Shoddy work, are you invited?

I forgot to mention that one other thing I did Sunday morning was crawl up in the attic to try to address the leaks around the main AC distribution box.  I had bought some HVAC tape to help with the project.  As I felt around the various connections I felt large amounts of cold air coming out.  I found myself getting extremely annoyed at the original AC installer for doing such shitty work.

The distribution box is supposed to be flat on the ground.  Our box instead is suspended in the air haphazardly by some plastic tape.  It looks like the installer planned poorly and that was the only way they were able to get all the vents connected to the box.  The flexible ducts were mostly only attached to the box with an over sized zip tie.  The spots where they used tape were coming loose in many spots. 

I also noticed that certain vents had zip ties pulled tight down on the main duct section, apparently a method to restrict airflow to those areas.  One of these ducts looked like it was going towards the front of the house where it is notoriously warmer.  These vents have never had good air flow coming out of them and I am sure this was part of the reason why.  I cut the restricting zip ties off.

I did the best I could with the tape but it was pretty tough working conditions.  Trying to reach around the box while making sure to keep your feet from going through the floor while avoiding the thousands of nails protruding from the roof was not easy.  Add in extreme temperatures that had me sweated through my shirt in 10 minutes. 

Once winter hits I want to do more extensive work on the box to see if I can get it sealed tight.  I love our house but it certainly was not built by many contractors that took pride in their work.  I can’t tell you how many little annoying examples of this I have come across over the years.  If I ever built another house I would be much better prepared to make sure it was done right. 

So did you get an invite to my Windows 7 launch party?  WTF?  Let me explain, just in case you did.  Windows 7 is being released towards the end of October.  I heard on a podcast about a URL you could go to that would allow you to sign up to host a LAUNCH PARTY.  Normally I would never entertain something so silly, yea I work all day with Microsoft products but I’m not such a zealot that I would deem the release of a new OS as a reason to throw a party.

Well the catch was if you agreed to do this and were accepted as an “official” launch party site one of the things you will get is a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. DING DING DING!  Hey I’ll jump through some hoops to get a free copy of Win 7.  So last night I jumped through the last of the hoops and was notified that I was now officially a party site.

I am somewhat confused what exactly that means.  I set a date and time for the party and they will be sending me my party materials.  I invited nearly 20 people although most of them live far away or work on the Stern Show.  As of now I don’t think it will be an actual party at all, just me at home enjoying my free software, however if any of the invitees want to come over to get drunk and have fun we can do that as well.