Mocha Repair

Back on May 1, Mocha suddenly came up lame.  VERY difficult to walk and was favoring her right rear leg.  Off to the vet we went where she was diagnosed with a bad sprain.  Time went on and she would have good days and bad days.  We went back to the vet and got more meds but she still was struggling.  Finally, our vet referred her to a specialist.  This morning we took her in and she is having surgery soon to repair her CCL (the dog version of the human knee ACL tear).  Meanwhile, in anticipation of the bad news, I took a crack at making a ramp for her over the back stairs.  Got some plywood and a 2x4 from Home Depot, had them cut it up for me, slapped it together, and made what Ashleigh called, "Frankenstein stairs."  Got an old piece of carpet and it doesn't look bad!

Picking Up The Pieces Of My Broken Pump

This morning I went and flicked on the switch to the pool pump.  Fired up like normal.  For about 5 seconds.  Then it shut off.  All done.  Motor burned out.  I checked the switch and breakers but it was toast.  Can't have a pool without a pump so I did some quick research and found the replacement pump I needed online with free overnight delivery.  Elliott and I went out after church and did some local shopping anyway to put our hands on one and ask some installation questions.  Had to talk to an electrician friend too.  I ordered the pump and then went out to take out the old one.  Not so fast.  There is an electrical connection of course and an intake and output pipe.  Got the electrical part disconnected (it really was fried in there) and got the output pipe disconnected with no problem.  But nothing is easy.  The intake pipe SHOULD have unscrewed at the big grey pipe connector you see above.  Nope.  I broke one tool trying to get it apart and was afraid I would damage the underground piping or the black valve (above).  As you can see, the pipe was pretty much destroyed as was the coupling.  So I came inside and watched some videos.  Everyone in the videos just takes a hacksaw and cuts the pipe, then re-plumbs it.  Seemed like a plan to me.  45 seconds later the pipe was cut and now I am bringing my bag of broken pieces to Home Depot to try and re-create it.  I will re-plumb it so when the new pump comes, I can just screw it together and fire it up.  Sure....

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to me.

Shear Boredom

Been awhile since my last post but not a whole lot has happened.  Still waiting to see how that last vague post works out but I am choosing not to worry.  It is work related and I would be as bad as the Israelites wandering in the desert if I didn't learn from the last time.  So on I go.

Looks like the only way to fix the pool (see March 21st post) is to pull up the liner and fix the bottom.  The liner is 11 years old and they have a lifespan of about 15 years so I might as well get the whole thing done.  For now, it is not leaking too much but I keep a close eye on it and patch it as necessary.  It should hold out until the Fall when I close it down.  Got one estimate (ouch!) - waiting for two others.  

Got the Financial Award notifications for A&E for their Fall semesters.  Ashleigh changed her major so she is going for another year - which means her 4 year scholarship dried up.  But we were approved for a low interest loan so she is all paid up.  We can worry about paying that back another day.  She is working in MD at a hospital that is affiliated with her school so she has a good foot in the door for full time employment when she graduates.  She is living down near there at her boyfriend's mother's house.  That is working out really well.  Elliott got the same award as previous years but tuition went up but we got a loan for that too and he will be fine.  He is pounding out his online classes (needs the credit hours for the CPA exam) and working and playing a lot of tennis.

Lucie is in Colombia finishing up a missions trip and visiting family.  Really having a good time connecting with family members she has either never seen or hasn't seen in 40 years.  We text when she gets a WiFi signal but she is fine.  She comes home Tuesday.

A couple of weeks ago, Lucie and I went to my work annual seminar at their HQ in Miami.  Lucie got to visit some family there while I was in sessions and we had dinner on the beach one night.  The seminar ended on Friday but we stayed with friends until Sunday.  (The company paid for me to fly down of course and the room at The Palms Resort and Spa on the beach.  I used some Southwest points and Lucie got to fly down for $11...).  Had a really great time with friends eating out on the water, going to the movies, and walking around South Beach.

Had a good birthday last weekend.  A&E were home so we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and had a little party with some friends the next night.  The family got me (or will get me) a package to drive around a NASCAR track.  I am no NASCAR fan but I really want to drive one of those cars.  Looks like we can schedule that for August.

Very boring here.  Elliott comes and goes and Ashleigh came home for half of the weekend.  She is at the beach today.  I went out and did some yard work today in the tropical rainforest (so humid!) and jumped straight into the pool after.  The mower was falling apart and leaving parts in the yard (no more self-propel option now) and the shears in the picture above literally fell apart in my hands.  I went to replace them and saw they are guaranteed for life.  Took this picture and filed a claim - let's see how this goes.

Overall, all is good.  Waiting to see what happens next...

The God Who Created The Universe Out Of Nothing Can Certainly Handle This

That's all I have to say.  For now...

Just a quick story today of how God managed something in a way I never saw coming.  I do have to admit that I am getting better at anticipating the unusual solution to my problems though.  And He came through again...  Elliott is taking some online classes this summer at the local community college so he can earn his CPA quicker from Boston College.  He did his research and today we headed over to actually register for the classes.  We went in, he picked out the ones he wanted, we got registered, and then headed over to the Business Office (which is a nice way of saying, the Cashier's Office...).  I actually was not prepared to make any payments today so the nice lady told us we could just log on and make an online payment Friday.  I have been praying about how to pay for these classes and did not want to get yet another loan.  For the past week or so, I have been logging on to the BC site to see what financial aid Elliott was getting for next year.  While looking at his bill, I had noticed he actually had a surplus amount.  That was very unusual as BC is exacting when it comes to loans, grants and awards - they usually calculate the costs very closely.  As we started to leave the community college, I was reminded of that surplus.  Wouldn't you know it was almost exactly the amount needed to cover his summer classes?  We got home, applied for a refund from BC, and the money should be electronically deposited into our account by the end of the week.  Never saw that one coming...

Never Saw That Coming

It has been a pretty busy week with all sorts of unusual activities.  Mostly good, some challenging, all requiring me to stop and think about how to proceed.  One thing I am trying to learn is stop a bit quicker - before I start getting stressed and nervous - and ask God to help.  Many times I think I have exhausted all of my options, and I probably have exhausted all of MY options.  Invariably, the plan and approach I think of, if I have a plan or approach, is not how it actually works out.  And when it works out (after a lot of prayer), it works out in a way I never saw coming and in a way much better than I could have thought of.  

Without going into specifics, I had two challenges this week where my standard resources were not available and I had nowhere to turn to get these particular jobs done.  Out of the blue, I got a call from someone affiliated with one of those resources who said that not only could he help me out with one of the issues, he could handle the other one as well!  Perfect.  And that was just one of the week's challenges.

God knows I have enough past experiences to reference.  Now it is just a matter of moving them up in the memory priority list...

But Where Did The Water Go?!

A couple of weeks ago I took a look at the pool through the mesh cover and my heart sank straight to the bottom.  The first two pictures in the top row were what I saw:  9 inches of standing water (there should be 5 feet) and the liner falling in.  Never before has this happened and I didn't know what to do.  I pulled the cover back, threw on my hip waders and jumped in expecting the worst.  I looked around for a tear, hole, or leak - something that would explain what happened.  For some reason I never even looked under (through) the cover this year to see how it was doing. Sometimes in winters past, I would need to drop a submersible pump in and pump out the excess water.   Never has there been a decrease in the water level.  I grabbed a garden hose and slowly started to re-fill it.  Googled and researched and contacted the local pool company - no explanation could be found.  We are talking about 10,000 gallons disappearing without a trace.   Over the next few days, the pool re-filled, the liner smoothed out, and not a drop has leaked (see last picture, bottom row, for current status).  I haven't opened the pool so the water has not been filtered nor the bottom vacuumed.  I have welcomed any and all explanations and theories but none, well, none really hold water.  (The pool liner still has some silt in it but I have swept it all over and turned on the pool light at night looking for any indication of leakage.  Nothing.)  We have heard stories of Jesus performing miracles at the Pool of Bethesda.  Now I can tell the story of the miracle at the Hale pool.