In this picture you are looking upward at the subfloor under the kitchen. To the left is the small hot-water heater. The new part is the part at the bottom left close to the tank with the open valve, allowing me to feed the little hot water tank from the cold supply rather than the hot. The piece in the middle running across the picture existed before, feeding the small tank from the hot on-demand supply; piece at the top is hot from the tank to the sinks and dishwasher; straight through from bottom to top of the picture on the right with the closed valve is the bypass, allowing me to feed from the on-demand, bypassing the little tank, in the event of failure of the little tank ... knock on wood.
Before I added the additional piece, the small tank was fed from the on-demand, which meant that the on-demand would turn on for a few seconds, burn some gas, heat a little bit of water which then cooled off in the lines between it and here. It was a total waste. The small tank heats up quite quickly, but of course if you let it continue to run, it will run cold water now. Before, running it continuously would eventually supply it from the on-demand, after the cold-water sandwich in the pipes moved through. There's no need to run a kitchen sink continuously.
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That was yesterday, the 7th. Jason emailed me in the a.m. that they'd decided to pack up and leave, because of the $hitty weather, i.e. it rained all day. A little while after that, I went into Loring, mailing out a bunch of Randonneurs Ontario stuff -- brevet cards and medals from prior years. That's one small project completed.
Another project, ripping DVD's that I'd created from TV, was also completed yesterday. Unfortunately in that bunch of movies there was only one kids movie -- The Cat in the Hat. I've got more kids movies in Florida and I'll rip those and add to the library when we're there.
This morning I've started with another batch of DVD's, all those upstairs. This could take a while ! and could also take a lot of space ! I've got 2 x 2 TB drives being delivered to Jeffrey.
I did get out during a break in the rain and use the new Stihl weed whacker. It's great. It has a longer reach and better balance, much easier on the back. It also runs. Bonus. I finished off the hill and widened the cleared area; fewer places for mosquitoes to hide during the heat of the day.
Speaking of heat of the day, here's the forecast for the next 10 days, including today -- 79, 79, 79, 83, 83, 82, 83, 82, 83, 81 -- with no rain. Great ! I hope that it's like that when the gang is here later in the month. That string of hot and dry days, plus the Mega Catch, should reduce the mosquito population but of course the horse flies and deer flies will still be in evidence.
Speaking of which, I'm planning on getting out for a ride today and no doubt I'll be racing the deer and horse flies.
Sandy got back a bit after 4pm yesterday, having gone down to the St. Lawrence Market on the way home, braving the Pan Am Games traffic. Well, the games haven't started yet, but the left-hand lane is dedicated to cars that have either a) three occupants; b) ticket holders; c) green cars (not colour) ... and perhaps other categories ? Explain to me how the police, patrolling, can tell that someone has tickets ... anyway, it took here about 1:20 to get downtown, which would normally be under 0:30 with light traffic (which never happens anymore in Toronto). She thought that it could have been as bad as 2:00 but of course that would be next week, when the games are actually on.
She was shopping for peameal and veal sausage, which of course isn't made from veal anymore, it's simply bratwurst, but that's what she wants to call it. She also bought some hamburg and we had a patty each for dinner, along with green beans, nuked potato (her), grilled eggplant (me).
Today she takes Abby to the vet in Parry Sound. Because she might be x-ray'd, there will be no breakfast for her today. We're really worried about her; the back-end strength and stability is one thing but she's not eating all of her food. Eventually she does, when coaxed, but there's no more drooling for breakfast and inhaling her food. She is 11 years old, but c'mon Abby, we want you around for a long time ! Vickie lived to 17.
I've got another indoor plumbing job that I have to tackle, which is cutting into the in & out from the on-demand water heater to put in a hose bib. This is for flushing with vinegar to dissolve accumulated deposits and extend its life. I've done this before from the utility room, but that's not quite as effective because there's a lot of pipe in between. Having the hose connections right at the unit will allow me to flush it with mostly pure vinegar. Had I known that this was a recommended procedure, I'd have had the plumber do it at installation. In Florida, the plumber there did it automatically and I get email reminders from them every six months to flush the unit. Since we're only there six months of the year and since we have a water softener, every year or two is good enough.
Of course I still have the effluent plumbing to do ... that will be fun. When I was in Princess Auto picking up the braided hose, I was also looking at the sewage and effluent pumps. If I truly wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, I'd have a spare for each one of these. They are expensive though; figure $500 for the pair. How long should they last ? Who knows, but of course they die without warning at inconvenient times.
I guess that's enough typing for this morning. Onward. Keep your collective fingers crossed for Abby.
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