Staying warm

Well, December has been a busy month. We had our furnace replaced back a few weeks ago, and so far, so good. I took advantage of the Eco Energy rebates and dropped the almost $5000 to get our 20 year old furnace put out of it’s misery. If you’ve been even thinking about replacing your furnace, you should be getting off your duff and getting it done now! I’ll give you a few thousand reasons below.
Eco-Energy Rebates
This is the big enchillada. Install a decent furnace and you can get anywhere from $750 to $1580 back from the feds and the province. Not a bad deal. My rebate will be the full $1580. Note that you have to have an audit done before you get your furnace updated or you’re sh!t outta luck for the rebate.
Ontario Power Authority
Make sure the unit you are installing has an ECM motor (varies it’s speed electronically) and OPA will send you another $125. The contractor installing your unit does all the paperwork for you, as an added bonus.
Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC)
This credit applies to most renovations (including replacing a furnace) you do on your home. It kicks in after the first $1000 spent, and can reach as high as $1350. For example, we spent about $4700, and hence will get a tax credit of about $555 ($4700-$1000=$3700*0.15=$555). Any time the feds are giving out money, get on the train.
Save Money on Natural Gas & Hydro
According to the research I’ve been doing, I should be saving about $35 a month on my heating now. $300+ per year in my pocket, as opposed to Enbridge is a good thing in my books. As long as you are using a furnace with an ECM motor, you will likely save a load on hydro. The ECM motor only spins up to the speed it needs as opposed to a non ECM model that has two settings – off and full blast. Throw in another $10 a month savings.

The Final Bill
So my furnace replacement was $4700 up front. This included a top of the line 2 stage, 60 K BTU, ECM driven furnace, installation, removal of the old unit, and so on. For reasons that I’ll go in to in another post, it also included the air conditioner coil for a replacement unit that we’ll be getting in the spring. But net, the furnace is only going to cost me  $2565. Here’s the math…

Up Front Cost                           $4700
Federal Eco-Energy Rebate   $790
Ontario Eco-Energy Rebate   $790
Ontario Power Authority        $0 - see note below
Home Reno Tax Credit            $555
Total after rebates                    $2565

Not a bad deal for a furnace that should last 20+ years, and save me about $400 every year from here on in. Payback time for the furnace is now about 6.5 years.

More info can be found at http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/retrofit-homes/retrofit-qualify-grant.cfm for the Eco-Energy Grants, http://everykilowattcounts.ca/residential/coolsavings/ for the Ontario Power Authority rebate, and http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/hrtc/ for the Home Renovation Tax Credit. There’s just too much freakin money on the table not to replace your furnace if you been thinking about it. There’s more than a few caveats to watch out for, so read through the stuff carefully, and make sure that you get an audit done before proceeding with any work.

Just to give them a plug, because I think they were very decently priced and did a fair job, my job was done by Darrin at DC Mechanical (705-434-9627). I had 5 quotes done, and DC was definatley the lowest bid. Job was done on time, and on budget. The only place the lost a few marks was on clean up, but for a few hundred bucks less than their nearest competition, I can forgive this. They are not registered with OPA, so I lost out on the $125 rebate, but we did a little negotiating and I got a small freebie with the job.

Furnace works great, and I’m set for the next couple of decades.

Youth is wasted on the Young!

Well I was doing so well earlier with my dog walk and all, that I decided to pull the dust bunnies off the treadmill and give it a whirl. There were no dust bunnies on the treadmill. They were gigantic tumbleweeds. This should have been my first clue to slow down and come up with a plan to start slowly and work my way up.

I trundled along for 30 minutes. Not bad for a guy who’s about 50 pounds overweight and has blood pressure that can be expressed using scientific notation. Burned what I figured was about 225 calories. At the moment, I’m trying not to short out my keyboard with the sweat pouring off my reddened face.

That was fun! Assuming I don’t have an MCI, TIA, or other medical acronym that results in something inherently bad, I may tell you about my next treadmill adventure!

I needed that!

Zeek taking Rob for a run

Well we finally made it back over to Earl Rowe with the dogs. Me, Bumpy, Jen, Kev, Zeek, and Fred plodded along for about 3 miles. The dogs, were, of course, in their glory.

Fred and his people

Our dogs are equally insane – just in different ways. Fred whines about everything. He protests when he can’t go and see another dog. He protests when he can go and see another dog. He protests when he has to sit down, get back up, and think about either. He also likes to charge out of the blue. You be minding your own business, and Fred will feel the sudden urge to attempt to knock you to the ground. I’ve been lucky enough that he’s never succeeded knocking me to the ground, which is likely a good thing, because I don’t want to think about what would be next. And he likes to bounce. Especially around Kevin. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was looking for a piggy-back ride. Crazy dog. Great dog, but crazy.

Zeek? Well Zeek is just Zeek. He cannot be walked properly. We’ve tried. We’ve begged. We’ve pleaded. We’ve put him on short ropes, long ropes, just-right-in-the-middle ropes. We’ve tried treats, punishment, praise, … you name it. Walking Zeek is like walking a Tazmanian Devil with ADHD on speed. And he has either a fear of other people, or thinks that they may delicious – I’m not sure, and I don’t want to find out, because I don’t have a chitload of liability insurance. I’m fairly confident that if anyone ever broke into the house, not only would I not lose anything, but I wouldn’t even have to file a police report, because Zeek would have eaten the intruder – including the bones.

But the walk was great. We haven’t been out since mid spring, and I think we all enjoyed the brief time in the fall air, even if it was a somewhat dreary day. I sure know the dogs enjoyed it.

Suicidal Tendencies

So seeing as life had thrown me a curve ball, I decide I might as well jump in with both feet. About a week ago, I decide that I’m going to quit smoking…  and go on a diet… at the same time… without a chitload of planning… or nicotine patches… or consultation with anyone with a medical degree… or much forethought at all.

Well guess what. It’s going swimmingly.

I dumped the weed with nary a problem at all. Now Bumpy and TNT may tell you that I was one grouchy sonufabitch for a few days… or still, but I’m convinced that it’s simply a marketing issue. Maybe I can get on board with Simcoe County and make use of their $250K consultants. Maybe not. But the point is, I dumped the smokes, and although I still psychologically crave them, physically they’re history. It’s all very weird, because before, if I didn’t have a smoke for a few hours, I’d start shaking like a dog crapping razor blades. Strange.

Now the food is even weirder. I’m using this diet software thats kinda cool. It’s called DietPower. It’s not half bad. And I’ve dropped about 5 pounds already, which is making Bumpy just friggin crazy. I’m not even hungry. I’ve come to the realization that half of what I ate before came through my gut not becasue I was hungry, but because I was bored. So as long as I keep logging my food, and don’t start pondering my navel lint instead of getting chit done, I should be fine.

136000 of these can not have been good for me.

 

 

Starting weight: 199 lbs.      Today’s weight: 194 lbs.     Target weight: 159 lbs (May 31, 2010)

Still no smokes since October 25th.

WTF is wrong with people in Newmarket?

Well, as you read in my previous post, my wife and eldest daughter had an incident in Newmarket a few weeks back. October 16th, about 2:00 PM in the Upper Canada Mall parking lot near the Zellers entrance.

My wife was having a seizure, and my eldest daughter of course, was freaking out, not knowing how to help her mom. After about 10 minutes, a passerby came over to help. Of course, during the first ten minutes a couple of dozen people came out of the Upper Canada Mall and sauntered past my daughter who was screaming frantically for help, and my wife, who for all intents and purposes, could have been near death. They just kept on walking.

To the one lady who stopped and helped – thank you – we appreciate your kindness, compassion, and thoughtfullness.

And to the rest of you bastards that were too busy to help a screaming terrified young lady and her mom – screw you – may you never need the kindness of a stranger.

Good Riddance October – You Suck!

Well good riddance to October 2009. This month started out great – finances were ok (or as ok as they get with me), Bumpy and TNT were doing well. Work was ok, the dog hadn’t eaten a piece of furniture in months, and I was all set to drop about $6500 on a new furnace and ac. And then the my little corner of the world went to sh!t.

Started out back mid month with my wife having a seizure. She was lucky – she was in a parking lot with my eldest in Newmarket when it happened. Had it happened ten minutes earlier, it would have played out by the car careening out of control down Hwy 11 and christ only knows the outcome. Suffice to say it would have sucked large for everyone involved and anyone who happened to be in the vicinity. See my seperate post here on what I think of the people in Newmarket.

So turns out Bumpy has Epilepsy. What’s whack is that she’s had it for 11 years, and nobody bothered to mention it to her. Goes like this – 11 years ago she has a series of seizures that lead to her seeing a neurologist. He scribes some medication, sees her a month afterwards, and that’s it. Headaches disappear, seizures disappear, and all is well with the world – life continues. Her drivers license was suspended for a few weeks until the neuro fills out some paperwork stating that she is unlikely to smell burnt toast and proceed to randomly drive her car into the closest object. Upon receipt of the good news the kind folks at the MTO reinstate driving privileges. Done.

At no time did Dr. Giftmt use the words and phrases epilepsy, continuous medication, refill, and so on. Nothing that would indicate that this was some very serious chit, and we need to monitor it. We – as in my wife and I, and Dr. Giftmn (which is an acronym for Gee I Forgot To Mention It). Not that I find this too hard to believe. After all, not that many months ago, we had a very close friend who went into another neuro who basically mentioned in passing that she has MS. You know – nothing major – just MS. Geezuz Crist doctors – could you try to be clear with your patients when you are telling them they have a condition or disease which will change their lives? You know – they could perhaps take precautions, learn about their condition and so on. And their family wouldn’t be crapping their pants wondering why life has suddenly turned upside down.

So now Bumpy’s licence is suspended, pending medical evidence that says shes unlikely to seize again. The original doc, which we are now not too fond of is booked until March, the two neuros in Barrie are now booking for April, and October of 2010. So we ended up going to one in Toronto about a week ago. Hey – what’s a 45 minute drive to get in quicker to see what’s wrong with your melon? Dr. C in Toronto seems pretty straightforward. We have a diagnoses (which we should have had 11 years back), we have meds, and we have appointments – although they’re a ways off – to get some more tests. All is proceeding ok.

The b!tch of it all is though, that Bumpy needs her licence to earn a living. She works in community care, and needs to be able to get from client to client to deliver healthcare and support. The company she works for – a healthcare company – has no short or long term disability. They can’t can her, because that would entail getting rid of someone with a disability (at least a temporary disability). She can’t collect EI, becasue she can’t be canned. They can’t modify her duties, unless they are willing to hire someone to drive around to clients. So we are still at this point, up in the air as to how we proceed forward.

October has been a really crappy month – I’ll be glad to see it go.