Self-reminder: You Are Handy

I had a dream a few nights back - I was back in my house in Watebury, which had fallen on hard times - windows warped and not closing, floors damaged. As I woke, part of my "rooted in the present" mind reminded me of the storm windows I had installed at that house. I could not really afford replacement windows (many window, very large), but I removed and discarded the removable storms / screens, stripped and repainted the sills, and installed new triple track storm windows throughout the house. I count 10 large windows downstairs, and 4 smaller windows upstairs. It was a pretty big project - done by hand (with the aid of a heat gun to strip the old paint)

That reminded me of all the home repair / infrastructure upgrade projects I have completed over the years at that place:

•  Upgraded electrical panel from an old screw-fuse panel (I think there were 6 total fuses, including two for the dryer) to a 200 Amp breaker panel. The electrical inspector was impressed by my workmanship (and could tell I did it, because I put service loops in all the wires as they entered the breakers)
•  Ran a hot water line over to the washing machine
• Installed 240 VAC electric heater baseboards on the second floor
• Replaced the gas hot water heater
• Built a bulkhead door (admittedly, this was kind of a horror)
• Replaced front storm door
• Installed three motion lights (after we got broken into early in my time there)

So yeah. I'm handy.

I was reminded of this yesterday - my iPhone (an older 4S model that is in good condition, meets my needs, and is perfectly serviceable) went from 30% charge to OFF in about 15 seconds. I've had it a while; time for a new battery. And my first thought was to go to the local indie geek store to get it done. But then I thought "you're a geek, you can do this" and indeed, for about $20 one can get a new battery and a toolkit to make the replacement, with plenty of online help via youtube and other places.

 Replacement battery and toolkit are en route, probably show up tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes....

Battery Recycling

I tend to use, accumulate, and collect a lot of batteries.

Part of that is vocation and hobbies:

• I own a case full of mostly battery powered test equipment for my engineering business. 
• I play music semi-professionally, with the need to replace batteries in guitars, foot-pedals, portable recorders. 
• I crew for (and occasionally ride in) hot air balloons, so often burn through a set of AA batteries as I take 30-40 digital photos during a morning flight
• I spend a week each year at a folk festival, and another at a summer camp
• I tend to collect and horde the batteries used a the yoga center (wireless headsets) because I know they are not getting recycled there. 

In addition, I have the usual assortment of consumer battery needs - remote controls, smoke detectors, portable radios, flashlights. I try not to overuse batteries, but they do add up.

And I do *not* want to simply toss them away. In the past I have taken them to Whole Foods, but I get to that store so infrequently (I joke that I almost never go north of New Britain Avenue in West Hartford) and I do not want to bring in 10 pounds of expired batteries.

So looking around the web,  I found this company - Battery Solutions. For a not insignificant price, you can purchase an iRecycle Kit - fill the box (or tub) with batteries, ship it off (pre-paid) and they are out of your hair and presumably not going to a landfill.

I love the business model, although I'd love to see some form of government support or grant money used to fund this (pretty sure most consumers would not choose to internalize the costs of disposing of batteries the way I will, and just throw them out)

One of my pet "make the world a better place" back burner projects is to set up a battery recycling service - placing recycling bins or tubs at likely locations and collecting the batteries periodically, either for free (if there is money to be made from the recycling) or at a nominal cost.

But in the meantime, I'll spread the word about these folks...