Bring on the Light Brigade

Keith Graham is an electrician wizard of destiny.  For all of you in and around Nogales, remember his name.  Keith Graham.  He and his army of trained professionals will be coming to my house on Thursday to install flood lights, motion detectors, and some new switches.  The cost is so reasonable that it is practically free. 

We talked on the phone about his estimate, and he was almost apologetic about the cost because he saw how (un)furnished my house is, must have noticed I was on day 4 of my favorite jeans, and figured that since it didn't look like I had brushed my hair, I must have sold my brush to buy ramen noodles. 

My theory of electricity:  hire someone who is actually trained to do electrical work.  If the company has the word "Electric" in the name and it is backed up by some kind of bonding or licensing process, even better.  Especially hire that person when no less than 5 of your friends recommend that person. 

I explained to Keith that I could find some two-bit schmo to do some wiring and electrical work, and then I would die in my sleep as the house burned down.  I could also do the work myself and skip all the "will I or won't I die" drama by just electrocuting myself during installation.  What would Bhodi do if I electrocuted myself?  Keith's reasonable estimate will be cheaper in the long run and a lot less deathy. 

So, if you have been saving up your pennies for a private trip into space, wait until this weekend when you will be able to identify my house from the most distant reaches of the galaxy. 

There's no C in the Pool...or P for that matter.

So I finally decided to delve into the whole pool maintenance thing.  The former owners were kind enough to leave me a broken pool vacuum, a broken pool vacuum stick, a broken vacuum hose, and a pump with an automatic timer.  After some online searching, I decided to invest in all of these things plus some crazy bags of stuff called "pool shock" and a deluxe testing kit. 

I figured testing the water was a good place to start.  Step one: put some pool water in the testing thing.  Add 5 drops of this and 5 drops of that, match water color to the indicator thingy to know how much chlorine I have in the pool.  The answer: Zero.  No chlorine.  None.  Not a drop.  Not a part per million. 

Step 2, check the ph of the pool.  Add more pool water to the tester.  A few more drops of something else.  Match the color.  Too much ph. I am over-ph'd.  Ph to the max. 

All of the things I have to add to fix these problems of course rely on knowing how many gallons of water the pool has.  After some measuring and some online easy converters, I found total volume, did some more math, found some chemicals, and now the pool is stewing outside.   

The moral of this story is: having a pool is a pain.  I might have to do some soul searching and could decide that while a pool sucks, a huge fish pond might be easier. 

Vacuuming the pool, however, is fascinating, like peeling dried glue off your hands or getting a Zen rock garden.  I could vacuum a pool all day.  And skimming...don't even get me started on the joys of skimming.