WARNING: You might want to skip this post. It is full of my raw feelings and rants over trivial everyday annoyances. But if I can't write it on my own blog, where can I write it?
It was a frustrating day today. No, nothing really serious. Just frustrating.
We came into this weekend thankful to have a Saturday that could be dedicated, finally, to working on the tractor. After all, we have had conflicts on many weekends, ruling out many precious Saturdays. Next Saturday there is the graduation recital, so we really had to make today count. Yes, today was to be the day.
And then the pool pump finally crashed and burned. We thought it was coming, and sure enough, it happened. It happened yesterday (on my birthday). The temperatures have been in the 90s, and well, this is one of those problems you've got to address right away, you know what I mean?
Yes, it is an aboveground pool, and we thought we had found a good deal on a brand name replacement pump, but when we tried to install it this morning, lo and behold, none of the existing pipe fittings mated up with the pump.
So we spent most of the day running from store to store trying to find the correct fittings. Two pool stores and two home improvement stores. Are the threads standard or proprietary? Ask ten store clerks and get ten different answers. Then, when some fittings didn't work out, we had to hit yet another home improvement store. We finally thought we found a workable solution, and sure enough, by evening, we had the new pump running, ..... sort of. Looks like the outlet side, the high pressure side, may not be secure enough. We're going to have to babysit this baby for the rest of the weekend, to make sure it doesn't blow a pipe. And it looks like the salt chlorinator isn't working right now, but it might be because I accidentally left the hose running too long and maybe now the salt concentration is too low? But we did add two sacks of salt today. Could the salt levels still be too low, or is the salt cell not working with the new pump? Don't want to have to buy, and install, another salt cell now!
We are not sure tonight that we really solved the pool problem. Tomorrow we are going to have to find better fittings, buy a few more sacks of salt, and see if things resolve themselves. We may need some bleach, too, in case they don't.
And we never did get to work on the tractor yet. The grass is getting taller.
All this to say that my frustration is with the fact that somehow we have yoked ourselves together with too many gadgets. Life was so easy in the suburbs, where everybody paid a professional to look after their yards and pools. Now we are in the country, and when something breaks down, we fix it ourselves.
Yup.
And I really didn't think we owned that much "stuff". At least we never intended to. But our weekends are somehow at the mercy of the refrigerator, the microwave, the pool and all its destined to fail components, the TRACTOR, the well, the water filter, the computer (worst of all!), the gate opener, the cars, the tires, and who knows what next? As I told a friend the other day, somehow I don't believe the Lord intended us to spend so much time chasing down these things. Self-Reliant Man is going to get fed up with being self-reliant one of these days. And I can't say I blame him. He must go to the office through the week to RELAX.
So I am afraid that in life, we are forever and always on that learning curve. Always something new to learn, like it or not. Frustrated with ourselves for somehow getting married to all this technology, for better or for worse, in good times and bad, for richer for poorer. Wondering how bad it is going to be by the time we are both elderly. How will we cope with companies that sucker their customers into proprietary dependence on them in failure, with user "unfriendly" websites and toll-free numbers where it takes five minutes to speak to a human being (only if you call Monday through Friday between 10 and 4:30), and with store clerks that are not able or interested in helping us with our problem unless we are interesting in buying a big ticket item?
One thing I can say is that it was a good thing I had a decent quiet time this morning, or else I might have blown some plumbing of my own.
It was a frustrating day today. No, nothing really serious. Just frustrating.
We came into this weekend thankful to have a Saturday that could be dedicated, finally, to working on the tractor. After all, we have had conflicts on many weekends, ruling out many precious Saturdays. Next Saturday there is the graduation recital, so we really had to make today count. Yes, today was to be the day.
And then the pool pump finally crashed and burned. We thought it was coming, and sure enough, it happened. It happened yesterday (on my birthday). The temperatures have been in the 90s, and well, this is one of those problems you've got to address right away, you know what I mean?
Yes, it is an aboveground pool, and we thought we had found a good deal on a brand name replacement pump, but when we tried to install it this morning, lo and behold, none of the existing pipe fittings mated up with the pump.
So we spent most of the day running from store to store trying to find the correct fittings. Two pool stores and two home improvement stores. Are the threads standard or proprietary? Ask ten store clerks and get ten different answers. Then, when some fittings didn't work out, we had to hit yet another home improvement store. We finally thought we found a workable solution, and sure enough, by evening, we had the new pump running, ..... sort of. Looks like the outlet side, the high pressure side, may not be secure enough. We're going to have to babysit this baby for the rest of the weekend, to make sure it doesn't blow a pipe. And it looks like the salt chlorinator isn't working right now, but it might be because I accidentally left the hose running too long and maybe now the salt concentration is too low? But we did add two sacks of salt today. Could the salt levels still be too low, or is the salt cell not working with the new pump? Don't want to have to buy, and install, another salt cell now!
We are not sure tonight that we really solved the pool problem. Tomorrow we are going to have to find better fittings, buy a few more sacks of salt, and see if things resolve themselves. We may need some bleach, too, in case they don't.
And we never did get to work on the tractor yet. The grass is getting taller.
All this to say that my frustration is with the fact that somehow we have yoked ourselves together with too many gadgets. Life was so easy in the suburbs, where everybody paid a professional to look after their yards and pools. Now we are in the country, and when something breaks down, we fix it ourselves.
Yup.
And I really didn't think we owned that much "stuff". At least we never intended to. But our weekends are somehow at the mercy of the refrigerator, the microwave, the pool and all its destined to fail components, the TRACTOR, the well, the water filter, the computer (worst of all!), the gate opener, the cars, the tires, and who knows what next? As I told a friend the other day, somehow I don't believe the Lord intended us to spend so much time chasing down these things. Self-Reliant Man is going to get fed up with being self-reliant one of these days. And I can't say I blame him. He must go to the office through the week to RELAX.
So I am afraid that in life, we are forever and always on that learning curve. Always something new to learn, like it or not. Frustrated with ourselves for somehow getting married to all this technology, for better or for worse, in good times and bad, for richer for poorer. Wondering how bad it is going to be by the time we are both elderly. How will we cope with companies that sucker their customers into proprietary dependence on them in failure, with user "unfriendly" websites and toll-free numbers where it takes five minutes to speak to a human being (only if you call Monday through Friday between 10 and 4:30), and with store clerks that are not able or interested in helping us with our problem unless we are interesting in buying a big ticket item?
One thing I can say is that it was a good thing I had a decent quiet time this morning, or else I might have blown some plumbing of my own.
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5 comments:
Some days are just like that. Some months are just like that. : ) As I type....at 12:04 am, my husband sits in the kitchen manually defrosting our freezer.....again. We paid repairmen twice in Dec. to "fix" it....around $300 for both visits.
Have you ever read Henry and the Great Society?
Sorry you had such a rough day. I HATE it when I have my heart set on doing a certain thing and then life takes over and I have to do an entirely different thing, 'wasting' my whole day. I think we probably just don't like not being in control, feeling like we can't make our own choices. I had to leave a comment because I just found Henry and the Great Society yesterday, quite by accident. I haven't read it yet, but the introduction made me cry. Interesting now to see it on your blog as well.
Letitia, no I never heard of that book. It does look interesting. I will have to find a copy. Might be a good one to share with the whole family.
We gave up on the lawn tractor routine, and are paying a guy to do the lawn, again. And with an 80 year old house, there is always something to be done. But, hey, old things are easier to fix than new, and less prone to break down. So my kids laugh at me as I just repair things, and never buy new...and the headaches do arise. But at least we have "stuff" to cause the headaches, and the ability to deal with that, and for that we should be thankful!
I bet you moved to the country with dreams of simplicity :-) The only explanation I can give for the complexity of life is that, well, it was designed to be that way--and only the Creator can know all the reasons why!