House Husbandry

Plenty Salty Here

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We love our pool, but it does have a few maintenance jobs I am not fond of.  I survived one of them a couple of weeks ago.  The pool filters got all plugged up, and the pump stopped working.  This was cause for an emergency filter-spray-out party.  The girls get their suits on and help get all the junk out of the filters.  It takes some time, but we usually do it in the spring and fall, so we have it down pretty well.  Its urgency may sneak up on us, but we know how to handle it.

My issue of the other day was not quite as simple.  About 3 years ago, we put in a salt water pool system.  It saves having to mess with chlorine.  The chemicals are pretty easy to deal with (We take a sample to the local Leslie’s.  They test the sample, and tell us what to do with the water.  They tell us what order to put the chemicals in if we have been excessively negligent.), and the bags or salt are usually the only big thing to worry about.

Recently, the light on the salt converter had been reading the salt was low.  Knowing it had been off a bit in the past, I ignored it for a couple of weeks.  As the red (green is good) persisted, I finally gave in and yielded to its request.  Within a few hours of putting in the bag, I was glad to see the indicator go green.  However, the green soon went back to red.  Getting the water tested confirmed my concern–the indicator was broken.  Our salt was about 20% higher than it should be.  A call to the pool pump installation company put them in agreement with the previous testing.  So, now we get to the picture…..

Within the salt converter are little fins where the salt is converted to chlorine.  The cleaning process involves muriatic acid.  It has to sit on the fins for a bit to digest/eat/loosen the buildup on the fins.  After getting creative and accidentally flicking some of the acid on my once dark purple t-shirt, the muriatic acid did its work.  Unfortunately, after a few hours, the indicator still showed low.  Since the pool company mentioned a possible need to re-calibrate the salt indicator, I let them know.

As with many things, time does fix them.  And, 24 hours after, the indicator is working fine, my shirt has regained some of its original purple, and I have captured this ordeal to supplement what every deteriorating memory challenges may await me.

Knuckle Injuries

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Trying to be a good husband last weekend, I committing to moving some plants and planting some new plants in the flower bed.  While executing the plan, I neglected to plan for the injuries that so often accompany these landscaping moments.

The knuckle on the middle finger was created while using a pick to try and take out a very large root from our now non-existent magnolia tree.  While lifting up the pick handle, my finger, although wearing a glove, became wedged between the handle and a barely visible sprinkler head.  The other injury (on the top knuckle of the pointer finger on the same hand) was caused when I grabbed a tool out of the tool rack.  This finger was slit by a sharp edge of one of the other tools.  The “how” of the injuries is not really important.  It is the challenge of living with injured knuckles until they heal that is the real point.

These are the things injured knuckles have made more difficult:

  • Tucking in clothes:  Most people don’t tuck anymore, but I still do. So, it can be a knuckle-bumping opportunity.
  • Hand washing:  The washing is not ALL bad.  The soap may burn a little.  It is the drying that is the worst.  The knuckles tend to get a little abuse during the drying process.  And, being a little nutty about germs, does cause frequent washings.
  • Flossing:  My flossing technique has me wrapping the string around my top knuckles of both pointer fingers.  While doing the “flossing” thing, the injury does get irritated.  I am a big boy and can handle it.  Finger injuries are just not forgotten while they heal.
  • Tying shoes:  Again, fingers can be swapped while the knots are being made.  Until the knuckles are healed, I am reminded many times during the day that my fingers are VERY valuable.
  • Digging into front pockets:  I have to be careful here so I don’t dig into my pocket with the knuckles unprotected.  If I dig in with the knuckles “tucked in”, they don’t rub against the inside of the pocket.  If I don’t tuck, the scab is scraped off leaving a trickle of blood coming from the re-injured area.
  • Going outside when it is cold and your knuckles dry out:  This happened just this morning.  Even with gloves on, my knuckles bled.  They were so dry a small amount of blood trailed off in the knuckle wrinkles.
  • Buckling seatbelts:  It will hurt more depending on which hand the knuckle injury is on.  In my case, OWWWWWWW!!!!

Do I mean to whine?  I am trying to do a sub-par Andy Rooney impression?  No, I am just doing a brain dump and capturing a few thoughts.  I appreciate you reading.  I will try to do better next time!

Proactive Coke Rewards

Today’s outing (No, I didn’t drink all of these.  It is recycle day, and I was going through everyones bins to collect the points.  I do have some pride–I won’t dig too deep or dig down too many layers if the bins are stacked) consisted of 4 large cases, 10 small cases, & 9 lids.  It almost cost me a set of keys (they fell out of my jacket pocket while I was scrounging).

What are Coke Rewards worth?  Besides my wife’s undying gratitude, they buy her free Shutterfly albums. With the nearly 200 points accumulated today, a large dent was put in the next album.

Happy wife – happy life!

Somethings are still almost free…

We have lived in our house for nearly 10 years. And, as all things start to wear out, we have experienced a few of these issues lately. And, surprisingly, some of them were free….

  • The first one was NOT free – Our ice maker on the refrigerator has continued to work fine. (We developed a theory about the cleaning lady and how her appearances correlated to the dispensers performance, but that is not the subject of this post.) BUT, we had an extensive period of having to drink water from the sink when the water dispenser (yes, it dispenses filtered water) moved from “fickle” to absolute revolt. And, after procrastination, two visits from 2 gentlemen who had less than a rocket science education and the parting with a few dollars, it was fixed.
  • Keys can be replaced – The Gruenbaums like to take vacations. And, when we do, our kids rebel if they need to sit on the suitcases. (And, they seem to not be as safe when buckled to a suitcase.) So, we often have our luggage carrier mounted to the top of the van. And, this has proven to be a very good solution for keeping parents and kids happy. However, since the luggage carrier needs keys to lock it, it is essential that the keys be located when the carrier is being used. Unfortunately, we have had the opportunity to test bungie cords as a key substitute, and they are lacking in many areas. When necessity dictates, a phone number is often available to provide hope to those who are concerned their inability to pack lightly enough. And, as I found out recently, it is usually as simple as providing the number engraved on the lock. The charge for news keys is FAR less than a new luggage carrier.
  • I need a sprayer to spray off the dishes – I will never be accused of loving to wash dishes, but marriages are not always about my happiness. So, I do find it necessary to get in there occasionally and “bust out a few”. Prior to the spraying trigger breaking, this was no problem. After it broke, my appearance before the dual porcelain dispenser of cleanliness were much fewer. As I tried to alleviate this problem by visiting hardware stores and searching websites, I did not have much luck. The phone again came to the rescue. On the back of the faucet is a style number and after correctly guessing “Almond” as our color, we had a new sprayer 2 days later. (This is not the venue to discuss style changes since we bought the original 10 years ago and the difficulty in changing the hose out under the cramped sink.)
  • Shiny hardware is important – What started out as a small leak on the top of the foundation in the basement resulted in us getting a storm door on the back door. (Since I have been understating quite a bit, I will just say our builder wasn’t perfect.) After the door had been on awhile, the outside hardware began to tarnish. Since tarnish doesn’t bother me, it didn’t get my attention until it stopped latching entirely. (Others in my household to get more upset with tarnish, though. ) And, after visiting the same hardware store and being told none of the hardware matched, I was told, “Call the manufacture and give them the serial #. And, if though the latch doesn’t work, tell them it is tarnished, and they should replace it.” And, they did–I think. The new hardware should arrive within the week–NO CHARGE.

House maintenance items don’t always come in such bundles. But, when they do next time, I will be much quicker to grab the phone, and look for answers on what is broken.