Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Solid as a Rock
(1)
I'm really beginning to like boozing it up on Wednesdays. One of the reasons is that I get to watch the girls more on the weekends, instead of wasting half of Saturday hungover.
There has been an interesting development in the 'radiation test dummy' department: I had long suspected that the electric power for the radiation 'devices' downstairs was coming from our apartment. The reason for that suspicion was that whereas it was obvious to me that most of the radiation originated from below, periodic checks of the electric meter for 104 showed very little electricity use (and the unit was obviously empty). I conjectured that 'they' had tapped either the building electrical supply or our electrical supply. Now comes evidence that it was our electrical supply which had been tapped, not the building supply. Here is the story:
Some weeks ago the lights in the bathroom began to flicker, and the exhaust fan began to vary noticably in speed. Concurrent with that, the power supply to my computer began to 'beep' from time to time indicating power fluctuations. I confirmed the power fluctuations with my trusty digital AC voltmeter. I re-routed power to my computer. Indeed, I removed all loads from that particular circuit (bathroom/my bedroom) and began using power from the circuit to Kootch's bedroom to power the computer, lights, and fans. There was no load at all on the circuit breaker to the bathroom. The light flickering and the fan speed fluctuations continued, however. I began troubleshooting the problem, suspecting the circuit breaker. I eventually 'confirmed' my diagnosis by tapping the circuit breaker with the handle of my screwdriver. Every time I tapped the circuit breaker it would flip off, even if there was no load on the circuit. I tested the breaker numerous times over several days: it flipped off every time I tapped it. What we had here, it seemed to me, was a very flakey circuit breaker. But being the paranoid person that I am, I reminded myself that a circuit breaker very near the maximum load might also manifest the same symptom (mechanical shock sensitivity). I decided to 'observe' the 'problem.' (You can learn quite a lot from just observing a problem over time.) I noticed yesterday that the 'problem' had 'disappeared.' (I tapped it again just now. Solid as a rock.)
I'm really beginning to like boozing it up on Wednesdays. One of the reasons is that I get to watch the girls more on the weekends, instead of wasting half of Saturday hungover.
There has been an interesting development in the 'radiation test dummy' department: I had long suspected that the electric power for the radiation 'devices' downstairs was coming from our apartment. The reason for that suspicion was that whereas it was obvious to me that most of the radiation originated from below, periodic checks of the electric meter for 104 showed very little electricity use (and the unit was obviously empty). I conjectured that 'they' had tapped either the building electrical supply or our electrical supply. Now comes evidence that it was our electrical supply which had been tapped, not the building supply. Here is the story:
Some weeks ago the lights in the bathroom began to flicker, and the exhaust fan began to vary noticably in speed. Concurrent with that, the power supply to my computer began to 'beep' from time to time indicating power fluctuations. I confirmed the power fluctuations with my trusty digital AC voltmeter. I re-routed power to my computer. Indeed, I removed all loads from that particular circuit (bathroom/my bedroom) and began using power from the circuit to Kootch's bedroom to power the computer, lights, and fans. There was no load at all on the circuit breaker to the bathroom. The light flickering and the fan speed fluctuations continued, however. I began troubleshooting the problem, suspecting the circuit breaker. I eventually 'confirmed' my diagnosis by tapping the circuit breaker with the handle of my screwdriver. Every time I tapped the circuit breaker it would flip off, even if there was no load on the circuit. I tested the breaker numerous times over several days: it flipped off every time I tapped it. What we had here, it seemed to me, was a very flakey circuit breaker. But being the paranoid person that I am, I reminded myself that a circuit breaker very near the maximum load might also manifest the same symptom (mechanical shock sensitivity). I decided to 'observe' the 'problem.' (You can learn quite a lot from just observing a problem over time.) I noticed yesterday that the 'problem' had 'disappeared.' (I tapped it again just now. Solid as a rock.)
