and then sending the people that care a bunch of crap. They are going to send me a “we received your crap” notice in 4-6 weeks that doubles as an automatic 24(?) month renewal but… my driver’s license will still expire. So much for driving for a while.

It won’t help for your driver’s license that expires in two weeks but are you eligible for citizenship? In the long run that might be easier.

One more year and I can do citizenship (must have your green card for 3 years if you’re married to an American citizen, 5 otherwise).

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Update:

Good news – the electrician came back today, and it turns out the problem was in the panel, not the stove. He fixed it. So my stove is fine.

Bad news – This makes me anxious about the expertise and care of this electrician, who is doing rather major work on my house.

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The excavators out front did nicer work than I expected, though. So that’s good news.

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