Despot-ism

I need to get some odds and sods and mainly a thermostat, so I'm off to the Home Despot to spend more money. Naturally, I remembered you, dear reader, and took my vintage Canon A610 digital camera to document the trip.

First thing I noticed is "my" local Despot has finally fixed the typo in their main sign. It's not a great job, but at least they're making the effort. There's something to be said for that.


One thing the Despot is known for is its monumental collection of shopping carts. Some of 'em have to parked outside in the rain. On this day, the Despot greeter person was handing out flyers highlighting current sales. Most of 'em would up soaking wet and stuck to a cart. Good use of paper.

If you've been to the Despot, you recognize the loooong aisles and shelves where everything looks the same. It used to be that you couldn't find anyone to help you, but on this trip, I had a number of Despotters (Despottees? Despots?) ask me if I needed help. Naturally, I knew where the junk was that I was looking for. The next time I won't know where the item I need is located and there will be no one to be found to ask.

Figures.

I was in the electrical aisle (the aisle itself isn't electric, but that's where they have electrical supplies...) cause I needed some RG-6 coax, some CAT-5e and some wire nuts.

If you think I know what I'm talking about, think again. I have no idea what that stuff means. It just looks cool when I write like that.


Soooo. I'm in the aisle where the electrical supplies are kept and I spied some speaker wire! Ooooh oooh, Mistah Kotter! Speaker wire!

I'm thinking maybe I need to stock up. Maybe I can rewire the entire house with it! Whatcha think?

On second thought, I might just buy a big honkin' spool of it and ship it - anonymously - to the DPO. Now that would be funny.

Funny story - when I was shooting the wire picture, a Despotter looked at me suspiciously and asked me if I needed help. I said "no, thanks." He probably thinks I'm a spy from Lowe's. Anything I can do to make The Despot paranoid, I am glad to do. It's convenient, the prices are mostly good, but a lot of their quality is marginal at best. Ain't like you're gonna get a Minka Aire fan there, you know what I'm saying?

Here's what I came for mainly: the main event, the centerpiece, the Big Kahuna. It's a Honeywell RLV430 5-2 day programmable thermostat. This is a high-voltage thermostat specifically for baseboards and other electric heaters. I had to do some learnin' on thermostats (told ya) and now I sorta know somethin' about 'em.

There are two basic types: low voltage and high voltage. Low voltage are the most common - they run on 12-30 volts AC with 24 or 30 volts the most common. The high voltage run on the line voltage (120 or 240 depending on the install). Now, it may surprise you to hear this, but all the resistors and the transformer I found in the old baseboards were there cause the DPO used a low-voltage circuit. I pretty much sussed that out when I saw the transformer (or xformer as we Radio Types say). In other words, the DPO done did the wrong thing. I don't know why, but I suspect it has something to do with being...well, cheap.

But we're gonna do it right. That's what we try to do. Hence the nice modern thermo-status. This puppy is (so it says) accurate to plus or minus three-tenths of a degree!

After I snag me a new Honeywell thermostat, I'm checking my list for any other stuff I need. I'm-a-gonna wander around a little.

Whoa. Comrade, choo see onna dese close up? Choo know what dis is? Ees a big honking elevator lift! They use dese to get up on high shelves! How cool is dis?

If you've been in The Despot and the Despotees begin scurrying about and clear the aisles, this is one of the big machines they're clearing out for. Either this, or a forklift. I've never been this close to one of these things. I'm real tempted to fire it up. But I don't wanna get caught, seeing what happened earlier in the electical aisle.

I'm just gonna snag me a couple of quick pictures and get the heck out.


Despotees need to be careful the Don't Violate Company Policy. They might be forced to interact with customers.