John Jackson

John Jackson

Dad likes to drink. Trouble is, he also likes to weld when he is drunk and do plumbing and heating experiments. It's been this way ever since he lost his job at the university over sexual harassment and he had to take a job as a helper at an oil burner repair company. All he does now is clean nozzles. Last weekend, after several twelve packs, things got scary. He was in the basement when we heard familiar hammering noises and the "pop" of the torch. Then the oil burner kicked on...only it sounded different. After dad went upstairs and passed out, I investigated. There was a new device bolted to the side of the furnace. Tubing ran from the oil storage tank, the air compressor, a bank of oxygen cylinders, a large, unidentified retort (He hit me once when I called it a retard) the natural gas main and the TERLIT into this device which contained an impeller driven from the oil pump. It looked like it was designed to mix oil, air, methane, oxygen and God knows what else (recycled beer and ****?), together, and then pump this mixture into the combustion chamber. I didn't want to hang around to find out. Should we call the mental health authorities, or does this sound like a legitimate plumbing experiment?