Archive for May, 2006

Bicycle Chain Fun

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 

I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain.

- Fleetwood Mac

Last week following a 20 mile ride with Nicholas in his bike seat I noticed my chain was sporadically popping.  This didn’t seem a huge deal, and I needed a tune up as it was, so I dropped off my Kona Dew at the local bike shop for a complimetary tune upand mentioned that the chain was acting up.  When I picked it up the next day the mechanic said I had a broken spoke, but the chain was cool.
Stupid me, I didn’t seriously ride the bike until my morning commute Tuesday.  I made it to down town Auburn, up the interurban to Tukwila, caught the train and got to Seattle.  While climbing up 3rd avenue things were getting rough.  I threw the chain off the front rings numerous times whenever I’d apply serious force.  I took it easy the rest of the way and luckily I made it to the top.  As I was heading down to the water front the chain tore apart.  Either it got stretched out over time and was catching on the gear teeth, or I’m so strong that my raw power was no match that poor Shimano chain – you decide
It was fairly dramatic as a mechanical failures go.  Luckier still, I was only 2 blocks from work, and only a short walk from a bike shop.

I’m a little irritated at my local bike shop’s mechanics, but those guys have done so much good work (basically for free), that I can’t stay upset.  If I’d broken the chain while climbing home – that’d be a different story.

The upside is I’ve got a great new SRAM quick release chain (easier to clean I imagine) and my morning commute is much smoother now.

Posted in Cycling | No Comments »

Plumbing Emergency

Thursday, May 25th, 2006

For several months I’d been annoyed with our backyard faucet.  At some point a pressure regulator thingy cracked off the top, causing water to spray in all directions whenever the faucet was turned on.  I’d talked with an employee at our local home improvement super store.  Supposedly all I had to do was unthread the thing and it should pop right out.

That turned out to be only partially true…

Using a screw driver, was able to break the thing loose and proceeded to unthread it.  Eventually it came all the way unscrewed, but it wouldn’t pull out from the wall.  Frustrated, I decided to thread it back in, but the coupling was deep inside the wall, making it difficult to know what was going on.

Feeling moderately satisfied that I’d restored the status quo, I went to the garage to turn on the main water valve.  Immediately I heard gushing.  I ran into the kitchen to see that our dining room floor was covered in water oozing out from our wall.  I sprinted back to the garage and shut off the water all within 30 seconds.

At this point Lisa insisted we call a professional plumber – who was I to argue?

Within an hour the plumber shows up.  He tells me that we’ll have to cut out sheet rock to access the pipe, and if I do the cutting it’ll save $200 from the bill.  I agree, but then he insisted he’ll do it but not charge me.  Turns out the dude missed the target about 3 times, leaving a 15″x15″ hole to access 4″ of copper pipe.

Oh well, patching sheet rock is about the same regardless of size, so no big deal.  Then it go to remove the old faucet.  The end of the fixture has a large coupling that’s fixed on, which is to wide to fix through a grommet between the frame and the siding.  I suggest we cut the pipe and push it back through.  The plumber agrees, but has a sub par hack saw.  In the end, I grab my hack saw, and I do the actual cutting.  Next I line the thing up and thread it back.

I shouldn’t be too upset.  Sure the bill came to 10 times the cost of the part, but he through in some teflon tape, and I learned to offer my stud finder before a plumber randomly starts cutting into my wall.

:(

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »

Comcast phone service != VoIP

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006

This past week we switched our home’s land line phone service from Qwest to Comcast. The motivation was 90% financially driven, but supposedly there are also quality and feature improvements as well. In the past I’d read up on Vonage and other VoIP providers, learning the pros and cons of piggy backing phone service on top of internet access.

While the installation was happening, the Comcast tech explained that their digital phone service, while it physically runs through the same coaxial cable running to my house,it does not compete with my IP bandwidth. While you could argue that there’s a single point of physical failure (the cable) that controls all my home’s external communications, TV, phone and internet are logically different signals.

If we had been using Vonage, SkypeOut or another IP based phone service, none of those providers are able to assist in the event my actual ISP has an outtage. Having just a single party responsible for each area of service should make things easier as a consumer (in theory) – we’ll see.
In hindsight most of this seems sort of obvious, I just think it’s a brilliant idea that a traditional TV cable company is able to leverage the old black cable in new and profitable ways – saving almost $50 per month isn’t bad either :)

Posted in Geek | 3 Comments »

Natalie Grace born May 4th, 2006

Sunday, May 7th, 2006

…weighing just over 9lbs. and 20 inches long.

Mom, baby (and even dad) are all home now. Nicholas is a little overwhelmed by all the excitement, but appears to be very proud of his baby sister.

View the complete photo gallery

Posted in Baby, General | 4 Comments »

One day remaining

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

In roughly 24 hours from when I posted this, our new baby will arrive. I’ve mostly been scrambling around at work, getting stuff in order before my 3 week hiatus. Hopefully I won’t have a mess to return to, but part of me thinks a little chaos would be a healthy thing for some of my team mates.

That’s all merely a distraction. Becoming a dad for the second time is the real uncertainty. I feel like I’ve got the clinical stuff down, I’m not anxious about the delivery, or caring for a newborn. What I’m not as sure about is how Nicholas will react and how the whole family in general will be. I guess we’ll know soon enough.

Posted in Baby, General | 1 Comment »