It’s the Summer is here Flickr, or boy that was a short Spring.

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Well I had a very annoying Friday night but an equally pleasant Saturday.

I do my laundry every two weeks. I have a washer and dryer in my basement. Years ago, when I bought my first home, I bought a portable washing machine that I hooked up to the kitchen sink. Then I would hang the wet clothes on a clothes dryer. This was enormously better than having to go to the Laundromat. Then when I bought my next house it came with a washer and a dryer and I’ve had one ever since. I kept the hanging dryer until I moved to my current home and now I could kick myself for letting it go. And that would be because Friday night I did my laundry and when I went downstairs to take the clothes out of the dryer they were still wet. I tried it again but it was clear that this dryer has ceased functioning. So I went online to find a new one. I’m constrained by the size as the door into the house is narrow which really limited my selection. But, best of all, when I was looking at the specs they said 240 Volt and I thought, that’s not what my current machine is. What I actually thought was, isn’t that for Europe? I spoke to Home Depot and was surprised when he told me that 240 volt was now the norm for electric dryers. As every machine on the site was 240V I could hardly argue with him. So before I can even order the machine I have to have an electrician come in and run a new line. Luckily I have an honest electrician and I called him last night. He called back this morning while I was out and he will come on Monday morning to run the wire. A very inconvenient and expensive occurrence.

But today was much better. I met a young friend of mine at Grand Central Station and we caught the 10:07 to Greenwich, Ct. It was very odd, we went to the track and while we were on the platform, attendants came and told us all to go to a different track upstairs. No announcements on the speaker. We found the new track and the train was there but also having issues. As I said to my friend, If it was a plane I’m not sure I would have wanted to make the trip. It left about 20 minutes late. But we got to the Bruce Museum and the show was wonderful. It was an exhibit of 64 Dutch paintings,  “Northern Baroque Splendor. The HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION from: LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.” Two outstanding Gerrit Dou’s, a Titian that I don’t really think is of the first class, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Bruegel, both Van Ruisdaels, father and son, Frans Van Miers, Michael Sweerts, Jan van Goyen,  Aelbert Cuyp and a number of artists I was unfamiliar with. This was really a once in a lifetime chance to see the great Old Masters as this is not a collection that travels much. This is a link to a museum press release https://brucemuseum.org/images/news/Press_Release_Northern_Baroque_Splendor.pdf This is a link to illustrations of some of the paintings. https://brucemuseum.org/images/news/Image_Sheet_NBS.pdf If you’re anywhere in the tri-state area and love Dutch art you should definitely go.

Afterwards we walked into Greenwich and had lunch, well my friend had lunch and I had a really delicious Belgian brownie. I don’t lunch on the weekends and generally don’t have dessert so this was a treat.  When we arrived back in Grand Central Station my friend agreed to accompany me to the Main Public library on 42nd Street. We walked over and saw a lovely show of etchings and engravings, “The New York Public Library Presents Sublime: the Prints of J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Moran.” Turner was an 19th Century English Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker. Thomas Moran was a 19th Century American painter and printmaker and the purpose of the exhibition was to show Turner’s influence on Moran. This is a link to a press release. http://www.nypl.org/press/press-release/october-6-2014/new-york-public-library-presents-sublime-prints-j-m-w-turner-and  and this is a link to the website with a slide show of some of the images. You can’t begin to appreciate the beauty of this from these small reproductions, again, if you’re close by go and see them for yourself. http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/sublime-prints-j-m-w-turner-and-thomas-moran-1 The main reading room where I spent a lot of time years ago utilizing their computers before I went online was closed but the there’s a smaller reading room across the hall with art on the four walls. So afterwards we took a walk around the reading room and looked at all the of paintings which were by American and English painters of the 18th and 19th Century. Many portraits of the Astor and the Lenox families who created the libraries in New York and endowed them with funds.  I even looked at the busts, something I used to ignore. It was a very long day for me, I only got back home at 5:25 PM. But I really had a great time and so did my friend. I’m pleased as she said that she clearly wants to see more art so there will be future outings.

Several weeks ago I commented on a Flickr poster who had made the photos private several hours after I had found them.  They were back up on Thursday but when I went to post them here they were private again. As I said the last time, very odd.  This is a link in case it comes back.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127712480@N08/

An so until next week, on to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Tutu funny!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60741642@N06/15369794350 

Femme'd to taste

https://www.flickr.com/photos/35212767@N06/11580480413 
 
R-2298

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgirlrachel/15153188900

P1050383

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericaqc/15130434139

Hot day and cool water in City Park

https://www.flickr.com/photos/95326358@N06/15296925732

Which Minidress......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zarakane/15309244592

Gay164/ VOTE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

https://www.flickr.com/photos/glosackmd/3543437480

September BNO...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shinypenny77/15288273152

sweet nothing

https://www.flickr.com/photos/katvarina/15318476002

steff sissy maid

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82426311@N08/15220888570

ALICE SISSY SOUBRETTE

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75445494@N03/15382493136

Playing dress up tehe I love being a sissy <3

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75487627@N04/15212502347

[Angela M...]

Poor Andy, I wish I lived closer to you. I kept an old dryer alive for many years as there are few parts to replace and yours may only need a sensor/limit switch or heater to revive again. If the drum is not turning it may be as simple as a belt around the drum that has broken. There is a dead man switch that the belt runs around to operate and when the belt brakes the power is cut. If you take the bottom panel off you can see the belt and pulley switch and the belt would be lying at the bottom. If you reach in and bend the dead man pulley up the motor will start again so that means the motor is OK and just the belt is the only problem. Alas if you are not mechanically inclined, doing this is not easy and replacing the belt is a bit hard also. You need to remove the front of the machine and slip the belt around the drum first without dropping the drum totally on the floor, then feed it around the dead man switch and onto the motor pulley. This would cost a couple of hundred dollars for a service man to fix I think so if the machine is old a replacement is a better investment. Good luck and don't forget to check if the service cord comes with a new machine as some do not and you need to buy it at Loews/Home Depot store and have it installed.

[andyg0404]

Hi Angela,

Thanks for the sympathy and the tips. I am probably the least mechanically inclined person I know, there is no problem I can't make worse by attempting to repair it. The drum turns, and it's probably a motor or a switch but the machine came with the house which I've owned for 8 years and I think it must be far older than that, especially given the fact that it's running on lower voltage. I thought of bringing in a repairman but I didn't think it would make sense. And I did notice that the line cord and venting isn't supplied. To my mind not supplying a line cord with a clothes dryer would be equivalent to making the battery in a car an extra charge, no pun intended. Neither will run without them.

On the whole I'm lucky as the previous owners kept the house well maintained so my problems have not been major.

Andy G.

[Angela M...]

Hey Andy, I know what you mean, I too think it is crazy not to supply a power cord with an appliance but when I was in England and bought a new toaster for my aunt there was no plug on the cord with any small appliance there. I was baffled until the sales rep told me in the UK each plug is fused and the outlets in the home are direct line 240 volt. There is no central fuse box. It has been awhile since I was home but it may still be like that. With the labour charges today I think any appliance more than five years old will be cheaper to replace than repair and also there is the efficiency factor as things are getting more energy efficient these days. I am about to replace an eight year old dishwasher that would cost $400.00 to repair so even though I am looking at a model that is $1400.00 to $2000.00 it uses much less water and energy than the one I have and is much quieter also. With energy prices always on the rise it may be the smarter move. In your dryer if the drum turns but there is no heat, it is either the limit safety switch or the heater but as you say it is quite old so replacement may be the best solution. Thanks again for the gallery tour in your post, Turner is one of my favourite painters and I have two of his prints that I purchased at the British Museum in 1977. A few years back I saw a BBC special about his life and I have been trying to find it on DVD ever since. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your posts each week.

[sissybaby34]

To get things straight, every appliance in the uk now has to be supplied with a cord with a plug fitted and the correct size fuse in the plug. You are right in what you say about the wiring in a way. A circuit of outlets (ring main) is normally protected in the fuse box by a 32 amp breaker so the plugs are fused at either 3,5 or 13amp depending on the load of the appliance. To comply with modern regulations not only are circuits protected by overload breakers but also by RCDs (Residual current device) which will cut the supply if more than 30mA goes to earth.
     The image shows a UK Plug with a 3Amp fuse fitted.

[andyg0404]

In the unending catalogue of what Andy doesn't know can now be added the answer to the question, does he have an electric dryer or a gas dryer? Much to my chagrin when my electrician arrived this morning, he pulled the machine out and told me I had a gas model which is still made in standard 110 volt. I was lucky in that I asked how much I owed him for the fool's errand I had sent him on and he told me it was no charge as I was a regular customer. That was a bonus. The bad news was that when I looked at the hookup I realized that Home Depot wouldn't install it unless I had a cut off valve directly behind the machine. So I traded in my electrician for a plumber whom I'm expecting in a few hours. Knowing what I know now I was able to order the machine. But just to make things more interesting, after I placed the order the acknowledgment arrived saying my credit card Company had declined the charge. My credit is impeccable so I was a tad surprised. I called them and it turns out that because I seldom buy big ticket items this purchase set off an alarm where I had to tell them that it actually was me that had ordered it. This is a good thing although as I recall, a number of years ago I bought a computer and they called me to verify that it was a legitimate purchase rather than refusing the card. On the other hand they did call me once to ask me about my motel stay in South Carolina, something that was totally news to me. I'm hoping that the matter proceeds smoothly from this point on.

Andy G.

[Betty]

Yes. Almost all driers with natural gas heaters in them run on 110-130 volts in N. America, because they only need power for the motor, some small relays & electronics. They're also cheaper to run than all-electric driers. You need 220-240 volts for the all electric ones because they have an electric heating element that draws a lot of electricity. All the 220 volt ones I've seen do plug directly into an outlet on the wall... a 220 volt 3-4 wire outlet. The gas-fired ones will plug into any grounded standard outlet, but the heat part of it won't work without a gas supply.

We have a coin operated laundry facility right in the basement of my building. At $1.00 per load, it's about half the cost of a laundromat. But with only 2 washers & 2 driers down there, the machine are always "occupied". Or the machines have completed their cycle, but nobody's watching them, so I'm stuck waiting all day (with everybody else) for someone to get their laundry out of the machines. Also the hot humid air down there is almost impossible for me to breathe with COPD.

So I unpacked my old mini-washer, & started clothes washing right in the apartment. The little thing only can do 2 heavy jeans at a time, but several shirts, or lots of socks & underwear in a single load. It's barely is big enough to do bedding or a pillow. Some of the biggest heaviest ones won't fit. so I've switched to using more lighter blankets & pillows rather than just a couple heavy ones.

That machine was hand-crank. It took about 5-10 minutes to do a single load but got the stuff cleaner than a regular machine did. I've used it since the fire, but a couple years ago the crank handle broke. I guess I got my $45 worth out of it. They still make them, & are a great deal to wash at home in an apartment with no washer plumbing hookups. I would set up mine right in the bathtub for easy filling & draining. I found it remarkably easy to just get on my knees beside the tub to crank it.

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/product/The-Wonderwash

For drying. I use a centrifugal spin dryer. It spins at a high RPM with no heat to dry the clothes, & draws only around 80 watts. It will never dry them completely but after only 5 minutes of spinning, they will be only slightly damp... more than dry enough not to drip. So then I can just hang them anywhere, on a hanger, or over the shower rod to dry the rest of the way. Hanging them overnight or through a day usually dries even the heaviest stuff. If I'm in a hurry I can hang them near a breezy window, the AC, or a fan to dry them faster. But my plan is usually to just let them hang overnight to dry the rest of the way. The dryer holds slightly less than the washer. So I have to hang pillows & heavy blankets in the shower to drip dry. But the sheets, & heaviest jeans do fit in it fine. I've went through 2 of these dryers in 16 years, but they're so cheap I don't mind. After years of use, I've had the lid sensor switch break, but it was easily fixed.

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/product/Mini-Countertop-Spin-Dryer (currently out of stock but they'll get more). Other model: http://www.amazon.com/Centrifugal-Clothes-Portable-Spin-Dryer/dp/B002GEDBIG

After the crank broke on the washer, & my COPD got so much worse that some days, even turning the crank would put me out of breath, I got this portable electric washer. It holds about as much as the old one, & washes in about 10-15 minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/Package-Panda-Portable-Compact-Capacity/dp/B005GM942C

I know a lot of people who have full laundry facilities at home who use these tiny machines to save on their energy bills, or just to wash a couple items.

[Angela M...]

Hey Andy, my bad too as I should have known when you said 115 volt that it was probably a gas dryer. The hydro is only needed for the motor to drive the drum and the blower fan. I have never had a gas dryer as I thought it was a waste of energy to use gas and hydro at the same time but I don't know if it is cheaper or more money to operate one or the other. In your case it came with the house so it doesn't owe you anything for sure by now. I am always happy to know when my credit card company is looking out for me when a purchase that is out of my normal range shows up. They call or text me right away to check my safe guards as I once had a very large purchase clear in spite of the limit I had set for notification. It was several thousand dollars and above my safe limit but they never flagged it or called and when I saw it online I ripped a strip of management and logged a complaint as well. They said they were very sorry and it should not have happened and the charge disappeared right away but I didn't use the card for six months after that. They finally sent me an incentive to start again but I am still not using it like before as it was my business charge card and I sold the business some time ago. They still send me emails every week to encourage me.

[Angela M...]

Wow Betty, I have never seen those little machines before they look wonderful and seem ideal for singles or seniors on limited budgets.
 Yes sissybaby those are the types of plugs I remember in the UK. The house my aunt lived in was built in the 1900's and I was born there in 1949 and even on later visits in the 70's and 80's it had not change much so that is the type of plug I had to buy with the toaster. I also would add shillings or later 10 pence pieces to the stack on the fireplace for the gas meter when the were not in the room. The would never let me pay for room and board when I was there so I had to find ways to pay them back for my stay. Only one dear old aunt left now and she was 93 this year but still going strong and living alone. My mothers family rented that house since the thirties until my aunt who lived there died in the early eighties. Same family with thirteen children all those years until only one remains and she has her own house.

[Betty]

... I don't know if it is cheaper or more money to operate one or the other. 

...I am always happy to know when my credit card company is looking out for me when a purchase that is out of my normal range shows up. They call or text me right away to check my safe guards as I once had a very large purchase clear in spite of the limit I had set for notification.

More BTUs per dollar with gas. So although it is inefficient because a lot of heat goes up the exhaust pipe with the exhaust fumes, it is cheaper to run.

Yeah the tiniest purchase on my credit or debt card, & they would call me. But ironically, when someone in Atlanta purchased over $500 of airline tickets to Nigeria (under my Polish name?) a couple years ago, they were totally silent. I stumbled on the charges during a routine weekend checkup of my accounts.

I have a clearly long Polish name, my accounts & bank are in Buffalo, so why didn't red flags go up at HSBC & Master Card when airline tickets to Nigeria were purchased in Atlanta with my account? It turns out a place I used to buy parts from, ANTonline (an Amazon seller!), had a warehouse worker from Nigeria, who thought he was gonna get rich cleaning out some customers accounts, & run to Nigeria. LOL, they caught the guy too because I caught the charges just before he boarded the plane... No thanks to the bank or credit card company though. I had to catch it, & make a lot of phone calls for them to get the guy.