Breaker, Breaker
09:49 Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 65.03°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 2.95mph
Words: 644
I'm taking a break. My brain's tired.
One of the projects that I started back in May when I began the move was to document the circuit breaker panel. It was not well documented on the panel door, and I had little idea what breakers controlled which outlets and switches.
So I turned off breakers one at a time and went around the house and tried to see what didn't work, and put little round stickers on them with the breaker number. (I discovered just a few minutes ago that I mis-read "18" as "16". I think I need to go over the numbers on the panel with a Sharpie.)
My intention was to make a document that had all this stuff documented so I knew what controlled what and where.
But there's that step where you convert intention into action, and that little project always seemed to be a lower priority than, say, taking down the fence.
Well, Mitzi's pretty tired of the colored stickers everywhere, so I figured I'd get that little project done while she was away. She's coming back today, and of course it's not done. So I figured I'd knock it out this morning.
Well, fans of science fiction are probably aware of Anderson's Law:
I’ve yet to see any problem, however complicated, which when you looked at it the right way didn’t become still more complicated.
Yep. Not as simple as I'd hoped. But I think I've got the structure right now. Just have to add the data.
This house has only four rooms, the main space, the bedroom, the bathroom/laundry and the utility closet. But switches and outlets need locations, so I've divided the house up into eleven spaces.
I created a "Space" prototype in Tinderbox with three Displayed Attributes, Switch, Outlet and Appliance. Switch and Outlet attributes are sets, numbers separated by semi-colons with no duplicates. So each switch in the house will have its own number, as will each outlet.
I created "Switch" and "Outlet" prototypes that have Breaker and Space as Displayed Attributes. (It occurs to me just now that I'm going to want to document what is usually plugged into each outlet. So that'll be another attribute, maybe call it "Serves.") The Breaker attribute will just be a number, naturally; and Space is a string.
I created an Appliances prototype for equipment that is always connected, either hardwired or plugged in, which have their own breaker.
Breakers are a little complicated because we usually draw the number of the breaker from its location in the panel, but some breakers are ganged together, occupying two spaces in the panel that aren't numbered consecutively. That's kind of easily displayed on the drawing on the panel door, but it's a little funkier when you're trying to do it in an outline, or as a list. Not a big deal, but it annoys me.
So, how to go about numbering switches and outlets? I'm starting in the utility closet which only has one switch and one outlet (but three appliances), so that's easy. Then we step out into the bathroom where there are four switches and three outlets. What convention do I establish for numbering them? Counter-clockwise (because we're in the northern hemisphere, of course)? Or clockwise?
Because it kind of has to be the same for each space. I think I'm going CCW, and that way when I step out of the bathroom I'll start with the kitchen and work my way around the house and do the bedroom last (counter-clockwise in there as well), with the final outlet on the exterior of the bedroom wall that divides the bedroom from the bathroom and I doesn't fit neatly into either the bedroom, the kitchen or the bathroom.
Well, I'd better press on, or it's not going to get done at all.
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06:06 Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 50.5°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0.72mph
Words: 437
Note the temperature, please. It's actually a little warmer up here, 52°F. I wore pants yesterday, instead of shorts.
I was thinking about what I was going to blog about this morning and my inbox provided the answer. I'd been updating our address at all of my various accounts. USAA noticed and sent me an email saying that our vehicle locations may have to be updated.
So I logged into USAA and began that process, which is probably something I didn't need to be doing at 0530, as it involves changing coverage since Florida and New York have different insurance regulations. I did the best I could to try and match our Florida coverage, and our premium is much less. Like $100 a month less.
Mitzi gets home this evening and I think we'll call USAA tomorrow and walk through all the coverages and make sure we know exactly what it is I've signed us up for, and then make any adjustments if necessary. Maybe we won't save as much, but I think it'll still be significantly lower.
I also learned we have 45 days to get the cars registered in New York, so there's that little chore. Plus getting New York drivers' licenses and voter registration.
I guess it'll be pretty "official" then, even though I doubt we'll have closed on the sale of our house in Florida.
Apple sent me an alert in Maps that they'd addressed the issue of our address pointing to the wrong house. Inexplicably, they have not. I sent another issue, with more pictures, this time including a screenshot of their "issue" interface, a drone shot of the address from the air so they can see where the house I'm pointing to is, as well as shots with the house number on it. It's an incredibly broken system.
The good news is, Amazon seems to have figured out where we live. Finally. If doing business with Amazon can be considered "good business," which is probably debatable at best.
I got little done yesterday, which is what seems to happen on days when I work out. Having made that effort, I usually have little motivation to make any other effort. Today I have the incentive of getting things squared away before Mitzi gets home.
Mentioned the fence was done the other day, but there's still the matter of the t-posts leaning up against the shed. I'll ask the neighbors if they want them. Mitzi doesn't want to deal with FB marketplace for something that is less than $100.
Guess I better get going if I'm going to get anything done...
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