The Sweetest Taboo

Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? Ed Sheeran.

Don't know exactly when and why drying clothes outside is taboo in the US. It's a cultural thing.

They instead use these electric tumble drier powered by electricity. 6% of total household electricity usage is not that much some would say. Between 100 and 150 dollars a year if you run your drier one hour a day every day for a whole year.

But there's more to it.

When drying using an electric resistance, that resistance heats up to more than you imagine. Though the air is heated to no more than 200 F, in order to do that the heating elements heat much more. In fact, to glowing red temperature. At that temperature the resistance pretty much like those in old furnaces in central ACs in most American homes, looses some of its metal through evaporation, in time getting thinner and needed to be replaced. Which means evaporated heavy metals like nickel and chrome get into your clothes and homes.

Also any tiny piece of dust from inside your home that gets in there burns. And in between these extremes, there's a temperature gradient that has areas where the bacteria remaining from dust gets mutated into weirder strains together with bacteria from laundry heated up by the air that passed through the heating elements that are also selected to most resistant strains by that heat

And the ancient US old top load washers besides using up to 50 gallons (200 liters), regularly less (150 liters) of water per load to wash 5-10 pounds (up to 5 kg of dry laundry), they also don't wash very well (while making the annoying rhythmic sound). Which means that anybody who accidentally breathes "air" that comes out of that drier gets contaminated. It also depends on the temperature of the water used during washing, the amount of detergent and the cycle type.

In our building as per some weird modifications, the vents are at the basement line and are also leaking in the basement. He did laundry all day yesterday starting before midnight Thursday night. After not doing it for months, except once or twice. And i got really really sick in the evening, especially after tasting a few grapes. Infections in the top of my mouth first lead to a headache (from infection propagating to your sinuses), and after that you get pains in my stomach and pancreas areas. You go to your doctor and he prescribes to you strong antacids (as i took for years on the past) and nowadays they are even available over the counter (the "conditions" of course meaning environmental ones and instead of fixing your environment, you take pills).

I remember the first apartment we rented when i moved in the US. Fox Pointe, Vancouver (Washington, near Portland) was next to a coin operated drying room. That's where i got first sick and then crazy. After that we moved to Sussex Village Apartments in Beaverton, Oregon, where we lived for 13 years and our building and windows where also closest to the drying room. In those coin operated drying rooms anybody, not only from the apartments could come and dry anything. Many times i found animals' hairs in the washers, thought it was a pet free complex.

Tiny wounds you have in your mouth from neglected teeth or even each time after eating get infected with different strains during those hours of cooking bacteria in a drier. Bacteria that during a drying cycle gets mutated way faster than your immune system can handle. First you may have a slight nausea or indigestion. But wait until you eat. All that bacteria in your mouth contaminates your food that start fermenting in your stomach. Your stomach acid level goes to the roof and your stomach starts hurting. It also start attacking your pancreas which has a positive pH and not defended  by acid and in time it may lead to diabetes.

Nowadays they have these close circuit driers which do not release "lint" up in the air and use less electricity.

In the previous named post i said we live in a movie-like environment, pretty much like in the Truman show movie. Then why would they do that? Simply, to control, especially me who i am more sensitive to this stuff. Making me sick would make me more manageable. Also for the authenticity of the appearance of a constantly sick person.

I believe they ran out of other means (i cleaned the unused dishwasher pipe that had stalactites of greasy mold in it and was opening in the open sink, i removed the dead squirrel) so they had to do a 24 hours laundry marathon.

But i remember the times when i had a woman neighbor upstairs who also had a tiny dog she was keeping inside, who was constantly bringing laundry from other places (could have had a business) and washing them here, doing many loads a day (around 5 maybe) for more than 6 months.

BTW while i was writing here i heard a noise at my door. Someone came and put a note on it that was repeating what they said in an email last night. There is a four days interval next week when they'll come one day to replace the famous sliding doors. I guess there will be another interval when they'll come to replace the windows as they started at the other buildings.

I dry in a closed circuit using an old drier connected to a window AC used as a dehumidifier. It dries faster and cleaner, since is not pulling air from the apartment to release it outside, air that is constantly contaminated with many things like dog poops left outside, so the clothes won't smell (if i give some manual pushes to the load in the middle of the washing cycle to boost cleaning, that is i pump inside the load with my hand, cycling more water through the laundry).

The smaller lint not caught by the screen, that otherwise would be released outside gets stuck on the front cold radiator of the AC where i connected the exhaust pipe from the drier, and from where i remove it from time to time.

Water dripping from the AC gets collected into a tube and i get about one quart a load.

Air dried, cleaned and cooled in the front or cold side of the AC then gets through a short flexible pipe back inside in the hot radiator in the back or hot side of the AC, heated back up (to no more than 120 F) and from there through another pipe in the intake of the drier. AC acts as a heat pump, storing the energy of the hot air and releasing it back into the drier.

What i'm saying is handy DIY-ers could turn an old drier into a closed circuit one with a cheap or old 150 dollars window AC and a few 4 inch flexible pipes and a couple of plastic boxes for adapters (10 dollars max). I've used it for about 6 years now and it's safe though i never leave it on unattended.

May 22

3:54 Just went outside to pick garbage and several dog poos of different ages all around the building, i guess all coming from the same small dog. Last night. Angela finally made her money back at Chinook Winds. When we came back home, she said she wanted to check how it goes at Spirit Mt. Like at Chinook yesterday, she won some 200 dollars at first and after i ate a hot dog, i got sleepy and fell asleep in the car. A loud modified exhaust awoke me and at @4 i went at the Shell gas station (the cheapest in the area) to fill the car. In there, at the next pump, two women of whom one was maybe from the convenience store (i guess) or maybe they knew each other, were talking angrily to each other, almost yelling at each other, telling stories from the past (i heard the word mother several times. It was all surreal given the hour and the fact nobody else was at the pumps. The pump stopped once and had to restart it. Went back in the parking lot and slept till 7:30 when i went inside to pick Angela who was exhausted after playing for 12 hours at the two casinos and having all her money lost.

When i got out out of Chinook once to go for something in the car i met with a mechanic i know, Martin, but he acted like he didn't recognize me (maybe because he was with a woman other than the one in the office which i thought it was his wife). When i said, "Martin?" he said "Good Morning" though it was evening. I knew it was going to be followed by some trouble which it did.

I noticed the other day, the whole paint job at the car last fall went suddenly dull, especially after the car wash yesterday.

When i went outside about half hours ago i looked again and saw some abrasions and possibly one tiny dent on the hood, a few mm deep, on a few inches area, like someone maybe pressed down with his hand but can't be sure if it's a dent or just the shape of the hood. The shape of the 4 abrasions is the same as once done in the snow last winter, like one giant claw leaving barely visible 4 marks (only visible from a certain angle) 4-5 inches apart on the paint on front of the hood. Sun is shining and got blinded by the white paint on the car so i gave up looking. Haven't been drinking in a week so it's not possible something happened and can't remember. 

Then i saw in the news the face of a guy, RR Martin who looks like one of the checkers at Safeway in Lincoln City, etc..

10:00 Three years ago i thought going in the basement and fixing the pipes is going to be enough. Forget about the fallen insulation, i said to myself. I'm just going to heat some more. But two weeks after i fixed those they came with a rotary brush to clean the pipes inside. I bet they broke them some more. SAGE construction built a new lid with star shape screws. But somebody simply cut another visiting hole on the other side of the building that has three set of screws which means they've been three times in the basement, since.

Last year by example i had one (de Longhi with oil) heater under couch and one next to it. But since, i've been drunk most of the time, this year i didn't care, spring is not coming and i am sick. Infection at the gum that spread to my head, finally figured the main source, an older denture that i fixed with superglue and used instead of the newer one that can't be fixed that spread to my upper respiratory, my maxillary changed a bit, was hitting in some points, again, didn't feel the pain, the infection, cause i was drunk most time, day and night, infection at the colon. Wetland like smell inside. This is the image with the wet floor right under my couch taken three years ago.

Last night i slept in the car and woke up much better. No hurting feet, no burning face, no hot flashes. Tonight i put pieces of foam all around the couch and under covering much of the surface and i feel like i'm finally heating myself up. Bedroom is a bit better cause there are box like beds that cover the floor and area around beds (twins) is small.

However can't ignore the smell of... wetland? Found the star shape bit for my electric screwdriver and i swear one of these days or nights i'm gonna pop that fancy new lid and see what's inside and what can be done. Thinking of sticking some foam, like the pieces i put around the couch, maybe using some adhesive. Angela says the cheapest apartments around start at 400 dollars above the price we pay here.

Ventriloquist: The "man" upstairs showed after i started to write this, he was gone most day.

10:30/8:30 Steve says:

January 2

9:45 Instant karma for trying to search a face. Place filled with raw tobacco smell which prompted me to write this. Finally figured the source of the stink i just discovered in the kitchen two days ago. Raising gradually and overlapping the cooking smell for the holidays and passing unnoticed on having focus to fixing car and finally getting me very sick. BTW, i found the service manual and torque specs for the suspension. After replacing the struts about a month ago, i tightened those bolts "by ear". Comparing now with the specs from manual i made mistakes ranging from 10% 20%. However, i don't believe those errors caused the problems i faced. Yesterday i found  the bolts for strut to knuckle on right side loose by up to half turn, after the car suddenly shifted, overnight, the clunk from right to left wheel. How many times i had to remove the wheels, (twice only to clean squeaky breaks, didn't do it right the first time BTW i didn't know ceramic brakes get clogged with ceramic dust). And still have to do it one more time. BTW last night when i last cleaned brakes and tightened some bolts i already knew the torque, the flooded the whole area with a mighty smoke. Smoke was subsiding when i was plugging holes in the ground, but one hole i only figured when i was done.

But the stink. About a year ago (february 21) i took this picture. On the right is my apartment with the washer and drier and water heater closet. More on  the right, kitchen. Those vents belong to Apt.2 and 4. Don't know exactly the order. One can see the snow melting from the hot steam directed downwards. I mean, it wasn't enough the vents were installed lower than driers and lower than windows for the ground level store. They changed vents about 2 years ago and came with these. Supposedly for the rain not go fall and get in the pipes that where directed mistakenly through the basement. What happens is steam gets pushed towards ground and from there under siding. Not much, but just enough. All there is needed is to wash dog's laundry (blankets, whatever) without enough detergent and then dry it. Dominicani.

Now that the smoke is over, the guy upstairs started while i'm back to my search. Wrong, smoke is back.

Went to look for holes and found this. Perfectly camouflage in fall/winter colors. This could have been the source too. Can you spot the trouble in this image?
2:52 Took Zyrtec which by some studies has antibacterial and antiprotozoal activity, half pill with every meal, as a result i slept more than 12 hours, which was more then welcome. Woke up, ate something, almost choked because of the noise upstairs, and the man took off minutes before i planned to (go for a walk).

7:59 After taking 5 mg Zyrtec (half pill) at every meal, and eliminating the sources of smell, my blood sugar is now almost half at 244, after i couldn't stop eating for an hour.

9:44 Square and compass, proper.

Fixing Exhaust Pipes in the Basement at 1:30 AM

(First attempt to write this was on fb but for some unknown reasons Fedora or Microsoft mail or gmail zipped some of the pictures so i first uploaded others by mistake).

A few days ago they came and marked the areas of the siding to be fixed. One place was by the lid of the basement next to our door.

Today they came to fix the siding they marked a few days ago. They started to work late afternoon when i came from somewhere and talked to the guy and probably finish first thing morning. They left the lid open so i took a chance and made some pictures inside.

Didn't look pretty. Insulation is wet and falling because of broken exhaust pipes as i said so many times before. Inside electric driers all water from clothes turns to vapor and those vapors are flooding the basement through leaks and wet everything including the floor beams and fiberboard on top of those.

(Told them about this several month ago during the episode with the argument with the driver of the purple Dodge).

So i went, bought some duck tape at WinCo after midnight and got some wire, a 1 mm drill bit and fixed  them. Don't know how long the're gonna last after the're gonna close the lid because the plastic masks i attached the pipes to with wire are very brittle.

The one fallen on the ground at the next entrance (gonna go outside now and see apt nr.) was stinking so badly like smoke i took a shower and i still smell just by touching it. Could that had been the cause of smoke i felt so often in the building.

When i left for WinCo a coyote crossed my path next to the building and i was afraid he could have gotten curious and inside the basement. I first went inside to fix at @ 2AM (took more pictures at 1:30).

3 AM. After taking a shower i went outside and removed the lid so it will dry some more tonight. It was smelling weird. I think the pipe i attached now stinks on the outside. Really bad. Back inside i noticed the same smell that now was coming from the clothes i had on me that i put in the laundry and started a cycle.

Conclusion. They were two broken pipes, one from upstairs, one from next wall. I fixed the one upstairs in two places and partially fixed the other one because in the area where it's smashed it meant making too much noise. The fallen pipe from the next entrance i couldn't finish fixing is stinking really bad like some unknown smoke. By reattaching it to the mask the smell went outside the building, big time.

Here you can see lint projected on opposite wall from an opening that is seen only in the second picture (second pipe joint covered by first on the right). Picture taken after fixing the pipes.

Before. Tape was  broken and pipe hanging aside.

Before and after (this one couldn't fix, it involved making too much noise), it's still partially open.

Pipe laying on the floor (Apt.1 or 2). Before.

Apartment 6 upstairs, before.
Wet insulation under dining area.

And about under the couch.

And after.

This is how the vents look on the outside. Stinky one on the left and i think it's from the apartment downstairs (the tall woman with multi-color hair and a big doc). (Front of the building, the plant on the left is an Aucuba Japonica or golden dust, a very toxic plant especially in combination with smoke). On the left, Apt.1 and 2, on the right, 6 and 5.