No breaks for you jeffrey......

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jeff kushner

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Sometimes, we just need to look at a period of time in our lives and just admit, "that sucked". I COULD feel this way about the last 2 weeks but I don't. Let me elaborate....get comfy guys....

After finding the floor in one of the 3 full baths in my home crumbing under the toilet, I pulled the fixtures out and Kerry came over Saturday and began removing the floor for me since I hate working with wood. No big deal because I have 2 other full baths. Well, before we get further into this, I get home Tues and the house is freezing....no heat. I spend an hour or so coaxing my Condensing Gas furnace to run. House warms. Kerry comes over Fri to help complete new bathroom. We begin work Sat morning but after using toilet in 3rd bathroom, I realize that my sewage ejector pump for that bathroom, is not working.

Do you know how you know a sewage pump isn't working? Yeah, you're right. So now I'm down to 1 bathroom and instead of working to get bathrm #2 complete, I'm now reaching through 2 studs, staying under the 24" high platform that was installed OVER the ejector pump & well to9 wrestle this pump out. After a few hours, I manage to get the top off, removing or snapping the 12 bolts holding the top to the well lip. Then with a bit more effort, cut the vent line, release the fernco to the check vlv and I remove the 50lb pump....ugh, this smells great in your home!

While this was going on, I notice it getting cooler and cooler in my basement.....yes, the heat is not working again. So we switch gears after I tote the old pump outside & cover the well with bleach & 2 large trash bags laid over the top..more bleach on top. Now the issue with my furnace is a sensor that gets utilized during the purge cycle.....if it doesn't read "clean air", no starty. As some of you know, the way to clean that sensor is to washout the intake box...yes, with a sprayer or hose. Since my sprayer is half full of poison, we connect the hose to my well pump outlet and I connect the other end to the furnace. Kerry mans the valve handle as I man the business end....after a couple of blasts, we button up the furnace and cross our fingers....ahh, it works perfectly.

Later, we are walking back upstairs and my back goes partially "out". Not quite to the stage of feeling like your legs aren't connected to your thorax but the point just before that happens. I struggle to get into the truck so we can go up and buy the new fixtures. We get what we need but I'm hobbling badly. Pain sucks so I cool it all down with a real large(15x20) gelpack for 45 minutes after we get back to my home. Amazingly, two hours later, it seemed to "go back in". Pain disappeared on Monday while we were off work....thankfully.

Then yesterday, I'm driving home and I get hit by a 20 ton Dump Truck! It's not bad but it was scary how easily his truck moved my 3 ton like it wasn't even there! I felt my truck being "pitted" and rotating directly in front of it so automatically I counter steered into the lane next to me instinctively reasoning I guess that getting AWAY from that dump truck was paramount and anything in that lane was likely to be smaller!

After spending nearly an hour trying to get through to State, AA co and PG co police, I called my ins co so my truck can go to the truck hospital next week. I drop it off Mon to the same guys that fixed it last year when the deer ran into it.

The good news is my new sewage pump should arrive today.......so maybe I can get it installed this evening but I'm a bit sore this morning.....

This COULD have turned out very, very differently.....for someone who can't fix stuff, this would have been life changing as was the truck accident, it COULD have been very bad, very quickly......so that's why I'm happy......

Things could have been different!


Who knows, maybe the Big Guy will find someone else to mess with for a couple of weeks?


jeff

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Boose

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Damn dude... Got no words. Hope the weekend is good to you, you need it.
 

MidwestBoater

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Holy crap man, that story tops anything that I can come up with. Hope things settle down for a while after all of this.

Reading about the dump truck has the potential to send me into a rant.. These dump truck drivers around here (St Louis MO) drive like ********, weaving in and out of traffic like they're in a sports car, riding people's *****, dribbling pieces of gravel and shit all over the highway. I've been known to follow them and either place a call to their company about their driving habits or contact the local authorities, with mixed results.
 

cmiles97

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Wow! You are not kidding. Each one of those home repairs would be expensive done by contractors.

The important thing in the story is that there was no damage to you or any other person in that accident! Now if you had been in a Fiesta instead of an Expedition or me on my motorcycle...yikes!
 

Trainmaster

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Jeff, any problem that can be fixed with money is no problem at all. You are a lucky guy. Thank God for your continued living.

Here's what I do about sewerage mascerator pumps and condensing boilers/furnaces. I own and maintain a bunch of rental units, so I know all about this garbage. Use the "anti-turbocharger rule:" Zero technology, American quality for anything that can ruin your day.

For the toilet pump, buy a Liberty cast iron pump made in New York, USA. For a boiler, go with a non-condensing cast iron atmospheric combustion boiler like they used 100 years ago. There are no sensors, circuit boards or any control that costs more than $50 on it. The extra $30 of efficiency you lose vs. high-tech crap will be well paid off in parts, lack of grief and longevity.

In 30 years a landlording, my tenants never lost a minute of heat or toilet pumps.

Now stay away from those dump trucks. Good driving!
 

JExpedition07

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Jeff your poor truck! First a deer and now a dump truck!!! Glad your ok.
 
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99WhiteC5Coupe

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Holy crap man, that story tops anything that I can come up with. Hope things settle down for a while after all of this.

Reading about the dump truck has the potential to send me into a rant.. These dump truck drivers around here (St Louis MO) drive like ********, weaving in and out of traffic like they're in a sports car, riding people's *****, dribbling pieces of gravel and shit all over the highway. I've been known to follow them and either place a call to their company about their driving habits or contact the local authorities, with mixed results.


The dump truck drivers in the area I live (semi-rural) are the same. I despise them.
 
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jeff kushner

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Yeah, isn't that like the worst run of bad luck that wasn't REALLY bad?

It's true, if $$can fix the issue(&u have it), it really isn't bad....no life or limb although I'm very appreciative of that. The other crap, once I regained control of my own mind before dealing with it, isn't but an inconvenience and some dollars.

Reality was that I had a choice... I could go after his insurance, whom pays claims after stretching them out for 7 months or more(you know this is SOP for these guys I learned from an attorney friend of mine) or get my truck fixed now and leave it up to my ins Co, or not as they decide.

In a perfect world I would stand on principle and go to the mat......but for this? Just not worth it in the bigger picture.

I wonder if I'll get that pos Santa Re again? Lol

Jeff
 

bobmbx

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Interesting.

As I read this thread, the sidebar ads start rotating between sump pumps, well pumps, and furnaces.
 

Flexpedition

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I had to google to find out what a "Condensing Gas furnace" and a sewage pump is. I know what a basement is, not sure that I've ever been in one though.

Is that pure rubber contact from the semi truck tire? Looks like globs of grease, bizarre.
 

powerboatr

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wholly crap batman...thats alot of rubber on the fender...

i have no word for the sewage or weird furnace...
cept we have a sewer lift pump to pump into the high pressure sanitary sewer line...it fails like clockwork every 5 to 6 months and allows fresh STUFF to flood the back yard.

but dam ..folks have to stop hotting our vehicles
glad your not hurt
 
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jeff kushner

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The observations re; the sidebar advertising are correct....you are now constantly bombarded with aimed advertising. I bought a large bottle of gelcaps ibuprofen on Amazon this morning. Within the hour, Toni Braxton is flanking both sides of The Drudge Report telling me that she uses Uncle someone's WEED products oil for pain!

I installed the sewage ejector pump yesterday after visiting my mom in the hospital....she's like 145 years old, eyes open but not sure any lights are still on. So, being a good son, I hand fed her jello while telling her that it was a shame that my brother had been such a disappointment to her(he isn't)...till Kerry whacked me in the head.

Anyway, after installing the pump and since I'd already set the new toilet in the new bathroom, I finally had 3 working toilets again and as I pondered what I was going to do next yesterday, I had been doing laundry while replacing the pump.....and my laundry pump was still running.....long after the washer had stopped.....I kid you not. "Really?" I laughed...then tweaking the float cord, it shut off.....whew!

I dropped my truck at the truck hospital this morning. They gave me a new Armada to drive. I'll write my impressions after a few more miles.

jeff
 

JExpedition07

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Glad they gave you a decent truck this time Jeff. The Armada will be much easier to contend with than a frickin Santa Fe. That 5.6L is a fun motor if you stomp on it:D....oops did I say that?
 

powerboatr

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good son taking care of your mom.
Mine is next door and it can be interesting.
so an armada....i think of the imperial fleet
 
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jeff kushner

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Gee guys, I can't leave you with the wrong impression.....I have always been the blacksheep in my family.

1 of my 3 sisters is the saint but there's prob a financial gain to be had<LOL>.

Just for S&G's I'll post up a comp with the Armada/Expy but I've got stuff to do first this morning.

jeff
 
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jeff kushner

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It's Weds yesterday and when I go down to the basement to shut off my valves feeding my hose bibs, I'm greeted with a few gallons of water on the floor. The laundry pump float has failed completely so I run the pump manually to empty the 5 gallon tub. I drain my master shower into the laundry drywell, when it is filled, the pump sends the excess to my septic tank.

The new pump/tub costs 12 dollars more than the sewage ejector pump I bought last week!

Jeez, this whole "crap going off the rails" can be done now....I just don't have much more that can break!

jeff
 
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