Whole-house Humidifier

The humidifier we installed late last winter has never worked properly so the HVAC guy offered to replace it with a Honeywell TrueSteam at no cost (except for some electrical work)!! YAY!

But he won't have one until March. BOO!

Retirement Stuff from the A-Team

The A-Team Artists of Trenton, a group of artists who regularly use the services of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (from which my wife is retiring at the end of this week!), are a cooperative whose purpose is fourfold:

1 to promote the work of TASK artists, including visual artists, musicians, writers, actors and craftspeople;

2 to work together as a group to support and encourage each other’s success;

3 to learn entrepreneurial skills by taking responsibility for developing and maintaining the A-TEAM as a business entity;

4 to generate good will and public support for the artists, the TASK community and the city of Trenton.

Today, they showed their appreciation for Cathy's support with several gifts. The first was a collage of the entire group. The two close-up pictures show the "gardening" theme.





They presented her with "crossed" tools: a ladle and a trowel to signify the passage from soup kitchen to garden.



And finally a hand-made card with an appropriate pun!

Cathy Ann Retirement #1

Tonight, the Board of Trustees had a small ceremony honoring my wife's 10 years of dedicated service (she's retiring on 2/1) and they gave her this clock:



In case you can't read it, it says,


Cathy Ann Vandegrift
The Heart And Soul of TASK
1998-2008
---
With Thanks
For Your Years Of
Dedication and Service
TASK Board of Trustees

Toto: We're Not in Deep S**t Anymore

For just a few days short of SEVEN years, we have put up with the indignity of low-flush toilets. Yes, I say "indignity" because there's nothing dignified with operating a plunger and swearing.

But those days are over. Yesterday, Ken Waterman installed two (TWO!!) new MS854114S-12 TOTO Augusta Decorative Collection Ultramax Toilet 1.6GPF - Sedona Beige toilets. They are great! Don't know whether or not I have succeeded in creating a challenge because everything disappears with a single flush!

But, wait! Surely you noticed the TOTO GPF figure: 1.6 gallons per flush. That's the same as an ordinary low-flush toilet. So what does the TOTO do that ordinary toilets do not? Here's what Tom Haws has to say:

I am a civil engineer (water, sewer, flooding, paving). At my office the landlord recently installed a Toto toilet, and I am effusive about it! I don't know which model it is, but it is amazing, and in inspecting it, I can see it has a double siphon below the bowl. The only thing I can't understand is why there aren't more double siphon toilets around, unless Toto has a patent on the double-siphon concept.

Let me explain briefly why the Toto is so simply amazing. Most toilets have a single siphon below the bowl that gets started when you dump water into the bowl (by flushing it the normal way or with a bucket) and then stops when the siphon gets broken either 1) by running out of water in the bowl and letting some air in the top (making that end-of-flush gurgle) or (and this is the catch) 2) by slowing down to the point that water dribbles away and lets air enter from the sewer and break the siphon. But Toto toilets have a second siphon near the floor that doesn't let the first siphon break until the flush is done and water runs out in the bowl. This forms what Toto calls a Power Gravity Flush. You get the vacuum effect of the entire height from the bowl down to the floor pulling the water and solids out of the bowl.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

I'm not throwing away my plunger (mine is orange) quite yet, but I'll be surprised if I need it.

Here's a nice feature Toto calls "SoftClose". This is a real-time video!




Whew! Happy New Year! :-)