Another Major Melt Down

That is a compressor motor capacitor. Well, actually that is a thoroughly charred motor capacitor.

You kinda always know when something is not working quite as well as it should be. Saturday night when I got home it was about 78 degrees on the top floor, noticeably warmer than I usually keep it. Something was clearly not right. The longer I paid attention to it, the situation became clear that my AC was running but not doing a whole lot all night long. Great as this is all I need to have heaped on me right now.

Well, rewind three or four weeks ago, I had the same problem with the upstairs AC. Turns out the capacitor for the compressor had failed and needed to be replaced. The job of this little guy is the keep the voltage going to the motor in the compressor constant since the source is alternating current. I certainly thought that this would fix my problem for good but it did not. It seems like the compressor was in the process of becoming more inefficient and failing as it was drawing more and more voltage through this poor capacitor. This time, all of the wiring and the compressor failed with the capacitor. I think the power coming on instantaneously after the hurricane and the compressor starting was all it needed for the whole thing to be on a road to failure.

Everything is melting down.

One Thousand Two Hundred Eighty Three

Let's just start with mid June.

Since 6/14/2008 alone, I have sent 1,283 emails from my primary email account. I venture that approximately 85% of those are associated with my job search. Even if I conservatively sort them by category and use lower value of 76% to estimate the number of emails that I have sent as a part of my job search, that is still about 980 emails. Based upon business days, that means I send about 13.4 emails a day. Throw in my secondary email address and that estimate probably approaches 17 or 18 per day.

That would be 18 carefully crafted, considerate, and value added introductions to um.....me, every day. I suppose if you are working a full time job, that really is not a big number. But if you consider sending that many as a part of a job search, I think it becomes apparent how hard I have been working to examine every corner of the job market.

1,283 - that is our number for the day. This is how bad things are out there.

All Over Again

Well I can't say that I saw these turns in my career coming when I went to grad school. Things are very different now in our world and I am becoming keenly aware of how fragile life as we know it as an citizen of this country is. To be honest, the fluctuations and turmoil that we are seeing in the financial markets are something that I have seen coming for quite a while now. What I did not see coming was the possibility of me being in the middle of it all. This is Enron all over again but worse. Much worse.


What's for dinner? Skirt Steak. Maybe I did miss my culinary calling.

After Ike

Well I got back to Houston yesterday afternoon. I have to say everything is fine and pretty much just as I left it - there is nothing for me to complain about. Also all of my utilities are on and I only lost the contents of my refrigerator. I was surprised to head out this morning and find grocerty stores stocked for the most part and I was able to re-stock some staple items and get the kitchen back functioning. Over all Houston did really well through the storm and there is not a lot of damage at all. It seems like there are a lot of people still without power in the suburbs but that is getting better by the day.

Ike

Well if anybody is posting in or wondering what I am up to with the storm, I am fine.

I came home to Alabama yesterday and surprised mom with a visit. This visit home to see mom actually had nothing to do with leaving for the storm and I was scheduled to head back to Houston today. Looks like the storm will come somewhere south and west of the Galveston coast on Friday night so I am gonna stay here for the weekend and go back on Monday. I am sure the house will be fine and the worse will probably be having no power for a day or so which is the reason I am staying here until Monday.

What's For Dinner: Ginger Garlic Shrimp

Woody's on the Beach August 2008

He Said: You Must Be An Idiot

Like most people I have my list of stuff that gets put off around the house. I have a toilet in my guest bedroom that has been slowly leaking for months now and it has just gotten put off again and again because it is on the first floor and out of sight. Yesterday in the name of productivity and conserving natural resources I decided to finally address the offending toilet and see if I could make the repair. Well.......

Mechanical stuff has never been a strong suit of mine. I don't have a lot of skill beyond a screwdriver and using a hammer. Kinda like I have never been all that athletic or good at ball sports. I know my strengths and prefer to just find somebody that can come over fix the problem, give them a check, and be done. I have learned this is my high road after starting way too many projects to get stumped in the middle of them. So this time I decided to use a bit of technology as I attempted this project and take a picture of the type of mechanism I have in the toilet and take it to the local mom and pops hardware store.

So I walk in with my camera thinking I am going beyond the call of duty with a picture of my problem. Surely whoever helps me will be able to clearly see what my situation is and what the problem might be. Hey, I am helping them out to solve my problem, right. Well I head over to the plumbing department and find Jim Bob. No sooner do I pull out my camera to describe my problem that he looks at me with his head cocked to the side like I am an idiot. He should have just gone ahead and said it to my face. You know dude, OK, so you are good at plumbing - congratulations. But you don't have to make me feel stupid because I had to bring a picture of my problem.

Hell with it, I just asked him for the name of a plumber........