Category: Jake

I’ve documented my plumbing troubles in the past, and it appears things are only going to get worse.

I had another issue in early December, and called Mike at Handy Rooter who has come out to my house in the past. He snaked the line with a water blaster, found some stuff to knock loose, we flushed the toilets and ran water for a while, no problems. He gave us a 30-day warranty and we thought we were good to go.

Two weeks later, water’s backing up into our drains again. He comes back out, goes out even further, nearly to the city hookup, and knocks out some more stuff. We ran more water for a while, no problems, so we thought we were good.

Two weeks later (four weeks after the original appointment, still under warranty) we get water back up again. He snakes it this time, all the way to the end of his snake (150 feet worth) and well up to city line. Wash, rinse, repeat, we appear to be OK.

This morning, my wife starts some laundry, we’re backing up again — she just called me at the office to tell me the wonderful news.

There’s no way that in less than a week we’d have a full-system clog like that in our sewer line. So we’re left with one of two options: There’s a problem in the City sewer line (which runs through our backyard — it’s an old, weird home). Or there’s a problem with our pipe, which I’m hoping it isn’t, but considering when two of the problems occurred (after big rain and after big snow melt off, followed by freeze), there’s a chance. To send one of those cameras up our pipe is going to be (minimum) $200 — which is $200 I certainly don’t have right now, so I’m hoping a phone call to the city will get them to come out and inspect their pipe.

But I have a feeling getting the city to come out and do it will be a pain in the rear. Anybody know anybody at the city of Bend that can poke them for me? Or does anybody know a plumber who has one of those cameras that owes you a favor? I just want to know one way or another. Then again, it’s not like I can afford to replace the pipe right now, either, as that’ll probably be a couple grand as I double my homeowners insurance will pay for it. But it’d be nice to know the problem, regardless.

Update on 1/5/08: Talked to the City, and they came out and looked at the flow coming out at the end, and things were flowing fine. So there’s a problem with something in our yard — frickin’ awesome. I need to find somebody who can run a camera under there and see what’s going on, as we have no drainage right now. Bloody frickin’ lovely…

Last night I noticed a huge pile of police cars in my neighborhood. I immediately locked the doors, and it’s a good thing I did, otherwise this guy might have paid a visit (he was arrested just a couple houses down from mine).

My cell phone contract is up for renewal, and while I like my Blackberry 8703e and like US Cellular’s phone coverage, I’ve found myself using the data plan quite a bit, and US Cellular’s data network in Central Oregon is slower than dial-up. I’ve already talked to the business folks there, and have flat out been told that they have no plans in the immediate future to upgrade their network to EVDO or anything faster than they have now, so I’m exploring moving to other options.

I’m also looking getting a Windows Mobile-based phone so I can install WMWiFiRouter and a variety of other available applications (VNC Client, SSH client, Citrix Client, blogging client, etc…). My boss has given me permission to transfer away from the company’s account with US Cellular to somewhere else and to get a new phone. Since times are tight, I’d like to try to get a deal to save my bosses some money, but I’d still like to get a phone and plan that will do everything I need and want to do.

While I’d like input on all this, here’s my thinking. AT&T is out of the question because I can’t port my number there because they’re not local (though they do have good roaming coverage using Unicel’s soon-to-be-defunct GSM towers), so the iPhone is out of the question — though I don’t think I’d want a phone that can only officially do what Apple says it can do via the app store. T-Mobile is out of the question (even though I already have an account there for my in-laws) because their 3G network network isn’t going to be up and going for a while here (though their G1 is a pretty cool phone). Verizon also has a tendency to cripple their phones and over price the same models compared to other companies.

So that leaves me with Sprint, and I’m leaning towards one of their Everything Plus plans and their HTC Touch Pro (with a few hacks to disable the fancy TouchFlo interface as I don’t need frilly crap). It has everything I need, and has a full Qwerty keyboard (as I can’t stand touch-screen keyboards). It’s also smaller than my Blackberry, and shorter and narrower (though thicker) than an iPhone 3g.

Anybody have any input either way, good or bad? Is my thinking flawed? Anybody have any contacts or hookups at any of these companies or on these phones that can get me a great deal (Sprint or otherwise)?

Update: And by the way: If anybody has a Sprint SERO plan they want to get rid of, contact me, as I’d be interested in taking it over.

In case you haven’t heard, the weather all over Oregon has been a cold, nasty mess this week, with the temps earlier this week dropping below zero (with high temps in the single digits — Fahrenheit degrees, not Celsius). There are some things I’ve learned throughout this:

• My car battery — which is about the size of a go-cart battery and equally as powerful — doesn’t seem to like the temps below 10°F. I had to jump my car or pop the clutch on both Monday and Tuesday when the temps were in single digits. Get above 10°F, and it starts fine. It struggles, but it starts. I actually had an old, fully functional, basically new car battery in my garage (long story) that I just put in my trunk and kept it in there with my cables in case I couldn’t find somebody to jump me or I didn’t park on a hill so I could pop the clutch (which is a pain in the cold, but still possible).
• People in the Willamette Valley totally freak out when there’s ice and snow. If you read some of the Portland-area blogs or even the newspapers from the area, it’s like the end of the world over there. Granted, I know that Portland is not built for that kind of thing, nor are its residents, but I had a great laugh, watching folks try to drive in it. Portland, Eugene, and Salem are ripe with mass transit options — why people aren’t using them up there when it gets like this is beyond me.
• People become retarded when driving in the crap. I drive to work down Hwy 97 to Sunriver from Bend — one of the ugliest stretches of highway this time of year — and am constantly seeing people a) Driving way too fast for the conditions (it’s a frickin’ skating rink, folks) and b) driving with out their headlights on blizzards (like it was on the highway today). I nearly rear-ended a few people today because I couldn’t see them until I nearly clobbered them. They’re in white cars, in white-out weather, with no lights on. And they think because they’re in a big ol’ SUV or pickup that they can still drive the speed limit (or over it). Frickin’ idiots.
• My headlights need cleaning. They’re pretty heavily oxidized, and when I drive home at night, I need all the help I can get. Any recommendations, other than the various solutions suggested on Google? Anything particular work for anybody?