Ooooh… here’s a good idea – make it seem like you’re stealing from Saddam!

Subj:  FROM SGT DAVE GODWIN.
Date:  Monday, December 29, 2008 9:17 AM
From:  dave.godwin1@gmail.com
—————————————————————-
From Sgt Dave Godwin.

Good Day,

I found your contact particulars in an E-mail address guide that was
provided to us here, as I desperately needed an urgent help to do this deal.
I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $15m Fifteen Million
U.S Dollars only to you; as far as I can be assured that my share will be
safe in your care until I complete my service here.

SOURCE OF FUND: A lot of money in various currencies were discovered in
barrels at a farmhouse near one of saddams old palaces in Tikrit in Iraq
during an operation Conquest in Fallujah north of Baghdad, and it was agreed
by Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff and I that some part of this money be shared
among both of us before informing anybody about it since both of us saw the
money first. This is quite an illegal thing to do, but well tell you what?
no compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in
this hell hole, of which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb
last time.

The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of
money became a problem for me, so with the help of a British Contact working
here, at Southern Basra British fortified green zone, whose office enjoys
some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely
out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package, and
believes that it belongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in a
raid here in Baghdad, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the
package to his family in United States. I have now found a much secured way
of getting the package out of Iraq to you, for you to pick it up, and I will
discuss this with you when I am sure that you are willing to assist me, and
I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand because you have
fear of God.

I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the
assistance you will give me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not
to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this
offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this
information will be too bad and catastrophe for soldiers here in Iraq. I do
not know how long we will remain here, but I hope to have a shift very soon
for me to return back to the States. I have been shot and wounded twice and
I have survived two terrible suicides bomb attacks just by special grace of
God, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach
out for help, I will honestly want this matter be resolved immediately.

I thank you so much for everything and anticipate that you will be
trustworthy and handle this transaction to the best of your ability to
benefit both of us.

God Bless you and your family.

Yours Sgt. Dave Godwin.

The highest recommendation made during my energy audit was to add insulation in the attic.  Since the second floor has a vaulted ceiling i could only add insulation in the area over the living room, dining room, and kitchen – the front of the house.  When i moved in it had a layer of R11 insulation and looked like this.

R11 insulation

The ceiling joists are 24 inches apart and are 2x6s.  I found a few bales of R11 insulation and a few years ago rolled them out perpendicular to the joists.

First, i rolled up the second layer of R11 insulation.  I figured that the gaps caused by the 2×6 being taller than the first course of R11 would end up being a channel for the warmed air to escape.  Then i took the R38 insulation and just laid it out on top of the insulation you see in the above photo.

R38 added.

You can see that there is a vast increase in the amount of insulation.  I took care to make sure that seams were pretty tight.  I rolled out one of the bales of R11 on top of the R38 – perpendicular to the joists again.  But the stuff i have is faced and I worry about moisture retention within the insulation.

There are no eave vents or gable vents.  I’m thinking of adding a gable mounted solar powered attic fan.  In the spring I’ll work on adding vents to the eaves.

The simple formula below will convert the watts of an electric item into the annual price to operate it if it is on all year.  Where WATT is put the wattage f the item (usually found on the back of the item).  Where it says RATE enter your electric utility rate in a decimal of a dollar.

((WATT*24)/1000)*RATE*365

For instance…

((1*24)/1000)*.118*365

…is the formula for an LED nightlight.  Just copy and paste that formula into Google and it will do the math for you!

Running the nightlight all day and all year will cost me $1.03.

I’m using this to shop around for continuous use fans to help reduce the humidity in the house.

Today’s word is triboluminescence. (Yes, i know that i’ve never had a word of the day before.) Triboluminescence is the name of the result observed when you chew wintergreen candies in the dark with your mouth open.

Apparently scientists still do not know quite exactly what is going on that produces the light.

This time of year i always remember the wintergreen candies that my grandmother keeps out on a table.  I should find some of them.

Weather.com's "Today in Petersburg"

I checked the weather forecast for the next few days on weather.com tonight.  I see that they claim to have information on airport delays and rush hour traffic.  We don’t really have airport delays – we have airline delays.  And our rush hour is a rush 5 minutes.  Check the rush 5 minute traffic by looking ahead of you or in your mirrors.

A previous post had a comment form someone…

Are you from Rochester, NY by some chance?

I sent him an email letting him know that i did grow up in the area… why?

His reply…

When I saw your picture on your website I thought you bore a striking resemblance to a man I worked with at the Xerox Corporation by the name of Doug McFarland.  Doug was very proud of Ryan and used to tell us stories of his growing fairly often.  Around 1974 at a group picnic I took a picture of his son (Ryan McFarland) that I thought you might enjoy seeing…..assuming of course that you are Doug’s son.  If you are not Doug’s son, I apologize for having bothered you.

Photo Copyright Jos William Bynum.

Plumbers

Originally uploaded by zieak

Hrm. I have not had good luck with plumbers. This is a 2 inch copper pipe leaking in the wet wall between the men and women’s locker rooms at the 2 year old pool. I had to crawl into a tiny crawlspace and shimmy 20 feet to get to this spot. We put a temporary cover over the leak. How exactly some certified plumber is going to get in there I will love to see. Hopefully this is under warranty – this should have been caught during pressure testing. who knows how long it has been leaking.

Beardlet pony tail

Originally uploaded by zieak

Lately I have been pulling my facial hair into a pony tail of sorts to keep it under control. The director of the TV show that i’ll be on for the cart bike really liked it. He shot some footage of it up close and asked some questions about it and the competition.

The latest beard

Originally uploaded by zieak

A few months ago I trimmed my beard down to just a thin goatee. It’s getting pretty long. This is what i’ll probably be entering at the World Beard and Moustache Championships. I have another 5 months of growth ahead of me. It won’t win any prize in the goatee category but the whole experience will be worth it.

Battery cover engraved

Originally uploaded by zieak

I didn’t bring much to throw in the laser engraver. We used my cell phone and initially tried doing the Zoom Bikes logo. But it had quite a bit of grey (gray?) so didn’t work. I went with the old "Zieak enterprises" standby.