<p>shawbridge - heed ararab’s advice!!! Let the faucet go drip, drip, drip. Speaking from experience, you will not regret it…</p>
<p>arabrab and woody, good advice. Fortunately, we’re OK. When we bought the house many years ago, we added 1000 sf and there was a small boiler with baseboard heating for those rooms. Fifteen years ago, we retrofitted the house with high-velocity blower and small ducts to air condition and heat. So, we no longer needed the baseboards. When the heat went out, the plumber coming to propose a system to us and the contractor got the baseboard thing going again, which kept the house at around 50. </p>
<p>But, we have a new miracle rivaling Chanukah, I think. When I came home tonight to drive with ShawWife to ShawD’s apartment, I was standing in the kitchen in my coat getting hot and I realized that the heat from the main heating system had come back on and the temperature at the thermostat was now 61. So, we’re staying home. </p>
<p>I had one quote from the guy who a) installed the original system; and b) wasn’t especially helpful when dealing with insurance. I asked the contractors guy for a quote and told the contractor if we were X thousand below the other guy (who I figure padded his estimate because he thought he was the only bidder), we’d give the business to the new guy. A few days ago, we had told the old guy that we were going to get another bid (because the insurance company was going to want one) so if he wanted to revise his bid in any way, he could. Well, the old guy didn’t revise his bid, but the new one came out just about exactly where I told the contractor he needed to be. </p>
<p>NM, it is ironic that ShawD will be wearing scrubs for her career at least if she works in a hospital (do NPs in clinics wear scrubs?). </p>
<p>arabrab, I’ve forgotten. Is your daughter going to be in NY?</p>
<p>No, Shawbridge, at the moment she seems to be leaning toward the Left Coast. But we’ll see.</p>
<p>arabrab you do mean the best coast?
Great news Shaw.</p>
<p>Happy imminent birthday to prj!
Shaw, our boiler is the same age as yours, so im assuming its likely about 84% efficient if it was efficient for its time. It’s also likely only about half way through its life span 
Having just weighed the pros and cons of replacement in our case, we opted for repair instead of replace. You could likely get away with just fixing the handler if you wanted to await even smarter, more efficient boiler systems. I’m not convinced they’re quite “there” yet. Then again, I’m holding out in the hopes of one day achieving personal energy independence with a hybrid solar. With all this land you’d think I could go geothermal, but am told that due to the pool, two septic tanks, the hill, the forest and the river I can’t actually “close the loop” to make geo work. Nonetheless, I’m awaiting a better answer and hoping my confidence in science won’t fail me </p>
<p>(Then again, I’m still waiting for a hydrogen slush engine that has pick up like the Audi ;))</p>
<p>Glad you got your heat back shaw.</p>
<p>Happy Birthday (early) to prj. I am totally with you on posting on the other threads, I do it sometimes and usually end up sorry that I did.</p>
<p>Re: the interview clothes. I keep seeing pop up ads here for the limited, they have a line of black pants/jackets/skirts that would work well for the interviews. I bought a pair of pants there in the summer (50% off) and found the quality decent and liked the fit. So that might be worth checking out.</p>
<p>I think it’s essential to post on other threads if you want to accumulate lots of green squares…because I keep trying to give more to y’all and it tells me that I need to spread them around…if anyone cares about the green squares…</p>
<p>Finished Season 1 of Downton Abbey last night. I told myself that we can’t start Season 2 until we take down Christmas. But of course, we could have a standoff on our hands. If I’m at work all day and H, Son and younger D are home all day, why does the undecorating have to wait until I’m at home?</p>
<p>Hey missy, I was just able to give you some more points! On the green square subject I am really scratching my head as to how a poster on another thread has so many squares when that is the person I called out yesterday as rude and ignorant. Her post has since been modified to remove the inappropriate language. Maybe we are just too nice on this thread :).</p>
<p>And yeah, I think the people who are at home should be doing the undecorating, but if they aren’t listening to you, I doubt that they would listen to me. Hugs, missy.</p>
<p>You folks who post on other threads are far braver than I. Every time I venture to express an opinion elsewhere, I feel like an outlier. I like standard adopted by the Newshour. Those with opposing points of view are encouraged to express agreement when they find it. When they disagree, they state their point of view but usually do not offer a criticism of the other person’s statement. This encourages a variety of viewpoints. On cc, I know I feel it is risky to express any opinion at variance to a few of the dominant posters.</p>
<p>Now I know I was lucky to land back on this thread of the nicest people on CC 
And I also remember why it wasn’t hard to leave CC for almost four years. Anonymous communication in a large group has its benefits (variety, breadth of experience, number of opinions, etc.), but it can also be just stinging, even if one’s posts are completely ignored. I read part of the food allergy thread, and quit. What’s saddest? Such a lack of compassion or so much judgement…</p>
<p>Glad for your heat, Shaw. You are fortunate that you have the option of replacing or repairing only components of your system. We have three units for this house, all of them approaching the end of what I consider to be a short life span (10-13 years), and our AC guy has told us that because of the new coolant materials and efficiency requirements, each whole system must be changed out when it goes. Nothing new, except the ductwork, is compatible with anything old. AC, of course, was once a luxury. Now, however, if you lose it, you get house wrecking heat and humidity. </p>
<p>Okay, this person at home must start to de-Christmas the house so that DH and sons can drag the tree out, saw it into pieces acceptable to the recycing company, and get it to the curb. We stayed up too late last night, with S2, watching zombies on the Walking Dead. </p>
<p>P.S., I will attempt to shower you, Missy, with green squares–still trying to figure out what their purpose is (?!)</p>
<p>Just took H to the airport; he’s off to a memorial for his aunt who died on NYEve at age 101 (she was his mom’s older sister). She was also the last living uncle or aunt he had on either side, so he’s rather reflective about the way his aunt’s passing signals the passing of a generation. He will be staying with his two sisters, who sometimes get along, but who have longstanding issues (competition? who knows).</p>
<p>missy…I have also been sprinkling green dust to those on this thread. I like the stealth approach! ;)</p>
<p>I am back on the daily exercise routine…I hope. I keep focusing on graduation as my goal. Not as motivating as a wedding. sigh…</p>
<p>I think the green squares are part of some kind of evil social experiment…like whether groups of online friends can be driven apart or turned into competitors over something as trivial as green squares. Exhibit A to support my theory: I tried to give green square points to all of the recent posters on this thread, and the only folks where it “took” were NM and Zetesis, who have the most of anyone on this thread. What if “they” (whoever they are) turned off the ability for some people to get more, and doubled the ability for others? Would it matter to people? Stay strong '13s. (JK everyone…this is avoidance behavior…I need to prepare for a meeting involving both tax law and oil pipelines…trying to avoid a headache.)</p>
<p>The whole green square thing is strange. There are a couple of threads where the only goal seems to be begging for and giving each other more green squares . Somehow, I doubt that was the intent of the green square experiment!</p>
<p>A few posts ago I mentioned we had flooding in August. I meant flooding from last year,not this year. Good luck with getting all your work done,shawbidge. I know dealing with all the contractors and insurance people can be stressful.</p>
<p>S2 has one last hurdle in getting his job after graduation. He has to go up to his future employer near DC on Monday to get fingerprinted as part of a top secret security clearance he needs. Hopefully, he willl get through the clearance isssues as his employment offer is contingent on that. </p>
<p>Hope everyone has a great weekend!</p>
<p>sevmom… I believe the original intent of those threads were to point out how silly the green squares were and is an attempt to demonstrate that silliness. The students are now making an even bigger game of it. I keep sprinkling here but keep getting the message to spread the love around. I am thinking the squares will disappear as mysteriously as they appeared. :)</p>
<p>Agree with TA and PlantMom that posts on a number of other threads are surprising for their vitriol. I’m also surprised by some posters’ apparent lack of intellectual capability – they don’t seem to understand how to reason from premises to conclusion or to understand a clearly laid out argument. This seems especially true if it involves political opinions (“AA is evil (and probably caused my kid to lose his spot at Prestigious University)” and therefore no argument supporting diversity or admissions except by formal carries any water or “Diversity (as defined by the poster but involving racial rather than socioeconomic diversity) is a sacred goal” and therefore no argument suggesting downsides to preferences for URMs could possibly be right. Neither group appears capable of serious thought and posters from both groups, but especially the latter, seem to attack the character of the people who oppose them. I also once posted on a thread from a mother seeking advice about how to handle sleeping arrangements for her D who was coming home with live-in BF for the holidays. I said that if my college age children had SOs and were sharing a bed with them every night and I knew it, I wouldn’t want to behave as my mother did and force the kid and SO to sleep in separate beds when they visited me as I had experienced it as inexplicable hypocrisy when I would bring live-in GFs home. Wow. Did that get the flamers going. At least one person got her posts expunged and maybe kicked off the site. I tend to stay off those threads at this point, not because of the personalization but because there is not point dealing with the subset on those threads who don’t seem to be able to understand argumentation and feel a need to get everyone on the thread to agree with them (I guess, by driving off opposers and bullying others). Not a good use of my time. I’m happy to share experiences, learn, offer advice, vent, but can live a long and happy life without vitriol or incompetence.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the green square rules, but it may be set up so a person like myself who posts exclusively on one thread can’t accumulate more than a minimum of squares. It doesn’t bother me. </p>
<p>Every once in a while I think about posting on threads that talk about how easy it is to get a job if you are willing to move to North Dakota or are an engineering major. S2 would move to North Dakota in a heartbeat. He has above a 3.2 GPA both in his ABET certified engineering major and overall. He is hard-working, reliable, and a kid people like to be around. And he is not finding it easy to get a job. Just because the press proclaims something, doesn’t make it a fact. Sometimes the person with the degree is considered overqualified. Maybe the employer wants a mechanical engineer Mr. Fix It guy in the field or a computer whiz I Can Program Anything type in the office. The gatekeeper always has more candidates than slots. If your color is orange and they are looking for purple, it’s going to be hard. All the red, blues, and greens out there may have more competition but also a lot more from which to choose. S2 knows plenty of other students in his major who similarly do not have offers in hand, including those from other colleges with better branding. But what good would it do to mention that in other threads? Well-meaning people might try to find out what is wrong with S2, but I already know his flaws only too well, so don’t really need help in that area. Or they will express sympathy, but I get that in full from my friends in this thread so any more sympathy would just make me sad. Nevertheless, other threads continue to convey what I would consider to be misleading or at least incomplete information.</p>
<p>NM, That makes sense and the whole green square thing really is a game for some people. It seems to be providing some fun and amusement for some posters. We can all use more of that! Agree that it is quite probable the green squares will eventually disappear as mysteriously as they appeared.</p>
<p>I just tried to add green squares to all of you but only Sharbridge was allowed. I only post here for the same reasons mentioned above. I have been known to post in the Bates College threads but not lately. For the most part I stick here and don’t even bother to read the other threads any more.</p>
<p>I don’t like the green squares either. On other forums I’ve been on, they make more sense. For one thing, in other forums, the post rather than the poster is evaluated, so posters can try to highlight some post that they think is particularly insightful, and others can see what posts were deemed particularly good.</p>