Comfort Zone Heater Warning

Occasionally this blog deviates from the subject of running.

We recently did a calculation which showed that the cost of resistive electric heat was LESS than the cost of oil heat, the tipping point being about $2.50 per gallon of oil. So we bought an electric space heater for the TV room.

It's the Comfort Zone Model CZ40 two-speed 1500-watt fan heater with thermostat, made by Howard Berger Co., Inc., date code 0707CX, bought at a local Menards. We ran it on the porch for a while to burn off the "new" smell, and then put it to work, turned up high, for two or three hours last night.

This morning when we turned it on the "new" smell appeared once more. On closer examination, the heater was MELTING! The fan was running. The arrows in the picture show where the plastic is distorted from the heat. Click to enlarge.



When I touched the plastic at a distorted spot, it felt very soft but not very hot. I'm not a plastics engineer, but it's my opinion that the plastic has a melting point far too low for a 1500-watt heater. We had the heater on the floor, a foot in front of the TV furniture and four feet from any other obstructions; there was NO interference with air flow; we know better.

It's made in China, of course. It makes me wonder if the Chinese substituted a different plastic after Howard Berger's representatives left their plant. In any case, I sure won't be buying any more Howard Berger products.

Our unit is dangerous - DO NOT BUY THE COMFORT ZONE MODEL CZ40! If you have one, please check right away for softness in the plastic when turned up high.

Providian Bank and Questionable Bill Collection Tactics

Once in a while this blog deviates from the subject of running.

In the past week or so we have received several calls from a company called Elite Recovery Services, a bill collection agency. They claim to be authorized to collect a bad debt owed by someone with the same name as mine, on behalf of Providian Bank, a VISA credit card company. Providian Bank's web site says that they are now known as Washington Mutual Card Services. Apparently Providian Bank was bought by Washington Mutual bank (WAMU) headquartered in Seattle. Whatever.

Providian Bank has the right to collect its debts, but the problem is that their agent, Elite Recovery Services, does not seem to operate in an ethical and legal manner. In fact I can't be certain they actually do represent Providian Bank, because they rarely tell the truth. I have never had a card from Providian, nor have I ever stiffed a creditor, but these people don't accept that answer. Here are a few of the things they have done that I believe may be illegal or unethical:

• They have called repeatedly, which may be harassment under the law;
• I have asked them to send the federally-required "validation notice," and they actually refused to do so ("you ain't gettin' no letter!");
• On three occasions I have asked them for their mailing address so that I could send them my request for validation, and they refused to give me their address!;
• On one occasion they told me that they had sent me many letters, and even recited my own address back to me, but I have never received any mailings, so that was a lie and perhaps a "deceptive practice" under federal law;
• Today they called with a recorded message, which I believe is against Minnesota law.

This has actually happened to me before; my name is fairly common. I get the feeling that these scumbags look up several people with the same name as the debtor and harass them all, hoping that one will be the correct one. It's not a problem for the long term, but it's certainly an irritation right now. They have a job to do, but they don't have to be unethical.

I'm sending letters to Elite Recovery Services, Providian Bank, and Washington Mutual at the addresses I have found on the internet. We'll see what happens.

DSL versus Cable

The storm hit at about 3:00 am, Saturday morning nine days ago. It did a lot of damage, taking out eleven big trees along with electric power and cable. Power has been restored for seven days now. In fact the power company was heroic, thank you Xcel Energy! But cable is still out after nine days. Because we can receive broadcast TV signals this is no huge problem, of course, but what if we had cable for internet service?

We don't. We have DSL from the telephone company, whose lines are buried and much less susceptible to storm damage than cable. It did fail for a few hours, because DSL requires repeaters to get all the way from their office out to our home, and those repeaters require power from the power company. But that power was restored in a few hours, so DSL was back.

We have a generator which can support the water pump, heating, refrigeration, TV, and computers. Therefore, we had internet access during nearly all of the nine days, even before power was restored to our home.

But if we had cable for internet service, we would still be without internet after more than nine days. It's one thing to be without cable for TV, quite another to be without internet, especially since my business depends in part on internet access. Now that I think of it, what if we had telephone service from the cable company? Nine days without 911 or anything else.

Comcast says they are working on it. They say that every day when we call. Today they have "escalated" the problem and are "putting together a team." But they also said that it was already escalated, from previous calls that we had made.

Cable adapter laying on the ground:

Power to the People

Especially us. Our power is back!

Yesterday we spent another full day in the yard cleaning up downed trees. Here is Don turning downed trees into firewood and piles of branches. These are basswood trees, flattened by a larger ash tree when it fell.


Mid-afternoon, the power company showed up to figure out how they would restore our power. They needed to bring in big trucks to set a pole, and the power pole location was halfway up a hill and in the middle of a woods.

Hence, we needed a road. Happily, friend Jim and our son both showed up at about that time to help. Together with Sunshine and Sweet Pea, and with three chain saws, we chewed through a couple of hundred feet of woods and cleared a road of sorts to the pole location.


We took down trees, cut stumps to the ground, cleared brush, and sawed through the "top" of a giant white oak that had fallen across the power lines.


Three guys, happy because the project was now entirely in the hands of the power company, who were promising to stay until power was restored, regardless how long it took. And they did.


Linemen at the top of the newly-set pole, attaching the transformer and connecting wires. This was a crew from Minnesota Power Company in Eveleth, MN, brought down here by our power company to help handle the huge amount of work created by the storm.


Today, looking up the new road toward the new pole and power transformer, top center.


Today, looking back from the pole to the street.


I've spent three full days working on this storm damage. Work is done in the yard now, so today is a day off, but there is a lot more work to do in our little woods. Hopefully someone will want some firewood, and be willing to help cut it and haul it out.

All three days I wore my heaviest steel-toe work boots, with the orthotics in them. No plantar fasciitis pain. Plans for a 1.5-mile run last Saturday were interrupted by the storm, but maybe tomorrow.

For more on life without power, see Sunshine's blog.

Perfect Storm

Well, not really perfect, but we're glad it wasn't. As it was, last night's storm took down several mature trees and rendered several more fit only for the chainsaw.

One big red oak came THIS close to the house, but damaged only the deck railing. The branches were actually bent up against the glass doors of the house.


Here's Don sawing and carrying the debris away. It would have been more enjoyable, except the weather was so hot and muggy.


Two well-loved trees fell here. No more morning shade on the driveway. So sad for those trees.


This was a huge red oak that gave shade from the midday sun. It was once quite splendid, but was very mature and this was its time to go. Still, we will miss it. It fell right on top of a woodpile - how convenient!


Our pole transformer is supposed to be up in the air! The pole fell down, transformer and all, skidding part way down the hill. We still don't have power from the power company, but we do have a little putt-putt generator that keeps the water pump, refrigerator, and internet going, though not the air conditioning.


Today was to be the first 1.5-mile run while recovering from the plantar fasciitis, but reality intervened.

Favorite Trail is Open

I ran on my most favorite trail today, the first time this season. There is a marvelous two-rut road alongside the tracks that go through the town of Lake Woebegone, maintained (barely) as a service road by the railroad. It is soft everywhere, even a little muddy in places today, but littered here and there with fairly large ankle-threatening stones which have fallen down from the raised rail bed. I love this trail. Though it presents a mild risk, it keeps me literally on my toes, and the softness of the ground makes it like a slight uphill. It’s actually quite flat, of course, entirely free of traffic, and almost entirely free of people. Perhaps an occasional walker, but no runners. Friends and family who have run this trail with me have been uniformly underwhelmed. It’s my place, and apparently mine alone.

Today the railroad gods even honored me with a short 10-car train rumbling by eight feet away as I ran in the opposite direction. The engineer waved. Eagle Momma worries about trains, wants me to be aware of escape routes in case of a derailment. I think about that anyway; she needn’t worry. Today I would have had to pitch headlong down an embankment to get away if the rumble turned into a CRASH - CRUNCH. No problem, I sure would have. :-) I love everything about trains, including the rush from being that close to so many tons of thundering, hurtling machinery. Today is a masterpiece already! The only thing better is actually riding on the train.

The run wasn’t bad either. Eight miles on the soft trail, then five more on hilly neighborhood roads, all in 1:53:23, pace 8:43. Pace for the first eight 8:39, and for the last five 8:51. I did stop to talk to some guys drilling test holes in the road (to bring city water and sewer to our woebegone neighborhood) and didn’t account for that, so the time might be a slight bit better. Never mind, it’s good enough. This is supposed to be an easy week and I’m playing that to the max.

Temp 34, wind 15 (plenty breezy). I wore tights and two tech shirts underneath a wind jacket; perfect. My sweeties met me on the five-mile leg of the run; that was very nice. A great day to be alive.

Victory Has Been Had

I hope! So far so good. This is a top view of the old, leaking pressure tank. It's in a "well pit," which once also contained the well itself but now has only the pressure tank. Because of the leak, the pit has about four inches of water in it after some bailing. Work was done in overshoes.



Here's the new system. Lots more fittings and components required to meet current code (though we don't overly fret about that in Lake Woebegone). A total of 32 different joints, mostly threaded pipe joints and glued plastic joints. No leaks, or at least none that spurted. Yet. I'll check for oozy leaks tomorrow. We were without water for about five hours, including TWO more trips to Menards. The water in the well pit will slowly leak out and eventually the floor will be dry. I took a shower, and we do seem to have more pressure than before.


The old, rusty stuff.

Still no side effects from the thalidomide. I'm going to stop saying that until there are any. Maybe there won't be. Long run tomorrow.

Pressure Tank

NSP Community Center indoor track, 8 mi 1:06:39, pace 8:20. Uneventful run; I felt a little sluggish at the start but that got better. No pains, 108 laps (uff-da). But better than a dreadmill. Splits: 8:26, 8:14, 8:17, 8:23, 8:27, 8:29, 8:24, 7:59.


Big project today (and yesterday and probably tomorrow): replacing the pressure tank for our well system. The old one has started to leak, and probably has only days of life left. The new one will be a captive-air tank, so I won’t need to add air every year. Very slow job for me, because I’m not very experienced and there are LOTS of parts involved: new pressure switch, check valve, pressure gauge, gate valve, hose valve, pressure relief valve, etc. And, once I cut those old pipes, there is no going back! I need to get it right the first time, because we will have no water until it’s working correctly.

Still no symptoms from the thalidomide :-)

99 Things About Me

100 Things are way too many. Humility demands less.

1. I’m sufficiently full of myself to actually sit and write 99 things about me. Uff-da.

2. I’m embarrassed to publish it though - we’ll see whether I do. Maybe I’ll sneak it in the sidebar.

3. But I do find this an interesting exercise of introspection.

4. I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. I love Duluth. Is that two things? Too bad.

5. When I’m in Duluth I like to run up and down the hills overlooking Lake Superior. Who wouldn’t?

6. I’ve been married to my best friend and lover since 1963. :-)

7. I have two sons and a daughter, all adults, and a yummy little grandson.

8. Except for six errant months, I’ve lived my whole life in Minnesota.

9. I’m a computer consultant in a very narrow, specialized area of computing.

10. I’m a lawyer, but don’t practice much law.

11. I measure races for certification, using a calibrated bike, a tape measure, and oodles of spray paint.

12. Besides that I’m retired. It’s an attitude more than a reality, so I can run whenever I please.

13. I shoot for 40 miles per week running and often make it. Schedule.

14. But when I run lots of marathons, I’m either in taper or recovery too much to run 40. Ah, well.

15. I like to run with other people.

16. But when I run alone I like that too. I’m good company for myself.

17. I have myeloma, a cancer of the blood. My Myeloma.

18. I have no symptoms from myeloma yet; it’s in an early stage.

19. I know there is no cure, but I hope to hold it off long enough to die of running or laughing instead.

20. I believe that keeping a healthy body may help fight it.

21. I like sweets but try to avoid them because sugar feeds the cancer.

22. I feel a kinship with Lance Armstrong; a favorite book is “It’s Not About the Bike.”

23. I’m going for 50 states. Will I make it?

24. Four new states in 2006: AR, TN, ND, & NY.

25. Twelve states at the end of 2006.

26. Twenty marathons at the end of 2006; qualified for Boston in 15 of those 20.

27. If there is a run scheduled for tomorrow morning, I go to bed looking forward to it. Usually there is.

28. Some of the time when I’m running, I wish I was done.

29. Other times I feel wonderful, drifting past the world on winged feet.

30. Always, always when I’m done I’m really glad I did it. There is only one thing that feels better *wink*.

31. I’m quite certain that nobody will read this far. If you have, get a life! :-)

32. I graduated from the U of Minn in electrical engineering just after the Big Bang.

33. I started William Mitchell law school at the age of 53, finished four years later.

34. I loved law school, despite the very hard work. Most of my classmates didn’t.

35. I haven’t practiced law very much. I enjoyed the learning more.

36. In high school and college I learned Spanish, but I’ve forgotten most of it.

37. Now I wish I knew American Sign Language. I want to learn it. One day I will.

38. I’ll be 66 in January, 2007.

39. My mom & dad are both alive, living at home, and doing well; I’m so proud.

40. My favorite marathon is Moose Mountain, on the Superior Trail northeast of Duluth.

41. Nothing is more beautiful to me than nature, and that trail is exquisitely varied.

42. I’ve never won anything in the Lottery. Perhaps I should buy a ticket someday.

43. I joined Weight Watchers in February 2002. I went weekly then, and still go once a month.

44. I was “portly,” (yup!) but I’ve lost about 45 pounds since then.

45. Now I weigh about 150, and for me that’s anything but portly. More like gaunt.

46. As a lifetime weight watcher, I write down my food points and exercise points in a daily journal.

47. Keeping those in balance, I neither gain nor lose weight. Weight Watchers works.

48. I’m a power TV watcher. I admit it. So shoot me.

49. I’ve been to Australia, Hong Kong, India, Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands,
Belgium, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Bahamas, Canada, and most states.

50. Never been to Mexico or Alaska, but I’d like to, especially Alaska.

51. I’ve been really drunk twice in my life. Apparently I didn’t learn the first time.

52. I’ve never, ever, taken an illegal drug. Of course now that I’m a runner there’s really no need.

53. I usually finish a marathon in the top 10% of my age group. Usually.

54. But I know lots of men my age who are faster than me.

55. I like WordPerfect much better than Microsoft Word. But their customer service sucks.

56. If I had to choose between sex and running I would stop running. Glad I don’t have to choose.

57. In the winter I love to run my snow-blower and kick snow! :-)

58. But overall I’m not as enthused about winter as I used to be. Gaunt = cold.

59. My favorite season is fall. I look forward to it all summer.

60. I love trees. Pretty much all trees. Not big on yard work, but I usually get the leaves picked up.

61. I’m an eagle scout. Before the Big Bang.

62. I was an amateur radio operator, but let my license lapse years ago. Tsk.

63. I’ve never reacted to poison ivy, but loved ones have, so I murder it on sight. Don’t be poison ivy!

64. I’m licensed by the US Patent and Trademark Office to practice patent law, but I never have.

65. I was in cross-country in high school.

66. I quit because I threw up at the end of every race. Girls didn’t like that. I didn’t much like it either.

67. I still get an upset stomach after a race if I eat beforehand. So I don’t, problem solved.

68. I started running again in 2002 because my wife’s brother invited us to a race, bless his heart.

69. I thought I should train a little, and it felt so good that I got hooked!

70. Later that summer I won my age group in a big race and was really hooked. I still have the plaque.

71. I love a latte in the morning. I go to sleep looking forward to it.

72. And a beer in the evening. I look forward to it all day.

73. Sometimes two beers on long-run days. Hydration is important :-)

74. I rarely have any alcoholic drink other than beer. Maybe wine with a family dinner.

75. When we were first married, my wife made me chocolate-chip pancakes every morning. Honest.

76. Now it’s organic eggs and oatmeal. Not as sweet, but it makes me just as happy.

77. I think she’s just wonderful.

78. My favorite food is a cold naval orange, eaten two segments at a time.

79. I believe in God.

80. But I’m quite skeptical of organized religion. It’s mainly a way to control people and cause war.

81. I doubt that we humans have more than a faint understanding of the nature of God.

82. I was once the chairman of my county’s Republican party. Hard even for me to believe.

83. I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, more or less.

84. I’m not welcome in the Republican party any more, and that’s not because I changed.

85. I was opposed to the Iraq war before President Bush started it.

86. I’m angry with him for squandering America’s lives and fortune for no reason.

87. My head hurts thinking about it. Let’s think about anything else.

88. I roast a pig every year. If you know me and don’t get an invitation, please call or write.

89. When I was younger I wanted a sporty car like a Sprite. Fatherhood and common sense interceded.

90. When I got older I bought a white 1999 Saturn Coupe. It’s quite satisfactory :-)

91. I love to travel by train, especially by Amtrak or ViaRail in a sleeper. That is living! But $$$.

92. I don’t play an instrument, but I like to sing in a church choir.

93. I don’t sing in a choir now because I’m running so many Sunday mornings.

94. My real name is actually Don. Well, Donald, to be even more real.

95. I love my wife so much.

96. And all of my children.

97. And my grandson. He’s so precious.

98. At bottom, I’m a pretty happy person.

99. See - 100 things would have been too many :-)

Cuter than Cute

I'm still learning how to upload images and put them in the right places.



This is our grandson. I just love him.