OT: Night fishing.

Years ago, my ex-husband (we'll call him Tom; it's easier to type ) and I bought a small modular. Time passed, and we decided we needed more space, so we added a piece at the front and one at the back, doubling our square footage. The original structure had a full basement, and the new pieces were on poured concrete slabs.

Being the creative sort, Tom solved the question of how to heat this additional area without buying a whole new furnace by running a series of 3" PVC pipes at strategic points through the ground, through the basement walls and into the existing forced hot air system in the basement. BTW, HVAC professionals laughed at him, saying it would never work. They were wrong. It works perfectly. The guys who built the boxing for the pipes were a little off in their measurements, so there's an existing problem of finding or adapting floor vents that will cover the openings where the pipes are, which I'm sure will be eventually solved, but the heat is very evenly distributed, and the system works great.

Only completed perhaps 10%, the extensive remodeling project was suspended when Tom and I split, and I'm living in the unfinished masterpiece. (Finished enough for living, but not anywhere near being completed.)

You needed to know that in order for the rest of this to make sense....

So this morning, I'm sitting at my kitchen table in the "back" added portion of the house, enjoying my breakfast and reading a good book. I'm nearsighted, and it's more comfy to read without my glasses on, so I had taken them off, carefully folded them and set them to one side. Now, you need to understand... I love mysteries, and this was a good one. It had my complete attention. So when I reached for my coffee, I wasn't really LOOKING at the cup. After all, it was where it sits every morning. Unfortunately, I forgot about the glass of water that also was there so I could take my daily vitamins and supplements. My aim was only slightly off, but it was off just enough for my hand to gently nudge the glass, which started to fall. In a lightning-quick response, I saved the glass from falling; but out of the corner of my eye, I saw that my elbow had nudged my glasses ever-so-slightly.

Just enough to edge them off the table. It was one of those moments suspended in time. I watched my glasses, not even six months old, execute this exquisitely perfect forward double summersault with a half twist in seeming slow motion and disappear down one of the heating pipes. I briefly thought about finding a piece of cardboard, drawing a large "10" on it with a magic marker and lifting it toward the ceiling in upraised hands. Instead, I chose to blurt out several descriptive words that really don't need to be repeated here. Suffice it to say that most of them started with b, d or f.

By this time, my allotted breakfast break was over. So I dug out my old pair of glasses, called out "Have a good day!!" down the dark recesses of the pipe and headed off to work. Tonight, congratulating myself on my brilliance in remembering that I have metal frames, I attached a magnet to a long cord and lowered it down the pipe in what I was sure would be the quickest rescue attempt in all of recorded history.

Until nothing happened. Did I mention my glasses are made of titanium? Did you know a magnet doesn't attract titanium? I do.... now.

Never one to give up, I pondered the situation, smacked my forehead and cried, "Vacuum!!"

Great plan, except mine's a canister type, and the hose has this large appendage at the end that attaches to the wand. Yup, the appendage is 3.25" wide. Did I mention the pipe has a couple of 45 degree elbows? Can't stick the hose down, and can't attach the extremely sturdy metal wand and use it, either. I did give some thought to duct taping my cpap hose to the end of the vacuum's hose, but I know it isn't long enough. And something tells me that SOMETHING would mysteriously loosen the duct tape, release my cpap hose, and then I'd really be SOL.

"Hmmmm.....," I thought to myself, "Gravity took my glasses down the pipe, and I can't get to the other end without taking the whole ****** system apart, so it's kind of like a well. What would MacGyver do if he was stuck at the bottom of a well?"

"WATER!! All I need to do is fill the pipe with water and FLOAT my glasses to the top. Great!! Oh.... yeah..... titanium probably doesn't float. And there is that little detail of the furnace being at the other end of the pipe. Better not try that."

Oh, by the way... I'm wearing my less-than-six-months-old glasses as I type. Never doubt the power of an office worker. Long cord.... somewhat straightened paper clip.... LOTS of patience. Voila!!

Well, I hope you had a good day. Gotta head off to Sleepy Land so I can be sure to get up on time, get ready, have some breakfast and head off to work again.

Don't think I'll read a book, though. Those mysteries can be dangerous things.

Night!!
Marsha

got a fix----feed some sewing thread into the pipe at the furnace end and have it blow it thru to the upstairs side-with the furnace on---then tie on some heaverier cord and pull the thread gently back downstairs,,,grab hold of the cord and tie on some paperclips that are half bent open like a fish hook-also at the end of this tie on more cord,,this is in case you don't snag it the first time--feed them in, from the furnace side and pull it up from up stairs,,back and forth uptill you snag the glasses to safety----two people would make this easier---one up and one down------hey good luck hope this helps-----pat

I like your style Songbird!!!

Our very own McGuyver

Great story, Marsha, It brightened up this otherwise dreary (rainy) day!

Thanks, ladies. Actually, I must confess to a small, er... ah... adjustment of the truth. Everything there is really what happened except that my fishing expedition was fruitless (IMO, every story should have a happy ending ).

I'm going fishing again tonight, but just on the chance that it doesn't work (what are the odds? ), I'm open to suggestion.

Marsha

Guest wrote:got a fix----feed some sewing thread into the pipe at the furnace end and have it blow it thru to the upstairs side-with the furnace on---then tie on some heaverier cord and pull the thread gently back downstairs,,,grab hold of the cord and tie on some paperclips that are half bent open like a fish hook-also at the end of this tie on more cord,,this is in case you don't snag it the first time--feed them in, from the furnace side and pull it up from up stairs,,back and forth uptill you snag the glasses to safety----two people would make this easier---one up and one down------hey good luck hope this helps-----pat

Thanks, Pat. Are you familiar with PVC pipe glue? It becomes one with the PVC material and remains that way for all of eternity. And if I remember right, the pipe is very securely attached into the ductwork that goes into the furnace. Very securely attached; Tom's the sort of guy who glues AND screws, then runs a couple yards of duct tape around the outside just to be sure it'll hold. I'll go downstairs and look, but I can't think of a way to get into the system from the furnace end without doing serious damage. But it sure won't hurt to look, will it?

Marsha

Try using a trebble hook, just don't hook yourself with it!

Songbird wrote: I'm open to suggestion. Marsha

Marsha, is the point where the glasses "probably" stopped
accessable? Is it the 3" PVC pipe?

If you can access it and it is the PVC pipe,
just cut the PVC w/a hack saw,
go to the hardware store and get a
3" PVC coupling and a can of glue.
Cut the pipe, use a stick or something to fish the
glasses out.
Then fit the coupling into the ends of the pipe.
You could probably get away w/just duct taping the joint,
since it only carries air.

Anything that was assembled can be disassembled and
rebuilt. Anything that is whole can be reduced to pieces
and parts. If you can send pics, I can help.

As the carpenter said,
"....dern, I cut it twice and it's still too short."

There is metal screws in titanium frames. You nead a very strong magnet and patience. Not any average magnet will do. You are lucky it is PVC or the magnet would stick to the duct work. But if you get near the duct it will stick to it and you will probably lose the magnet.

Call Ex to cut pipe?

i had a not quite same not quite different fishing experience when we moved into our new house in february - during the inspection i saw the spray for the jacuzzi tub was not to be seen, and with a flashlight saw it had fallen down inside the walls of the tub - that was to be the first project for the house as i didn't want the kids to turn on the tub and have the sprayer flood the floor which would then drip below into my home office. took 3 hours over 2 days - i bought a $200 "See Snake" at home depot - it's made by rigid - it has a 3 foot flexible metallic hose, a video display, and a light - the light at the tip illuminates the camera and you wiggle this thing around - there are 3 tips, a mirror, small hook, and strong but small magnet - ultimately i rigged a plumber's/car mechanic's pickup - long flexible snake with a plunger - the plunger opens a claw at the end that looks like it will pick up an olive - anyway, was frustrating but got the job done, and cheaper than a plumber (i called 2 who didn't return calls)
in your case, depending upon how far the thing fell, i'd suggest the following:
a trip to home depot or lowes (pretty much mandatory anyway if your house has projects)
i'd buy a construction plumb (i think) - basically, a weight that goes on end of string
i'd buy string to tie on it
i'd buy some funtack or similar, and possible (as suggested) use a fishing hook (the triple barbed deal)
my glasses are not titanium but are not attracted to magnets - i'd forget about the screw being attracted and look for adhesion or hooking it on something
if you use a flashlight and get that snake thing (sorry, googled, can't find it) that should help

Gary, you've gotten my brain going back over everything, and I actually might have one of those snakey grabber things. Tom was a woodworker, at-home plumber and general fix-it guy and had what our neighbor referred to as the Juniata County Home Depot Outlet tucked away in his workshop (ours is a VERY rural area; the closest Lowe's or HD is half an hour away). For a bunch of reasons that no longer matter, he gave all of that up (although I do think the hacksaw's gone), and there's still a LOT of stuff in there. Phase I of the new plan will be to search through there and see what I can find. Thanks!!

Marsha

GaryGarland wrote:
i'd buy a construction plumb (i think) - basically, a weight that goes on end of string
i'd buy string to tie on it

I ran into him of at the hardware store, his name was Plumb Bob, he was hanging around by the Chalk Line display . Jim

Marsha, that was an extremely well written and entertaining piece! My first line of advice would be to write about 200 more pages like it, then take all that money from the best-selling book and buy a pair of eye glasses for every day of the week!

Also, if the glasses are more than just two or three feet down, you might need a standard fish tape. You can rig up all kinds of useful attachments on the end of any fish tape. A fish tape with a round-flexible wire, versus more rigid flat metal, would probably be the better of the two to try. If the handy neighbors and friends don't happen to have a fish tape to borrow, then your IT or electrical maintenance department at work just may. But fish tapes can also be cheaply purchased at some stores selling lower-quality tools. Hey, call me dirt cheap, but I never buy expensive tools that I plan on using only very sparingly for the rest of my life.

Anyway, imagine pushing that fish tape just past your glasses. The tip of that fish tape would probably clear your glasses because the "safety-pin style" hook or catch is upturned. Then, if you managed to hook it, you could slowly and carefully try to pull the fish tape back up with, with your glasses attached. So the hooking and lifting strategy is identical to what you were trying with that string and paper clip. The fish tape with its slight rigidity just may lend an advantage---especially if trying other end attachments like a treble hook fashioned from a couple more paper clips.

An alternate method might entail attaching a small but strong magnet to the end of a long string. Then make another string-and-magnet combination of identical length. Next, drop one of those identical strings down the pipe, so that it clears the bottom of the eyeglasses by perhaps a few inches. Then drop that second string of identical length so that it too clears the eyeglasses. Make sure the string remnants that are topside have the exact same remaining or unused length. The two magnets are probably now attached just below your eye glasses---as long as the two magnets are strong enough to attract within the distance of that pipe's diameter. Slowly pull the two strings up, hoping that single u-shaped string (made from the two magnetically merged strings) happens to catch your eye glasses. Of course, that approach assumes you can see the glasses, so as to intentionally drop that second string down the opposite side of the eyeglasses. That may not be possible, depending on just where the glasses happen to be lodged. In that case a standard fish tape may work better. That single string with a plumb-bob-style weight and hook mentioned above may suffice perfectly as well.

Anyway, good luck.

May I add my 2 cents in here?

After you get your glass -- and there are alot more experienced people advising you on that end that you don't need me for that -- fix the duct work so that things can't get dropped down there again. If registers won't fit try some screen wire or "rabbit wire" and cut slightly bigger than holes then take some small boards like those used on wooden screen doors or small metal stripping and to keep the wire in place. I am a do it yourself if at all possible and have fixed many things in nontraditional ways.

sleepycarol wrote:May I add my 2 cents in here? .... fix the duct work ....

Absolutely!! It certainly comes under the heading of "why didn't I take care of this loooong ago?" Thanks, Sleepycarol!


Marsha