Nansulate Application: Nearly 5 gallons of the precious stuff has gone on walls and various objects at 35 R MJ in the last few weeks since it arrived. Up the ladder, down the ladder, paint, paint, paint. 3 coats everywhere that we could get to with quite a lot more to go (next year). Tearing apart wall coverings, stripping wall paper, preping cracks and crevises, undercoating as necessary and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The magical stuff has been applied with a rather thick foam roller and a smaller one (also foam). The roller does not seem affected chemically, it is still foam and largely in one piece with just a couple of small tears where hidden picture hangers grabbed hold of the foam and tore out a piece. Nansulate application with a roller is easy and quickly accomplished. The time between recoating does not seem critical in any way after the one hour recomendation has been reached. I've coated a wall and allowed it to dry overnight and recoated the next day with no problems noted. It cleans up handily with a wet paper towel but once it is stuck to a surface and has dried...you will have to scrape it off and it is amazingly tough. The odor is hardly noticeable, a slight ammonia odor that is largely gone after the 1st hour after application. My wife-mate-best-friend does not seem to suffer from it though she is a highly sensitive asthmatic. After drying and with the three coats...the surface effect is that of a slight gloss. All in all application has been by-the-book...or is it FAQ?
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I've started up my Etsy photo site, selling only the best of my French and European photos, take a look at http://unephoto.etsy.com
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The house at 10 Rt. St.Amand is SOLD! Yes! We and the prospective buyer who already owns a large house in Lignieres has bought it for her son. We got what we needed to get the roof on this place with a bit loeft over ...maybe...and Ted will get his half for the transmission(s) he needs for his Jaguar. Whoopee!
Bye for now!
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Water Wars!
The bill that came today from the Marie of Lignieres was for 423.57 Euros for H2O for Dix (10) Rt. St Amand Montrond aka The Little House (In deference to this house Maison Blanche which is across town from Dix) period. Here, in Lignieres, in Cher, maybe in all of France that is one hell of a water bill...especially since no body has lived in the house from September of 2006 to date. We moved into Maison Blanche then. Further the water has been MISSING the entire time...that's right, there is no water coming into any pipe within the confines of 10 Rt. Saint Amand. So what can we do? What have we done? Well poopsie that is The Story.
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The Story
Background:
Chapter 1: There was a huge project in Lignieres during 2006 - 2007 in which new connections for many city operated or administered services were installed. Water, Electricity, Sewer etc.
Chapter 2: Sometime in the recent past, perhaps 2 years ago, the Veolia company took over the water distribution for Lignieres.
Chapter 3: We had normal water delivery during any period of time that we were living at Dix. prior to the Fall of 2006.
Chapter 4: Ted, a half-owner of Dix, came in the Spring of 2007 with his mate Diane, to stay at Dix for a few days. He had no water at that time at the house. Ted complained about the lack of water to the Maire but he left shortly thereafter.
Chapter 5: The water company Veolia was instructed to mail the water bill for Dix to our California address so that we could remit payment in a timely manner.
Chapter 6: The bills we received were never successfully paid due to us either missing the bill as were were here when it was sent or Veolia would not accept a copied version of the bill when it was paid by return mail from France.
Chapter 7: Upon our stay in Ligniere in the summer of 2008 there still was no water at Dix.
Chapter 8: We still had no water at Dix Rt. de St. Amand. when we returned to Lignieres in late March of this year (2009).
Chapter 9: We went to the Maire once again to explain that we had no water at Dix, they promised that a person would come and look at the problem. A fine gentleman showed up and made a date with us to see about the situation at the Dix house. We met him the next day and he looked at the meter, turned the valve and nothing! No Eau Pas! No water! With this we thought, now we get some action. He left, we left.
Chapter 10: As we were getting Dix ready to sell the water issue was becoming a real problem, cleaning the house and watering the garden could not be done in any reasonable way. All during the next few weeks as we cleaned out the furniture and goo-gaws from the interior of the Dix house we still had no water. We returned to the Maire to complain and was told that we would have to contact Veolia.
Chapter 11: We continued to unload stuff from Dix and after a week or so returned once again to the Maire to find out how we could contact Veolia when the nearest office was many miles away and whom should we talk to? The kindly person at the front office called Veolia for us and thus was scheduled a visit yesterday for them to come to check out the lack of water at Dix.
Chapter 12: At about 11:15 in the morning a tall young woman in a Veolia costume appeared at our door at 35 Rue MJ. Through her speedy French I understood she wondered if she could visit Dix earlier than the originally schedule 14:30 hr previously agreed to.
I said my default phrase when confronted by a French person speaking French at the speed of sound "Oui, oui"! So soon we found ourselves in the car and racing through town to get to Dix for the Veolia inspection of the "No eau pas" (no low pah) problem so familiar to all involved. She looked at the meter, turned the valve both directions, tested the toilet fluching (nope!) and tried the sink faucet (dry as a bone). Then in French even more rapid that back at 35 she aimed us at the Maire once more to do what, I didn't have the slightest idea either then or now nearly 24 hours later. She said goodbye, we said goodbye, she hoped in her little Veolia van-car and we did likewise in the Toyota and that was the setup to the next chapter.
Chapter 13: Arriving at the Maire the lovely person at the desk rapidly explained what Veolia had found and said (according to Kelly) that WE need to get a plumbier to fix the problem. We?! The problem is NOT in the house...it's on their turf outside the house where the water IS...at their valve...why is that OUR problem to solve? Are we to watch as the plumber digs up the street with a backhoe holding up traffic with a series of flagmen or women and electric lights front and back? Oh my...water wars indeed!
Chapter 14: Then The Bill arrived today from the Maire...ohhhhh
___
The Story
Background:
Chapter 1: There was a huge project in Lignieres during 2006 - 2007 in which new connections for many city operated or administered services were installed. Water, Electricity, Sewer etc.
Chapter 2: Sometime in the recent past, perhaps 2 years ago, the Veolia company took over the water distribution for Lignieres.
Chapter 3: We had normal water delivery during any period of time that we were living at Dix. prior to the Fall of 2006.
Chapter 4: Ted, a half-owner of Dix, came in the Spring of 2007 with his mate Diane, to stay at Dix for a few days. He had no water at that time at the house. Ted complained about the lack of water to the Maire but he left shortly thereafter.
Chapter 5: The water company Veolia was instructed to mail the water bill for Dix to our California address so that we could remit payment in a timely manner.
Chapter 6: The bills we received were never successfully paid due to us either missing the bill as were were here when it was sent or Veolia would not accept a copied version of the bill when it was paid by return mail from France.
Chapter 7: Upon our stay in Ligniere in the summer of 2008 there still was no water at Dix.
Chapter 8: We still had no water at Dix Rt. de St. Amand. when we returned to Lignieres in late March of this year (2009).
Chapter 9: We went to the Maire once again to explain that we had no water at Dix, they promised that a person would come and look at the problem. A fine gentleman showed up and made a date with us to see about the situation at the Dix house. We met him the next day and he looked at the meter, turned the valve and nothing! No Eau Pas! No water! With this we thought, now we get some action. He left, we left.
Chapter 10: As we were getting Dix ready to sell the water issue was becoming a real problem, cleaning the house and watering the garden could not be done in any reasonable way. All during the next few weeks as we cleaned out the furniture and goo-gaws from the interior of the Dix house we still had no water. We returned to the Maire to complain and was told that we would have to contact Veolia.
Chapter 11: We continued to unload stuff from Dix and after a week or so returned once again to the Maire to find out how we could contact Veolia when the nearest office was many miles away and whom should we talk to? The kindly person at the front office called Veolia for us and thus was scheduled a visit yesterday for them to come to check out the lack of water at Dix.
Chapter 12: At about 11:15 in the morning a tall young woman in a Veolia costume appeared at our door at 35 Rue MJ. Through her speedy French I understood she wondered if she could visit Dix earlier than the originally schedule 14:30 hr previously agreed to.
I said my default phrase when confronted by a French person speaking French at the speed of sound "Oui, oui"! So soon we found ourselves in the car and racing through town to get to Dix for the Veolia inspection of the "No eau pas" (no low pah) problem so familiar to all involved. She looked at the meter, turned the valve both directions, tested the toilet fluching (nope!) and tried the sink faucet (dry as a bone). Then in French even more rapid that back at 35 she aimed us at the Maire once more to do what, I didn't have the slightest idea either then or now nearly 24 hours later. She said goodbye, we said goodbye, she hoped in her little Veolia van-car and we did likewise in the Toyota and that was the setup to the next chapter.
Chapter 13: Arriving at the Maire the lovely person at the desk rapidly explained what Veolia had found and said (according to Kelly) that WE need to get a plumbier to fix the problem. We?! The problem is NOT in the house...it's on their turf outside the house where the water IS...at their valve...why is that OUR problem to solve? Are we to watch as the plumber digs up the street with a backhoe holding up traffic with a series of flagmen or women and electric lights front and back? Oh my...water wars indeed!
Chapter 14: Then The Bill arrived today from the Maire...ohhhhh
Sunday, August 02, 2009
A Very Special Sunday
I remember the day quite well, my then VERY pregnant wife was due any day and I worked at ACS up the Hill (in Palo Alto it's called The Hill) at ACS as a Customer Engineer for IBM Corporation, the year was 1968, the month was August and the day was the 2nd. Today 41 years ago in San Jose, California. Place of birth though was
Mountain View, CA about 20 miles north of where we lived in Campbell a suburb of San Jose. I had left for work about 7:15 as was my custom, work was scheduled on the systems and subsystems of the IBM Computer that was installed at ACS and I was one of a team of CE's that performed routine maintenance on the computer installation.
In these days there were no cellphones, only pagers about the size of a paperback book that buzzed you when calls came in from sites with machine problems that needed attention or from managers with instructions and questions. I was in the CE room at ACS looking ovcer the chalkboard of maintenance items that needed done that day during the Preventative Maintenance that was scheduled by the sites Senior CE. My pager went off, I jerked and reached for the phone to call the IBM office in Palo Alto. "Your wife just called Mr. Lute", the dispatcher said and added, "she says she thinks she's going into labor". With that I hung up and headed out the door to my car to race home to take her to the hospital in Mountain View which I got to pass on my was to get her! Upon arrival she was as calm as a swan on a summer pond, unflappable, I stood there in wonder as she gathered a book to read, a small address book and other things she thought necessary for this momentous occassion. Then I raced her in our 1961, 7 year old VW bug to the hospital to pace my shoes off and hold her hand thru the largess of the labor. Then into another room where I stood by and watched the birth of my only son and got to hold him only moments after he was born (We had two daughters in following years). Today is his 41st birthday. Happy B-Day Michael, and the very best to you and yours on this most remembered of days. Thanks for the thrill Red, your red hair was quite a sight, I was so very proud then and still am!
Mountain View, CA about 20 miles north of where we lived in Campbell a suburb of San Jose. I had left for work about 7:15 as was my custom, work was scheduled on the systems and subsystems of the IBM Computer that was installed at ACS and I was one of a team of CE's that performed routine maintenance on the computer installation.
In these days there were no cellphones, only pagers about the size of a paperback book that buzzed you when calls came in from sites with machine problems that needed attention or from managers with instructions and questions. I was in the CE room at ACS looking ovcer the chalkboard of maintenance items that needed done that day during the Preventative Maintenance that was scheduled by the sites Senior CE. My pager went off, I jerked and reached for the phone to call the IBM office in Palo Alto. "Your wife just called Mr. Lute", the dispatcher said and added, "she says she thinks she's going into labor". With that I hung up and headed out the door to my car to race home to take her to the hospital in Mountain View which I got to pass on my was to get her! Upon arrival she was as calm as a swan on a summer pond, unflappable, I stood there in wonder as she gathered a book to read, a small address book and other things she thought necessary for this momentous occassion. Then I raced her in our 1961, 7 year old VW bug to the hospital to pace my shoes off and hold her hand thru the largess of the labor. Then into another room where I stood by and watched the birth of my only son and got to hold him only moments after he was born (We had two daughters in following years). Today is his 41st birthday. Happy B-Day Michael, and the very best to you and yours on this most remembered of days. Thanks for the thrill Red, your red hair was quite a sight, I was so very proud then and still am!
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