Air Cleaner

One of my neighbors bought a 200 air purifier and as a free gift they sent a small Ionic Breeze cleaner. It stopped working after only a few days and the neighbor gave it to me since she was throwing it out anyway.

I took it apart, found the problem on the circuit board and repaired it. I've been using it for a few days and amazingly it actually works. It use metal plates that are electrically charged to collect dust. In theory I knew it should work, but I had my doubts.

After seeing the amount of black crap it has collected in only a few days and the absence of dust on surfaces, I am convinced it does what it says it does.

It even makes the air smell clean without any foreign smells like a spray cleaner would.

Everyone should have one of these. I don't know how much they cost, but free is a great price and the current draw is about the same as a digital clock.

Now the bigger $200 unit has filters and a fan, so that would add a few dollars to the electric bill, but it also cleans the air in a room in less then 5 minutes, where the small unit probably does not clean the whole room in 24 hours.

I've noticed I am not sneezing as much and my nose is only a little runny, so this is definitely something to put in the plus column.

Waterford Downtown Revitalization

While, the Waterford downtown revitalization program continued this week with a fire that destroyed 2 more aging buildings.

31 people lost everything, but on the bright side there is now another vacant lot, right accross from the vacant lot from the last fire.

This theme is common. Troy did the same revitalization last week destroying the old iron works.

Cohoes has not seen any fires lately, but a fews years back there was one after another.
If memory serves me correct, we lost 3 mills in one summer.

You should see all the vacant buildings and store fronts, it looks like a war zone.

HOT AS HELL

Everyone told me I would need 2 air conditioners. It's been in the 80's and even at night when the temp drops down to the 50's, it stays well into the 70's even with the A/C on all the time.

I've resorted to turning off all the lights and TV, not just to save power, but to cut down on the heat. It was 72 when I got up and I thought I could just open the window and turn off the A/C, but the temp rose to 88 in just 30 minutes. The halway is at least 100 degrees and that's with the windows open in the hall.

I noticed many people have had their A/C's put in the windows, but I have not seen any of them on. I know some people are still cold. It was 82 outside and people were getting their jackets because they were cold.

Now I know why people move to FL or AZ where it's 120 every day. When the circulation no longer works you feel cold and need external heat to compensate.

I guess after 50 you add 20 to your age and that's the temp you need it to be, so at 80 you need it to be 100 degrees. Me, I like the cold, not -20 cold, but 45 degrees sounds good to me.

I still don't know how people who need it to be so hot can take the winters. Do they just not go outside for 4 months ?

I'm sure June's electric bill will be high with the A/C on all the time. I find myself turning off all the lights and closing the doors. If I had a kid I could yell at them things like "Turn off all these lights, I'm not trying to own the electric company".

And the transformation would be complete.

I've weather stripped the door to stop the loss of cool air to the hallway. Every little bit helps.

Gas is 4.09 a gallon. Deisel is 4.99. NY is higher then most other places.

I saw an MSN story about how 10.00 a gallon gas would not cause a depression, only a recession and people would still drive just as much and cut back on everything else.

I think 10 / gallon is a stretch, but I thought 5.00 a gallon would never happen and it looks like we will be there by the end of the summer, so who knows.

It's been a bad week

It’s been a rough week.
My new TV, that is only 6 weeks old, has developed a blue tint. All my efforts to correct the problem have not worked. I can’t find how to do a factory reset, so I have an e-mail into RCA to see if they can tell me how to do a reset and hope that fixes the problem.

I bought it at Wal-Mart and I threw away the box, so I doubt they will take it back. Most likely I will have to ship it to a repair center and that will probably cost more the TV for shipping.
The quality is just not in the workmanship.

I’ve had some left side paralysis this week. It started Friday with the numbness and pain in the left arm. I get that once in a while, but it spread to my face and yesterday I was talking funny and my whole left side of the face was droopy.

As I write this I still have the pain and numbness in the left arm and also in the left foot. I had some mental confusion earlier in the week as well. I could not make sense of what I was reading. The words seemed to be reversed and I had a very hard time focusing my mind on anything. My vision also was blurry. The left eye is still blurry.

I have no idea what is causing this, but I’m sure it is not normal.
I can only hope that it does not get worse.

I’m wondering if my neighbor’s drug use could be causing any of this. There are several pot smokers on my floor, and I doubt that pot would cause any of these symptoms by itself, but who knows what it might be laced with.

There are also crack smokers on my floor. The smell is definitely of something burning, and it is from more than one apartment, and it is not food or pot. One of the only other “clean” people that live on my floor tells me it is crack. There have been 2 small fires in apartments that we believe were crack related. The most recent was last night.

This is not a safe building. I really don’t feel comfortable here.

Today I did not get to sleep till 11am and at 2pm I was jolted awake to a pounding on my door. The pounding was so loud and constant that I thought there must be an emergency. I opened the door to find a shaggy looking man that looked like a drug user / dealer. He was looking for one of my neighbors.

My guess is he either was making a delivery, looking to collect money, or in need of a fix. It was a scary experience.

I’m afraid to say anything to management for fear of retaliation.
I’m not sure what to do.

In other news, Randy, the guy from Greene, NY came on Sunday and picked up the 8 ½ foot dish. I hope he enjoys it. I was sad to see it go. It’s just one more piece of my life that I have to give up.

Most people by the time they hit their late 30’s have a wife and kids, or at least a girlfriend and many are trying to buy a home. This should be the time when I have built a solid foundation with a good job and a healthy relationship and be looking to the future and to all the good things to come.

Instead, I look to the future with dread of how much more I am going to lose.
There is no light at the end of the tunnel, no happy ending, no American dream.

I Could Have Been Somebody

Looking at this picture reminds me that there was a time when I could have had a normal life, a good life, that's all behind me now.

My 10 Foot Dish

This was my 10 foot dish. You can see my 8 foot dish on the ground. This picture was taken about 2 months before we lost our house. I worked all through the winter setting the dish up. In negative 10 degree weather with snow 4 feet deep. I loved my dish. The few months I had it up brought me much happiness in an otherwise depressing life.

One of my Satellite Dishes

This was my 12 foot dish that I gave to a girl I used to work with. She had no TV at all because of the mountains. I miss my dish. It brought much happiness to my life, but like everything that brings me joy, it gets taken from me.

I could no longer have the dish because I live in a high rise. I had it in my van for about a year. I kept hoping some day, some how, I would be able to put it back up again.

That day never came, and never will.

Welcome to my life.