Memoirs of a Board Gamer

If I had to look for a silver lining about not having a contract it would have to be getting the opportunity to do some plumbing...or maybe falling and snapping both femurs in half.

A few years after adding onto our house and some settling had occurred, we started hearing this strange noise in the closet wall behind my games and in the heating duct in the floor in our bedroom (directly above the game cabinet). The noise only occurred when the water or shower was turned on in the upstairs bathroom (above the closet). It sounded like dripping (sort of) coupled with the heating duct bonking like metal warping one direction and then another a few times. The sounds would last about 30-45 seconds and then stop. Turning the water off and on didn't make it come back and you'd have to wait a significant amount of time for it to happen again (hours). It was worse in the winter.

After some investigation and trials I determined that it was only when the hot water was turned on. It's slowly been getting worse and it's started to drive me nuts. So, I decided to clean out the closet and cut through the drywall to expose what was going on back there. Luckily, when we built the house I had taken lots of photos of the walls after plumbing and HVAC were installed but before drywall so I knew where everything was.

After opening up this hole in the closet wall, a hole in the ceiling and a hole farther up the wall next to the ceiling I found my problems.

The first problem was that settling had allowed the hot water pipe to be forced against the ductwork feeding a bedroom register. The expansion of the hot water pipe was rubbing against the duct.

My second problem was that the pipe was being forced hard against the side of the hole drilled through the ends of three studs heading the wall in the closet. Again, the expansion of the pipe was causing minute rubbing against a knot in the 2x4s making the tiny "drip drip" sounds. Once the pipe expanded fully the noises would stop and only after cooling down and contracting would it happen again.

So, I exposed the ends of the header studs to free up the pipe and that allowed it to move away from the duct about 1/8". I went ahead and placed an insulated foam pad between the pipe and the duct for good measure. I'm now in the process of patching all of the drywall but I'm a happy camper. No major problems, no major issues, no trips to the hardware store, and no money needed for the fixes.

We decided to vote early rather than face the long lines at our local ward like we did in 2004. Unfortunately everybody else had the same idea. After the wait to get inside the building, you had to spiral up the stairs and down a long hallway to get to the back of the building where you registered and had your ballot printed. You then took your ballot to a free booth to fill in the little circles to cast your votes. The ballots had to be printed specifically for you so that you could vote on the additional issues presented only to your assigned ward.

All in all it was fine. We took our kids with us and they stood right beside us as we voted. We wanted to show them what it was like. The 2 hour wait was worth it; our votes are cast and we can relax. What made me feel a little strange was realizing that my daughter will be able to vote in the next presidential election. Man, I'm getting old.

Last night's debate between Obama and McCain has been analyzed by FactCheck.org. To find out who was more accurate in their statements (or misstatements as the case may be), take a look here:

Debate #1 Analysis at Factcheck.org

Woohoo! The power is back on and Lisa and I are working through the aftermath of the chest freezer in the basement. What we just now realized is that the power stops at our house. Our neighbor has no power along with everyone on the other side of them. The other side of the street also remains dark.

Here's a shot of us playing Lexio one of the nights:

It's getting a little old not having power now. Supposedly, our power will return tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath. We played Lexio last night by candlelight. That's the first time Noah and Sophie have played and they asked to learn so I can't complain about that.

Oh, In the Shadow of the Emperor came in the mail yesterday. Unfortunately it was getting pretty dark when I got home so I didn't get a chance to fondle the bits very much.

To enhance our commuting pleasure already slowed by the stop lights being out on the main road, they decided to start paving it...at night.

Not much exciting yesterday. We seem to be falling into a routine of sitting around the kitchen table behaving like Abraham Lincoln and reading by candlelight. The paper this morning published a map that looked like our area might have power in a couple of days.

I did manage to complete two BGG board game trades in the last three days though. I swapped Chaos Tiles for In the Shadow of the Emperor. Shadow is an area influence game but the neat thing is that the bits you place to indicate majority "age/decay" and become weaker as the game progresses. It only supports four players, a bit of a bummer, but I'm looking forward to getting it to the table.

I also dumped On the Underground for a Face 2 Face version of Winner's Circle. The game is fun and fast-paced horse racing game for up to six players who bet on horses running at the track. Really looking forward to this one.

As Tuesday morning rolls around, we're still without power. We spent yesterday evening with Lisa's sister who lives north of Columbus but as we drove home, the number of lights slowly dwindled into blackness. A neighbor, a few doors down, must have scored a generator somewhere and had it bellowing out at full blast until around 9:30. We were just talking about how quiet it is when the electricity is off but all we could hear was that damned generator whining away trying to keep lit what appeared to be every single light in the house including landscaping lights. Silly.

The paper this morning said if that you don't have power now...it might be up to six days before you do. I'd better stock up on some more candles.

The aftermath of Hurricane Ike swept through central Ohio yesterday and the power went out around 4pm. After gusting winds of up to 75 mph, there are trees and limbs down everywhere. All of the schools have canceled classes today, street lights are out everywhere, and I had to swerve around downed limbs and trees on my street this morning. They say that the power will be out for days which wouldn't surprise me a bit.

I finished the restoration project and we brought it up into the eat-in area of our kitchen today.

For years, the table served as Lisa's grandparent's kitchen table and it served a short portion of its life in Lisa's kitchen while she was growing up. For the most of her life she remembers it sitting in the basement serving years as a utility table for crafts, reloading shotgun shells, making Christmas decorations for her parent's Christmas tree farm, and as a general workbench for clamping materials to while sawing, hammering, etc.

When Lisa's parents moved out of their farm house in '94 the top was removed and it was stored at their new house. We took possession of the table several years ago and it sat in our unheated and damp garage until Lisa started stripping it. I pulled it into the woodshop and began the arduous process of repairing veneer and structural damage as well as the circular saw cut in the edge.

We're going to try it out as our kitchen table and give it a few more years of service.