Updates unrelated to reading

[cimorene]

Wax's vacation is over. Her favorite aunt was here for half a week again, which was also nice. We got around to going driving together (I mean, for me to drive, trying to get used to our van because I learned to drive stick in a driving school car which was a very modern high-powered BMW sedan)! We got around to picking a lot of raspberries and Wax made a raspberry mousse cake (with chocolate) and a raspberry-blueberry Eton Mess.

We did NOT get around to unmounting the wooden outer door so I can strip it. We need sawhorses for me to work on it on, and Wax didn't want to buy them because we have the lumber to make them, but we didn't get around to making them. IDK what we're going to do. It's hard to do stuff when you're kind of... sick! We are just both not doing that well, or like, Wax is doing Apparently Fatigue All The Time, Physical and Brain, and I'm not doing well enough to manage stuff on my own that we usually do together.

We did NOT bleed the radiators, even though we did get around to it. We have both thought for years that bleeding the radiators is a really simple thing you can just do, and that millions of home owners DO just do. But when we got to the date on the calendar and tried to look up in Finnish "How to Bleed Radiators", we both ended up reading for hours and ... it turns out that it's not that simple. I guess. Apparently there are DIY guys who do it themselves, but also, the experts mostly recommend that you don't do it yourself, because you can mess it up by mistake. The only recent Finnish resource written by an expert that DID say how to do it ourselves that we could find started with the expert saying to "just check the pressure in the radiator" first. He didn't say how to do this. We couldn't find how to do this by searching (all the results just went back to the same results as How to Bleed Radiators). We can't find a manual for our radiators; we can't find the names of them to try to look up a manual. So I guess we have to call a plumber if we want our radiators bled????? This seems sub-optimal.

Luci the Havanese dog, Wax's brother's family dog, is coming to stay on Thursday because the BIL-family are going to Sweden to take our niece there to start university. Puppy sitting! I don't have enough energy to be a full time dog owner anymore, I think; I always get to a point when dogsitting after a few days where I'm like "Wow I could NOT do this all the time". But I'm always happy to see the dog temporarily. And the weather might actually be nice for walking this week, if only it doesn't rain. Sipuli and Tristana are both Concerned about the dog but not afraid of her anymore.

My dad has had cataract surgery that was successful! He's also been to have an ultrasound on his leg where there was a blood clot before but this month there wasn't. If there's no sign of it next month too, he will be declared Free from Dangerous Blood Clots! They also X-rayed an old fracture in his leg that is healing well and will be checked on again. I feel like we hardly ever get good news about his health, it's always problems and calling 911 and in and out of the hospital. So this was very nice! My dad reads a lot and he likes spending time in the garden and checking on the progress of plants, flowers, birds, bugs, and little lizards (they live in Louisiana where tiny outdoor and indoor lizards are common). He says his vision is clearer.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Thank you for the update and I am glad if you had a good vac.

[cimorene]

It was lovely having Wax home! I don't think she enjoyed it as much as other years though. Being bleh all the time is obviously not very fun, poor guy!

[mllesatine]

Bleeding the radiator means getting rid of the air inside the pipes that are usually filled with water, correct?

I've done it multiple times in my old flat. You only do it when the radiator is on (so when the pipes are filled with hot water) and you use a little thingamabob to open the radiator. You can hear the air hiss out and sometimes there is some water that escapes. What I don't understand is how you fuck up the bleeding process? Is there a possibility for the radiator to run dry?

I just checked and you are supposed to close off the circulation pump first https://www.viessmann.de/content/dam/public-brands/master/knowledge/tips-and-tutorials/vent-your-heater/infografik-heizung-entlueften-1920x1080_a.png/_jcr_content/renditions/original./infografik-heizung-entlueften-1920x1080_a.png (this is a graphic of the whole process in German)

I never bothered with any pumps. I'm not sure if I would have access since I only did the bleeding in a rented apartment.

Is it "bleeding" in Finnish as well? The German translation is "airing out" which sounds less martial.

[cimorene]

Yeah, it's airing in Finnish too. It is supposed to be done when they're cold, so apparently late summer/early fall before it starts to get chilly is the normal time in Finland.

If the pressure is too low to start with, opening the valves can let air in instead of out, making it worse. And given that we can't find out how to check this pressure, that risk seems more threatening, lol. It's also possible to accidentally damage the screws by opening it too far, in which case a plumber has to come close it again.

[mllesatine]

When they are cold? Hmm, I either did it wrong then or the pipes in Finland work differently than in Germany. I'm not being snarky here, btw, if this is how you read it then that's how it's supposed to work for your house.

Wouldn't the plumber or person who checks your radiator anually do the work of airing it out if necessary?

[cimorene]

Hahaha. We definitely do not hire a plumber to check our systems annually! Nobody has looked at these radiators since the plumbers reinstalled them all after replumbing when we moved in six years ago.

[mllesatine]

See this is me just thinking a home owner would do the same things the landlords do in a rented place. When you rent, you constantly have people checking stuff. I have a chimney sweep coming once a year who still sweeps the chimney in every flat (we all have central heating so I don't know what soot he is hoping to find), I had one check the windows (very helpful actually, he oiled all the hinges), there is a check of the smoke detectors every 2 years. And when I was living in the old flat one guy did a check-up on the heating system anually.

I guess it's easy to do for the landlord because the cost of all those check-ups are transfered to the renter so why not?

[cimorene]

We definitely do have a chimney sweep because the risk of fire in a wooden house is so great! But also it's required by law.

Gas and oil burners probably need annual or similar inspection because they have some bigger risks - fire and environmental hazards, but our water is heated by a geothermal pump which was new and newly installed when we moved in. It probably could use an inspection since it's been six years, but it is comparatively safe and low maintenance so we've kinda of just forgotten about it behind all the other stuff to worry about.

[cimorene]

I think the Finnish articles recommend doing it when they are cold because of the risk of burns from hot water or steam leaking out, which can happen when the valves are opened. If they're cold it's just cold water.

[mllesatine]

The water in those pipes was never hot in my old flat. :D I was constantly freezing so no risk of hurting myself.

[haphazardmethod]

Good luck with the dog and the radiators! That is good news about your dad. I hope you and Wax swing back into health soon.