[Monday 12/21: 4.4 miles ; Wednesday 12/23: 4.4 miles; Thursday 12/24: 6.1 miles; Friday 12/25: 3.0 miles]
With the winter holiday factory shutdown, I am off work between 12/24 and 1/04/2021. We had a nice quiet day on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas. Today I hope to get started on a couple of projects around the house. I also hope to make a trip to Des Moines sometime next week.
Word came on Facebook yesterday that the man who gave me my first job had passed away, Don Norem. He was elderly and had been living in Florida for a number of years after being a “snowbird” since retirement. When I worked for him he owned an old-fashioned meat market on East 30th Street in Des Moines. I know that he also was a tile setter and carpet layer, and probably did other things over his working career. My connection to him was through church.
This year has been strange for everybody. But here in the last few weeks it took an even stranger turn with the passing of my Uncle Ron; a classmate from highschool; another passing of a school acquaintance from long ago; and the piled on losses of my friend Jeff Winger (and my wife’s brother-in-law) with his mother and brother going in quick secession after loss of his father earlier this year. I don’t know any of these as being directly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a factor in any of them.
I’m glad to have my own parents, in-laws, siblings and children still healthy. Somehow my immediate household has been fairly steady in work, income, health and comfort for which I can only thank God and be amazed at His generosity toward me while others are suffering. I expect I should be doing more to think of them and not myself.
The project I wish to commence during my work break involves getting our detached garage correctly wired and updated. Right now the garage electrical circuit is fed by a piece of flying romex from the back porch light fixture. A switch in the kitchen effectively turns off all of the garage including the garage door openers… not cool.
So I have in hand a building permit to run a circuit from the main house panel to a sub-box in the garage.
The biggest obstacle will be getting the line through the basement wall which is approximately 12 inch thick limestone. I was looking around yesterday and it seems that all other modern utility entrances penetrate via the window frames or replaced window panes and don’t go through the stone. I think our gas service was the only one coming through the actual stone but that wasn’t completely uncovered so I couldn’t see the details. Adding to the difficulty is that some resident before us put up 2×4 studs, insulation and particle board finish on the inside of the basement walls in most places. And the exterior finish of the house is a molded concrete fake-stone pattern finish of indeterminate thickness. So my actual basement walls from air to air are probably 18 inches (?). It is very hard to see exactly what is happening.
I think we will start by putting the boxes and wiring in the open-stud garage walls and get that all sorted out. Then we can do the wall penetrations and trench digging for the underground feed, which will be less than 20 ft I expect.
I have a quote from a rock-drilling company to do the heavy work if I can’t figure it out myself. It would probably end up being about half of the total project cost.
2 replies on “Goodbye to 2020”
The last time I visited Des Moines (I think? Probably December 2006.), I stayed at a motel near the fairgrounds. It was newer. The area looked different than what I remembered and I later researched what was there before: the meat market. Maybe that’s what paid for the retirement in Florida?
An alternative for wiring might be to go up through the house floor to exit the structure over the height of the basement wall – perhaps along an existing pipe way in an exterior wall (if there is one to be found anywhere close). Then exit the house a few feet up above the basement wall, then back down and into the earth. If the house had a coal furnace at one time then there could be an opening for that somewhere. Even if not near the garage it may be a way to go as wire is not expensive. (It’s a different world there than here. You can’t buy anything here without things passing inspections, the work having permit paperwork on file.)
I like Jon’s idea of going above the top of the stone. I also would try to keep electrical away from the downspout if possible. But that’s probably just me. You’ve got a great storm shelter. Merry Christmas!