Date:         Thu, 26 May 2005 17:00:06 -0700
Reply-To:     Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject:      Re: Smoking @ Gas Stations (was Re: Fridge....) NVC
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I spent the last two nights cleaning the exhaust system in a restaurant/bar
that probably hasn't been cleaned in twenty years. I backed my rig into a
courtyard near the kitchen door and as I got out I saw their water heater in
an enclosure with no door on it. As I passed it, maybe five feet away, I
could smell gas quite clearly. I said something about it to the owner and he
said it had been that way for awhile, they didn't know where the leak was
coming from, etc. Basically they were just ignoring it. Go figger.

Now I don't recall off hand the BTU capability of my burner, but it'll heat
4.5 gallons per minute of water to a constant 180F no problem. Basically
it's a three-foot column of flame contained in a chimney. We weren't able to
set up anywhere else due to potential noise problems and I told the guy I
wasn't firing up 10 feet from a gas leak. He started telling me that they
run their outdoor propane heaters next to it all the time and they've never
had a problem, blah blah blah. I told him no go- he had to fix the leak. I
told him if he called the gas company they would come out directly (as this
was a business) and they would do something about it, but he refused- made
me wonder if he was stealing the gas. His solution was to turn the gas off
at the valve and fix the door on the closet. We determined that the gas was
no longer present and went on with the job.

This guy was clearly contemptuous of me for worrying about it and acted like
he thought I was some kind of p***y the whole time we were dealing with him.
Some people are so stupid it's frightening. Maybe they'd been lucky so far
but as far as I'm concerned those are famous last words.

Just to make it a little more interesting, last night some doofus that works
there made himself a little 'hot air balloon' out of candles, some circular
frame he rigged up and a white trash bag. I'm working up on the roof and
look up and see this thing floating by. Being that the bag was white it was
lit up like a lantern mantle. It floated up quite a ways and quite a
distance... I was telling my helper that if the guy got caught he'd just
bought himself an arson charge (considering it had to land somewhere), when
we saw that it had floated well over the Navy base and went down there. Mind
you this is the desert and there's dry crap all over the place just waiting
to spark up. So I starting saying 'make that a Federal arson charge, etc'.
Guy was risking maybe 25 years of federal time and maybe some other people's
lives and property over a stupid prank. Unbelievable.

Like I said, some people are so stupid it's frightening

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Demarest" <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: Smoking @ Gas Stations (was Re: Fridge....) NVC


> Yep, and I haven't been hit by a train while crossing the tracks yet...
> but I still look both ways!     :-)
>
> I just wanted to make everyone out there *thinks* before just accepting
> the
> "go ahead and drive with yer fridge lit" line... I'm sure it's fine 99.9%
> of the time, but that gas pump danger should be considered.
>
> Me, I run it on 12V while driving... not out of safety considerations,
> it's
> just that the nearest place to fill my propane tank here in NJ is almost
> 50
> miles away... filling the tank is too inconvenient for me to go wasting
> precious propane when I can let the alternator cool the fridge! :-)
>
> I'll do my yearly fill-up of the propane tank tomorrow, the fill-er-up
> stop
> is on my way to Westies in the Woods!
>
> Tim
>
> At 11:59 AM 5/26/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>>**  John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>  writes: **
>>
>> > It's actually even dumber than smoking. Igniting gasoline with a lit
>> > cigarette requires very specific conditions that are suprisingly hard
>> > to create
>>
>>This reminds me of the old guy that used to
>>work at the local Vickers fillerup in the small town I
>>grew up in as a kid..
>>
>>Due to the  initial onset of Parkinsons, he's
>>holding that lit cig in one hand.. it's
>>shaking, while he fills your tank with
>>the other!  ;-)  (this is *not* an urban legend)
>>
>>Rose Hill, KS circa 1975 or so.
>>
>>As kids, we'd go buy there to get a
>>bottle of orange/grape soda out of their
>>machine for a nickle.
>>
>>The station never exploded BTW
>>
>>  -tim
>>
>>
>>90 syncro westy
>>mesa, az