Saturday, May 29

Potpourri & Silver Linings

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.

John Muir, Naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)

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The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.

Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

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While watching television, I keep the closed captions on the screen , so I won't have to blast the sound too loudly for anyone watching with me. Recently I was watching an HGTV presentation of House Hunters International. It appeared that the people who cue the captions got mixed up, because while a couple was looking for an apartment in downtown Tokyo, and the words I heard were something about the apartment paint colors, the closed captions read: "We live next door to a pig farm in Northern Ireland." I cracked up!

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The idea to open the swimming pool in mid-May this year (unlike last year, when it was done in early June) was an attempt to allow the sun to warm up the water earlier so I could have a prayer of swimming before the end of August, just as it is time to close the pool for the winter. So much for good intentions. A slow leak in a pipe caused the water level to go too low over the winter, so the pool guys removed the cover, but had to come back after we added enough water to bring it up to the proper level for the pump to be turned on. When they came back and tried to turn on the pump, it sprayed water on them - so a part had to be ordered. Four days later, they came back, and while installing the new part, they broke a PVC pipe. So, we have an open pool with debris on the bottom; which, if they don't get back here fast, is going to turn into a large frog incubator, with green and yellow algae and Lord knows what else. I took a dead mouse out of it this morning, and I see some lizards and worms on the bottom.

When I pumped gas this week, I looked at the side of my rear bumper - the one that was newly installed after the wreck we had in January - and found long scratches. Someone side-swiped my car and drove off. I am so ticked off about that.

If you read here regularly, you will remember my recent rants about how everything we own is breaking down or wearing out (including us). The current list includes: my shredder, my calculator, my hair drier, the garage door opener, the plumbing, the pool pump, the deck umbrella and the base that holds it, and now one of our hoses has so many holes in it that I got a misty shower when I cleaned some flower pots on the deck. Of course, that wasn't entirely bad, since it was 91*. There's a silver lining in that.....lol.

Edit: There's another silver lining: The pool guy came back Friday; the problem with the pool was that he had accidentally cut a hole in the filter part that holds the sand - so he replaced it for free!! The old one was at least 10-12 years old and now we have a new one for absolutely no cost! YAY!

9 comments:

OldLady Of The Hills said...

I so identify with all the "breaking down--including us". Me too, my dear Judy.
It is exhausting, isn't it?

I'm so happy to hear that the pool guy fixed something!!! HOORAY!

I hope you are able to get into that pool waaaay before August, my dear, and with not too many Frogs swimming with you....!

Gilly said...

You do OK with guys that come to mend things, don't you???

Could you send some over here!

Saw in our paper about a man from Raleigh who flew over the
Channel from England to France in a chair held up by balloons! apparently he has done a similar thing in NC in an armchair.

You are not all mad over there, are you?? ;)

Arkansas Patti said...

Boy that is rare not only to get a freebie but to have the guy admit his error. Gives one faith again.
Hope you are paddling in your pool soon.

Tabor said...

I dread the time when stuff starts to fall apart in bunches. We get a failure one month at a time now...;-)

Joy Des Jardins said...

I know how you felt about seeing those scratches on your car Judy....happened to me too. Someone whacked by car by the door on the driver's side and just ignored it. I'm positive it happened in a parking lot and they got too close when parking and scraped by door with the mirror on the passenger's side....it even left a little dent. I was so pissed. I've been so careful with this new car...well it's two years old now, but it's new to me. It's one thing if YOU do something stupid and you mar your own car; but it's another thing when someone else does it...and you have no idea who or why. I'm still looking for the silver lining in that one. I don't know what it would cost to fix this little dent, but I'd really like to keep my car looking nice since my son got it for me, and I'm sure I'll die with it. Sorry you were a victim too sweetie... ~Joy

Evil Twin's Wife said...

Glad the pool sitch is under control. I would love to have one in our yard, but I'm afraid all the maintenance brou-ha-ha might send me to the nuthouse at a much faster rate than I'm already heading. LOL.

sage said...

You should get more than 3 months out of a pool in NC! It's been hot up here the past week, I could use a dip.

Grannymar said...

I wrote a list of all the items that need repair or replacement.... it might be easier to sell up and move! :lol:


We once stayed self catering in Denmark. It was on a pig farm. The funny thing was there was no smell and the only noise was the piglets squealing when the farmer approached at feeding time!

srp said...

It is always nice when you find out that someone will replace that which they damaged, without asking. Oh, and that you didn't cause the problem in the first place.