The Locker - Ted Nulty
 People have too much stuff! When it gets overwhelming, storage lockers are an option. You can put all that stuff that you can't stand to get rid of in a storage locker, lock the door, and come back for it when you have more room.
But that final step doesn't always happen. Then what's in the locker gets forgotten, and often it doesn't make sense to keep paying the rent and the locker is abandoned and the storage facility auctions off the contents. There is a large turnover in these things. There are websites like StorageAuctions and StorageTreasures where you can go an seek out options in your area. But you need to be cautious. These anonymous spaces can contain items that you are not expecting—sort of like the tarantula in the bunch of bananas!
Nulty has taken full advantage of this premise in his book: The Locker. It just so happens that a drug cartel is using a storage unit to stash their cash. Due to a clerical error, their locker is listed as "abandoned" and put up for sale. It's innocently purchased by Tom and Sheila Stanford who are looking for useful items to buy for their church. Tom and Sheila, however, are not your average citizens. They are both ex-marines and they possess a lot of weapons. They also have a lot of friends. Along with a bunch of misprinted t-shirts they turn up six hundred and forty million dollars of the cartel's cash and that provides them with a lot of options to defend themselves.
There are a great deal of guns and violence in this novel that reminded me of a Lee Child's novel, but I like the premise and Nulty fleshes out his characters well. The reader knows that there is going to be a major showdown that drives the book through to the end. Nutly sets up the Home Alone traps as Tom prepares for the final confrontation.
If you're fond of shoot-em-up stories with the good guys winning out in the end, this is a book for you. |
What do you mean...it's relative?
Temperature is pretty clear - maybe with the exception of Fahrenheit and Celsius. What's comfortable in the house? 72 degrees Fahrenheit? 40 degrees Celsius? Well there is that.
But temperature is only a part of the comfort equation. What about humidity? And why is it relative or RH? Each cubic foot of air can only hold a certain amount of moisture. As you can see from the top of this newsletter, the temperature this morning was 45º F (7.2º C) with 85% RH. In my August 22 newsletter the temperature was 74º F (23.3º C) with 91% RH.
You can think of air as an expandable box. If it was completely full of moisture (100%), it would be like being underwater. The warmer the air - the bigger the box - the more moisture it can hold. The RH measurement is relative to how much moisture the box can hold at a specific temperature. Cape Cod is right on the ocean so the amount of moisture in the air is almost always high, certainly higher than in places like Phoenix where it is 76º F with 26% RH today.
So why is this old house dry in the winter when it is relatively humid outside? As the air warms, the box expands so if the amount of moisture is constant, the percentage in the air goes down. So the cold outside air leaking into this house in the winter warms and the relative humidity goes down.
What we want is relative humidity inside the house to be between 35% and 65% RH. When it gets drier than 35% our sinuses dry up and wood furniture starts to shrink and drawers that were stuck all summer start opening again. When the humidity exceeds 65%, moisture can form on surfaces, mold can grow, spiders, insects, and mice can find sources of moisture for sustenance.
So if you are running a DEHUMidifier, get a hygrometer to measure the humidity and set it so the RH stays above 35%. Be very careful if you are running a whole house HUMidifier that surfaces don't get wet and the humidifier maintains the humidity at 65% RH or below. The damage these machines can do is relatively serious!
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