Okay, yesterday I wrote about it being hot. This might be the worst I’ve been in the heat in a long while. I guess I haven’t been in temperatures over 70 for 3 weeks or so. That is probably the cause. But, I blew up so badly yesterday that I’m kind of hesitate to even attempt it again today.
It was super hot yesterday. 103 with a heat index of 116. One of my problems with heat is that it doesn’t really feel bad. I can’t really tell how hot it is until I start melting. And when I start melting, it is a very quick occurrence. We rode 40 something miles yesterday. I felt okay considering what I’ve been up to. I did run out of water 45 minutes into the ride, but that normally isn’t an problem. I should have seen the writing on the wall.
I did make it back to about 2 miles from my house before I couldn’t really function anymore. I felt horrible. Nauseated, headache, no power, ect. When I got home, I drank a couple glasses of water and ate some watermelon. But that didn’t help much, so I went to bed. I stayed in the above mentioned state half way through the night. Plus I was cramping when I was sleeping. There is nothing like getting woken up by your hamstring cramping. If you’ve never experienced it, you are missing out.
Okay, enough of that. I’m going to get out of here in a week, so I have to just shut up and put up with it. It rained last night and this morning, so it’s only going to be 100% humidity on top of 102.
I emailed all the Kansas representatives in Washington today about this political situation on the debt ceiling. The last time I contacted these guys was way back when they were trying to make it illegal to smoke on airplanes. This is a joke. They’ve raised the debt ceiling 77 times and they are waiting until the last minute because of political issues. Our political system needs a revamp.
I have to put a new water heater in my house. I’m trying to figure out if I want to use a tankless, hot water on demand, heater or the standard water heater with a tank. I’ve been reading some on the question and am leaning towards just the standard water heater. I can install either myself, so that cost isn’t an issue. I’ve been to a few houses that have the tankless water heaters and haven’t been too impressed by the results. From my experience, it takes too long to get hot water, thus using a ton more water. Anyone have any ideas, I’d appreciate it.
Trudi had a new BMC bike waiting for her when she got home from the Tour de France. I assembled it. It was easy since their team mechanics had assembled it originally. There is such a difference between a bike shop mechanic and a team mechanic. Anyway, she hasn’t had a new bike in over a decade, so it was a eye opening experience. It’s all Dura-Ace, so it is pretty sweet.
The kitten has grown a ton since I last saw him. But, he is still really small and kind of uncoordinated, which is kind of cute in kittens. It is healthy though. I kind of thought it was going to have some issues since it was so close to death, but it seems to have recovered pretty good. It is going to have the run of the house pretty soon.
I’m trying to decide on races to go to now. I’m going to go out to Colorado and ride my MTB for a week, then head over to Utah for the finish of Tour of Utah. After that I’m kind of up in the air. But, I know there isn’t going to be any racing for me this weekend anywhere around here. Baby steps again.
Trudi's new bike.
Looks Swiss even though there is an American flag next to her name.
Out on her first ride. It rides so good she doesn't even have to open her eyes.
This kitten is much smaller than the photo portrays. He is great.
Why is it it’s always a hamstring or calf muscle that cramps? Why can’t it be a tricep or something simple? I hate that feeling of my leg “locking up” in the middle of the night. You jump up screaming Cramp, Cramp!! Then you can’t relax because you’re waiting for it to happen again.
Oh man, here in Chicago, the recent heat wave had me up at 5:15-5:30am to knock out an 1:30 hour ride before work. It was actually kind of pleasant, what with no cars on the roads and having gotten my workout out of the way early before it got hot.
A friend of mine has tankless heaters and they use them extensively in Europe. If it takes too long to get hot water from them, the house may need two of them, so no faucet is too far from one. You’re not heating water when you aren’t using it (so you save during your many trips away from home) and when you do use it, you don’t run out if you both want to take a long shower.
I managed to get in three hours of yard work yesterday, but I took breaks and went inside and stared at the a/c and kept drinking water… as long as I was in the breeze I was fine, but at the end of the day, I was exhausted, got a bit of work done inside and that was about it. Still have the pool filter to set up, need to rewire the pump, and get everything attached and working. Corn meal does seem to clear water and kill algae, btw, but it can be a slow process. Are you still taking that magnesium drink or have you quit that?
I recently went tankless. I’m an advanced DIY type of guy and ran all the new copper water lines and did the gas lines myself. It’s amazing what you can learn on YouTube. Haha. I got a Rinnai. If you don’t have gas in your house then forget it.
Tankless is the way to go. Much more energy efficient and “endless” hot water. I wait the same time for hot as I did with the tank…it’s all about the distance from the water heater to the tap. I’ll never go back to the tank.
I also installed a small 4 gallon super efficient hot water heater in my kitchen where we use and need a lot of hot water. It’s been amazing. Instant scalding hot water. This plus the tankless unit is the killer setup.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006GVO1C/ref=wms_ohs_product_T2
You should consider building a solar water heater – on top of which you might be able to at least partially heat your house with it: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Eric1K
I think you should also take into account that you’ve had lots of beer lately with little sleep and an internal clock that’s out of whack due to multiple timezone changes.
Glad to see the kitten is doing well. Looks like a happy camper
Welcome back to Equatorial Kansas, Steve. You got rain?!! Sweet bike, Trudi.
I weighed in at 157 after the ride, and felt like death.
Just to give you an insight into how BIG the national debt is – if you took hundred dollar bills and then stacked 7 ft high and then filled an entire football field with these 7ft stacks (taking all the playable turf) – you would need 14 football stadiums to equal the size of the debt!!!
Reason for concern? A default is imminent and so is a lower credit rating which by itself will create more interest that needs to be paid ADDING to the debt – it’s a vicious cycle.
Gold may have peaked but I see it as a store of value for the next 5 years (at least).
Steve, Going tankless works if you can get a recirculating system with pump installed. So it depends, a house with an unfinished basement is easy because you can get to 90% of the plumbing, but 2 stories, or a finished ceiling in the basement, will make the tankless not worth the effort. If I was building a new house today I would definitely go tankless with a recirc. system. That is where the investment pays off.
the tankless system works well w/ a re-circulating pump that takes the water back to the tankless heater. fine home building magazine has a good article on an install. (http://www.finehomebuilding.com/PDF/Free/021192082.pdf)
tankless is the way to go. why have all that water in your basement heated up all the time, especially in the winter. i have one small tankless heater in my apartment and it heats my kitchen and bath. i never run out of water and its hot as..well, Kansas. We have a Clage brand heater made in germany. You could stick a solar panel on your roof and a few batteries and a controller in the saved space in your basement and your hot water would be off the grid. probably could hook your whole house up with just one heater on the main supply where your tank was.
If you don’t have gas, do not go tankless. You normally need two 60amp circuits for the tankless heater (all electric) and the demand factor will send your meter spiining off the wall for a few seconds. Go standard tank if you plan to use electric.
Steve —
I replaced my 40 gallon tank with a Bosch tankless and saw no significant change in my gas bill (stayed around 20 dollars a month). I later replaced the Bosch with a Cosmos on demand water heater/radiant heat boiler. Obviously, using gas-heated hot water instead of all wood to heat the house increased the gas usage in the winter. The summer usage is a little harder to gauge, as the household increased from one to two full-time users. But even with that, our summer gas bill increased less than $5 monthly.
One advantage of the Cosmos is that it had a mini tank, so there was not the lag time until the water passing through the heat-exchanger got hot. I’m not sure that Cosmos makes a water-only unit.
Neither tankless heater could support hot water running at both the sink and the shower — the water stayed hot, but the volume at the first faucet was reduced when the second faucet was turned on. Either a larger capacity heater or a second one would have solved that problem, but both would be costly.
I like the idea of tankless, but I think an efficient, well-insulated tank-type heater is nearly as good for resource usage and requires significantly less start-up cost and hassle (you’ll need a larger vent pipe for tankless). If you turn your tank heater down to “vacation” when the house is empty (as I suspect you do), the advantages of the tankless is even less.
Tankless–Schmankless…whatever.. That’s a super nice bicycle Trudi….RED is the best color for a bicycle. Welcome home.
Trudi,
Absolutely cool bike. Congratulations!
Just as I thought – everyone’s concern is on water heaters rather than the country’s finances – exactly what keeps the politicians in office sorry to say – this just proves it!!!
I agree with Ted, ignoring the issue and raising the debt ceiling for the 78th time is what got us here. while both sides are playing politics we need a dose of reality.
If u keep paying the minimum on your Visa, after a few years the interest becomes insurmountable. If u are going to be responsible and pay your debts you will eventually have to stop using your Visa and start paying back your debt .
Right now our “Visa” debt is @45,000+ plus for every man , woman & child in the US and we are voting to pay down or continue to add to that????
How many services could we provide with the money we spend on interest on the current debt?
And on a side note, increasing income taxes does not generate more revenue necessarily. Rich people can defer their income alot easier than people living paycheck to paycheck. For instance exercise stock options at a later date. Corporations can reinvest profits to grow their business which will result in less net revenue to the government for the near future.
Steve, I just put in a standard water heater to replace the old one that crapped out. I find no cons with the whole deal. It was ~$275 at home depot and connected right up to the old fittings. Took me an hour all said and done. I even got ten bucks for my old one at a scrap yard. I don’t mind waiting ten seconds for hot water. When you have to replace your heating and air system then look for all the new super efficient stuff out there, but for a water heater – cheap and easy is the way to go. My opinion.
My opinion on the politics thing…
They are all just a bunch of lying crooks.
The day things start to change in this country is the day being a politician is not a “career” someone can make a living on.
I say abolish the Electoral College, abolish pay for politicians, and abolish the two party system.
It makes me want to vomit when I see them all in their suits. They are all millionaires who are more into hauling their party line than taking care of the American people.
Finally, I say no more politics on this blog.
Please.
Steve,
Sorry no feedback for you on the whole water heater issue. I’m in a similar boat myself, so it will be interesting to read through the comments. I just had a quick comment on the bike shop mechanic vs. pro tour mechanic. Aside from the obvious average amount of experience tilting in favor of the pro tour mech, you’d be surprised to see how much stuff a shop wrench has to correct from the factory build. Good shops take the time, but most are time crunched and assemblies fall to the least experienced mechanics.
I’m not knocking a shop mechanic here. But, to be a race mechanic, the bike needs to work the same, no matter what the condition is. Whether all the cables have been changed. Or the frame. The bike needs to be identical as the day before. That is why Cadel changed off the yellow jersey bike back to the bike he’d ridden the whole Tour. The yellow frame was from last season and he was worried about the minute differences, even though he’d virtually already won the race.