The Water Fountain Dilemma

I have written a few blogs about learning the HVAC/R trade at Erwin Technical College.  It has really opened my eyes as to what needs refrigeration and cooling.  I have also had to learn not only the refrigerant cycle, chemistry, electrical, and piping, but also how to put them all together. 

Our class had something interesting happen that really made me think about using all our skills and putting them to use on one project.  Case in point.  We were told to come over to the dental tech's office to look at a water fountain.  You know, just a standard water fountain. 

We were told that the water was shooting too far, and it wasn't cooling.  When it came to the water shooting too far, all it needed was for the cap to be cleaned out.  You know, the little piece where the water exits from?  It was clogged up with lime.  So that was an easy fix.

The cooling part?  Not so much.  See, this is where it gets tricky.  We need to remove the parts that cool the water.  But to do that we needed to shut down electricity to the water fountain.  Legally speaking it takes a friendly electrician to do that. 

Here's the catch 22.  Yes, you are allowed to flip the power breaker switch.  Yes, you are also allowed to flip it back on.  But if something was repaired it needs to be repaired by an electrician.  So "technically/legally" the water fountain at the school needs to be shut down by the electrician. 

(Sidenote:  This also depends on your city/county/state ordinances.  Things can very greatly depending upon where you are.)

Now, the internal parts of the water fountain were ready to be removed.  Well, not quite.  You see, the piping that fed the water to the water fountain is coming from the City of Tampa.  That means that is City of Tampa water, and if you want to mess with that you need to be a certified plumber.  So call in your friendly plumber.

Now the plumber has the authority to shut off the water.  He also has the training to work on the piping, but so does the HVAC technician.  Either way, we now come to the friendly HVAC tech.

Now our class could get busy repairing the unit.  It needed a good cleaning out, some refrigerant, and elbow grease.  Now we do everything in reverse.

We installed the parts back into the water fountain.  Then the plumber turned the water back on.  And finally, the electrician turned the electricity back on.  We let the unit run a bit, and it was running good as new. 

So, remember when you see a water fountain, ask yourself, "Just how many people did it take to get that thing running?" 

The answer is, "A lot."

One Hump Or Two?

My name is Adrian, and I come from a long line of smartasses.  It's true.  I don't often crack jokes or insult someone, but when I do I get my money's worth.  I also kind of got in trouble at school for a slightly racist joke/insult/comment.  Let me start at the beginning.

In my HVAC class is a man named Ahmed.  He is from Jordan, and speaks with an Jordanian accent.  He also smokes very strong Marlboro Reds.  I have occasionally commented about not being downwind of him when we are outside because his cigarettes are so much stronger than other brands. 

Something else I want I to make sure is known, is that, our class consists of 15 men of various ages.  And like a lot of blue collar, as well as young guys, we constantly rip and insult each other.  Honestly, male humans never outgrow this stage.  Pretty much anything and everything is fair game. 

I mean, even our instructor kids Ahmed about being the "old man" in class, demands to see his AARP card, and rips Ahmed about his balding hair.  Ahmed was in the other HVAC class until he got sick.  So he transferred to ours so he would have enough credit hours to graduate.  Now, he has kidded around with everyone, in both classes, about anything and everything.  I want to make sure this is known so that, when I tell what happened it adds history and context. 

On Wednesday it was near the end of the day, and all but about four guys had wandered off.  Our instructor, Raul, asked where Ahmed was.  Since I am full of pop culture goodness, I said, "Smokin!!!" in the style of Jim Carrey from the movie, "The Mask." 

Now, I know the movie, "The Mask."  Everyone knows the movie, "The Mask."  However, Ahmed is from Jordan.  He doesn't know that I am referencing the movie, "The Mask."  He happened to be around the corner, and thought I was making fun of him. 

So he says, and might I say, in a strong Jordanian/Arabic accent, "My name is Adrian, all's I do is talk guitars, music, and entertainment." 

So I kid with him, and he kids with me.  Is it a day that ends in the letter "Y?"  Yeah, it's par for the course. 

I reply, "Well, I could talk about the fine art of making love to a camel, but I don't know anything about that."

That's when Ahmed lost his shit.  And might I say, his accent only got stronger as he got madder.  He started yelling, "Fuck, fuck, fuck this guy!  Fuck this guy!  Talking about making love to a camel!  Fuck this guy!" 

Now my co-students Gabriel and Fabian started laughing hysterically.  Not so much as what I said, but because of Ahmed's reaction to me.  Ahmed complained to Daniel, and Daniel said, "Oh yeah, Adrian went too far."  Which only made Gabriel and Fabian laugh harder.

Our Instructor, Raul, said, "Yeah, let's not go there."  He was trying to calm the situation down.  I can't blame him.  I know I had pushed some buttons.  So I lay off, and keep my mouth shut.

Ahmed starts telling Daniel that, "He (Ahmed) was balding, but at least he didn't have a stupid thing sticking out of the back of his head."  He was making fun of my hair in a ponytail.  I let it go.

So the day ends, and I let go home with no further incidents.  The next day I arrived to school early, and saw Ahmed on the benches outside.  I walked up to him, and told him I apologized for what I said yesterday.  He told me, "Save your breath.  I don't want to hear it."  I tried to say I was only trying to joke with him, but he then actually walked away from me. 

So I figured he wanted some space, so I gave him some.  I did mention to our Instructor about what happened, and that he probably shouldn't put us together in a study group any time in the near future. 

So it does make it a bit awkward at school.  I just ignore him mostly.  The funny thing is, I never got to ask him one question. 

Does he prefer his camels with one hump?

or two?

This Is 40

Last week I turned 40.  I knew this would happen eventually.  I just didn't think it would happen so soon.  It seems like not long ago I was in college, and trying to turn my life around.  Well, in a weird series of events I am back in college and still trying to turn my life around.

Yeah, I really go here:

I was hoping to get a cake that looked like this:

Instead my cake was a little more like this, this year:

I knew it was coming.  I remember when my Father turned 40.  The family was up in West Virginia.  I lost a tooth, and Uncle Jim had the home video camera out, recording everything.  The cake was black.  The plates and plastic silverware was black.  Even the napkins were black.  I kind of felt bad for Dad.  All those, "Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's 40," sayings posted everywhere. 

But despite me never having a birthday party where I invited friends over, I had the bright idea to have one.  This lead to all sorts of weirdness.  Namely, a lot of anxiety whether anyone would show up.  Also, I used Facebook to send all my invitations, and 75% of my "friends" never responded to my invite.  I asked a number of times that if anyone couldn't make it to just say so.  Either way, I needed to know how much cake to bring.

In the end I had mostly female friends show up, so I can't be too mad about that.  There was plenty of cake and veggie sticks for everyone.  I didn't receive as many presents as I would have liked, but it was supposed to be more about, "the experience."  On a side note, a 70's throwback disco/funk band called, "Raspberry Pie," played during my party.  They were really tight.

But on a different note, I guess I should be thankful.  My hair is still black.  I'm surprised it hadn't turned gray yet.  Even my Mom had gray hairs when she was 12.  Yes, that's not a misprint.  Her first grays started popping out when she was 12.  Her brothers also went gray early.  I figured I would be gray young as well.  Now I do have a patch of angry gray/white hairs on my chinny, chin-chin, but I don't have very many on my head. 

I mean, I'm not as good looking as Paul Rudd at 40, but I'm better than I thought I would be.

So, they say that age is just a number, but so is breaths per minute, and that's kind of important.  I won't look at this as getting older, I will look at it as leveling up.

Also, I'm riding a Chocobo.

HVAC: Home Edition: Undercutting the Contractors

I am now in month four at Erwin Vo. Tech for HVAC (Heating, ventilation, air conditioning.)  The last two weeks things have finally starting coming together for me.  The things that I have learned from the book are finally being put into real life practice.  And honestly, it couldn't have come at a better time.

You see, the A/C unit at the house had it's scheduled maintenance.  The company that maintains it said that it needed a few things.  First on unit #2, the dual capacitor was weak, and eventually it would need a new one.  The second issue with unit #2 was that the squirrel cage blower wheel needed cleaning. 

Well, after everything I've seen I wasn't sure how true it was.  I know a lot of companies perform the "inspection" for free, and then jack up the price on needed work.  What defines "needed work" can be open to interpretation.  Usually a capacitor either works or it doesn't.  There is no in-between.  Now I will be honest, in that, if a capacitor is weak it may be a sign of dying ...... sometime.  It could be a week, it could be years.  What you don't want is a capacitor to quit working, and then need an "emergency call" to the A/C company.  Then the price will really be jacked up.

So I wanted to get ahead of the curve.  I took a peek at the estimates for the work.  To change the capacitor was $194.24 (before discount,) and cleaning the blower was $256.10 (before discount.)  So if I could take care of this instead of the A/C company it would save a lot of dough.

My instructor was able to purchase the capacitor for $9.40.  I immediately paid him for it in cash, and was ever so thankful.  So when I made it home I got all my equipment and tools out. 

I took lots of pictures, so I will tell the rest of the story along with the pictures I took.  That way, you can understand what I am talking about.

First up, the tools.

And here is the $70, nay, $9.40 capacitor.

Here is the unit.

Here are the guts of the unit.

Here is a close up of the old capacitor.

I made sure to perform the correct math to make sure all the wires were going in the right places on the new capacitor.

So I put the connections on the new capacitor, and then drilled a new hole on the strap.  This capacitor was skinner, but longer than the old one.  So I adjusted the strap to hold it nice and tight.

And here is a picture of the all the completed work.

Honestly, I spent most of my time performing math and adjust the strap.  Other than that it didn't really take long.  So that was now out of the way.

A few days later it was time to tackle the squirrel cage blower.  Again, any little bit of dust on it can result in an A/C company saying it needs cleaning.  So before I even took anything apart, I took a peek at it.  You know what.  They weren't lying.  It needed cleaning.  It needed cleaning badly.  So I took it out and this is what it looked like.

There's nothing too technical about it.  It's just dirty, and I needed to get in there by hand and clean it out.  I used wire brushes, my big flat head screwdriver, and an air compressor to get in, and get that thing clean.  Did I mention it was dirty?  Because I looked like I rolled around in black dirt.

Again, it was more time consuming than it was hard.  I will say this.  My instructor showed me how to clean a blower just two days before.  I also knew that I would have needed a special tool to take the motor out.  If I could have removed the motor, then I would have used a water hose on the blower.  But since the motor was intact, I knew not to get water anywhere near it. 

Using the compressed air really helped.  I was able to get the little bits (and big bits) out of the blower.  I was surprised at the amount of dirt I was able to get out of it.  I ended up with a big ole' pile at my feet.  So this is what it looked like after cleaning.

Not perfect, but still ten times better than it was.  Once the unit was re-installed it actually sounded quieter.  That let me know that all the work I preformed was valid.  And hey, no one had to pay $450 (before discounts) to the A/C company. 

School Dayz: Second Week In: Scholarship Edition

I just completed my second week of school at Erwin Technical College (formerly Erwin Vo. Tech.)  On Friday all of our tools came in.  And it wasn't just a few tools.  It was $1200 worth of tools. 

However, instead of pulling a "Tim Allen" and talking about tools, I wanted to talk about something a little different.  I wanted to talk about how I received those tools.  I know you're thinking, "Well, with cold hard cash right?"  In a sense that's correct, but it's a bit deeper than that.  So let me start at the beginning.

The first thing I did was talk to "Employ Florida" about going back to school.  They sent me to the Social Services section of Hillsborough County.  (It's still in the same building.)  To go to Erwin, I would have to apply for a Pell grant, then get turned down for the Pell grant since I have a Bachelor's degree.  Then, Hillsborough County would help out with their Greater Opportunities program.  Their reasoning is that, "It's better to pay to send me to school than pay for me to collect unemployment."

So, my tuition, books, and tools were all covered by the program.  For 15 months of school, the cost was around 3,700.  The tools were $1200, and the books were $400.  So it totaled a bit over $5.300.  Compared to the for profit schools Erwin is a fantastic deal.  At that cost the school isn't making any money.  The program is 15 months, and there are 15 people in my class.  I have two and sometimes three instructors at a time.  So I have to say it's a great deal, and a great program.

I know a lot of people complain about, "What is government doing for the people?"  Well, this is a social service that I believe that people can get behind.  I think this is the kind of thing that government should be doing.  And I have to admit, I am thankful for it.  I am very thankful.     

So I have come away with a new point of view on scholarships.  I always knew they were important, but now it's a bit more personal for me.  Otherwise, I don't think I would have been able to go back to school.  So I extend a very heartfelt, "Thank you Hillsborough County."

Back to School: First Week In

I'm almost hesitant to write a blog about going back to school.  After the first week I don't feel so smart.  But let me start at the beginning.

So, I managed to enroll, then get in an earlier class, then I got my financial aid all lined up to attend Erwin Vo. Tech.  Of all the funny things I found out, they changed the name to Erwin Technical College.  I guess they did that so it sounds more prestigious. 

This past Monday was my first day.  My two instructors shoved a bunch of info at us at once.  But even they admitted that they were trying to change up the things we learned during the day.  You know when you went to grade school you had English, math, social studies, and so on?  Well, we have been learning the basic design of A/C, OSHA certification, and basic tools.  So three courses are split up over six hours. 

I have a huge book on HVAC/R but it overwhelming.  It also costs $200.  While it is technically correct on everything, I feel a lot of it is going over my head at the moment.  I know it's only the first week, but I am really worried that I won't be able to keep up.  My two instructors tell us not to worry, in that, they are teaching us the basics of HVAC/R before we even get to that chapter. 

On a strange side note, my instructor Raul looks a lot like Conrad Keely of the band, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead.

But back to my worries.  As I look back on my blogs I see past blogs when I was hopeful, when I was confused, and when I had interesting ideas.  I also look back and see when I was extremely wrong about something, or about to make a major mistake in my life. 

I worry that I will look back at this post, and see where I was trying to turn my life around, but managed to screw it up.  I know I don't handle stress well, and am worried that something bad will happen. 

Having to learn all these new terms has me extremely stressed.  It's not like when I was college that I learned English after taking 12 years of English.  At that point I was just building on what I had already learned.  Right now, I am starting from the very bottom, and I feel like a child trying to learn math for the first time. 

As school goes on I will update my blog for better or for worse.  With a little luck, it may not be that exciting at all.  I kind of hope it will be nice and boring.

Cause Growing Up Is Hard To Do

So here I am again.  I'm looking at my life, and decide I need to grow up.  You can say what you want to about inner reflection and all that, but the truth is I need to grow up.  I have decided to go forth with a few steps to change my life.

First step.  I have enacted an exercise program.  Every day I try to walk two miles,  bike 6 miles, and lift my one 25 pound kettle weight.  I really needed to get my weight down.  I have noticed some results.  It's been slow going, but like my doctor told me, "If you lose one pound a week, by 20 weeks you'll have lost 20 pounds.  You can't do it overnight."

Step two.  I really need to find long term employment.  The problem is what I have my education in doesn't translate well into jobs.  I have a A.A. Lib Arts degree and a History B.A. degree.  I haven't really done much with this.  I have my luthier's certification.  I should work in China, South Korea, or Indonesia if I wanted to build guitars.  Namely, since that's where they are all made now.

I went to Roadmaster for truck driving school.  Then I became a truck driver, and found out why they always claim to need truck drivers.  Mainly, since they are paying them a lower wage now than in the 1980's.  The other problem is that, I live in Florida.  There's not much freight going in and out of Florida. 

If I lived in Atlanta I would probably still be truck driving.  I could pick up loads in the morning, deliver them, and be back home at night.  But by being stuck in Florida I could only get over the road jobs.  That got old really quickly.  Now, with my health and medical conditions I know I couldn't be an over the road driver.

So that leads me to going back to school.  This time Erwin Tech.

I decided I needed a job that would let me stay in the Tampa Bay area, and still make a decent wage.  That job is HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning.) 

It has been a bit of a whirlwind the last few days.  I was supposed to enroll for the January 2017 class.  However, two openings came open for the May 9, 2016 class.  So I had to run like crazy to get my financial aid in place.  I had to file for a Pell Grant, so I could get turned down.  I was then able to have Hillsborough County to help me out.  Next, I was able to take my school voucher to Erwin, and get registered. 

Now comes the realization of what I have to do.  I have to learn like crazy for 15 months.  I have to keep my grades up to keep my grant from the county.  I have to stay on top of my game.  I feel I have to work harder since I am an old dog trying to learn a new trick. 

One thing I have to deal with that I didn't expect was that Erwin has a dress code.  I understand that I have to wear leather work boots, but I don't know why I have to a solid color shirt.  Seriously, part of the dress code is that, I have to wear a solid color shirt.  That means all my flannel shirts can not be worn.  But that's okay, I have plenty of shirts, and have even bought a few more.  I will be the best dressed student there.  I have plenty of long sleeve, button up shirts in black, gray, and red.  I also have a few polo shirts in various colors. 

I will receive my books and tools on the first day of school.  But I also need to buy school supplies.  Namely, pens, paper, and a Trapper Keeper.  That's right.  I just went all 80's on myself.  I used a Trapper Keeper from first grade all the way through college.  It has always worked well for me.

Step three.  So now that I have school, this puts a ding the job I now have.  I will now have to find a new job.  So, I decided that now was a good time for a respectable haircut.  On a side note, I did donate my ponytail to "Locks of Love."

Maybe this will help me be able to land a job.  I'm not sure what I will do as far as part time work, but I will do my best try to get something going. 

So that's been my life changing/ growing up plan.  1.  Exercise program.  2.  Enroll and attend Erwin for HVAC.  3.  Get a haircut to try and find a new job.  It's not easy growing up, but we all need to do it sometime or another.  I'm just a late bloomer. 

A Line In The Sand Of Life

Today I made the decision to change my life.  I know that sounds dramatic, but I believe this will change everything.  So far, education has not been good to me.  I received both my A.A. and B.A. from HCC and USF, but I haven't really done anything with them.  I received my Luthier's Certification, and realized that if I want to build guitars I should live in Korea.  I then decided to get a Truck Driving Certification, and then found out they don't want anymore drivers from Florida.  Namely, look at any company on the East Coast, and you will see that half their drivers are from Florida so they don't need anymore.

So what job can I do that I can make a lot of money, can stay in Florida, and will never go out of style in Florida?  HVAC.  That's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.  I decided to go down to the Employ Florida building, and talk to some people.

I already knew about the HVAC program at Erwin Vo. Tech.  I just wanted to know what they thought of it.  They said that it was the way to go, and a lot cheaper than the for-profit schools.  Something that I didn't know, and was glad to find out is that, I am eligible for financial help/ scholarship.  In fact, they may pay for all my schooling. 

The new semester for the HVAC class starts in January of 2017, so I got the early jump on it.  The tough news is that, the class lasts for 15 months.  So I will have to find a new job that will mesh with school.  I hate to give up my maintenance gig, but I have to look at the long term.

The good news is that Erwin Vo. Tech has job placement.  I was worried since so many of the HVAC job ads I've seen want two years experience or more.  But I'll be glad to finally get a career that actually pays a livable wage.  That, and I will be able to stay in the bay area.  The one thing I hated about truck driving is that, I had to go out of state to drive. 

So this is about drawing a line in the sand.  About finally being able to make a living wage, and get my life together.  Also, not just about having a job, but having a career.