Stolen electric chairs and dish stacking

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I was contemplating going for a "walk" later via my electric chair, but as you tell, Latte had other plans.
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This picture was taken while I am in the other room with just computer light and shards of light from the living room, in front of the computer. It's about 26 feet, through the living room, into the kitchen. The picture was originally very dark, but with lots of editing I was able to get a pretty close representation of their real colors.



This is what I call an "extreme closeup" with some editing to make somewhat clearer, from blurry caused by being close (5 ft) and then zooming in the camera lens. LOL. Basically I wanted to show you how good my significant other is at stacking cleaned dishes.

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And last but least... THIS is what I had for lunch, er, as a snack. LOL

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Todd

http://facebook.com/toddlius
http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

copyright: Fringe.Folk.Farm

Greetings!

Good Sunday afternoon people. I'm busy messing with my computer's hard drive free space. It's raining here. What you knowin'?

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Todd
http://facebook.com/toddlius
http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Wildlife that feels safe

Although I didn't see it, I believe my wife and daughter when they say that they saw a "just born" baby-deer IN OUR FRONT YARD. It's mother jumped over the fence (when she saw humans) but stayed close . How cool is that?!

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Todd
http://facebook.com/toddlius
http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Zoundry Raven vs. Mozilla Thunderbird

Here it is 11:02 in the morning and I've been up for about 15 minutes. Most of the time so far has been spent sipping on a cup of coffee and staring at the TV and computer screen. On the TV is a PBS show about cooking, which holds pretty much zero interest to me. On the computer screen was the screen that comes up when you first open Z.R. While looking at the screen I remembered that I can do the same thing (send an entry to my on-line blog) using the email program (M.T). The only differences are how photos are set-up and tagwords can be entered when using Z.R. So really the decision on which to write a blog entry is dependent on how important I feel those tagwords are on any given day, or if I have large pictures that need to be turned into clickable thumbnails. I suppose I should mention why I now have this dilemma. Well, it's because I've started adding the URL to my blog on the bottom of every entry because they get sent to my email group from Blogger and not every receives their mail in HTML so they need a link if they want to see any pictures on my blog. It would be easier to have the URL already there when starting a new email, rather than have to type it, which I guess isn't THAT big of a deal. *grin*

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Haircut and Progam installations

Proud moment, after hearing what was said as DD's Cosmetology college this morning. Eldin got an awesome haircut today, like Randy's from 'That 70's Show'. Eldin had had the same style (long and ponytailed) for going on 9 years, so it was time for a change (according to us parental units). Anyway, while he was getting his haircut by Angelica, a lady entered and asked at the front desk if Angelica was available. The lady was told that Angelica wasn't available, but there was another girl. The lady said no, that she would wait until Angelica WAS available. I just think that's awesome!

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Meanwhile, I stayed home when Rain took DD to school with DS in tow for his haircut. Since I had started a download of StarOffice8 on my DW's 'puter last night, which finished something in the wee hours of this morning, I worked on getting the program installed. It wasn't as straight forward as I had hoped. Because there were leftover files and/or non-working shortcuts for this previously installed program, I was having trouble installing the newer version. I kept getting an error saying I couldn't install the newer version until I uninstalled the older one (which wasn't really installed, just had straggler files). Any hoots, eventually I ended-up downloading the Revo Uninstaller and running that because it finds every file from a program and deletes it, which it did. After that I tried reinstalling StarOffice8 and succeeded. I've now got that same program on this computer, but haven't really played with it very much. From what I could tell, it's very similar to OpenOffice. OpenOffice even takes up less disk space, although I have plenty of unused space even after the new program installation. So I don't know, I may or may not uninstall S.O, depends on when or if I get on a 'tidying-up' bugaboo.

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Other than that, the morning and after noon have been 'same ol, same ol'.

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Bi-Annual clean and connection

6 months ago I set-up a reminder to tell me when it's been 6 months since the cleaning of the CPU case. Today I got said reminder, and I'm back up and running, more or less. When I restarted just after the clean, I got an error saying that Microsoft didn't trust (paraphrase) my Linksys USB wireless connection hardware. I inserted the disk and installed the program. I had NOT checked a setting the last time, so I figured I would this time. Couldn't get a connection. Sigh. So I uninstalled, restarted, reinstalled the adapter, and VOILA, it's working again. Now it's time to do my daily things (body test, litt. box clean, feed cats). Then I'll come back here, eventually, and check on you Facebook and Twitter friends and acquaintances. *smile*

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Live NBA game on TNT/NBA dot com

Last night I went to NBA dot com to find out how the 4 teams playing for the chance to play in the championship series are doing. That's when I saw a "watch live" button in the window that showed what was in a video as you ran your mouse over the thumbnails. I of course clicked to watch whatever 'live', thinking it was going to be either a half-time show or a post-game show. I was thrilled to find out that it was actually the game being played between the Phoenix Suns and the L.A. Laker's. At first the video was a 4 video window showing 4 different views of the game. After further tinkering, button clicking if you will, I found a way to watch the game as a single, full-screen video, except it was just one cameraman's view. In other words, we saw whatever the one cameraman at court level was filming. It felt cool, like being AT the game, watching while standing right by the out-of-bounds lines. It was awesome. I've never been to an actual NBA basketball game, but it felt like I was there. We got to listen as the commentator's call the game, but when they said we'd be going to a commercial, that only meant people watching the game on television. We stayed with the cameraman and saw what players, coaches, and fans do during commercials - not a lot, mostly just relax and listen to the coach. The fans were being fans, talking, dancing, clapping, watching the mascots jump from the mini trampoline slamming basketballs as they flew toward and passed the hoops. Like I said, totally cool! In case you're wondering, this live viewing was sponsored (I'm assuming) mostly by TNT in what the link I clicked on showed "TNT Overtime", except it was live. The "overtime" word is what made me think it was AFTER the game, thankfully I was misled. The next game on TNT is Thursday night. Tonight's game is going to be shown on ESPN, which unfortunately is a channel we DON'T get, and not a site that has free video feeds of games (not that I've been able to find). But hey, I'm not complaining because even with our not-super-speed DSL (1.5 MBPS) the videos play WAY smoother than they did when we had only dial-up. I know, "Duh!" and "Obviously". Thinking about talking to our 14 year old DS and see if he can do some geeky thing to my computer so that videos play/load better/faster. Supposedly the video games he plays on-line on his computer are only supposed to be able to be played with an expensive, much more powerful video card than he has, yet he's found a way to change settings so that he can play using the video card that came with the computer. But he's also got more RAM than I do. I only have 512 MBs, his is a gigabyte.

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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@ start-up

Apparently I was just being impatient. I've restarted the computer 3 times recently and ZR started. Sigh. Anyway, laundry's, lunch has been eaten, and in 20 minutes or so I'll switch to TV viewing. I only do one thing at a time (usually) because it's easier for me to enjoy getting entranced in either the TV show, OR the computer.

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BTW, her interview went well and she'll probably start part-time (3 days/weekend, 12 hour days) next month. It's only temporary/seasonal (summer) work, that's okay though.

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

http://www.zoundryraven.com/

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Tinkering and stuff

Don't if that's the right word, selfishness I mean. I still haven't gotten to my Facebook or Twitter peeps to find out what they're (you) have been up to. Guess I'm just in a tinkering kind of mood, and by tinkery I mean getting the computer to start-up like I want. Annoyingly, I haven't been able to get the blog writer 'Zoundry Raven' to start when the computer is restarted. Yes, there's a 'scheduled' task set that's suppose to make it start, but obviously that isn't working. I'm trying to do that so that before I open the email program or Internet browser, I can send a message to my e-list, FB, and Twitter maties. Will mess later. Right now I've got to get ready to head into town to pick up a DD and get my DW to her interview, or vice versa. Wish her success please. Thanks. <3

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Done, done, and almost done!

Body test taken, litter boxes cleaned, cats fed, and laundry started. Now all that's left is continue addressing the laundry issues, take a shower, and eat lunch - maybe. Hope your day is going swell so far! <3

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Warming-up. Weekend projects

Is it just me, or do you feel the need to warm-up your psyche after turning on the computer but before you get social? You know, do email, visit social networking sites, and so forth. I don't know why, but for some reason I check/get updates for the programs that need them, and get my supplies (snack & drink) to the desk. Today what really should've been done before coming here is cleaning the cat litter boxes and filling their food dishes. Need to do a body test on the Wii, take a shower & all that entails, and get a load of laundry started (although that basket of clothes in DD's room might just need hung up and put away). It's not like this is the only thing I've gotten done this morning. Dropped our DD off at college, stopped and bought a few groceries, put gas in the car, and stopped by a place that had a 'Now Hiring' sign in front of their building. After we got home home we installed the air conditioner in the bedroom because when we went to bed last nigh it was freakin' HOT in there. Not a problem for me, really. We took the comforter off of the bed, leaving just the top sheet for cover. I slept fine, Rain slept okay, but she never sleeps great no matter what the temperature. She does prefer it cooler than 80 degrees Fahrenheit though. *smile* Speaking of air conditioner installations, we got the living room one installed yesterday, so now it's below 80 in the living room as well. Last one needs to be installed in my daughter's room.

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The weekend was fairly successful, in that I got the yard mowed, the old headboard out of the shed to make a temporary table out of, A/C installed, 3 loads of laundry done. We're considering setting up a pastry stand in the front yard. We'd be selling home made brownies, chocolate pies, and whatever else Rain decides to bake. Not sure if that's still a plan or not since she has a job interview this afternoon. She may not feel the need to make extra cash by sitting in the hot sun waiting for cars to stop by, if she gets the job. Isn't gong to happen today anyway because it's raining and I don't feel like carrying the headboard to the shed, nor do I feel like drudging through the rain to get tools from the shed. Although with the weather being like it is, it would be cooler to work outside. I'm not motivated at the moment.

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Cat pictures

Took these 2 pictures several days ago, but my DD had the camera at work and I kept forgetting to download them to my computer until today. Just thought they were cute.

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This is Latte laying on the step between kitchen and other room

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This is Moon passed-out on the living room floor

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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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Comments to be moderated

Unfortunately, just having the captcha didn't prevent the Chinese spam :-( So, from now on I'll be moderating ALL comments. Obviously most will be approved. Thanks for your patience. <3

Old-fashioned T-ramble

Got the idea that today might be a good day to re-invent a "ramble" since this blog's URL implies I'm a man that does that. Not that I have a great deal to say, or that anything profound has happened, just feel like it, ya know?

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In case you're wondering... no, the contents of the mug that I'm saying, "Cheers!" with has no alcoholic beverage in it, just decaffeinated coffee. There's no good reason that I switched to decaf, other than I noticed a couple of weeks ago that my mornings went just as well (perkily?) whether I started with coffee or didn't. So I thought, "Well, let's see if drinking decaf w/o sugar confirms that I don't need caffeine". The reason for the non-sugar route is/was to find out if I had to pee less frequently, assuming it was mostly the sugar in my coffee that precipitated the frequency, not the sheer amount (1 8-cup carafe). I think the amount of trips to the bathroom has gone down. Could be due to not drinking the 'cups' as quickly. Thinking about it, I think the urgency before the bathroom trips has diminished as well. Hmm. I had switched to 'instant' coffee packets several weeks ago because I wanted to reduce the amount of cups of Java I was consuming. Then I decided to do 'decaf' but the boxes of packets sold were only in boxes of 8 packs vs. 16 in the regular. AND they didn't have any other flavor other than 'regular' decaf, so we got a special, already ground bag of decaf to save money. Been making morning pots the last couple of weeks. As for the strength of my coffee, right now it's really weak (1/8 cup to brew 8 cups). I was doing 2 scoops of the 1/8 cup but without sugar it was too bitter. I'm now contemplating adding at least a third of a cup of sugar per pot/carafe and upping the coffee amount back to 2 scoops so it tastes like coffee rather than 'coffee flavored water'. Eww. LOL.

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My almost 18 year old daughter will be graduating Cosmetology College in a couple of months, actually about a month and a half. And before you know it she'll have a good job. Then she'll probably start dating more, going out 'on the town' sometimes , moving to her own place, and discovering all that life has to offer. And she's got big plans! Scary for me, but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. *happy sigh* We're so proud, seriously proud! Her instructor sent her home with a note asking us if she has lined up any places to work because "a lot of clients want to know where she'll be so they can follow her". Aww. *teary eyes* So that's going to be an important project we'll be embarking on: going to various hair salons and seeing who's going to need an awesome cosmetologist named Angelica.

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I've kind of ran out of writing umph, so I'm going to let you get back to your regularly scheduled weekend O fun. Not sure what I'll be doing today. Perhaps some using of the weed-eater and/or riding mower. Tomorrow the same, other than watching an NBA semi-final game of the last two series before the Championship series. Peace Out!

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Storm pics

On our way home from Lebanon yesterday the sky just kept getting darker and darker until we got home. Then later in the evening the rain just dumped on us. I thought it was kind of cool. Anyway, the below are the pictures I took from the car using my cell phone camera.

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Was raining so hard you could barely see out.

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When the storm was to the east of us (still in car)

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It was actually a bright sky only minutes before this picture. Cool though, huh?

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I LOVE being IN storms! *Grin*

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Failed?

After about 2 months of not smoking/absorbing any nicotine, today I smoked 1/2 a cigarette and now have a Snus (nic. pouch) between my cheek and gums :-( I suck!

Just a quickie

I'm getting ready to go outside and mow while the sun is still shining. Granted, it's supposed to last all day today, but the rest of the week they're saying we'll get a LOT of rain. Today is by default then, the best day this week TO mow. So if you don't "see" as much of me as you'd prefer, remember... "The Mowing Todd". LOL. L8TER :)

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Caffeine shortage. Weather. To-do list

Have finished drinking my 3 mugs/8 cups of coffee; decaf if you insist on knowing. Today is my 2nd day of not having any caffeine - WOOT :) Remember the other day when I couldn't decide if I should start nap-taking every day? Anyway, haven't actually laid down in the bed during the day (still take the long, dark nap between midnite and ??). Have caught a few "power naps" of 15-30 minutes while laying on the living room sofa. During the day that seems to be enough to re-charge me. Perhaps that's why I like cats so much, I understand their short sleep cycles. It's possible, right?

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It's raining today, just like it did yesterday and a little the day before. I suppose it really doesn't bother me all that much. It's not like the yard grass will grow out of control and envelop the house if I don't cut it. It will cause me to use more gas when I do finally get to, because I'll have to go over the grounds twice if I want area to look all spiffy. Though I know deep down that it doesn't have to look as good as a golf course's, I still like it to be neat (grass mostly the hight). The beginning of this paragraph isn't exactly accurate. Today it has been raining all day. There've been pretty long breaks between showers two days prior. Not a huge deal though.

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If the trash needs to be taken out before I can burn it in the trash barrel, I can still put all the trash in the barrel and put a makeshift lid on it (square of plywood held down by a bucket of filled water bottles). The barrel holds at least two 'regular' days worth of trash.

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Have considered bringing the electric drill and extension cord from the shed and going upstairs & into the attic. Could add more crossbars in the attic to make the insulation less likely to fall down. Since I'm only about 80% of my usual health and energy, not going to do that today. Actually don't know when I will. I still need to take the new duct tape we bought a couple of weeks ago, on top of the house and "seal" any gaps between the metal roof shingles. Again it's raining, so won't being doing that today either. What will I be doing today, you ask? Resting, pampering myself more than usual, finish the load of laundry I started in the washing machine, play a little on the computer. In general try to be low-key so son and daughter can rest/sleep and get completely over our colds.

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Can I stop the spam?

Don't know if it'll help stop the 'spam' from an alleged Chinese spammers, but I'm setting my blog comments so you have to put in the letters seen in the, uh, um, letter box? before posting your comment. If that doesn't work, I'll change to having always having to approve the comments, which I DON'T want to do.

2 nap or not. Socializing. Feeling

Unlike yesterday morning, I am not taking a nap this morning. I usually don't anyway. Yesterday morning had me feeling just really, really sleepy, as if I hadn't slept well, although I slept straight through the night/morning. Felt so good after yesterday's nap that I'm contemplating making morning naps the norm. Seemed like a good idea, yet when it came time to lay down just a little bit ago, just ain't tired or sleepy, so have opted out of that an in to (que music) dah-dah-dah-daht-dadada - computer time. Woot! LOL.
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Not really feeling ready to open myself up to "the world of on-lineness" (made up word), some time was killed by uninstalling a few unused therefore unneeded programs. Once that was done however, there was nothing left to do except be social, sort of, if you call seeing typed or recorded words that must've came from other humans appear on the screen. As opposed to a giant computer in the sky just making me *feel* that I'm 'talking' to someone. I mean, with "today's technology" (thinking of how real seeing someone getting hit by a car on TV seemed the other day [Tom Selleck, Jesse Stone, No Remorse, CBS]), it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that virtual world socialization IS enough in life. Not buying into that though, because oddly enough, it IS fun at times to interact with other humans that are REAL. Not that it happens often, but it does. LOL. I think it's about time to arrange a real life get together with off-line friends :-)

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Okay, it rained a lot yesterday so no mowing today, probably not tomorrow either. Though if I feel the *need* to do something appearing to be necessary and thus would vindicate my presence, I could mow tomorrow. That'll be decided later, obviously.

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A feeling I had earlier to describe my mood was... Predictable, as in just feeling very predictable lately.

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Busy day

Was a fairly busy day. We got up early for it being a weekend (9 a.m. Tue-Sat. we get up at 6-7 a.m.) . After we have some breakfast, My wife, DD, and I drove to Buffalo and got me a large McMoca , they got iced tea and a soda. Then we drove to Springfield to a beauty supply store to get a couple of shampoo capes for my DD to use at school. After that we stopped at a Wal-Mart Super Center and did *some* grocery shopping (will do more in depth after we get our foodstamp allotment). Came home. Unloaded the car and put stuff away. I got the litter in the two cat boxes changed, took the trash out, and hosed out the shop-vac that I'd made filthy getting out some of the sediment in the bottom of the water heater (not to mention cleaning-up the litter box area). Using the hose turned into tightening the hose connections in the pump-house with a large crescent wrench. While Rosalee was taking a short nap I got some laundry (towels) started. DD gave the pooch a bath and took her for a walk while our son continued playing an on-line video game. Eventually I turned on the computer, did some email, and now this blog entry. This entry is different in that I'm posting it via email instead of using my blog writer. Thought I'd be different today. Not that I'm NOT different every day, but you know what I mean. LOL. Thought you should know in case the formatting is all screwed up.

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Todd
http://facebook.com/toddlius

Picture of bad w.h. element

This is what I was talking about replacing yesterday.

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It is the little things, right?

"They" say 'it's the little things that count', or so I've heard. So I'm rather proud of myself for not smoking anything since 4-23-2010. That's also the day I decided that I would cut way back on coffee intake as well as refined sugar. Although I no longer make an entire carafe (8 cups) of coffee in the morning, I do still have about 4.5 cups per day. That's broken-up though. One mug (mug = 1.5 cups) first thing in the morning. Then another one a couple of hours later, and usually one more mug in the afternoon. So I've definitely cut down the coffee, which in turn means less refined/white sugar since I no longer add 2 teaspoons per mug. I admit that I do succumb to the desire to have a soda pop when we splurge and get a couple/few 2 liter bottles, or stop at a grocery store or restaurant. Gotta have my chocolate from time to time as well. But other than that... LOL. No smokes, less coffee, less sugar equals at least a little improvement in taking care of myself, and that's what counts, right? At least I'm trying.

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Water heater FIXED.., finally. Woot!

• *Electric to water heater OFF (just the circuit breaker for the w.h, NOT the whole house).
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• *ALL hot water faucets ON (including leaving the one from the water heater ON).
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• *Pressure valve near the top of the heater OPEN.
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• *Hose hooked to the spout on the bottom of the heater and stuck out the window.
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• *Valve on the bottom opened.

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Took me what seemed like freakin' forever, but I finally got the water to actually start and stay draining out of the water heater. Now all that's left to do is wait for the w.h. to be empty and replace the bottom element. Then of course turn the cold water valve going IN to the w.h on. Will leave the hot water faucets on/open until water comes out flowing smoothly. Once it's done filling, turn all the faucets OFF, turn the electric w.h circuit breaker on and wait for water for the water to heat up.

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Previous blog post about the water heater

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