Hey, Cat--your folks have voice mail ahead of me too! My wife teases me about carrying a pager; I have a cell phone to make calls once in a while, but have only used it once to receive a call. Wasn't sure how that would work, but it did.
Glad to hear Ms Bianca is evidently doing well.
Thanks for the Ally update, listener & puddle. Sounds like things went OK, considering.
Bill--A 125 year old boiler? Even if it is super low pressure, that amazes me. I suppose that for steam radiators 2-5 pounds per square inch should be OK, but that's only a guess. But NO non-electric thermostat? That does seem shortsighted. I'd think a battery with a trickle charger (rather than a generator) would do the job--better an Edison cell than lead-acid battery, but even lead-acid should be OK in the absence of the sort of vibration one gets in a car. I remember reading that in the financial district of San Francisco there are still quite a few buildings that use steam for heat, and the meters were designed in the 19th century--no one has designed a better one. Asbestos is amazing stuff; and most of the asbestos used for insulation in the U.S. is of a less dangerous type--but no sense taking chances.
Thanks for the suggestion about the battery. Because we were blindsided by the need for electrical backup, we hadn't considered that. But I should have made it clear that what we have is not steam heat but circulating hot water. At present it circulates by gravity, but newer boilers all have electric pumps that do a better job of evening out the heat between the two floors. That's going to call for a lot more current output than just a thermostat would.
Got an email from Thankful this morning. The BBB seems missing in action. Last post was at 3:41 this morning. You are signed out; when you try to get it, this is the message:
1 error prohibited this User session from being submitted
There were problems with the following fields:
* base You did not provide any details for authentication.
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, 20 They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. - William Wordsworth, 1804
When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea. Rain came on—we were wet when we reached Luffs but we called in. Luckily all was chearless and gloomy so we faced the storm—we must have been wet if we had waited—put on dry clothes at Dobson's.
More at: http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/dwdaff.html
Yes, it does seem unfair that William gets all the attention. I'm hopeful, though, that the day of equal recognition for women in the arts is at hand. It may already be here as far as Science Fiction is concerned. There have been issues of both Asimov's and Analog - not many, but a few - in which the feminine names outnumbered the masculine in the table of contents.
Howards are always first!!
ReplyDeleteEspecially Howards of the Dean variety!
ReplyDeleteHey, Cat--your folks have voice mail ahead of me too! My wife teases me about carrying a pager; I have a cell phone to make calls once in a while, but have only used it once to receive a call. Wasn't sure how that would work, but it did.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear Ms Bianca is evidently doing well.
Thanks for the Ally update, listener & puddle. Sounds like things went OK, considering.
Bill--A 125 year old boiler? Even if it is super low pressure, that amazes me. I suppose that for steam radiators 2-5 pounds per square inch should be OK, but that's only a guess. But NO non-electric thermostat? That does seem shortsighted. I'd think a battery with a trickle charger (rather than a generator) would do the job--better an Edison cell than lead-acid battery, but even lead-acid should be OK in the absence of the sort of vibration one gets in a car. I remember reading that in the financial district of San Francisco there are still quite a few buildings that use steam for heat, and the meters were designed in the 19th century--no one has designed a better one. Asbestos is amazing stuff; and most of the asbestos used for insulation in the U.S. is of a less dangerous type--but no sense taking chances.
Books about steam heating systems:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heatinghelp.com/
Whoda' thunk that they work better at very low pressure?
Alan ~
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion about the battery. Because we were blindsided by the need for electrical backup, we hadn't considered that. But I should have made it clear that what we have is not steam heat but circulating hot water. At present it circulates by gravity, but newer boilers all have electric pumps that do a better job of evening out the heat between the two floors. That's going to call for a lot more current output than just a thermostat would.
Got an email from Thankful this morning. The BBB seems missing in action. Last post was at 3:41 this morning. You are signed out; when you try to get it, this is the message:
ReplyDelete1 error prohibited this User session from being submitted
There were problems with the following fields:
* base You did not provide any details for authentication.
*I* think it's just the Bozoes at werk. . . .
Ally update!!
ReplyDeletehttp://eatapyzch.blogspot.com/
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=ALLYS
Well, there *is* a thread over there now, but I still can't log in. . . .
ReplyDeleteWell, did. But couldn't from the log in at the bottom of the thread. Had to do it from the top of the page. And no HTML editor. . . .
ReplyDeletelistener~
ReplyDeleteI WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
- William Wordsworth, 1804
Puddle, I'm so sorry. Damn MSWord! I'll send again in plain text.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you!! xox
ReplyDeleteAlways like Dorothy's take on the day. . . .
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea. Rain came on—we were wet when we reached Luffs but we called in. Luckily all was chearless and gloomy so we faced the storm—we must have been wet if we had waited—put on dry clothes at Dobson's.
More at: http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/dwdaff.html
Yes, it does seem unfair that William gets all the attention. I'm hopeful, though, that the day of equal recognition for women in the arts is at hand. It may already be here as far as Science Fiction is concerned. There have been issues of both Asimov's and Analog - not many, but a few - in which the feminine names outnumbered the masculine in the table of contents.
ReplyDelete♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the candles!!!
Bill ♡
Alan ♡
Cat ♡
puddle ♡
donna ♡
Susan ♡
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
ReplyDeletetc too! ♡
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣