Thunderstorm!

Unusual weather for California -- we don't often have thunderstorms, in September or otherwise. There were some (literal) rumblings; perhaps that's what got Popcorn going at around four this morning. The national weather service says 20% chance of rain today... and there's more thunder just right now!

I spent several hours yesterday helping set up for this year's memory walk (to benefit the Alzheimer's Association; I hope it doesn't rain on them today.

Diagnosing a Whirlpool GJC3634 smoothtop range

We bought a Whirlpool cooktop for last year's kitchen remodel. Our cooktop, the GJC3634RP03, has a white surface, which means a lot of elbow-grease (usually mine) and baking soda whenever we cook, but there are no drip pans. It's not an induction range, so we can use all kinds of cookware. The heat settings need some getting used to. It's not perfect, but overall we're satisfied.

At least we were, until the central part of the center-rear element went kaput. Here's the deal: the control can be set to heat up just the inner part ("single" I think it says) vs the entire, larger concentric disk ("dual"). With the inner burner dead, setting the burner to "single" gives you nothing, whereas "dual" gives you doughnut-shaped heating. The latter almost works OK for pancakes, but it's harder to get the heat right.

A look at the wiring diagram convinced me that it could not possibly be the normal-vs-simmer control, which would have affected both elements equally. I immediately suspected the burner, just because, but the control is an equal-opportunity point of failure. The range didn't go into the kitchen 'til October, but we took delivery in June or July, so we're out of warranty already.

Nothing for it but to do a little disassembly. I started by turning off the breaker supplying electricity to the range. I verified that it was indeed off by turning one of the burners "on" and noting that the power indicator didn't light up (it does so, instantly, when power is connected). Sticking my hand under the range, I levered it part-way out of its cutout and took a look. It turns out that the smooth white top is attached to the guts of the stove with ten screws (three along the front, three on the back[unverified], and two on each side). I supported the front edge with a skillet, as shown in the photo at left, and removed the screws (one position is circled in magenta in the detail).

With 7 screws (3 in front and 2 on each side) removed, you can lift the front edge of the stove and take a peek inside. In the photos, I lifted the surface just enough to see what was going on with the heating elements. The element of interest (the center rear) has three electrodes -- no surprise there -- indicated with magenta arrows in the detail.

At first, when I put the ohmmeter on the, uh, un-common electrodes (with gray/white and gray/black wires), it showed a dead short! Turns out it was an effect of the control; in the "off" position, it ties the un-common electrodes together. I verified this by switching the control to "single"/low and they no longer showed as a short. But just in case, I pulled each wire off when checking for continuity with the common electrode. One showed continuity and the other didn't. That's the smoking gun; it's the element rather than the control. Too bad; the element is about $100 whereas the control is about $40. Next step, ordering the element from Appliance Parts Pros (about $8 less than at Sears).

my current reading list

• Labberton's book on Worship
• The Brain that Changes Itself (Doidge)
• CACM, featuring the status of the P-vs-NP problem
• Catcher in the Rye (assignment from the teenager) by, uh, JD Salinger
• No Man Is an Island (Merton), of course....
• Advanced Calculus ("vector calculus just for fun...")
• Real Sex, the naked truth about chastity (Winner)

How do you spell "eclectic"?

neglecting this blog...

After an encounter with Labberton's book on worship, I posted this piece on "waywords"; this morning I finally got around to posting this on comparisons.

But what's going on around here? The kids are gone to college, which brings a set of changes to the house. On the plus side, when I make suggestive remarks about the lovely Carol's body, I get only one pair of rolling eyes rather than three. Also, if the front blinds are closed, we can walk around the house without being fully covered. (I don't think the dog gets offended.)

On the negative side, we don't get to see the kids' faces, we don't hear their laughter or the animated conversations they have with their friends, we don't know so much about how their days went, when they've been out (or with whom), etc. It is sometimes very quiet around here.

But that's what we raised them for, isn't it? So they could go out on their own? Didn't we encourage them to go to a residential college rather than Canada or Skyline or CSM or Foothill? Yeah, that helps a little. But it's still too quiet around here sometimes.

drupal

This open-source content management platform seems to be everywhere. Our church uses it for example. It automates a lot of website tasks -- account creation and the like. there's a blog feature, menus and so on.

Installation is pretty simple; if your site has MySQL and cPanel that makes even the MySQL part trivial. One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to change favicon.ico to ... ah, nevermind, here's how; very cool.

Quote without comment

Seen in Your Intercultural Marriage by Marla Alupoaicei:

Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid.

attributed to Harlan Miller

What's best in life?

I recently decided that there are few things in life better than preparing a meal for people you love and enjoying it with them. There may be (just) a few -- I can't think of many.

This was a terrific week for me. No, I didn't win the lottery, and I didn't even prepare a meal for my family. (The teenager and the lovely Carol were both in New Mexico--they still are in fact.) Let's see, I'll start with a couple of fortunate things and go on from there.

• Our federal income tax refund came, as did a nontrivial product rebate check.
• The doctor's office called with my blood test results -- they're moving in the right direction!
• Several great conversations about spirituality and life issues: one with a college student who's taking some terrific steps to grow closer to Jesus, another with an engineer considering whether to fully trust Jesus, and a couple more;
• Talked and prayed with a friend concerned about the future;
• Helped write a sermon study guide for this weekend's services;
• Helped a friend figure out the source of the mysterious mounds in his front yard;
• Great times with the ex-teenager talking about lots of things;
• We went on a bike ride (about 22 miles) today -- got a pretty good workout and had root beer floats when we got back; we prepared dinner together tonight too.

How could life be any better? Two things. First, safe return of the lovely Carol and the teenager to my loving arms (about 25 hours away now). Second, this computer (a gift from my buddy Kipp) not to freeze up any more. I have a working speculation that "noapic" will help (so far no crashes with "noapic" on boot) but....