GOOOOOD MORNING, A.I.I.....
It's a great day here in Orem, Utah! Did the extra hours sleep do you well. I kind of like waking up to lighter skies. I am going to have to alter my inspection schedule to get me home a little earlier. Either that, or else I am going to have to start carrying around my million candlepower light to finish my afternoon inspections. Don't forget to schedule this Thursday off a little early so that you can man the front door when the little princesses and super heroes come a knockin'.
What do you most look forward to at the Annual Meetings?
Seeing old friends and hearing what they are up to. I most look forward to what goes on between the seminars. Jon Gudnason - Placerville, CA
Rubbing shoulders with others that aren't afraid to crawl on there bellies to make a living. It is also a great place to gain knowledge. I believe that years of experience can be gained in the few days of this conference. Keith Schenk - Burlington WA
It's like preparing for a big holiday celebration for the family. The day finally get here! It is great to watch everyone arriving and greeting each other, watching the new inspectors be introduced to the family and the awe in their faces as they begin to realize the extent of the association's support for their chosen career. The food, the vendors, the expert seminar presenters, the classes, the awards dinner with entertainment, the Sunday Morning Service by Greg Justice and the tired but happy feeling as we travel home with a small sense of sadness that the holiday has ended. And finally, a feeling of being validated for being a home inspector, a bit afraid at what I might not know yet and the beginning of looking forward to the next holiday. Betty Buckley - Klamath Falls
Betty is right about the feeling of a holiday. The Annual Meeting should be looked at as an event. A time to rub shoulders and renew friendships. This years meeting should be exceptional. I'm not sure what your plans are, but you should try your best to arrange your schedule to arrive early and leave late. I am always amazed by those inspectors who cut out of the event early using the excuse that they need to get back home for an inspection. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Think of the expenses in attending the conference. You had to travel to get there. Then you had to pay for food and the admission into the event. The major expenses are paid for and yet you feel that you need to get back to satisfy one more client. A bow that is always strung eventually loses its spring.
I remember Jon Gudnason stating that we must start to take control of your schedule or it will take control of us. This is true when it comes to the AII Annual Meeting. Occasionally I see an inspector at the event who is doing nothing more than gaining continuing education units and leaving the moment that they are done. What a sad statement. Have we become nothing less than real estate agents who attend real estate classes to get enough hours to keep their license? If you are attending just for CEU's, then save your money and just stay home. There are a lot easier ways to get CEU's than to travel all the way to Portland, Oregon. I have never attended AII Meetings for the CEU's. I have always attended for the information and the learning in the hallways.
Now let's talk about cutting out early from this years meeting. Don't do it. Change your plane flight, postpone your inspections, or just stay away on holiday for another night. Leaving early would be considered bad etiquette. In this case you would be cutting out on my portion of the party. Planned for the Sunday afternoon event are Douglas Hansen and Michael Leavitt wowing you with the vast array of different electrical testers. Sticking around for the full training will expose you to the high voltage realities of how bad some of our testers are. False positives from 3-way testers will shock you and learning about their limitations will alter the way you test and report electrical miswirings. The training is called the Electrical Outlet Efficiency Testing. By the end of the 2.5 hours your will have a much better understanding of the strengths and limitations of the common testers, as well as providing a more exhaustive form of testing and reporting that could become an added revenue generating service for your enterprise. Please try to arrange your schedule to stay for the event. I look forward to hearing the most creative excuses for having to leave early..........
CREATIVE EXCUSES FOR LEAVING THE AII CONFERENCE EARLY
These excuses are weak. If you plan to use one similar to those, think of Jim Maass from South Carolina. He is traveling all the way accross the country to see you. Think of how much money and time he is investing in being present and accounted for. Instead of rushing away, please consider staying another night and leave the next day. Enjoy the atmosphere and take a more relaxed approach. Flights leave Portland on Monday. Driving home is easier after a good nights sleep. You will be back to the normal inspection routine soon enough. Don't rush yourself and don't try to leave at 11:30 am on Sunday to get through the airport hassle to board a 6 PM flight. Consider taking another night to recharge your batteries. As for leaving to eat your wife's pot roast, I predict that you will be eating great at the conference. There was a time when we had sack lunches with an apple and hard cookie for dessert, but those days are long behind us. Thanks to Betty, the food in recent years has been exceptional.
I would have told Scott his house is dozer bait.. Jim Lucas - Camino, CA
It's beer thirty time.... Is this the magical ranch that produces the 3 Peckered Billy Goats? Tom Pittman - Roseburg, Or
You know, this is the last time I invite Jon over. I try to help a guy out, and he turns around to try to be funny or embarrass me, or something. Jon was having trouble with his truck, and I told him I had an extra one that I wasn't using that needed a little work, you know . . a couple of tires, a bungie cord to keep the door secured, and some plastic where the rear window got shot out years ago is 'bout all it would take. He acted like I was joking, actually laughed right in front of me and my wives. I'm just glad the 11 kids in their room out back didn't hear him going off. So I run Jon off my land, the ungrateful son-of-a-. . . , and he turns around and takes a picture of my spread like it's some real amusing spectacle that he's gonna show off to his high class inspector friends. To my mind, it just isn't amusing to make fun of me like this. My buddy Scott Merritt would never try to shame me this way. That's why everyone always speaks so highly about Mr. Merritt around here. Billy Bob
I was called by a Realtor yesterday for preliminary information on my conducting a commercial inspection on a local building for a client in CA. During the conversation, the Realtor said that the client wanted me to check the building for OSHI compliance. I did not respond to that (for the time being). My question is: I know ABOUT OSHI Standards, but couldn't quote them right off. I would always report things like the appearance of asbestos-like materials, etc., but I am not sure that a home inspector should be involved in something like this. Has any one had any experience in OSHI compliance before? Compliance inspection is usually done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety. Comments anyone? Ted B. Harris - OR
Ted Harris: If you like acronyms you'll love the environmental area almost as much as the computer area, both are heavy on acronyms. OSHA stands For Occupational Safety & Health Administration. I have also seen the term, OSHAD, meaning Occupational Safety & Health Administration Directive, but never have I seen OSHI. OSHA is interested in workplace health & safety, like ergonomics, heat, light, noise, toxic materials which they regulate by use of PELs (Permissible Exposure Limits) to workplace contaminants such as lead, PCBs, asbestos, all the way from Acetaldehyde to Uranium hexafluoride and Vinyl Acetate. Sometimes there is a difference between what OSHA accepts as a PEL and what EPA accepts as a PEL because OSHA is concerned with an 8 hour TWA (time weighted average - sometimes "Ceiling values") and EPA is concerned with exposures during 24-7. Naturally the EPA toxic concentrations have to be lower than OSHAs, because the population at large should be exposed to ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) for 24-7, not an 8 hour TWA. Another difference is that you can stall with OSHA and bring in lawyers, etc. EPA does not screw around with you. They send you a registered letter that you are out of compliance and your answer is due in 30 days. If they do not like your answer they measure their success as an effective organization by how much they can get out of you in fines (ask Mike Leavitt) and your lawyers have nothing to say about it - PERIOD. At the present time I have 2 weeks left to answer a letter of non compliance with 5 violations, each of which has a liability of $27,500. Despite the fact that OSHA has less compliance clout than EPA, they are not the kind of people to mess with if you make a mistake (one of my mistakes was forgetting to list the serial number of the XRF machine I used for a lead survey).
The Realtor who approached you doesn't seem to know what's going on, or how complicated an OSHA compliance inspection is. My advice is not to touch this one with a 10 foot pole. Defer to the experts on this. Even a CIH uses a lot of ancillary support before he makes any kind of formal report to a company or organization that is in danger of having an OSHA compliance inspection at any time in the near future.
NIOSH is only one of a group of support and research organization that supplies reliable research data for OSHA. They help to determine what reasonable exposures would be likely in any particular toxic exposure and the data is different depending on whether it is chronic or acute. They originally adopted in large part (almost 99.9%) the data researched by ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists). Since that time in the early 70's or so TLVs (Threshold Limit Values) published by ACGIH have been updated on a yearly basis. This document comes out yearly and is so expensive, I have not been able to afford one for the last few years, so I'm somewhat in the dark about what TLVs or PELs to suggest in a toxic exposure and so have deferred these things to others in my field. Sorry, I think I'm getting carried away again in my explanations to the point of rambling. I'm trying to organize my time so I'll be able to get away in a couple of weeks to the upcoming meeting in Portland, but at present I'm just not sure.
Richard Grisham - Las Vegas, NV
Looks like some type of grain to me, perhaps oats or wheat. If so it would be a rodent heaven!! Robert E Lee - Rochester, MN
Looks like grain or some kind. Ron Cloyd - Klamath Falls OR
Rice Hulls? Woodland is in the heart of rice growing country. Jon Gudnason - Placerville, CA
I will be surprised if anyone outside the area gets this one. (And maybe I'm way off, too). You would have to know that the area Ken is taking this photo from is big in rice production. Rice husks are plentiful, and you need to do something with them, don't you? Scott Merritt - Grass Valley, CA
Hi Michael, I finally came across something worthy of publication in the weekly photo challenge.
Below is a list of the conditions that are present in this photo. Most of these were caused by a tenant that did not pay his gas bill and they discontinued his service. He disconnected the gas water heater and found a used electric water heater. He didn't want to buy four feet of #10 wire for the water heater, but he did happen to have an extra three prong 220 outlet & an old dryer hook-up cable. He double wired the end of the wire to the Stove circuit breaker. Then at the water heater he broke the plug and used the lugs that attach the plug to the wire to attach to the water heater leads, (no need to buy wire nuts that way), all prongs for the plug are fully exposed, but hey, that means he can easily plug in his arc welder.
Below is a list of the items in the photo: (Some may be difficult to see)
NATHAN'S LIST WAS REMOVED UNTIL NEXT WEEK
NOTE: If you have tenants and hear that they have had one of their utilities disconnected: BE VERY WARY!!! Nathan Buckley - Klamath Falls, OR
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