Out of touch - but alive & kicking

[Kellemora]

Union Electric is a fairly stable electric company. Most areas are wired on a grid system, so even if one line is knocked out, another line takes over the load. It was very rare for us to be without electric, and if so, it was usually repaired in under an hour.
Not like down here where if a single pole 3 miles from us gets knocked down, we don't have electric for days. KUB only has point to point wiring here, no grid of any kind, except for a couple of commercial areas where the grid is handled privately, and those are as rare as hens teeth. Only the big super malls had their own dual feed systems.

Although my home in Creve Coeur was a Gold Medallion Home, we still had a gas furnace and water heater. As far as the furnace goes, it had a battery backup system and a low power blower that would kick in when the electric went out. It only gave us about 3 to 4 hours of battery power for the blower when the batteries were new. They were replaced a few months before we took possession of the house, and I never bothered to replace them until we had the electostatic filter installed, which could not use the battery power anyhow, but the guy who installed it also replaced the four batteries for us at the same time. They were only like 40 bucks each at the time, so I said go ahead and do it.

For Pierre:
Glad to hear you have not had any side affects from the shots. Most folks don't which is good!

[yogi]

Back in the previous house I had a battery backup for one of the two sump pumps. I was paranoid about it because the water table was merely 11" below our basement floor and we had a stream running through our back yard which guaranteed an infinite supply of water. The motor for that electric sump didn't look like much but it could handle everything the larger main pump ( 1/2 hp methinks) was capable of doing. Only a time or two during my 25 year residence there did both pumps go off to keep the basement dry. That backup was a special design as was the battery. The guy who installed it said it could run the pump 17 hours continuously - for a mere $220. It was bigger than any marine battery I've ever seen. LOL Didn't like it because it needed to have the water level checked and replenished periodically.

Don't know about Boris but our current fearless leader has a few thousand soldiers surrounding his office to help out shoveling snow I would imagine. He is trying to be proactive with that anti-virus stuff as well and gleefully took a shot in the arm in full view of the media cameras. I'm not sure he got the same vaccine I got, but he seems to be doing about as well as I am. My daughter and her husband down in the state of Florida are reporting flu like symptoms, sans fevers fortunately. They too were vaccinated recently. When I find out more I'll post here about what I know.

Took a trip to the grocery store this morning, and as usual everybody was wearing masks. I saw only one older gentleman who was double masked. Other than the masks, life in the produce section seemed pretty normal.

And, Rod, if it helps any, this site can be viewed easily on most smartphones. It works even better on a tablet. Then, too, I favor devices that have a real keyboard so that I don't blame you for preferring the laptop.

[Kellemora]

FWIW: The backup dynamo for our greenhouses also had a wet cell battery that was huge, like train battery.
However, it had these glass tube that rose up from the cap holes to large brown glass bottles. The whole liquid system was airtight, and you could not replace one of the brown bottles until all the liquid was totally gone from the glass tube under it. I assume it worked sorta like a chicken waterer. If the level of the acid in the battery dropped below the end of the glass tube, it would allow a bubble of air to rise as the liquid level was brought back up to the end of the glass tube.
Apparently those batteries use a considerable amount of acid or water, whatever is in those brown bottles, because there was always a case or two of them sitting behind the dynamo cabinet next to the battery case, which also had a large tube leading to outside the building.

I've only worked in a few houses that had to have sump pumps, and all I had to do was test the pump by dumping a gallon or two of water down into the housing for the pump to raise the plastic ball and let the motor kick in. If it did, I checked the box OK with the days date is all. Never hit one that didn't work, never saw one with a battery backup either.

I would like to see no one injured by the new shots, and if there are very few, then I will think about getting one.

Our BIG CHAIN STORES here are packed all the time. For a while they had guards out front and only letting so many in at once, but now they are back to being packed again. All other stores around here are still closed, except grocery, pharmacy, gas stations, or non-chain stores. Seems most of the chain-stores are open, even if they are smaller than the big guys.

[yogi]

Here in O'Fallon there are only a few restaurants closed. All the other shops, stores, and business establishments are open. Every shop I've been to has a sign on their door demanding mask wearing before entering. That is, every shop but one. The butcher shop I favor was all into masking and social distancing when this pandemic started. Now there are no signs warning the patrons and none of the staff has face protection. There may be other places like this butcher but I don't do enough shopping to know who they are. I stopped going to the big box chain stores unless it's absolutely necessary, and so far it has not been. Anything I need from those people can be purchased online. The biggest problem is shortages. Walmart may be out of a particular item I need, and perhaps so would be Target down the street. Lowes, however, has an abundance if I order it right now before anybody else sees it. Surveying all those stores on the Internet is way easier than trotting over there and mingling with herds of folks who may or may not be contaminated. The down side, of course, is the shipping is not always available or it can be had at a high price.

Delco had a car battery with an eye in it. If the eye was green your battery was OK. Any other color meant it needed to be serviced. Since it was sealed that meant it had to be replaced. The problem there was that I didn't check the color of the eye everyday so that the battery would die at the most inappropriate time regardless of the warning. Sump pump batteries are all lead/acid and stink from sulfur if you don't maintain the water level. If you ignore it long enough the cells die off. Since I was paranoid about it, I did have a regular maintenance schedule. Just about any basement around Chicago needed a sump pump. It had something to do with the way the concrete was poured leaving cracks along the footing. Thus if the drain tiles were not empty you could have a leaky basement. In my case the water table varied depending on how much rain there was and I had overhead sewers. I did think about making the basement into a swimming pool, but the maintenance costs would have been too high.

[PierrePanache]

Fame at last - one of my topics has actually reached a 2nd page! Sorry if at present my trips into BF are brief/fleeting but can I just say that reading you two's posts/comments are saving my sanity & I am so pleased that I found you again.

I have found my mouse in my toolbox of all places & so my sgmelling (sic) should improve!

At 1700 hrs today - our time - I will have reached 3 weeks since having my jab. I appear to be as healthy/sane as the next man. Maybe not such a good comparison as my immediate neighbour voted for Boris J !!!!!

My w*fe is also fine apart from a long term tummy issue that makes her a tad grumpy. I have an unusual sense of humour honed by my years serving as a 'Flic'

[PierrePanache]

Hahahaha - nodded off & posted prematurely!

To continue - serving as a 'Flic' with 'London's Finest'. As it is impossible to get a doctor's appt at present - other than a telephone consultation - I suggested that as her head is usually in 'a dark place' p'raps she could have a look around & attempt to solve the problem herself. Back to hiding sharp knives & heavy objects! My beloved is a Christian Spiritualist & believes that she is serving her time - in hell - with me to atone for misdeeds in a previous existence. When her time is served she believes that she will pass on to a higher place. Why oh why does nobody ever warn us men that one day our wives may 'change' & become a bit odd? Is it because they suffered so why shouldn't we also get a nice surprise? There must be some girls out there looking at this site as visitors who can explain - their side - of 'the menopause'! Is anybody there? Rock the table once for yes - & twice for no!

Take care you two & catch up soon.

[yogi]

Maybe not such a good comparison as my immediate neighbour voted for Boris J !!!!!

I don't know enough about the British political scene to make any brilliant comments about it. However, from what I understand Boris is a conservative Tory. The only credible alternative to the Tory party would be Labour, and it's leader used to be Jeremy Corbyn. Am I to intuit that you are a fan of Jeremy?

You have my deepest sympathies for having to deal with a person afflicted by menopause. I've been told it truly is a phenomena that the male sex simply cannot comprehend. I don't know about that. One doesn't need to be a female to appreciate the repercussions of a person demonstrating bipolar behaviors. It might be hard for us gents to feel the internal emotional trauma, but I can't agree that we lack in understanding. Having lived through two close encounters of said affliction, I can assure you of the truth in the Persian saying, "This too shall pass."

And, Pete, it is a bit perplexing to read that you find us to be therapeutic. I'm certain we discuss many things outside your own areas of interest, and it's hard to see how that is helpful. Then, too, your presence in the discussions are a most welcome ingredient to the mix of thoughts. Before her passing I would exchange daily messages with Rusty who was the co-administrator for this website. She lived in Havant, or a suburb thereof which I can't recall the name, and was very informative about the goings on in England. I miss those chats and all those extra "u" characters in certain words.

[Kellemora]

The restaurant I eat at when I do go out to eat, which is rare these days, has never been closed. He has enough pull with the city that they left him alone, hi hi. That being said, he only allows a few people to eat inside, and the tables are now far apart. All the rest are stacked on top of the booth tables along another wall. Along one wall of booths he only has every third booth open, the rest are all chained off. He has several signs up, as required by the city, and the 6 foot markings on the floor as well. The few times I've been there, nobody pays attention to the signs or the marks on the floor, hi hi.

Don't let that Delco Eye fool you. It is only a liquid level indicator and nothing more. All it tells you is when the liquid is below the ideal height for the plates. Sealed batteries are such that you cannot refill them, but they use a gel anyhow, so perhaps they use a different type of Eye than the original one I know about. FWIW: Their patent on it was simple to get around, because it was a totally different product than the light/water meters of which I got my patent on. Being short, it did not have to have red line glass properties, like my long rods required.

After three wives who went through menopause, I'm not touching this one with a ten foot pole, nope, not doing it, hi hi.

[yogi]

It is possible that all restaurants here were shut down in the early days of this pandemic. The fast food joints stayed open at that time because they had drive through service. However, it did not take long for at least some restaurants to open with outdoor dining only, and then the more adventurous ones offered indoor seating on a limited scale. I've only been to three or four restaurants during the past year and the situation on the inside each of them was different. The first place we visited was a sports bar and they had a few tables at the appropriate distance. The staff, however, was maskless and the bar was operating as if nothing unusual was going on. People were sitting there drinking and talking without masks. There might be some state mandated guidelines but from my own experience I can tell each establishment interprets them differently. I have some sympathy for the restaurant owners because they must be hurting financially due to the fewer customers. It's a shame, but things will get better as the vaccine distribution improves.

I only used the Delco battery a time or two because that's what the local auto parts store had on sale. I have not had to service a battery in many years because all of them are sealed now. Servicing simply involved looking at the cells to be sure the liquid covered the top of them. Yes, that is probably all Delco was doing, but they had a patent on the way they were doing it. I also measured the unloaded voltage of the battery whenever I thought about it. That was the best way to tell the condition of the battery. Actually I discovered a faulty alternator once using that method. I thought the battery was bad but it turned out the alternator wasn't putting out the right voltage to charge the battery fully. I ended up with a new battery I didn't really need. So much for being clever. LOL

[Kellemora]

North Knoxville was one of the hardest hit in the latter part of the pandemic. So we had tons of new rules that hit ALL of Knoxville.
Just since the pandemic started, we have two large malls that are completely closed and one is boarded up now. The only thing still open is a detached movie theater, and they are not drawing any crowds at all.

But as I said earlier, all the large chains are open, especially those who serve booze.
Grocery stores, hardware stores, car parts stores, gas stations, oil change placed, and pharmacies have never closed.
But nearly everything else here was closed for many months, and many have just gone out of business completely.
Even McDonald's Hamburger closed their store on Chapman Highway, but kept the one in Blount County open.
A lot of that had to do with tax increases inside the city limits of Knoxville too.
Only those who could sell on-line seem to be in business, but you can't go to their store to buy. They look closed, but are still in business.

Back when I was helping to take care of our fleet of trucks at the flower shop.
We had some battery testing devices that put a heavy load on the battery, but not enough of a load to warp the plates.
It was a simple device really, but the combined timer and meter on it showed if a battery was still good for another year.
I assume it determined that by how fast the voltage dropped over a given time period.
We usually did just the quick test, but it also had a slow test using a much lower draw, which was normally used for the deep cycle batteries used on some of our other equipment, especially the emergency equipment.
Although I didn't do the other tests, such as the hydraulics on the tractors, or the air pressure drop tests on the big rigs, we had the equipment for that too.
And for the greenhouses, they had air-flow testing devices, which were used quite often, and then a card was placed by the control wheels for the ventilator systems as to where to set the ventilators. This was based on temperature, and other readings also. But every greenhouse had different settings for different times of the year too. So sit was a complicated chart to look at if you didn't know what it was for, hi hi.
Once we installed the Lisa System, most of that was handled by the computer, and then after we got the Wang VS system, all of those controls were then handled by the computer. We were uptown for a short time, hi hi.

[yogi]

You are absolutely correct about Internet sales being the life saver for many businesses. Places like Amazon are going like gangbusters due to the huge increase in online sales. Several of the local stores also have online sales and generally offer a few options to go with it. You can have it delivered the same day, usually by the store staff, if you don't mind paying the heavy delivery fee. Or, you can use UPS/FedEx/USPS and pay the standard fees for those services. Using that method and the cheapest options there generally means a two week wait for your order to be delivered. And, there is the option to order online but come to the store to pick it up in person. I would not be ordering online if I wanted to go to the store, plus now that there is such a service several parking spots in the lot are now assigned for Internet sales pickup only. That means I have to drive around a little more to find an open space, and it's usually further from the door than I would like it to be.

You are also correct about testing batteries under full load. We used to use carbon piles for that kind of thing when I worked at the big M. The test I did in the idle state was good enough for my purposes in that I only needed to know if the car would start. Any voltage below 13.6 (or was it 12.6?) was a yellow flag. The terminal voltage drops considerably lower under load but in automobiles once the engine is going the alternator takes over. The only heavy load on a car battery is the starter.

[Kellemora]

Most of the stores here that do sell on-line for customer pick-up, will bring it out to your car and even load it for you.

There is a cheaper way of shipping via UPS that most folks don't know about. You won't find it on their website though.
It is great if you are in a commercial pick-up area, like I was back home, but not here, strictly residential.
But, if you are in a commercial area, and shipping to residential customers, which is a higher UPS rate.
You can ship from your commercial area to a USPS office, which is commercial. So you get the lower UPS rates.
Then you pay the USPS to ship the package locally in their same zip code, also cheaper if it is a package from UPS for redelivery by USPS. There are some minimum amounts before you can get in on this deal though with UPS.

Hmm. An automotive battery, with the motor running, is supplied 13.6 volts by the alternator while charging, then it drops down to 12.0 to 12.6 volts. But the battery itself, sitting idle, should be reading between 11.8 and 12.0 volts. A single battery cell is only 1.5 volts, no matter how large or small it is. 8 cells side by side in series is 12 volts. Yeah I know, car batteries only had 6 caps to refill the water, hi hi. The 2 cells at each end were in the same divided tank area, and this is why the two end refill caps always needed the most water.
As an aside, rechargeable batteries are typically only 1.2 volts, and alkaline batteries can be up to 1.6 volts before the first load is applied, then they quickly drop down to their 1.5 volt normal state. Many rechargeable batteries have a higher milliamp rating to overcome the lower voltage, so they will last as long as 1.5 volt batteries under the same load vs time factor.

Today's cars always have a small load on the battery, some more than others, and if the computer is acting up and not reducing the draw after a certain time frame, you'll find you have a dead battery fairly quickly.

[yogi]

I can't give you the exact numbers I used to measure car batteries 25 years ago. At that time I had all the specs I needed and was a happy camper.

Your comment about a constant load on the car battery is interesting. I know a guy with a Corvette and who claims to have a battery problem. It drains constantly and dies at the most inopportune times. He restores automobiles, which is what he was doing with the 'vette, and tore the car apart looking for the source of the drain. He never found it but he did find a gizmo to put on his battery. When he is done driving for the day he pops a button (lever?) on this gizmo and it disconnects the ground lead. No more battery drain problems. LOL

Both UPS and FedEx have some kind of deal with the USPS. It's probably what you mentioned about commercial delivery rates. When vendors ship via that method the cost, if any, is $5-$6 for shipping. That's the method that takes at least two weeks for an item to arrive. Normal rates for 2-day ground are closer to $16 which does not involve the USPS and the package comes to my doorstep instead of the mailbox. Then, too, I just ordered a $13 item from Walmart. Delivery is free, but will take an estimated 17 days to get here. It's small enough to fit into a large envelope and I'm certain USPS will be putting it in my mail box next March. Even so I don't get how any company, even Walmart, can ship something with such a small profit margin for free.

[Kellemora]

I had to put a battery kill switch on my original '97 Blazer or it would drain the battery in two days time.
It was a problem with the computer not shutting everything off except the door locks and alarm system. It was cheaper to put in the kill switch than replace the computer. The only thing about that was, the clock was always wrong, hi hi.

The '97 Blazer I have now, everything in it works great. But there is one slight oddity we've not figured out that started about 6 months after I got this second Blazer. When I closed the door, the interior lights would not go out any more, so I pulled the fuse.
Since the drivers side door is the most used, I tested the switch and it worked right, but I replaced it anyhow. Still the lights stayed on. Over the course of about two weeks, I replaced all the door switches, including the back hatch and window switches. That didn't fix the problem either. I even replaced the control panel dimmer switch, since you could turn on the inside lights from it too with the doors closed. I was at a service shop who deals with electrical problems and told him about the problem and all the switches I replaced, including the dimmer. All he said after we talked is it sounds like a computer issue to him, everything goes through the computer now, even the blower motor for the heater/AC unit. He plugged in a test box and it showed no errors, so he just scratched his head and said it is probably not worth digging into any further. I added a manual on/off switch for the interior lights, and replaced the fuse. Now if I really need the interior lights, I can flip the switch.
The odd thing about this is, the four map lights work without the fuse in, so they must be on a different circuit.
I have one new problem that started up about a month ago. I have an auto-start system in the car, so I can warm it up in the winter or cool it down in the summer. It has always worked great, and will shut off the motor after 1/2 hour, just in case you accidentally bump the start button on the key fob. Well, how it starts, then stops, then starts again. It does this four times then stops completely. Since it was part of the car when I got it, and obviously not the factory version, I haven't figured out yet why it is doing this. I looked on-line and a few of the aftermarket add-on models use a separate engine temp thermostat. They shut off the engine when it reaches something like 110 degrees. I've looked all over that engine, radiator, and almost anyplace else where such a sensor could be placed, and have found none. So possibly I have an OEM auto-start, who knows, hi hi.
My original Blazer had an auto-start, but I had it disabled along with the horn beep and lights flash when you unlocked or locked the car. Those were all on the same circuit door function circuit. This Blazer does flash the parking lights, but does not honk the horn, so maybe the previous owner disabled the horn, since it doesn't honk from the steering column, unless the fuse for the interior lights is installed.

[yogi]

Your story brings to mind a recent experience I've had with a new key FOB. A few years ago the two I had for the Saturn stopped working. It was a nice convenience but not a necessary item to operate the car. About a year ago I saw an ad for FOB's that was about half the price they were asking at the local shops. So, I bought one. The reason why it was half the price is because it was not programmed. I had to take it somewhere to have that done. Little did I know how that goes beforehand. There are key FOB's and there are key FOB's. I had to find somebody who would do what it is I had purchased and apparently not everybody does it. And, the car had to be present for the programming to take place.

When I got there the guy was surprised that I had an unprogrammed FOB. He had a machine that looked like an ATM box so that you could see if your FOB was working or if you had to buy a new one. Mine, to his amazement, was working. He asked where I got it and I told him it was purchased online. He was only slightly amazed. Anyway, he brought out his laptop and punched in a few codes and was apparently satisfied with what he saw. He then went out to the car for about 30 seconds and finished the job. It worked perfectly ever after.

However ... now, when I unlock the door using the FOB, the horn toots a few times and the lights flash. It never used to do that. It was my suspicion that all the functions on that FOB were inside the car's computer, but apparently at least some of it is also in the FOB itself. It seems pointless to me that there is such a function to begin with. If you are in sight of your car while you unlock it, why bother to alert you with the horn and lights? Well I just accept the new way things work because it's not doing any harm. I'm just a little surprise to see I now have a new feature that I never knew existed on my 12 year old car.

[Kellemora]

I'm surprised you had to go through all of that. I've bought a few aftermarket key fobs for my cars, and as long as I had at least one that was working, all I had to do was hold two buttons down on the new one, then press the button on the old one, and after that the new one would work.

Both of my Blazers have another device that opens garage doors, and in my case, each one can handle three different doors.
It works the same way as the key fob. You take your garage door opener, hold down two buttons on the device in the car, then click the garage door opener. Then just try it and see if the built-in one now works, if not, do it again. It usually works on the first try.

Now my mom's car was a bit different. She too had to go to the dealer, who would look up the code for her car, then enter that code into her key fob. Also the key that started my Blazer had a chip in it. They had to program the new key, which was easy to do if you still had an old key that worked. But if you lost your key, then they had to call the factory to get the number to put into the new key.

[yogi]

Nowhere did I fine any instructions telling me how to program the FOB by myself. If a working one was required to accomplish the programming, then I was out of luck there too. Both FOB's were inoperable. The Saturn has one of those programmable garage door openers too. I'm not sure if it will work for more than one opener but there are a few buttons associated with the module. I read that I have such a thing in the manual but I never bothered to see if it works. I'm pretty sure they explain how to program it in the Saturn manual, but they don't say anything about FOB's. I know for certain there are at least two types of FOB's, and there could be more than that. The retail prices are about the same unless you choose to have the dealer do it. Then, as you would expect, it's about twice the retail price.

The Saturn also has an On Star navigation system which I never enabled. That, I believe, would be a subscription. A friend of mine who had it said it was better than any GPS because you get to talk to a live person when you need directions. It sounded like all the live instructor did was look at something like Google Maps and see where you are located. Then they could direct you to where you want to be. My clever phone can do that without a subscription right now, but back when I bought the Saturn there were no clever phones and Garmin didn't offer live navigation.

[Kellemora]

My Aftermarket Key Fob is brand name AVITAL.
On the back it has RPN 474K 2(superscript 65) Codes.
Not sure what that means, but the pamphlet that came with it, had over 150 makes and models of cars, where to look on the door frame sticker to get your code, from there you looked up that code in the pamphlet, and then after setting the Fob into Learn Mode, you entered the code using only three of the four buttons on the Fob for 1,2,3, 4,5,6, 7,8,9, or the 4th switch for a zero and to end the Learn Mode. Don't know what would happen if you had to enter two zeros in a row, Since you pressed the 4th button twice to end Learning Mode. Oh wait, now I remember, all the codes are only like 5 numbers long, and it goes out of Learn Mode after you enter the last digit. Not much different than setting up a TV Remote except they have a number pad. I know, like trying to send a text message from a Flip-Phone, hi hi.
I just hope if it ever needs the battery replaced, I don't have to enter the codes again, because I have no idea where I put that paper, hi hi. Could be I put it in my glove box, since that seems like a logical place for it.

The Cadillac I drove for a few years had On-Star in it, activated for free for the first year. I never used it so never renewed.
But if I recall, back then, it was only for use to get emergency help if you broke down. I guess they've come a long way since then.

My Garmin did have a radio receiver to get instant updates, but there was no transmitter around us, so it didn't work. I eventually replaced that long tube with a much shorter normal cigarette lighter plug. My old Garmin still works just fine!

[yogi]

That FOB you had reminds me a lot of the remote control the cable company gave us for the TV. There must be a couple thousand variations inside that single remote. I found our television brand in there instructions but not the model number, and of course, the remote did not program properly. I discovered there was a default code and that did work. There also was a way to get the remote to read the television and extract the proper code that way. It was too complicated for me to attempt especially when the default did what my wife wanted it to do.

My FOB was purchased online and they asked a ton of questions about the car so that they could come up with the right device. I would guess every car brand has it's own design and different function keys to boot. There might be a universal FOB similar to the remote control, but I had to give them the brand, year, and model to get what I was looking for. I was also impressed that I could get a FOB for a car as old as mine. No doubt the guy in the store had a program on his laptop that would extract the proper coding from the car's computer. It didn't take him very long to do what had to be done, but apparently it could only be done with the proper program in a laptop.

[Kellemora]

I think electronics are going to become the death of us all Yogi!

I have a scanner here I rarely use, because the book on how to use it is about the size of a History Book.
Every single button has several functions associated with it, depending on what other button you pressed first.
Once I got it programmed to a couple of bands and tightened to the exact frequencies I wanted. I set it up so on power up, that is where it comes on at. From there I can scan other bands, but never get back to the one I like without turning the unit off and back on again so it resets to my default band and frequencies.