DONE (continued)

Hey - guess what!  You hardcore, lifetime followers of the blournal will remember the Great Water Heater Replacement of 2006.  That was the one where I used every tool I own to install a tankless heater in my basement.  Well, that thing finally quit.

For "reasons", I thought it best to clean the little screen that filters the water coming into it.  It's actually pretty good preventive maintenance after 17 years of buildup.  I switched off the power, unscrewed the little filter, screwed the new one in, and turned the power back on.  Takes like 30 seconds.  Plus 17 years.

The water heater never worked again.  The flame wouldn't come back on.  Mind you - I never even opened this thing up.  The filter is on the outside.  Pretty sure it was just a coincidence.

I called the company and they confirmed that.  The motherboard had fried and, sorry to say, they don't make that part anymore.  I had to order a new unit.  Good news I suppose is that the new one is pretty much a drop-in replacement so it would require far fewer tools and time.  Likely less than an hour, which is nice because by the time it shows up I'll be on my 3rd day without hot water.

I finally got the new water heater and installed it - just as easily as I had hoped!  I switched in on, very very excited to take a hot shower, and it wouldn't make flame.  Seems this brand new unit was defective.  I got on the phone to the manufacturer and they confirmed that.  Then they promised to mail out a replacement part that I could install myself, which is just terrific.  Really, really good stuff.  Who doesn't want the opportunity to fix something brand new?

They never did get the part mailed out that day, which was a Friday, so I just had to wait two more days until Monday for them to send it, so that means I'll only be without hot water for about six days, which honestly is less than a full week.

After installing the new part, the unit still didn't really want to stay lit, so all I really had to do was hire a plumber to remove about 35' of 3/4" gas piping in my house and replace it with 1".  You might remember a post from 2006 entitled "Your Total is $111.08"

Here's a photo called

"Your Total is $458.06"

In fairness, I did buy more than I thought I would need so I wouldn't have to run back to the store in the middle of the job, but I still contend that (inflation adjusted) this doesn't look more than $38 worth of junk.  I got about $115 back.

If you like, you can compare the old install to the new.  Very similar, but you may note the new 1" gas pipe and possibly even the two drains added for posterity.  Before you complain too heavily about how my basement looks, understand that my home was built the same year as the Arab-Israeli War.  There.  That reference should bring clarity.

In all, the new unit doesn't quite work as well as the last one.  The problem is I upgraded and this unit works best when it has more water flowing through it.  With lower flows it sounds a little like a small airplane.  If I open up another faucet somewhere, it smoothes right out and is quite quiet.  I am pleased to have just used those two words right next to each other.  

But I can't complain.  After receiving a DOA, fixing a brand new unit by myself, and paying a plumber to run new gas piping in my basement, plus going six days without hot water in my home, the new heater works really well if I just use a ton more water and gas.  A real upgrade!

Hey - I hope you changed those smoke detector batteries last week!  Takes like 30 seconds.

Groundhog

Reporter: It's a full month past your big day!  I'm sure, in some ways, you feel a lot like Santa - there's a lot of build up but after that it's almost like immediate vacation.  This is your quiet time of year, isn't it?

Groundhog: It's supposed to be.

Reporter: Well this has been a very mild winter so some of us wanted to catch up with you after your big prediction and talk about how you felt on that day.

Groundhog: I really want to get back to my hole.

Reporter: A lot of people depend on you to tell us how the rest of our winter will be.

Groundhog: I guess so.  I didn't ask for any of this.  I really want to get back to my hole.

Reporter:  It's been exceptionally warm this winter, so we're wondering about your perspective on how maybe the context of your predictions might be changing in light of these warm winter trends.

Groundhog: This isn't my idea.  None of it.  I didn't ask to be pulled out of my home and shown around to the masses like some pulchritudinous bowling trophy.  I'm not even sure what bowling is.  I just know that I want to be back inside.  That's what I know.  I was happy there.  I don't even know if I was happy.  I just know it's where I wanted to be.  I don't really question it.  Do you have food?  I just want to go back to my hole.

Reporter: Of course some people in California might have a different take on just how mild the winter has been.  How do you handle the wide discrepancy when you have to take the whole country's winter into consideration?  It must be quite a task!

Groundhog: I don't want this.  I don't want to be doing this.

Reporter: You must really blow up on social media for a bit.  Does that ever get hard for you to manage?

Groundhog: It seems kind of warm out.  I wonder if I should go look for food.  It feels very early for it but I'm not so cold.  I might look for food.

Reporter: Do you follow any of the hashtags?

Groundhog: I will go back in.  It isn't very cold but I'm going to go back in.

Reporter: Last question for you - any plans to mix it up a little next year?

Groundhog:

TMOTM

One time I worked for a radio station.  Radio stations were very different back then; they had people in them.  These days they are so automated it's really just one guy hanging around waiting to reset the computer if it crashes.  I'm sure that job will soon be automated, too.  But back when we had people, we sometimes did things to celebrate those people.  One of those celebrations was called Team Member of the Month.  The TMOTM® award wasn't handed out for doing exceptional work, but that's only because no one there ever did anything exceptional.  It would mostly just rotate among the staff to make sure everyone eventually received it.  Sort of like touring the Stanley Cup.  Some people even got it twice.

I worked there for two years and never got it.  I started as part-time so maybe that had something to do with it at first.  I thought maybe when I went to full-time I might have had a shot at it.  There was that time I explained to the Operations Manager how to spool bare audio tape onto existing reels so we wouldn't have to keep buying new reels, which saved us about $300/mo. in operating costs.  There was the time I helped the Program Director get TV audio of the Simpson verdict patched into our soundboard so we could re-broadcast it live, even though I'm sure that was totally illegal.  It was his idea and I just helped make it happen.  I felt like whatever a Team Player is at that moment, but I suppose a month is a bit longer than just a moment.  I guess news of those events never found their way to the right ears.  I certainly wasn't going to sell out the Operations Manager by telling everyone he didn't know he was being wasteful, and I wasn't going bragging about how I potentially helped get our FCC license revoked.  These things were just a day in the life.

Eventually I was laid off.  My last day of work was one of those rare days when I got to record music at a local studio.  These sessions were typically all-day affairs that would wrap up sometime between 6PM and 7PM.  The working day back at the office wrapped up at 5PM, and on my last day the office had scheduled a party for me.  I told them ahead of time I'd be out of the office the whole day.  They knew how these things went.  On studio days, we didn't even come into the office.  They told me maybe I could just find a time to drop by real quick.  I tried to explain to them that was just not possible.  The studio charges $120/hr.  It's just me and an engineer.  If I'm not there to do the work, nothing will get done.

They had the party anyway.  After two years of wondering if anyone remembered that I worked there too, they finally had some recognition for me on a day they knew I couldn't make it, and that was how my last day ended.  It was nice of them to think of me.