Interesting — in an ad-y way — how the family is looking on, from a distance, as if their house is being built.
Month: January 2008
The Saga, Part II
Cooler weather arrived. We started using the gas pack for heating. After some time, the same thing that had been happening with the cooling began happening with the heating — it simply would not turn on.
We called TSC again. They came out, poked, prodded, tested, ruminated, and gave a verdict: the main control board of the gas pack was at fault.
“That is covered by the home warranty,” I told them, “So I’ll take care of it through the home warranty people.”
Out came company one. They poked, prodded, and tested, and determined that the gas was not properly regulated. They regulated it. The heating worked — for about two hours.
Next day, they came out again. I left a note with the information TSC had given me. “Please change the main board,” I asked. They changed a few parts, but not the main board. Gas-related parts. And the heater worked again. For about two hours.
I called them back out and they finally changed the main board. And the heater worked. For about a day.
We called the home warranty people again, asking that they send out a third company. They did — Accent Heating. The gentleman poked, prodded, tested — “I can’t find anything wrong with it. It’s working now.”
Great.
Two companies, three techs, and none of them can figure out what’s going on.
The problem was this: the zoning system was making a call to the heater, but it was not turning on. As soon as I reset the power to the heater, it would come on. However, it would eventually shut off and never turn back on. The exhaust fan (to remove the fumes from the burning gas) would turn on, but the heater would never ignite.
Finally, AC made it out when it the problem was happening. He tested, prodded, and so on, and finally was able to tell us the problem: some upper temp limit error was tripping out and causing the heater to think it was overheating, so it shut down. Every time I reset it, I was basically overriding that. The heater thought things were fine, but it would once again think it was overheating.
“What’s causing this?” I asked.
“The zoning system,” replied the AC tech.
Double great…
Out Before the Count
If Giuliani is a prize fighter and the primary season is a title bout, Giuliani just bonked his head on the way out to the ring, knocking himself unconscious to the cheers of virtually no one.
Zoo
Greenville has a zoo — a small zoo, but a zoo nonetheless. We took L for her first visit Sunday.
She most liked the giraffes, but seemed generally thrilled with everything — especially the way I was toting her about at times.
 |  |  |
As usual, L made friends with everyone.
And clearly, I wasn’t the only parent running around the zoo, trying to document everything my child does.
 |  |
Walk in the Front Yard
The other day, it was sunny and semi-warm. What else could we do but take the Girl out for a walk in the front yard?
She’s getting better at walking, but our bumpy front yard causes certain navigation problems sometimes.
The Saga, Part I
We’ve been battling our gas pack for months now. And every time someone comes out to look at it, we get a different diagnosis.
It started back in the summer, when we came home one day to find the house a cozy 90 degrees.
Delicious.
We called our home warranty company — American Home Shield — and they sent out a company called Total Comfort, which was a Total Disaster. The tech poked around a bit, then determined that it was the pre-installed zoning system. Which our warranty doesn’t cover. A quick call to the manufacturer of the system revealed that only two companies in all of Greenville deal with zoning systems. We called one of them: The Service Company (TSC in future reference).
They sent out a tech who spent an hour undoing what Total Comfort had done. Basically, the TC tech made a mess that the TSC tech had to fix. It took an hour. After another hour of testing, checking, and ruminating, the TSC tech determined that the transformer for the zoning system had blown and would need to be replaced. He also informed us that whoever installed the system did it poorly, because it should be on its own dedicated circuit. He worked up an estimate of how much it would cost to fix everything: it was well over a thousand dollars.
I contacted the previous owner to ask who had installed the zoning system, and when. “It was The Service Company, about two years ago.”
Armed with this info, I called TSC back. Sure enough, they were able to confirm that they had installed it. As such, I politely requested that they come out and fix the problem. And they did.
The air conditioner was fixed, and we thought our woes were over. But alas, all of this was only a prelude.
Development
All of L’s linguistic development is in Polish currently. But that’s an entirely different post…
L is understanding more and more spoken language every day. She brings things to us; she takes things from one person to another; she puts things back; she gives hugs — all when asked.
She also recognizes people in pictures.
“Pokaz Papa,” I say.
“Pokaz Nana,” I ask.
Dziadek, Mama, Tata, L, Babcia, Papa, Nana — each and everyone she recognizes. (Babcia is in a different picture, though.)
Earl Scruggs and Steve Martin
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself.
Odd Surfing
Nothing special — just an odd little chain of clicks…
I watched some of Searching for Bobby Fischer last night. It’s the story of Josh Waitzkin, a child chess prodigy who still plays chess. I know his several of his games well because a chess program I have include several of his self-annotated games.
In the movie, Josh’s foil is child prodigy Jonathan Poe. In real life, the boy’s name was Jeff Sarwer.
Jeff no longer plays chess. But he has a little on his web site about it, specifically the games against Waitzkin he played twenty years ago. He writes,
I found some old scoresheets of games I played in the 80’s. There are games from the World Youth Championships, New York Open, and for kicks the only two tournament games I played against Josh Waitskin. The first game I won, and in the second I blew a winning position and a draw occured [sic] that I never realized would become chess folklore. (The book and film “Searching for Bobby Fischer). In short, I was 7, he was 9, and I quickly forgot about the draw and won the world-10 championships 2 months later.You won’t find many tournament games of mine, but the truth is that I never played in too many tournaments — I was always happier playing speed chess in the park or in some random late night cafe or something
Truth is, Sarwer didn’t just stop playing chess because he realized he preferred speed chess in the park to tournaments. The truth is more tragic.
Anyway, the subtitle of Jeff’s web site is “citizen of the world” and he has a little interactive map that shows all the places he’s been/lived. “Wonder if he’s been” — oh, you know where I checked.
Turns out he’s currently living there, I think.
Show Us the Money?
Huckabee on the proposed stimulus package (via memory via NPR): We’re giving people all this money, which we’re going to get in loans from China. Then we’re going to tell Americans to go out and spend it, mostly on products produced in China. Who’s economy is getting stimulated?
Marc Acito, in an NPR commentary, developed similar ideas.
If we get said check, we’re going to invest it in new windows. The bliss of being a homeowner…
A School with Character, No Doubt
I received an email with the title,
You are nominated for a Ph.d
I think I’ll pass.
Still, it’s not as bad as Armstrong College spelling “curriculum” with two “i’s” (i.e., “cirriculum”) on their “Academics” menu when their little site went live a couple of years ago…
Showing One’s Needs
I’m starting my related arts class this quarter. I was scheduled to teach “Study Skills,” but after looking at my roster and talking to folks in guidance, I switched. I’m teaching “Self-Advocacy,” which I’m interpreting as socials skills (i.e., learn the skills to deal with problematic situations and come out positively).
And some of these students really need social skills.
Yesterday, while talking to the new students, I asked one of them her name. She mumbled something, and at the same moment, someone in the front of the class said her name as well. I really didn’t catch either one, so I asked her again.
“She already told you. Why do I gotta tell you again?” she responded, with — as the students would say — attitude.
If I were teaching anything other than social skills, I don’t know that I could have kept my cool as well as I did. I simply turned it into a teachable moment when I had a one-on-one moment with her.
But it’s that kind of response that just floors me. “What in the world are you hoping to accomplish by responding to an innocuous question like that with such disrespect?” I thought.
Another example today: I was handing out note cards. “What are these for?” one young man asked — a young man who has a reputation in the school as one who would talk back to a brick wall. I didn’t say anything immediately and he looked at the note card, looked at me, smacked his teeth, and asked again, “What are these for?!”
Again: “What in the world are you hoping to accomplish by responding that way?”
Waking Up
When L wakes up, she often will lie in bed talking to herself or playing. We often know she’s awake because we hear the thump of her empty bottle falling to the floor. I guess she sometimes feels upset by being cheated: she woke up with a bottle, but the blasted thing was empty. Other times, she’ll just suck on the empty bottle, perhaps wistfully imagining how nice it would be to have a bit of her warmed 10/90 juice/water mixture.
The point being, bottle tossed or no, L doesn’t often wake up and begin crying. Which is pleasant enough.
Mike’s Personal Beliefs
On his “Issues” page regarding marriage, Huckabee writes,
I support and have always supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man and one woman, for life. (Mike Huckabee for President – Issues)
If it’s a personal belief, why literally make a Federal issue out of it?
Eating Alone
L has begun eating by herself. Cheerios, small crumbs of bread with jam, and blueberries are her favorites — they all fit perfectly in her wonderfully chubby hands.
Earlier this month, K was giving L some yogurt one evening earlier this month when she decided to let L have a go with a spoon. Of course the paparazzi was there.
Kitchen Door
Our kitchen door is not the best quality in the world.
Las Vegas
It’s been some time since I posted any videos. That’s because it’s been a long time since I had access to the computer on which I edit them. It’s in the guest room, which is now Dziadek’s room, making the computer Dziadek’s computer.
I’m so far behind, it’s not even vaguely amusing. Still, I had some time today while the Girl slept and K and Dziadek were out, so I went through the footage I had and put together a little something from Las Vegas.
On the way: Grand Canyon, Sedona, eating with a spoon, and more…
04/19/93
I was taking a modern American history course. The professor sent us home to watch television — ostensibly to watch history.
Little did we know.
I watched the fire and assumed an evil man had ordered mass suicide.
I assumed that for almost fifteen years.
I no longer assume that.
Waco: The Rules of Engagement.
Netflix members can watch it online.
“Base to Tree Shaker”
Once upon a time there lived a man named Ned who worked as a dispatcher for a southern county’s municipal services. One day, after a rare snowfall, Ned received a call from an elderly lady eagerly waiting for the county Tree Shakers.
“Will you please send the Tree Shakers out to my home as soon as possible?” she asked.
“Um, mam, I’m not quite sure I understand you.”
“Oh, you know — my trees are filled with snow and I’m afraid the branches will start breaking. I need the Tree Shakers to come out shake all the snow out of my trees.”
“Ah, I see. Well, mam, all our Tree Shakers are out on call at the moment, but the instant one radios in that he’s done, I’ll send him straight over to your place.”
When the next one’s available, Ned, send him over here.
Snow Day!
When it looks like this at night
it’s pretty obvious you’re going to have a snow day.
“Snow day?” my Polish students once asked. “Why, we’d never have school if we had such a thing here!” they declared enviously.
Snow in South Carolina — who’d have guessed?