Steamed in the Flat Lands:
Kevin: Darn, now I know why I've missed you so much for the past months of your silence. Just thinking about your "boiler police" and the 21% sales tax makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Our sales tax is 6% and that is nearly enough to start a lynching party in some circles. I cannot imagine being forced to have a furnace inspection every 12 months or at any other arbitrary interval. It sounds to me as though the government grants their buddiesa license to steal. Me thinks I'd probably have a few troubles were I to live in that area. In answer to venting the heating system. The upper end of each radiator is usually the high point and that is where they should be vented. Can't imagine why anyone would drain all the water out of the system unless something serious needed changing. Maybe he thought you had tired water and it needed to be replaced, or he could have been waiting for you to call him back for another run on you bank account. You could move to Kansas, Laura would fit right in with our local Quilting Amish and Mennonite ladies, and in fact she might teach the old girls a thing or two. Providing of course you haven't kept her slaving in that new kitchen until she's lost her touch. Dale in the Flat Lands