ProPil Pop Quiz #5

Merry happy and so on! Wednesday's drive was uneventful - took about eight hours (instead of the usual seven) to get down to DC, because we sat through typical rush-hour traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Yesterday we spent a fun Christmas with local family and ate too much. We made some sugar cookies for the younguns to decorate, which turned out very well, since it kept them fully occupied and remarkably quiet for much of the evening.





Now we're in relax mode, looking forward to seeing some friends while we're in town down here. It's likely that this post, Post #141, (unless something major happens) will be our final post of 2008.

Sue and I are currently developing a prioritized list of Renovation Resolutions, and we'll share it with you in early January. Our plans for home enhancements to take place (enshallah) in 2009 is definitively ambitious.

We're wishing y'all heaping scoops of holiday cheer,
the glory of health and good fortune in the coming new year.
Your support in our time of flux helped to thicken our spines.
Hugs and high fives in 2009!

Thanks so much, everyone!

PS
ProPil Pop Quiz #5
Sue and I were both very surprised. We got Grover's windshield replaced on Tuesday. How much does it cost to replace the windshield of a 2004 Honda Civic EX Coupe?

PPS
Congratulations, Mr. Hackworth and Estefania!

Destination: Mawl

It snowed about a foot on Friday. It snowed a little on Saturday, and on Sunday, it snowed another four or five or six inches. Then last night, the precipitation turned to freezing rain, and overnight, the slushy stuff on the roads froze.

Providence is situated on a big hill. For instance, Brown is on what's called College Hill, which is a bear to bike up. Point being, clearing the roads is triply important. Providence did a C-plus job clearing the roads.

In any event, it seems like the worst is over. Forecast says it'll be forty and rainy on Wednesday, so maybe the piles of snow all around town will substantially melt away then.

It's about time to drop Sue off at work, and then head across town to get the car serviced. After that... destination: mawl, for a holiday spree. Santa tells me you guys have been moderately naughty this year. If you do a couple good deeds today, maybe Santa will take note, and your nice-to-naughty rating will improve. Get on that.

PS
Perhaps you can do your good deeds for Sue and Katie in specific. Then your ratings could improve, *and* they may let you have a bite of their ginger bread houses.

Giddy Delight

Last night was supposed to feature the holiday party of the head of Sue's internship program. It got postponed until January though, on account of the storm. One of Sue's peers who lives in Boston had gotten a hotel room for the night in order to attend the party. The party cancellation was late enough that he (and his wife) couldn't cancel the room.

During the snowstorm, Sue and I walked about five miles round trip. We would have done it anyway, but we got the added bonus of meeting up downcity with that guy, Avram, and his wife, Trinity, for dinner. Sandra and Norah also attended and must also be commended for braving the storm on foot.

For the entirety of the storm and the ensuing walk, Sue was in a state of giddy delight. In six or seven hours, 10 1/2 inches fell. The best way to tell is to watch the facing side of Julie's front walk. It slowly disappears. (That we captured the Armory's truck in action was coincidentally tidy.)






Here're a couple other pics.



Time for some shovelin'!

Young Schoolchildren

Happy Friday, everyone! *Tons* of stuff is closed or canceled today as a precaution for the upcoming snowstorm. The forecast for 2-4 inches has been ratcheted up to 6-8 inches or even a foot.

I was surprised when announcements started surfacing that things were closing yesterday, because the storm is not supposed to arrive in Rhode Island until the afternoon, but then people in the office told me about this:

The forecast is nearly a replica of last year's infamous Dec. 13, 2007 snowstorm that left a hundred Providence schoolchildren stranded on buses and motorists throughout Greater Providence and beyond trapped in gridlock for hour.

Here's an excerpt of the linked story:

Oh, the weather outside was frightful on Dec. 13, 2007.

But not as frightful as the lackadaisical response by city and state officials, as some people see it, when a modest snowstorm caused widespread traffic gridlock in the Providence metropolitan area in the afternoon and evening and stranded hundreds of young schoolchildren on buses for many hours.

As an investigative commission put it, “near anarchy reigned in the city’s streets,” with motorists angrily confronting one another and at least 68 bus, car and truck accidents reported. While all this was going on, key officials went home or tended to other business, apparently oblivious to how matters had gotten out of hand.

The last nine Providence schoolchildren to have been stranded — at the school bus yard — were not taken home by the police until 11:20 p.m., according to the commission.

I love the ProJo. You mean, the schoolchildren were young?! Ha.

Anyway, this is the last day of work in 2008 for most Brown staff. People should be in very good spirits, and I'm sure most folks will leave early if they come in at all.

Here's a better pic of the crack in the windshield.


And here are some pics of the composting bin's extravagant "greens". You have to put in three parts brown (leaves and dead stuff) for every one part green (fresh food matter and so on). I'm hoping the quality of the compost we're producing is stellar.

Economic Turbulence

Well, folks, I'm not quite sure what to make of this: 11 R.I. communities to share in $19.6M in housing funds.

In what's deemed an effort to stabilize places hit hard with housing woes, 11 Rhode Island communities will share in the majority of $19.6 million in federal money for aid in buying and renovating foreclosed and abandoned properties, helping first-time home buyers with down payments and demolishing blighted properties.

Providence, with 55 percent of Rhode Island's foreclosures, gets the lion's share of aid, at $9,594,224.

Who is going to get that help with down payments? Who is going to fix up abandoned properties? After all, they aren't exactly abandoned, they are bank-owned. For a state with massive budget problems to manage a program like this, which boils down to handing out money (hopefully with some sense of fairness and equity), is pretty scary.

We've talked on ProPil how the state has been in a severe budget crunch since we arrived. Here's another story - from DEC 3rd - that speaks to the pitiful financial management taking place in the Ocean State.

Tempers flared in the State House yesterday as legislative leaders grilled Governor Carcieri’s department heads about chronic overspending that has exacerbated a budget hole that now threatens services and programs for tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders.

The House Finance Committee called upon nearly every major department director to explain spending decisions responsible for almost $80 million of Rhode Island’s current-year deficit of $357 million, believed to be the largest budget shortfall as a percentage of state spending in the nation.

We'll see how the homeowner assistance program goes, but we expect allegations and recriminations. We'll keep you updated.

While all of this economic turbulence has been transpiring, we have been working to refinance our mortgage. Interest rates - since Bernanke's big move on Tuesday - have dipped even lower. Our locked-in 5.5% rate was re-locked at 5.25% this week. That's cheap credit. We also received our mandatory appraisal, and while we think it's a bit pie-in-the-sky, the appraiser suggested our place is worth $240,000 in this market.

PS
Sue was disheartened by a seminar last night. It focused on achieving work-life balance as a psychologist in 21st Century America. Apparently we're getting 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow. We've got an appointment to get the windshield fixed next Tuesday. Hopefully it doesn't get much worse before then.

Six-Month Mark

More and more recently, we've been feeling that we're settling in, so it's no surprise that our six-month mark here in the Ocean State passed without notice on Saturday. I realized it when I looked at the calendar yesterday; yesterday was the first day of my seventh month at work. That's not such a big deal, but in an official sense, I am no longer a probationary employee. They're stuck with me.

Anyway, here is a very brief retrospective of our past six months. This first pic is entitled, "Mad Gunk Beneath, Behind and Around the Washer/Dryer".


"Miniature Beautiful"


"Mean Street Muttonchops"


"The Crawling Crack"

Pimp the Crib

After we got through the first four urgent months of fixes and remedies and re-repairs and overdue maintenance, the energy dedicated to our humble home this fall definitely dwindled. Things are pretty much working now, which is great, but we've been mulling 2009 plans for continued enhancements to pimp the crib. Here's a short list of work that we hope and expect will be chronicled on the blog in 2009.

Grading the front of the house
Exterior painting
Interior painting upstairs
Installation of new fireplace cover
Installation of new front door screen/glass door
Installation of new fencing in the backyard
Installation of screen door in the screened porch
Installation of pull-down stairs for the attic
Total overhaul of basement or kitchen

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

PS
I think I said before, the natives here quip, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." It's *so* true. It was like 60 yesterday, now it's hailing outside, and we're supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow tonight.

Check this out: the high temperature and conditions so far in December. It started out sort of normal, but devolved into craziness - with 20- and 30-degree changes in daily high temperatures, and that storm that flooded our basement (DEC12) was total insanity.

DEC1 - 57 Cloudy/Rain
DEC2 - 46 Clear
DEC3 - 42 Clear
DEC4 - 53 Clear
DEC5 - 37 Clear
DEC6 - 35 Clear
DEC7 - 32 Overcast (36mph wind gusts)
DEC8 - 21 Clear
DEC9 - 53 Overcast/Rain
DEC10 - 59 Overcast/Rain (0.32 inches) (38mph wind gusts)
DEC11 - 39 Overcast/Rain (0.87 inches)
DEC12 - 60 Overcast/Rain (2.75 inches) (44mph wind gusts)
DEC13 - 28 Clear
DEC14 - 42 Overcast
DEC15 - 60 Overcast (33mph wind gusts)
DEC16 - 36 Overcast (60% chance of snow)

Ginger Bread

Happy Monday, team!

On Friday last week, we woke to find that the basement had flooded a little. We got a ridiculous amount of rain Wednesday through Friday, and the hole in the foundation, where the water meter is, had filled up. One corner of the basement had water in it. We wet-vacuumed and dehumidified, and now it's better. I guess we need to grade the front of the house.

We attended a Hanukah-themed (but it's not really Hanukah yet) party down the street on Friday night. People liked the Trader Joe's ginger bread we brought. It's a soft cakey ginger bread (not a hard crusty kind), and we add dark chocolate shavings to the batter. This time we also chopped up some dried cherries and threw those in.

Saturday evening we ended up in New York City to hang out with Deb and Suzanne. It was super cold and packed with tourists. We voyaged down to Rockefeller Center after the sun went down. Brrr-rrr-r-r-r.






That night we went to Anthony and Chris's Festivus party. They had pint glasses made for the event. Big party. Lots of fun.


We were back at home Sunday around noon. We found some time to mail off some holiday gifts, clean the car, and start watching Band of Brothers again. Amazing.

Tonight, I'll be hitting up the Advancement holiday party for a couple hours, and Sue attends her first ever book club. This month, the club read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

PS
On our drive south, Grover sustained a tiny chip in his windshield on the edge of the driver's side. Arg. The windshield seems to be slowly cracking left to right.

Multi-Purpose Gesture

Brown has a short-lived tradition of giving staff the week between Christmas and New Year's off. Yesterday, the University announced it was giving staff off the week of Christmas as well. Pretty happy day around the office. (Sue is technically an employee of Butler Hospital, so unfortunately, she'll be working up until Christmas Day.)

It seems like a multi-purpose gesture:

1) It continues to be a tough year, so engender some goodwill amongst the staff by offering an added perk. Engendering goodwill is especially important because with things as they are, there may be some necessary but painful cuts in the new year.

2) Save a few days worth of electricity and heating costs to contain expenses.

Anyway... people were psyched. In other fun news, Jonathan, our neighbor who has helped with several recent home improvement projects, published an opinion in the ProJo about a different sort of painful cut.

Oil Chamber

Sandra and Mr. Hackworth, you're both right! There is an oil chamber!

12/10/08 8AM

Robert,

Thank you so much for your patience. It seems that our new manual doesn't have the old style oil fill. I'll make sure to bring this to the attention of our Tech pubs folks.

Attached is your picture, with an arrow pointing to where the oil fill is. Take a screwdriver and wedge it between the two nubs. Turn counter-clockwise to remove. Fill until the oil reaches the top of the threads of the spout (approx. 18-20 oz.) with our recommended type of oil (as per the manual).


I realize that this whole experience was very frustrating for you. Thanks for placing all our information on your site, in an easy to view blog.

In the future, I would recommend working with your local B & S dealer, who likely has more practical experience, the right parts and can provide the services you need right there on the spot. Your Briggs & Stratton Authorized Dealer has all the information relating to Briggs & Stratton warranty, replacement engines, short blocks, parts, pricing, service/repair, specifications, etc.

For your convenience, we offer three easy ways to locate your nearest Briggs & Stratton Authorized Dealers. :

* Use our website's Service Center Locator. NOTE: Be sure to select the Dealers for your specific Product Type
* Visit www.yellowpages.com and enter "Lawn Mowers" or "Engines-Gasoline" in the Category search field and your Postal Code in the Location search field.
* Call the Briggs & Stratton Automated Hotline at (800) 233-3723. This hotline is available 24 hours a day/7 days a week and features voice recognition technology to assist you in finding the Briggs & Stratton Authorized Dealers in your area. Automated maintenance tips, product information, and FAQs are also offered through voice activated menus.

Be sure to call ahead and speak to the dealer in question. Often our dealers specialize in more than one product line, so it's always best to call ahead and explain what issues/concerns you are having. The dealer will verify if he can perform the work and also notify you if there is a backlog.

If you live within the 48 Contiguous United States, you may also purchase Genuine Briggs & Stratton Parts by calling 800-444-7774. On-line (again within the 48 Contiguous United States), you may purchase parts, obtain stock status, and pricing on-line direct from B & S by obtaining your part number and visiting ourShopping Cart

Another source for Briggs and Stratton replacement engines, shortblocks and parts would be http://www.partsnationwide.com

As a result of our correspondence, I will add your e-mail and link to your site to our Voice of the Customer (VOC) log. The purpose of the log is to allow upper management the ability to review feedback from our customers regarding product improvements, problems etc. and give these issues the attention it deserves. Although not all ideas can be enacted upon, I can assure you that all of our customer's ideas, input etc is valued and will be heard/viewed.

If you have any further questions, feel free to update this e-mail, or call our engine Answer Center at 866-927-3349, M-F 8-5PM CST.

For Briggs & Stratton Branded Power Products questions call our Answer Center at 800-743-4115, M-F 8-5PM CST.

Sincerely,
Mike
Briggs & Stratton Answer Center

No Oil Chamber

11/18/2008 9AM

Hello. I'm trying to figure out how much oil to put in the gas before I fill up a used mower I purchased.

It seems that all your links to user/owner manuals on your homepage are broken. Every time I click a link to a PDF manual, it says: "The page you are looking for is no longer available." Here's the link to the page I'm trying to utilize:

Briggs and Stratton Documents

Thanks.
RG

* * *

11/18/2008 11AM

Robert,

Thank you for your inquiry.

In order to respond to your question, you first need the engine's STAMPED model, type, and code numbers. All of our engines have these numbers STAMPED, primarily by the Spark plug, muffler heat shield, rewind/blower housing or on the OHV cover (if equipped). Although some of our engines may also have a UPC bar code label, it's always best to use the STAMPED numbers as your primary source. I do admit, the numbers on the engine are a bit harder to find. Unfortunately, due to the several hundred thousand possible number combinations, I will be unable to provide you with a model number for this engine.

Keep in mind that the numbers that begin with the statement "Family:xxxxxxxx" are not the engine numbers, but rather come from the federal emissions label. You need to look for a series of STAMPED engine numbers.

If you have a chrome OHV cover, you may have to remove this decorative cover in order to reveal our OHV valve cover, and the stamped engine numbers.

For more information on the chrome OHV cover, please view the following FAQ:

Title: Model, Type, and Code on OHV engines powering generators

URL

If you have any further questions, feel free to update this e-mail, or call our engine Answer Center at 866-927-3349, M-F 8-5PM CST.

For Briggs & Stratton Branded Power Products questions call our Answer Center at 800-743-4115, M-F 8-5PM CST.

Sincerely,
Cheryl
Briggs & Stratton Answer Center

* * *

11/18/2008 5PM

Okay so... all the stamped numbers on my lawn mower engine read:

10H902 0285 E1 03092254

Thanks.
RG

* * *

11/19/2008 3PM

Robert,

Attached is the Owner's Manual for your engine.

If you have any further questions, feel free to update this e-mail, or call our engine Answer Center at 866-927-3349, M-F 8-5PM CST.

For Briggs & Stratton Branded Power Products questions call our Answer Center at 800-743-4115, M-F 8-5PM CST.

Sincerely,
Cheryl
Briggs & Stratton Answer Center

* * *

11/19/2008 3PM

Hey there, Cheryl,

Thanks for your help. I'm going to go home in a bit and check again, but I'm about 100% sure there's no oil compartment (and no dip stick) for this engine.

Is there a variant of this engine that uses 2-cycle oil (that you mix with the gasoline before filling the gas tank)?

I'll report back. Thanks.
RG

* * *

11/20/2008 10AM

Hey there, Cheryl,

So I looked at the engine again last night. It does not have an oil chamber. It looks more like this:

Online Pic #1

or this:

Online Pic #2

I'd love the manual for it, but if you can't send me that, can you tell me how much oil to mix in the gasoline?

Thanks.
RG

* * *

11/24/2008 9AM

Robert,

I spoke to a technician regarding your question and he said that you do not mix oil with gasoline. For your engine (10H902) the oil capacity is 18-20 oz.

If you have any further questions, feel free to update this e-mail, or call our engine Answer Center at 866-927-3349, M-F 8-5PM CST.

For Briggs & Stratton Branded Power Products questions call our Answer Center at 800-743-4115, M-F 8-5PM CST.

Sincerely,
Cheryl
Briggs & Stratton Answer Center

* * *

12/9/2008 9PM

Hey there, Cheryl,

Thanks for your help and patience. I've taken pictures of my mower engine, and I've posted them to this website: Provident Pilgrims. I'm sorry to keep pestering, but the engine I have has no oil chamber. I'm still needing the owner's manual, so I can keep the engine running.



Here are image captures from the manual you sent me. The second one shows how to put oil into the engine. See how my engine doesn't have that compartment?




Sorry. Thanks.
RG

First Snow

Happy Monday, Team!

We woke up to our first snow yesterday morning. Throughout the day it got bitter cold. Today should get up to 28. The temperature gauge on the blog as I write reads, 15-degrees, 13-mph winds.



We did venture out to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was pretty bad-ass. We also liked the exhibit, "Building Books: The Art of David Macaulay". Remember those books, The Way Things Work? Well, Macaulay is an expert graphite and ink artist. The imagination, level of detail and his prolificness was kind of ridiculous.

Also, people in Providence have trouble driving. We see so many accidents. This weekend, someone plowed into the fence and front porch of a house around the corner. The car had to be pulled out by a tow truck. This is a during-and-after sequence. See how the car took out the pillar of the front porch roof?



Ah well, more to come this week. Practice your smiles until our next post...

Pretty Frightening

In response to Pretty Violent, we received some pretty frightening emails. Thanks Lou and Sally and Linda for saving our lives and our Grover (our Honda)!

Whatever type you have, those springs have a finite number of openings and closings they can do before they fatigue. We just had one of ours break within the last 6 months. The repair man replaced both, since there is a good chance that if one fails, the other will also. He said that most springs will handle around 10,000 openings and closings. If you are like we are, you use the garage door rather than the front door, so ours opens several times a day. He also said that his business has had two repairmen killed in the past year. When those springs go, they can act like a gun shot. So please be careful.

* * *

One of mine broke a number of years ago. When the garage door repair man fixed it, he said that sometimes people come down to the garage in the morning to get in their car, and find the windshield is shattered. They find a piece of the hook in their car, and the spring disengaged.

We went out and bought new springs, along with safety cable that runs inside the spring, so if/when the spring snaps, it stays in place instead of shooting off who knows where.

It turns out that the springs we got may be too strong for our rig-up. The garage door is not closing entirely (just barely). I may have to go back to the Depot tomorrow to get a lower gauge spring - 150lb instead of 160lb. We'll see, maybe the springs will loosen up a smidgen.

PS
Tomorrow we're going to this.

A Cathartic Culmination

We haven't been updating the blog so much this week, because it's been a busy one. Today was a very big day though - a cathartic culmination. We took Sue's F32 application to the post office around 3:00. The application was 51 pages. We had to copy it three times, and copy the appendices five times to compact discs.

In return, the post office gave us a tracking number on a sticker.




In other news, this week we put in motion the process to refinance our house. Rates dropped a week ago to 5.5%, and we jumped on the bandwagon. Apparently the bandwagon was large.


We spent the better part of Thursday evening completing a mortgage application with our broker-guy.

Pretty Violent

Last night, when we put our bikes in the garage, Sue noticed something strange. See bottom left of the picture.




This massive spring, along with a twin on the other side of the garage, helps the garage door motor raise the door. After years of steadfast service, the hook on the end of the spring apparently snapped off. We found this on the ground.


So the spring was no longer rigged to the garage roof like the other side was/is.


See the silver hook above the bike rack? We had to bend the last coil on the spring to attach it to that hook. It turned out to be one of the easier fixes we've had to make to the house.




We hope this doesn't happen again though, since the spring could be pretty violent as it snaps back into its tight coil. Fingers crossed!

And Food

Happy Sundee! Back from LI and NYC. Our weekend started with a very furry ferry ride from New London to Orient Point, after which came...


foods...


and other foods...


and food...


and near-death experiences...


all the statues had their arms bent in unusual ways...


followed by new fingerless gloves...


and (you guessed it)... food.