I've been flat out since moving into our new house. I've been learning new skills almost every day. I've learnt how to prepare and varnish timber, how to paint, how to install wiring into walls, how to make a wooden letter box, how to repair an electric domestic water pump. The list is endless.
I've installed heated towel rails, mounted a Big screen TV on a wall and connected it to my home network, I've set up a home theatre system, installed a water purification system and tweaked the water supply system for better pressure. I've carted gravel from one end of the property to the other, assembled shelving units, painted floors and hung shower curtain rails to name but a few. Every day there is something new.
The water pump for the domestic supply and sprinkler system stopped working three days ago. It's a brand new pump and the biggest and most expensive in it's range due to having to run the sprinklers at full flow in the event of a fire.
A bit of research showed that the pump was not getting enough power and the voltage drop on start-up was causing it to not run. The addition of an extra large starting capacitor did the trick. (something else I've learnt).
I thought I heard a slight tinkling noise from the pump when it was restarted so I spent an hour today removing the pipework from the front of it and letting the system back-flow. The theory was that if there was anything loose in the pump it would be flushed out and I would see what it was. I didn't detect anything coming out with the torrent of water that poured from the open pipe, so I put the pipework back on, not an easy task as it's of a very large size.
I had just finished getting it all back together when I noticed a stainless steel nut sitting beside the pump housing. It didn't belong to anything I'd been working on but it did look exactly like the sort of nut that belonged on the end of an impeller shaft! Bugger.
I phoned the agents for the pump and asked the service manager whether there were any 10mm stainless locking nuts inside the pump. He said there was and it was probably the lock nut for the impeller. Tomorrow I'll strip the pump and refit it. :(
I've still yet to paint my workshop, something I urgently need to get done so I can get my hoist installed. In the meantime I have yet to find a home for all the "stuff" laying around in boxes.
Sarah and I splashed out and bought a new TV and home theatre system last week. It was part of the original plan to have the TV on a big canter-levered arm that allowed us to view the TV from either the lounge or our bedroom at night. It took me over twelve hours to set everything up but it works like a charm. The electrician had put just one TV outlet socket on the wall behind the screen. I installed another seven cables into the wall in order to get everything working.
The technology of these new systems is amazing. If I insert a DVD or Blue-Ray movie into the home theater system the TV sees what I've done and automatically changes channels and plays the movie. The TV also "talks" to my home computer network and can play any movies I have on the computers in my office, along with viewing pictures and playing music files, which it then sends back to the home theatre system. It sounds complicated to use but most of the functions are intelligent and happen automatically. Such as plugging a USB stick into the TV and it again changes to that channel (the USB input) and loads and plays the files. Fun fun!!
Both Sarah and I have been suffering from colds for the last few weeks and I must say it's knocked my health around a fair bit. I've lost a lot of my energy and some days I feel like I've been hit by a train. It can take until midday before I feel well enough to function properly.
I hope it doesn't last. I think the steroids have a big part to play in it all. I dropped the dose from 25mg to 20mg about ten days ago and I've not had a good day since in contrast to how great I was feeling a few weeks back.
I attended the Hutt Valley Motorsport club's annual prize giving last night. (I was told I should attend) I took away five trophies, all for Hillclimb and sealed sprint events. Not a bad effort considering my state of health during the 2009 year!. One person commented that had there been a trophy for racing hospital beds I would probably have won that too!
Well that's enough of a ramble for today, I have a stock take to do this weekend and a garage to organise. Wish me luck!
..Ron
