Not sure why I ended up on the Georgia entry in Wikipedia, but I thought I would edit the page and add Five Forks as one of the towns in Georgia. To my surprise, I found it was already there. However, it had no link and no article of its own. So I created an account and added an article. There isn’t much there, but I think I’ll try to build it up. It is amazing how much trouble someone has gone to on the Snellville article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five Forks, Georgia

Wikipedia is one of the most amazing things that has ever happened on the internet. As Ted has asked, “Why would anyone ever buy an encyclopedia?” One answer is: “To look at all the colorful flags.” That’s one of the things I remember doing. But Wikipedia has flags, too.

I had previously concluded to not buy Lights of America lightbulbs, but one problem with blogs is that they are not readily available as you are standing in Wal-Mart. (I suppose they will be some day.)

I leave a 25 watt bulb burning outside of our basement door to discourage unwanted visitors. Because I don’t routinely go to the basement, it often ends up being on continuously. While 25 watts is not a lot, switching to a 5 watt (25 watt 215 lumen equivalent) compact fluorescent makes me feel less guilty about leaving the light on.

We’ll see if it is still burning 6,000 hours later. That’s on June 16th, 2006.

Kathy and Danny got their U.S. Passports earlier in the year for their Jamaica trip. While you are supposed to be able to just use your birth certificate and a driver’s license, the Jamaica customs agents had told me last year to go ahead and get a passport.

I went ahead and applied for one Saturday to use on our Windjammer cruise. I got to the part of the application that says: “Hair Color.” I wanted to put “straw”, but I wasn’t sure that was legal. I stepped outside where Kathy was working in the yard. “What color hair do I have? The passport application wants to know.”

“I guess you should put gray,” she said. So I did. That’s a first.

(The first and last burned out within a few weeks. See log below.)

Summary:
Buy Commercial Electric (CE) ultra mini compact fluorescent (CF) lights. They are smaller and cheaper than ever, and seem to be reliable. Don’t buy Lights of America (LOA) CFs.

Just bought two six packs (a dozen) of Commercial Electric Ultra Mini Spiral Lamps. The CE bulbs I already have are holding up, including the one they mailed me after a good customer service experience.

These are very small. Smaller than a regular light bulb or the burned out LOA bulb seen in this photo. They seem to put out as much light as the larger bulbs. (In this case 60 watt equivalent.)

The ultra minis are replacing three LOA Model 2425 Bulbs that burned out very quickly. Unlike my good Commercial Electric experience, Lights of America wanted me to mail in forms with receipts etc. I just won’t buy from them anymore.

Commercial Electric puts a customer service number right on the bulbs: 800-378-6998. That’s a good sign. The sale price at Home Depot was $9.95 per six pack. Too good to pass up.

Specs:
Light Output (Lumens) 900
Energy Used (Watts) 14
Life (Hours) 10,000
SKU # 292-460
Model: EDXO-14
14W 200A
V#42836
Customer Service: 1-800-378-6998

Marketing:
Lasts 7 Years Guaranteed*
This Package Saves You $276.00
$46.00 in Energy Costs Per Bulb
Lasts 10 Times Longer Than Standard Bulbs

*based on 4 hours average use per day
*savings based on 10 cents per kilowatt hour

They are replacing larger Lights of America Model 2425.

The Light Log – a 7 Year Experiment

Last updated 11-23-2005

Installation Date / Fixture

1. 1-3-2005 / Basement Hallway South. Died 1-23-2005
2. 1-3-2005 / Basement Hallway North
3. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office South
4. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office South
5. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office North
6. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office North
7. 1-3-2005 / Basement TV Room East
8. 1-5-2005 / Piano
9. 1-15-2005 / Upstairs hall East (Moved to basement hall south 3/6/06)
10. 1-15-2005 / Master Bedroom Closet 1
11. 7-10-2005 / Upstairs hall West (Moved to basement main west 3/6/06)
12. 9-3-2005 / Master Bedroom Closet 2. Died 11-23-2005.

Ted reports he has used Tax Act for several years. I use TurboTax.

I look forward to using TurboTax every year. I’ve been getting it for $10 from Intuit because we are their check vendor. They cancelled that benefit last year when our CIO (if your reading this Chris, you cost me money!) e-mailed the order form to our entire I.T. department. It was supposed to be limited to people associated with the plants producing Intuit’s checks. The flood of requests had them cancel the deal because in overwhelmed the friendly lady that handles these requests manually.

I bought TurboTax for $39.95 from Costco this year. We started printing checks for Costco about the same time Intuit cancelled there offer. No connection.

I’m not sure if Tax Act supports everything I do in TurboTax. Clark Howard says if you have complex tax transactions you should use TurboTax. But I’m also addicted to how TurboTax carries forward data every year (no retyping) and maintains a 5 year historical view.

(Disclosure: I currently am holding Intuit stock, but I just realized that.)

Danny and I installed a new gas line for $75 in materials. This included two new pipe wrenches! It saved us so much money, I gave DC a $50 tip for helping out with both his brains and brawn.

This photo shows where we tapped in, replacing a 6″ link with a “T”. The other T’s heading back go to the water heater and dryer.

This photo shows the elbow hanging above the mudsill going up through the kitchen floor.

Danny did all the work behind the narrow space of the stove. (He’s taller than me and weighs the same, so I’m not sure how that worked out.) The valve is currently in the off position with a temporary plug screwed in for extra measure.

One thing that made this project possible (besides Grant and Ted telling me I could do it) was being able to get the new stove’s installation manual off the internet before buying it. That is how I knew I had a 7″ high x 15″ wide x 3.5″ deep space to install the valve in the back left corner. Kathy and I wonder how the expensive plumbers would have known that. Maybe it is an ANSI standard.

Tip from Clark Howard:

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