Friday, November 30, 2007

Zappity-do-don't

I put a second coat of paint on the bathroom ceiling and walls this morning, and figured out the layout for the tile floor. While the paint was drying, I rolled out the grid for the radiant heat, and started hooking it up. I was listening to music ("Master of the House" from Les Misérables) and happily working away. (*cue the suspenseful music as the protagonist realizes something may be amiss*). When I went to strip the end of a wire, I got that little tingle that reminded me that this junction box is not switched, just the ones for the lights and fan are. But the it's now safely installed, and I'm ready to start tiling the bathroom floor. And yes, I'm generally more careful with electrical stuff, and doubly so with 240V circuits.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Painting

I've been working away on the bathroom. Wiring for the radiant heating, taping and mudding the drywall, wet sanding and more mud, etc. Doing a smooth coat instead of texture (recommended for bathrooms and kitchens, because it's easier to keep clean) is a lot less forgiving of irregularities.

We spent a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with Katarina's mom up in the mountains where she lives, so not much got done last week. I got back to things today, and primed the ceiling and walls. Priming is my least favorite painting, because it's hard to see what you're doing, with white primer on white drywall compound. But it's very important, particularly in a high humidity environment like a bathroom, so it must be done.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Green Enough?

An interesting article over at Rolling Stone, a discussion with James Lovelock, the guy who came up with the Gaia concept (the earth as a single 'organism' that adjusts and regulates itself over time) as well as a number of brilliant things like the Electron Capture Detector (ECD) that helped figure out the hole in the ozone. He thinks the effects of global warming will be worse and come sooner than most of the current predictions, to the point of most of the current 'green' movement stuff being irrelevant in the long term.

He's the first to admit he might be wrong, but part of me fears he's at least partly right, or closer to right than most, even if it's not quite as dire as "The Day After Tomorrow" (or as dire and silly as "Waterworld", though Dennis Hopper is definitely fun to watch in that.) Some of Lovelock's critics are upset because they're afraid it will cause some people to give up and do nothing about global warming. There are already enough people who are quite willing, nay eager, to dismiss global warming and the whole green movement as some left-wing conspiracy.

So what are we to do? Do the best we can, I guess. And pray that's enough.