A series of minor rants
Cindy Murray
event, and it's a huge project every year. I had kinda hoped we had
worked out a lot of the kinks from last year and this year would go
better (since we're doing everything the same), but that was not to be.
The economy has put a terrible crunch on fundraising for this event,
and we are having a really hard time finding donors/sponsors. So it
means twice as much time on the phone and on foot trying to get 1/2 the
money we got last year. :(
Worse still...I called an A/C repair company to come do an annual
maintenance tune-up on my system just to be sure everything was running
at peak efficiency...He charged me $70, didn't fix or tune-up anything
(just suggested some things he could do for an additional charge).
After he left, my system wasn't cooling AT ALL any more. So that
evening we called our home-owner's warranty company to get a technician
to come "fix" it. That was Wednesday. The tech finally showed up on
Saturday, topped off the freon and left. The first guy said it was one
pound low, the second guy said it was four pounds low and that the first
guy must have let it all out. :( Also, while he was here, we looked at
the filter (a new one -- I had just put it in on the 17th), and the
first guy had put it in wrong! But then after the second guy left, we
noticed it STILL isn't cooling. In fact, although the air coming out of
the vents is cool/cold, it's BARELY blowing at all! Like it's blocked
or something. I went and checked the filter and THE SECOND GUY put the
filter in wrong again. So I changed it, but still no air movement. The
second guy suggested buying just the cheapest A/C filter I could buy and
spraying it with Endust to catch particles -- he says the high quality
filters I was buying (we have allergies) just restricts air flow). So I
ran down to Walmart and got the cheapest filter they make. Still no
better. So there I sat on a Saturday night with no A/C for the past 4
days, and there's no way they're coming back before Monday or (more
likely) Tuesday, and it has been over 100� F for the past several days.
On top of THAT...we could probably stay cool by hopping in the pool
(above ground 18 ft inflatable type), and I was really looking forward
to spending a lot of time in it over the weekend. But on Tuesday or so,
I noticed some "sediment" at the bottom of the pool, so I took a sample
to the pool supply for testing. Told them I think I have algae, he says
all my chemical levels are spot on perfect and he detects no algae in
the water -- that if there had been algae, it's all dead now, just
vacuum it up and go on, which I did.
The next day, we wake up to find that the hoodlum kids in the
neighborhood have jumped the fence and gone swimming in our pool again.
Aside from the issues of tresspassing, pool safety/liability, etc.,
this is a big problem because they don't just climb up the ladder to get
in. No, they don't do that because someone would see them over the top
of the fence. What they do is push down on the sides of the pool and
climb over the top. That means that 1/2 the water drains into the yard.
They also toss the chlorine float and other items out of the pool.
The increased bather load means that it depletes my chlorine, etc.
faster, plus, it's just GROSS...who knows what they are doing in
there..... We've had to start leaving the floodlights on (waste of
electricity, which I'm trying to SAVE), to discourage them. On top of
that, I'm worried that one of these days I will have treated the pool
before bed (that's when I always do it...over night), and they will swim
in it and get a chemical burn. By law, who's fault is it? You'd think
theirs, since they are tresspassing, but according to the law, no, it's
MINE for not keeping them out. Go figure....
Oh, I digress...sorry. Anyway...I cleaned up the pool, life went on,
and I was really looking forward to swimming in it all weekend since the
A/C went out. But then we went out there yesterday, and it was full of
algae again. I took pictures this time and brought that with my sample
to the guy at the pool store. He took one look at the pix (before I
said anything) and said, "You have algae!" Gee, thanks, I told you guys
this FOUR DAYS AGO when I came in asking what to do about it. Now he
tells me the process to get rid of it takes two days, during which we
can't swim. If they had done that FOUR DAYS ago, it would be crystal
clear by now!!!!! ARGH!!!! He did say, though, that it's safe to swim
in with the algae, so we did. Yes, it's slightly gross, but the algae
isn't all that bad, it's just starting, and really, it's STILL cleaner
than the lake or river or ocean or just about any other place I've been
swimming. But it still irks me that it could have been fixed by now if
the first guy had just told me how to treat it for the algae in the
first place instead of telling me it was probably already dead and just
vacuum it up. :(
Oh, I could go on and on and on...and to be honest, if any of this had
happened 3 years ago, I would be smoking like a freight train, which
wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference. So take it from me...you
can get through tough times without smoking.
Cindy
Smobriety comes to: 2Y 5M 3W 6D 3H 29Mns $-Saved to date: $3583.14
Cigs not smoked: 18143
Sue
wrote:
>
>On top of THAT...we could probably stay cool by hopping in the pool
>(above ground 18 ft inflatable type), and I was really looking forward
>to spending a lot of time in it over the weekend. But on Tuesday or so,
>I noticed some "sediment" at the bottom of the pool, so I took a sample
>to the pool supply for testing. Told them I think I have algae, he says
>all my chemical levels are spot on perfect and he detects no algae in
>the water -- that if there had been algae, it's all dead now, just
>vacuum it up and go on, which I did.
My daughter's neighbor's set off fireworks last night of the illegal
variety and the wind blew all of the ashes, sediment whatever into her
pool. She wasn't happy about the loud booming noises at 11:45 last
night and not happy about the big pool mess they woke up to this
morning.
>
>The next day, we wake up to find that the hoodlum kids in the
>neighborhood have jumped the fence and gone swimming in our pool again.
> Aside from the issues of tresspassing, pool safety/liability, etc.,
>this is a big problem because they don't just climb up the ladder to get
>in. No, they don't do that because someone would see them over the top
>of the fence. What they do is push down on the sides of the pool and
>climb over the top. That means that 1/2 the water drains into the yard.
> They also toss the chlorine float and other items out of the pool.
>The increased bather load means that it depletes my chlorine, etc.
>faster, plus, it's just GROSS...who knows what they are doing in
>there..... We've had to start leaving the floodlights on (waste of
>electricity, which I'm trying to SAVE), to discourage them. On top of
>that, I'm worried that one of these days I will have treated the pool
>before bed (that's when I always do it...over night), and they will swim
>in it and get a chemical burn. By law, who's fault is it? You'd think
>theirs, since they are tresspassing, but according to the law, no, it's
>MINE for not keeping them out. Go figure....
Even if the law was on your side and no criminal action was taken you
know darned well they'd sue you in civil court, costing you buckets of
money to defend yourself. Whatever happened to personal
responsibility? Maybe if you put up warning signs you would be
covering yourself.
>
>Oh, I could go on and on and on...and to be honest, if any of this had
>happened 3 years ago, I would be smoking like a freight train, which
>wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference. So take it from me...you
>can get through tough times without smoking.
It's amazing the things we can now get through without smoking.
>
>Cindy
>Smobriety comes to: 2Y 5M 3W 6D 3H 29Mns $-Saved to date: $3583.14
> Cigs not smoked: 18143
Your meter looks great!!
Sue
Tihomir
>Busy busy busy around here. We are gearing up for our annual charity
>event, and it's a huge project every year. I had kinda hoped we had
>worked out a lot of the kinks from last year and this year would go
>better (since we're doing everything the same), but that was not to be.
> The economy has put a terrible crunch on fundraising for this event,
>and we are having a really hard time finding donors/sponsors. So it
>means twice as much time on the phone and on foot trying to get 1/2 the
>money we got last year. :(
Thank you Cindy for the great rant, which I thoroughly enjoyed
reading!
If it's any comfort, I have worse neighbours than you do!
--
Tihomir 2Y, Knin, HR 44�N 16�E
http://www.quitbuddies.org
Quote 4763 of 9169:
... Anarchy is better than no government at all.
Lynn
"Cindy Murray" <c1nd...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
news:h2qubb$qld$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
The
> second guy suggested buying just the cheapest A/C filter I could buy and
> spraying it with Endust to catch particles
Try it before spraying it with anything.
So I
> ran down to Walmart and got the cheapest filter they make. Still no
> better. So there I sat on a Saturday night with no A/C for the past 4
> days, and there's no way they're coming back before Monday or (more
> likely) Tuesday, and it has been over 100� F for the past several days.
Yikes
> The next day, we wake up to find that the hoodlum kids in the neighborhood
> have jumped the fence and gone swimming in our pool again. Aside from the
> issues of tresspassing, pool safety/liability, etc., this is a big problem
> because they don't just climb up the ladder to get in. No, they don't do
> that because someone would see them over the top of the fence. What they
> do is push down on the sides of the pool and climb over the top. That
> means that 1/2 the water drains into the yard. They also toss the chlorine
> float and other items out of the pool. The increased bather load means
> that it depletes my chlorine, etc. faster, plus, it's just GROSS...who
> knows what they are doing in there.....
Exactly, what I would do is find out the most disgusting disease a person
could catch from swimming in a pool and tell the neighbourhood parents it's
in your pool ( or think it is in your pool but the test isn't back yet) and
since you don't want to get anyone in trouble with the law for jumping in at
night but by the health code you need to inform all that might be infected
and about the series of needles they might have to get clear things up. That
should scare the little shits or at least scare some parents who should be
watching their kids in the first place. make it nasty like body parts
falling off :)
We've had to start leaving the floodlights on (waste of
> electricity, which I'm trying to SAVE), to discourage them.
get a motion detecter and hook it up to the light and if that doesn't stop
the little buggers find the lumpiest, hairiest bastard you can find at let
them swim at night nakid
Now he
> tells me the process to get rid of it takes two days, during which we
> can't swim.
just shock it and dump the chemicals to it and let it run overnight, it
will be fine. and if the disease doesn't work plant really thorny plants
around the pool area
--
:) Lynn OOF+ Leaper
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end
of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
MsConserv
> "Cindy Murray" <c1ndyl...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Well, evil bitch that I am, I'd dump the chemicals in and hope the
little bastards would jump in and fry their little asses so they would
think a time or two before they tried it again. But again, that's just
me.
Hugs,
Pam
DavidL
Life get's awfully aggravating sometimes (oftentimes).
No more sucking down cigs to deal with it.
Cindy Murray
> On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:15:39 -0500, Cindy Murray <c1nd...@tx.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>> On top of THAT...we could probably stay cool by hopping in the pool
>> (above ground 18 ft inflatable type), and I was really looking forward
>> to spending a lot of time in it over the weekend. But on Tuesday or so,
>> I noticed some "sediment" at the bottom of the pool, so I took a sample
>> to the pool supply for testing. Told them I think I have algae, he says
>> all my chemical levels are spot on perfect and he detects no algae in
>> the water -- that if there had been algae, it's all dead now, just
>> vacuum it up and go on, which I did.
>
> My daughter's neighbor's set off fireworks last night of the illegal
> variety and the wind blew all of the ashes, sediment whatever into her
> pool. She wasn't happy about the loud booming noises at 11:45 last
> night and not happy about the big pool mess they woke up to this
> morning.
>
We had some kids behind us shooting off fireworks, too. They were in
the alley right behind my fence and their bottle rockets (they are
illegal in Texas) kept going over my trees and house). I kept talking
really loudly about calling the police, but they didn't stop until hubby
actually got on the phone with them. Not sure where they went. Hope
they didn't catch some other poor sap's house on fire. I just don't
understand why it's so damn hard for them to drive a few miles and go
outside the city limits. We always did....
>> The next day, we wake up to find that the hoodlum kids in the
>> neighborhood have jumped the fence and gone swimming in our pool again.
<snipped>
>
> Even if the law was on your side and no criminal action was taken you
> know darned well they'd sue you in civil court, costing you buckets of
> money to defend yourself. Whatever happened to personal
> responsibility? Maybe if you put up warning signs you would be
> covering yourself.
>
Maybe so....
Cindy Murray
> Instead of taking 86 puffs of smoke, Cindy Murray spoketh upon us:
>
>> Busy busy busy around here. We are gearing up for our annual charity
>> event, and it's a huge project every year. I had kinda hoped we had
>> worked out a lot of the kinks from last year and this year would go
>> better (since we're doing everything the same), but that was not to be.
>> The economy has put a terrible crunch on fundraising for this event,
>> and we are having a really hard time finding donors/sponsors. So it
>> means twice as much time on the phone and on foot trying to get 1/2 the
>> money we got last year. :(
>
> Thank you Cindy for the great rant, which I thoroughly enjoyed
> reading!
> If it's any comfort, I have worse neighbours than you do!
>
ha ha, Tiho...I don't know about that...I haven't told you about the
OTHER neighbors yet! LOL
Cindy Murray
side! ;P
Cindy Murray
Kathleen
and that pool thing just takes the cake. Grrrrrrrr!
I hope it all works out and soon.
With hope and heart,
Kathleen
"Cindy Murray" <c1nd...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
news:h2qubb$qld$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Mike M
to come mess things up. Don't you wish you could rent a watch
aligator. Blood shouldn't be any worse then algae to clean up.
Mike M
On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:15:39 -0500, Cindy Murray <c1nd...@tx.rr.com>
wrote:
>Busy busy busy around here. We are gearing up for our annual charity
Cindy Murray
FINALLY showed up after 9pm last night (this company sure keeps some
weird hours!). This technician said that it was already low on freon
(again!) by half. He used the "sniffer" but couldn't find any leaks in
the system, inside or out. He speculated that the other techs might not
have tightened all the connections properly and/or that someone in the
neighborhood might have loosened it intentionally. Either way...he
refilled it and it started cooling immediately. It's now down to a very
pleasant 75� (heck, I was happy when it got down to 80�!). Life is good.
As for the pool, it doesn't look so good. I have followed the pool
guy's instructions to the letter. I hate to say it, but it actually
looks WORSE than it did before! After I brushed it and added the
algaecide and super-chlorinated it, it got so murky that you can't even
see the bottom. It has stayed that way for more than a day. So I'm
wondering...if my pool filter wasn't capturing the algae when I vacuumed
it, then how's it going to make it go away when it's DEAD? I mean, it's
not going to get any bigger, and it was already so fine that it went
right through the filter. So how does it go away?
Anybody with a pool know the answer to that?
DavidL
Maybe you should get Marvin's advice on the pool.
Bet you slept good in the A/C!
Walk??
Marvin The Paranoid Android
Pool advice -- we had algae real bad a couple of years ago.
Ours is an above ground.
With the algae I did the algaecide and shock but had to add a
'clarifier' which just gets all the dead algae to hold hands
(coagulate) to create a heavier object and fall to the bottom of the
pool. After you add the clarifier you have to keep the pump turned
off so it will settle to the bottom of the pool.
The first time I went to vacuum it out I was running it thru the
filter -- as soon as the pump turned on the water started circulating
and it blew all the dead algae up off the bottom of the pool. I had
to wait another 48 hrs for it to settle again.
The second time I vacuumed I sent it straight to waste -- out in the
middle of the yard. The only problem with this is you have to make
sure the water level is high and you need to vacuum at a good pace but
not too fast that you disturb the crap on the bottom of the pool.
It's a pain but it only take a couple of days.
Good Luck!!!
Marvin The Paranoid Android
The other thing too is when you get the pool vacuumed, backwash or
backflush your filter daily for the next week.
Lynn
a clarifier (baking soda can work in a pinch and give the water a sparkle).
also more filters.
do you test your water everyday? just pick up a strip test, test the water
and use what it says your low in
--
:) Lynn OOF+ Leaper
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end
of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
"Cindy Murray" <c1nd...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
news:h2vgeg$sgn$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Cindy Murray
No walk. No bike. See update #2 (coming soon).
Cindy Murray
I was thinking it might be helpful to do that just yesterday! Will
probably give it a try. They did sell me some "Pool First Aid" (some
kind of clarifier) the other day. It has helped because I can now see
the bottom of the pool. But what I also now see is that it looks like
there's algae there again. :( I'm hoping it's dead...we'll see.....
Cindy Murray
I don't think I know how to do this...do you just swap the hoses? There
is no "reverse" switch on the filter -- just an on/off.
Cindy Murray
> a pool is a everyday little chore,between chlorine, algaecide you also need
> a clarifier (baking soda can work in a pinch and give the water a sparkle).
> also more filters.
> do you test your water everyday? just pick up a strip test, test the water
> and use what it says your low in
Oh yes. I do my chems every day. Skim it every day. We actually swim
in it almost every day. That's why I was so puzzled by the algae,
because even the pool guys said my chems were "perfect". I'm VERY OCD
with it! LOL We first bought a pool like this over 5 years ago, and
I've NEVER had algae. We've pretty much decided it's a combination of
high phosphates (strips don't test for that) and the extra bather load
(the kids who've been sneaking into the pool). That's the only thing we
can think of....all the other chems check out and everything looks good.
Two days before all this, my water was sparkling clean/crystal
clear. Go figure! :(