Getting Vent Cleaning Estimate

Today we got an estimate from Reimer for cleaning our duct vents. We haven't had it done in probably 20 years and we really need it done bad as there is lots of dust in our vent system. So a technician from Reimer came by. I called them because we have an annual maintenance account with them and they recently added vent cleaning to their services. 

The tech Greg was very talkative and we had a nice time talking about the neighborhood since he grew up down the street and he also attended Canisius College during the time I worked there. We spent time in the basement looking at the vent system and how they would access everything. I was surprised that he didn't need to see any of the vents or returns throughout the house or ever knowing the number of them... there are 14. 

Reimer is coming by on June 15th to do the annual AC inspection and tune-up and said they could also do the vent cleaning on the same day. He showed me the estimate but later I needed to contact the company to get the written estimate which was $2,495.00 along with a $500 discount because of our membership so the total would be $2,169.56 with tax added. That seems a lot more than expected.

I went online and looked at other companies suggest vent cleaning cost for a house with 14 vents and returns and they were all significantly less... usually around $600 to $800. I will contact Stanley Steamer and get an estimate from them too. I think they were the ones who did the vent cleaning last time.

Reimer Annual Member

Andrzej Sapkowski - Authors List

Andrzej Sapkowski - Authors List. I read 7 books in this Polish author's The Witcher series starting with the Sword of Destiny in 2020. Actually I read all of these books in about a six month period. I usually don't read sword and sorcery novels but for some reason, maybe the onset of the Covid Pandemic, I dived into this fantasy series... and enjoyed the novels. There was also the first season of the TV series on Netflix at that time. I would watch that and two more seasons over the next few years but never had an urge to read any more of his books.

Andrzej Sapkowski books I've read:

• Sword of Destiny, 1992 - Mar 2020
• The Last Wish, 1993 - Apr 2020
• Blood of Elves, 1994 - May 2020
• The Time of Contempt, 1995 - Jun 2020
• Baptism of Fire, 1996 - Jul 2020
• The Tower of Swallows, 1997 - Sep 2020
• Lady of the Lake, 1999 - Oct 2020

Psychedelic Folk Tumbler - Kitchen Listening

Psychedelic Folk Tumbler - Kitchen Listening. This is a collection of British psychedelic folk music put together by a friend from Art of the Mix which I acquired from him about twenty years ago. There are five CDs in this set which runs a little over six hours of wonderful music. I haven't listened to this series of mixes in a long time and I really enjoyed it. Lots of interesting artists in this set. Many I've known for a long time and many more that I was unfamiliar with when I got this collection. 

It does include a lot of my favorite British folk artist such as:

• Richard Thompson
• The Incredible String Band
• Nick Drake
• John Martyn
• Ralph McTell
• Fairport Convention
• Pentangle
• Roy Harper
• The Strawbs
• John Renbourn
• Iain Matthew
• Fothingay
• Lindisfarne
• Maddy Prior
• and so many more

Pendergast: The Beginning

Pendergast: The Beginning by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, 2026. This prequel origin story of Agent Pendergast was just published about three months ago and I was fortunate to be able to download an e-book copy from the library so quickly. The book was then so good that I read it in four day and just finished it. Having read so many novels in this Pendergast detective series it was fun to see how he got started with the FBI and his unique style of investigation. An incredible thriller.

I wrote about these writers in my Authors List series of post here and I had read 26 of their Preston & Child novels. This is number 27.

So Blue So Funky Soulful Grooves - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening to a lot of soulful funky instrumental jazz over the past few days. Earlier in the week we played one of my favorite funky jazz compilations Blue Break Beats from Blue Note Records which I wrote about a few months ago. This time we played several albums over a couple of days. All soul jazz instrumentals and three of them featuring the Hammond organ.

It was great listening to all of this wonderful classic music.

Various Artist Compilations from my collection.

• Soulful Grooves: R&B Instrumental Classics Vol. 1, 1996
• Soulful Grooves: R&B Instrumental Classics Vol. 2, 1996
• So Blue So Funky: Heroes of the Hammond Vol. 1, 1991
• So Blue So Funky: Heroes of the Hammond Vol. 2, 1994
• Organ-Ized: An All-Star Tribute to the Hammond B3 Organ, 1999

Kim Stanley Robinson - Authors List

Kim Stanley Robinson - Authors List. I read 6 science fiction books by this author starting with the fantastic Mars Trilogy series depicting the gradual colonization and physical transformation of Mars over three novels.

Kim Stanley Robinson books I've read:

• Red Mars, 1992 - Jun 1999
• Green Mars, 1993 - Jul 1999
• Blue Mars, 1996 - Apr 2004
• 2312, 2012 - May 2013
• New York 2140, 2017 - Oct 2022
• The Ministry for the Future, 2020 - Apr 2025

Edgar Allen Poe - Authors List

Edgar Allen Poe - Authors List. 6 books. I guess we all read a little bit of Poe when we were in school. Then about 20 years after high school I got a little obsessed with him and read a few collections of his works.

I also liked all those films of his stories made in the early to mid 1960's. Saw them all at that neighborhood theater on the avenue around the corner. Also the earlier Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi films.

His stories in television and film.

Edgar Allan Poe collections I've read:

• The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings, 1843 - Oct 1988
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales, 1844 - Nov 1988
• The Raven and Other Poems, 1845 - Apr 1989
• The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories, 1842 - Nov 1989
• The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales, 1960 - Sep 1990
• The Masque of the Red Death, 1842 - Nov 1991

Diane's Show @ CEPA

Earlier this evening we went down to CEPA Gallery for the opening reception of Diane Bush's exhibition of her work from 45 years ago. We had a nice time there and talked with her for a bit. I also talked briefly with her husband Steve on the video phone chat.

There was a lot going on in the building at the various galleries. We hadn't been down to CEPA in a long time and enjoyed wandering around the building including the gallery spaces upstairs.

Nick Hornby - Authors List

Nick Hornby - Authors List. I read 5 books from this wonderful British writer and also really liked the movies made from four of his books... especially High Fidelity and then the TV series in 2020 too. I was making lots of "mixed tape" CDs when I read that book and saw the movie in 2000. 

I also liked the novel and film About A Boy which I read and saw around the same time.

I should check out some of his later novels.

Nick Hornby books I've read:

• High Fidelity, 1995 - Sep 2000
• About A Boy, 2001 - Oct 2002
• Fever Pitch, 1992 - Jul 2007
• Juliet, Naked, 2009 - Jan 2011
• Funny Girl, 2014 - May 2015