July '24 Chat -- Things that go "Boom" in the Night, and other random thoughts

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Pure Diesel

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Apr 22, 2008
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I know you guys have already moved past this discussion, but since we have a natural gas whole house generator, I wanted to share my experience. We have natural gas for our central heat furnace, range, fireplace, and water heater also. Our gas bill is generally around 30-35 dollars a month, and in the winter, it will go up because of the gas used to heat the house. It starts to fall off as it warms up outside and we don't run the heat as much. Our highest bill last winter was $78 in Feb. March dropped to $60. April saw it fall another $4 to $56. In May we had our longest generator run time we have had. It ran for 16 hours. The bill that month went back up to $61. The temperatures were still coming down, so I would have expected the bill to drop again that month. I can't say for sure how much it would have been, but I know by the time the June bill hit, we were down to our normal 30-35 dollars. I think its safe to say it costs us no more than $45 to run for a whole day. That is assuming it cost us $30 to run for 2/3 of a day.
Look on your bill and see what you are being charged per "therm." My baseline charge is $1.16278 for 18 therms. Once I go over that it is $1.58939 for each therm over that 18. I'm SoCal gas company.

If want to figure how much it is to run 1-therm=100,000 BTU's/hr. Look on the generator for its input requirement. A typical 18kw unit requires between 100k and 170k btu's for a half load.
 
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NC-smokinlmm

<<<Future tuna killer
May 29, 2011
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When the hurricanes hit we are on generators for weeks if not a month. I see people buy natural gas gens and have a huge tank buried only to run it out in a week with zero chance for a refill, we don’t have underground gas available to the majority of outer area. The guys that have lived here a long time all have diesels, the same size tank will net you another week at least with diesel over natural gas and 87 octane will go another 3 to 4 days on the equivalent fuel quantity over propane/gas generators. The diesels are the best bc they don’t load up as often so they aren’t as loud. I put a 50 amp service in my shed and put an outlet on the backside of it to run my generator so I can’t hear it as well from the house. It’s an 87 octane Dewalt job site gen so it’s not the quietest thing out there but it can run my entire house including the water heater.
 

2004LB7

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Dec 15, 2010
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Anyone have any computers get effected by this Microsoft crowdstrike issue? My work has been relatively unaffected. One legacy server for being able to retrieve older files and data that hasn't been migrated over yet is the only one. IT has it on the back burner since it's not important

Some sister hotels went completely down unable to check any guests in.

Looks like the "fix" has been implemented and most computers are back up. But a few computers, like our old server, don't seem to respond to it and are still down. Might have to log in and manually delete the offending file
 

1FastBrick

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Dec 1, 2016
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Not here. Only 1 purchase I couldn't complete last week on Friday. But sales guy was cool and let me transfer cash through Zelle to him and he used his card to make the payment.
 

1FastBrick

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I did see a thing on YouTube about what it was and how it worked. So seems like if you do as said and delete offending file you should be fine with out any I'll consequences. But what a PR nightmare....
 
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TheBac

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Our center was the only one in lower Michigan to get all packages out and all drivers on road on time Friday. All Detroit centers didnt get going until after noon. Interesting day. Had a large "bubble" of packages come thru Monday bc of it, too.
 
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malibu795

misspeelleerr
Apr 28, 2007
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Flew down to Austin TX to drive my mom's car packed full of sensitive stuff to her new home outside Charleston SC Thursday.
Basically been grunt muscle and gopher lol, installing ceiling fans, area rugs washer/dryer assortment of hangers in bathrooms ..
And made a miter saw table, mom doesnt have the strength to run a regular circular, jigsaw saw-zaw..
So found a 7-1/4 miter saw, had some scrap OSB that was 32" wide, made a 32"*96"table. Got to add few braces shelf and close of 1/2 the recessed area otherwise done.

Built it all ergonomically acceptable to her.
The whole "skip to the good part" snap what a about 3hrs lol
 

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1FastBrick

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I did a brake job on Sunday on a 94 Bronco 4x4 for a relative...

Earlier in the week, Napa near my house had complete hubs with rotors for a reasonable price and in stock no less... They also had the pads, inner and outer bearings and seals. They also had 20% off online orders last week plus an additional $5 for being a rewards member. Got it all back together and both the calipers were dragging and wouldnt release. So I had to call around and see who had what. I knew we couldn't get to a near by napa that was open before they closed. Luckily the Advanced had them both in stock, Unfortunately they were 2 different reman companies so they don't have the same finish... At least I was able to finish the Job and they work unlike the 200K plus mile originals...

Now I have to replace an Engine on the other car, a 2018 Focus with a 1.0L EcoBoom engine with only 68K miles... What a Piss Poor Design!!! No alignment marks, Nothing is keyed, and Requires special tools to line up the crank and cams to do a timing belt and or a oil belt. The Oil pump belt is a wet belt, so that's a pile an notorious for going out. Ford had change it from 10 years to 6 on the maintenance interval. They also had issue with the head gaskets, And Ironically they don't even repair them, they just replace the engines when they fail under warranty...

Called a local dealer and they said they don't normally stock engine's unless Ford requires it... That's fine, I just want to see how long it takes to get so I know how soon i need to order it. So he looks it up and then he starts saying hang on, he starts hemming an hawing and comes back in disbelieve and says well, I just looked and we actually have that exact engine in stock. I don't know why but it's here. I even verified there is no pending orders and its not allocated to any one or anything. So I explain what a pile this engine is and that Ford just did some type of recall in the last 2 months so they probably require you to have one on hand for warranty claims.
 
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TheBac

Why do I keep doing this?
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Fords. Ugh. Did you end up buying the engine from him? That mustve been a nice amount of money, buying from a dealer....
 

NC-smokinlmm

<<<Future tuna killer
May 29, 2011
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Charleston has the worst traffic ever. I used to have to spend a week every month there to rigg Pursuits and Sabers. I can tell you where to eat though. Lol That was a pretty big move, she retired or working down there?
 
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malibu795

misspeelleerr
Apr 28, 2007
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Charleston has the worst traffic ever. I used to have to spend a week every month there to rigg Pursuits and Sabers. I can tell you where to eat though. Lol That was a pretty big move, she retired or working down there?
She's about hour NW of Charleston. Dad set her up very well, and she finally got her VA stuff situated for the most part. So she's a disabled widow that loves the ocean. House is 2400sqf two floor dr Horton Home. She plans on using the upstairs for friends and a Air BnB.
Outside moving cost, the house and Major bills are cheaper than what she was paying month to month in Austin like 25-30% cheaper living in an active senior living community
 

1FastBrick

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Fords. Ugh. Did you end up buying the engine from him? That mustve been a nice amount of money, buying from a dealer....
Not yet. It's $2500 plus $800 core.
Too risky to get a used engine with all the issues. The heads are 50/50 on cracking. Not to mention the special tools for the timing....

Unfortunately, this seems the best option given the situation. Hopefully he can refinance and get a better intrest rate so he can pay it down more. Then he can trade it in or sell it out right towards something else.

Prior to this he took it to a shop because it wasn't running right and they did warn him. How ever they couldn't explain how they diagnosed it and they wanted 8k for a used engine and 2500 for labor... and we all know there will be extras....

When I got to inspect it, it was almost a quart over filled. But didn't look like the coolant mixed with oil. At the time I didn't see any aeration in the cooling system either but I only had a scan tool with me.

The following weekend he brought it to me and I tested the cooling system. It was bleeding down a small amount but I couldn't visually see any place for it to go. Had spark plugs out too looking in the cylinders. Found 1 one cracked. Last shop didn't say anything about it either...
1000011890.jpg1000011892.jpg1000011888.jpg1000011891.jpg
 

shakenfake

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Sep 15, 2022
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Shlumpt, TX
@2004LB7 Our expense system went down for maybe half a day? That was it.

@1FastBrick It was a really easy fix but you would have to do it for every single computer in person. If you had 100 computers and one man servicing them you are in for a rough day.
 
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1FastBrick

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@2004LB7 Our expense system went down for maybe half a day? That was it.

@1FastBrick It was a really easy fix but you would have to do it for every single computer in person. If you had 100 computers and one man servicing them you are in for a rough day.
Yeah the guy that explained it was a retired Microsoft employee. He explained how the software works and the risk associated with doing it that way. I am just guessing that they didn't properly test it before the release...
 
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