Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

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Headaches of Summer, First World Problems

May 27, 2014 / / 1 Comment
A typical home air conditioning unit.

A typical home air conditioning unit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summer is finally hitting Utah.  Heat is on the way up and relief is not in site, at least from Mother Nature.  I finally broke down and turned on my air conditioner to cool the house down and, as a result, try and break my daughters fever.  Both seemed to work out.

The biggest issue was with the Air conditioner itself.  It didn’t cool very well.  It did ok, but not well.  Since I am renting this place I called up the rental company and they sent a guy out to look at it.  He told me that the condensate drain line was getting clogged.  Then he fixed it and I am sure he nailed the rental place with a tidy sum.

Now, you all know from this blog that I like to do things myself.  I fix what I can on the cars, what plumbing I can do, and whatever miscellaneous crap needs to be done.  So, knowing that this would probably happen again, I hit google to see what I could find.

I found what condensate drain lines did.  They drain off the water that the air conditioner gets from the condensation in the air.  They have water in them, they are always wet.  They grow algae.  They get clogged.  This is an issue with coolers, ice machines and other refrigeration devices.  They then need to be cleaned.  It is a pain in the butt to say the least.

There are many ways to clean these drains, including just replacing them.  Most methods use some form of bleach and or cleaners to get the algae out.  You have to disassemble some, you can sort of get into others.  You can call the HVAC guy but they are going to be super busy on the hot day when you need them.  I did find something cool though.  It is called the Clog Popper.  It goes into the drain line and sucks out the algae.  It fits all sorts of drains and is made in the good old USA.  You have to love products like that in these days of everything being made in freaking China.  Plus they will give you a lifetime warranty and money back guarantee.  Personally, I am going to buy one to have when I move into my own house.

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Being a geek can only take you so far…

May 27, 2014 / / 2 Comments

I have spent way too much time reading about blogging and how to set up my website. I am still trying to fine tune so I don’t feel like I am wasting all of my time but it sure is not getting anything written.

I seem to have this problem that is not exactly procrastination, but it is not focusing correctly. It began a long time ago but it has not been bad until the internet came along. Then came broadband internet and I was in geek heaven. So much research, so little time. Google can be a cruel mistress, but much cheaper than a real one. Have you ever regressed from broadband to dial-up? I almost had a stroke waiting for broadband to return, finally had to go to a cable modem and it is almost fast enough. I am such a junkie.

My most recent issue with over research has been blogging. This past year it has been Kettlebells. I started thinking about them a year ago and researched. Got my first set in February and worked out and researched. Got my 16kg in March and worked and researched. And then researched and researched and researched. I have read so much about kettlebells, proper form, bad form, bad trainers, and the iron itself it is kind of embarrassing. The worst part is I have barely used my bells for all of the research.

I did drill a hole in my 15# bell and added dumbbell plates with a bolt so that I could do heavier swings. That was about the only thing that it was good for but it worked. Then some more research. If there was a test out for the RKC I could probably do it.

Some thumbnails of my 15# kettlebell that now swings at 55#.  Click to Enlarge!

Now it is for real in this new year I am trying to decide exactly how to divide my time between blogging, housework, running the kids around and going back to Pavel’s program minimum from Enter the Kettlebell. Last night I couldn’t even do that, I settled for a bunch of planks, push ups and cobras. Still did something though. Any tips would be appreciated.

For now, my morning writing time is almost up. I have laundry to do (see previous posts, hopefully no migraine today).

Justin

Kettlebells and Winter Driving

May 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

 

I have been thinking for 2 days now about this post. I didn’t get to it yesterday and today I decided to do something else and now, I am going to combine them. If that made sense to anyone else, you may need professional help. So here goes.

I finally got my 55# kettlebell for Christmas. It was a gift from my parents and they thought I was strange for even asking for it. It was kind of funny how ticked off I was when, after they asked what I wanted and I told them a 24 kilo bell, my mother said the clerks in the sporting goods store didn’t think anyone should need a bell that heavy and only football players and weightlifters needed that size. My response was childish I suppose. I was mad that anyone would presume to know me and what I needed or not. It went on but I digress. The short of it is, I got a nice shiny black kettlebell for Christmas. It has taken me a few days to get used to the size of the thing, it is much bigger than my 35# bell. And the handle seems huge but it works. So, here and now, is my only resolution (so far) I want to rub all of that shiny black paint off of the handle and the sides of the bell. I want to use it so much that there is not only no shine left but no paint. That will take a lot of work but I am looking forward to it.

 

Now for the sarcastic rant of the day. I live in Utah. It snows in Utah. It snows every year between November and February. Much of the time that it snows people need to drive. So, it goes logically that at some point, living in Utah will require a person to drive on a snowy day. Right!?!? Well today it snowed most of the day. There was not much that ended up on the ground and the roads being plowed and salted ended up just the other side of wet. WET ROADS ARE NOT SLICK! I just get tired of people only going 5 MPH when the limit is 45. I didn’t slide at all or use the anti-lock brakes. It continuously surprises me that people here can’t drive in the snow.

Just my 2 cents

Justin

Is that your blog or is your brain leaking?

May 27, 2014 / / 4 Comments

Man has it been an exciting day in Blogistan!  For some reason, my blog blew up today!  For the past few months I have been hoping every day to beat 72 visitors.  That was the most people that visited my site according to the Count Per Day plugin. I have been running that one since I started.  StatPress always shows a few more but it isn’t as pretty.

So I have been getting in the 60’s most of the time.  Today, I had 93 visitors when I checked 20 minutes after my latest post.  And it has just gone higher and higher.  At the time I wrote this, 2130 MDT (GMT-7), there were 218 visitors and almost 1100 pageviews!  That is TRIPLE what I have been getting.  I can only hope that this blog is catching on and this will be normal!

Sorry to brag like that but holy crap I am excited!  According to the calendar, I am just a week and a half away from my 3 month mark.  I hit a slight stumble of writers block after the Pre-Writing challenge but I am still going strong.  I am still planning my ebooks and fiction posts and where to go forward.

With help from Mike CJ I am working through the Beginners Guide to Blogging (look for a post on that soon) and will be pushing more and more things the right way.  I can’t be stopped.

Beware all of you who think that I will be giving up because I will still be here pumping out content and promoting.  I hope my traffic will continue  like this, I can see that it ended up with 251 views and 1244 pageviews.  That is far an above anything I have done up to now.  That is over half of the visitors that I had last WEEK!!

Enough from me now.  Thanks for reading and making my blog a success!  I would love to hear from you in the comments section below, can never have enough comments!  You can also sign up for my mail list, I am blitzing this week to get some subscribers!

Thanks for being here!

-Justin

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