what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[Walt34]

How do you tell when a regenerating water conditioner isn't working any more? I'm asking because our rental's conditioner is is 15 years old and the resin still looks like... resin.

For us it was simply that although it was going through the motions - cycling on schedule and so on - it wasn't using any salt and while the water wasn't as hard as without any softening at all we were starting to see mineral residue on the inside of the dishwasher, cloudy-looking glassware, and some beginnings of mineral deposits on shower heads.

Upon replacing the water softener the residue on the dishwasher (stainless steel inside so it shows easily) and the slight cloudiness on the glass ware was gone within two cycles. And hand soap foams up noticeably much more than it did.

 

[Nords]

Today after lunch we thought about going to a pet store to pet a puppy. We are both certain that we don't want the responsibility of owning one, but I was thinking we could just play with and pet a puppy in a pet store and then leave. F. wisely suggested that would be a BAD idea, because we would risk wanting to buy it.

When our daughter was seven years old she wanted to volunteer at the Humane Society as a dog walker.

What a setup. A young girl playing with a dog. It seemed as if every dog she walked went home with a new family that afternoon.

Luckily it's also hard, messy work so she tired of it after the six-month commitment and moved on to other activities. But I can see how volunteers there end up being pet owners.

For us it was simply that although it was going through the motions - cycling on schedule and so on - it wasn't using any salt and while the water wasn't as hard as without any softening at all we were starting to see mineral residue on the inside of the dishwasher, cloudy-looking glassware, and some beginnings of mineral deposits on shower heads.

Thanks. Whether it was the control valve or the resin bed, either way the repair can be almost as expensive as the replacement.

 

[freebird5825]

Hi everyone
Just making my usual cameo appearance again.

Things are going very well for Mr B and I. I am spending a lot of time assisting him with that math based management science course. He is getting more used to the equation symbology and algebraic manipulations as time goes on. I feel great sharing my knowedge, being used in a positive way.

I'm doing more and more volunteer w*rk, with Mr B right by my side. Last week we helped out at an Ash Wednesday fish fry, then a pizza/hot dog/steak sandwich night, then the usual Friday night fish fry, then just a few hours helping out at a post funeral dinner event. Whew!!!!!!
He sells raffle tickets, I do kitchen duty and table bussing. Or he cooks with the guys and I w*rk the order counter and cash box. Or I cook too.

My indoor garden continues to flourish. I'll post pics at the Container Gardening thread.

This has been the oddest winter on record. I still think we will get clobbered by a storm system with winds from the NW causing that lake effect snow dump. It's kinda like watching over your shoulder for someone(or thing) to sneak up on you.

Hope all is well with everyone.

 

[NW-Bound]

In my younger days I used that same logic to talk myself out of going to strip clubs...

Does the above mean that now, you are able to exert better self-control? Or does that mean the hazard of unanticipated "ownership" has gone away?

 

[NW-Bound]

For us it was simply that although it was going through the motions - cycling on schedule and so on - it wasn't using any salt and while the water wasn't as hard as without any softening at all we were starting to see mineral residue on the inside of the dishwasher, cloudy-looking glassware, and some beginnings of mineral deposits on shower heads...

The fact that it did not use any salt meant that the venturi, whose job was to create suction of the brine solution, was clogged.

My water softener venturi nozzle tended to clog quite often from impurities in the salt pellets. Thanks goodness, the design allowed for easy removal of that part for cleaning and re-installing.

 

[Goonie]

Drove the last 90 miles of our trip to Ormond Beach, FL. Stopped and visited with the folks at one of the hobby manufacturers that I do a lot of business with. Then we went for a great seafood lunch at one of our favorite restaurants down here.

Still had a little time to kill before we could check-in to the hotel, so we took a ride to find the ALDI store. It's a few miles from our hotel, but we frequent that general area anyway.

Since NASCAR's Daytona 500 got rained out yesterday and last night (1st time in it's 54 year history) they rescheduled it for today. That being the case, we avoided the area around the speedway like the plague!

 

[MichaelB]

Went to Miami yesterday. My best friend flew down from NYC to hang out for the day, then went back. We talk, email and Skype frequently, but nothing beats face to face.

 

[Walt34]

The fact that it did not use any salt meant that the venturi, whose job was to create suction of the brine solution, was clogged.

My water softener venturi nozzle tended to clog quite often from impurities in the salt pellets. Thanks goodness, the design allowed for easy removal of that part for cleaning and re-installing.

Ah. I'll keep that in mind then. As for fixing the old one, well it's a little late for that now. I'm pretty sure that the lifespan of the beads was exhausted anyway. At least I'll tell myself that so I don't think I just threw away the cost of a new water softener.

Still learning Lightroom 3 photo workflow software. The underlying principle is that it does not alter the original image, instead applying all changes to a separate catalog which are then viewed with the image. In either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, "destructive" changes such as cropping are not reversible once the file is saved. In Lightroom, cropping is an entry in the catalog that essentially says "only display or print this part of the image". But any editing is restricted to catalog entries and not changes to the original image file. And if you've got the image into a total mess just click "revert" and you've got your untouched original back.

And it makes it very easy to cull the throwaways from those that need some work or are definite keepers.

Lightroom won't do the heavy-duty image editing that Photoshop can but I'm reading that for many people Lightroom is sufficient for 70-80% of photo editing they want. Pretty neat software.

 

[REWahoo]

To test water hardness before/after the water softener, one just buys the tester that REW just told us about.

I have to confess one of the readings I posted here was incorrect. Turns out the post water softener 137 display had a small blinking "x10" in the upper corner of the display that I didn't see. Yep, the unsoftened water read 910 ppm and the 'softened' water read 1,370 ppm.

After a little googling I learned the ion exchange process results in an increase in particulate matter by approximately 20%. Why were my readings 50% higher? Turns out something in the softener was malfunctioning and the 'softened' water contained dissolved salt (not enough to taste, but when evaporated the water left a powdery residue with a salty taste). My earlier diagnosis that the softener was working correctly was wrong.

I went through all the troubleshooting procedures in the manual, cleaned out the venturi, made sure the drain lines weren't clogged, and checked out all the other "user serviceable" components without success. It suspected the final rinse in the regen cycle wasn't working properly, but any salt left in the resin tank should wash out after a short period of use. Since the 1,370 reading didn't decrease after a day of normal use, that ruled out a failed rinse cycle. I gave up.

Like Walt, I bought and installed a new softener. The old one, like my previous unit, lasted seven years.

If anyone is still reading, the test of the water coming out of the new softener is 190 ppm lower. I suppose that was the salt level the old softener was leaving (injecting?) in the water.

I hate plumbing work...

 

[bbbamI]

Went out to lunch with one of my friends from the police department.

Celebrated our new addition...a new lawnmower! The old one was 23 years old, it was time to say bye bye.

Relaxed my fanny muscles.

 

[MichaelB]

Went out to lunch with one of my friends from the police department.

Celebrated our new addition...a new lawnmower! The old one was 23 years old, it was time to say bye bye.

Relaxed my fanny muscles.

having friends in the police dept is a good thing...

 

[bbbamI]

having friends in the police dept is a good thing...

Yes it is. I worked with those guys (I was a volunteer cop) for ten years. I miss them...but not enough to go back. Ten years is long enough.

 

[Nords]

Got an offer to interview on Military Mom Talk Radio. (@MilMomTalkRadio) Well, me and about a dozen other milbloggers.

It'll be my first live interview since the 1990s. I bet tech has improved a bit since then...

 

[Dreamer]

I went to a strength training class yesterday AM and then a line dancing class in the PM. I really need to do strength training. I can really feel sore muscles today and she started us out slow and with low weights. She is not going to be there next Thursday, so I think that I need to do some of this on my own, so that I am not sore all over again the following Thursday.

 

[bbbamI]

Put our old lawnmower in the front yard with a 'free' sign on it. It was gone an hour later.

We have an item on Craigslist and lo and behold, two scammers replied. I chewed on and batted them around for a while. Just like a cat, I grew tired of them and struck the fatal blow. What fun!

Only problem is, I know many people get scammed and that makes me furious.

 

[ls99]

Skated as usual. Got the hang of the "Schafer" push. If curious look for it on yotube, Orser and Boitano used it in loop figures during 1988 Olympics.

Using a forward outside edge to generate propulsion for skating backwards. Both feet, though left pushoff is stronger than right. Then played with using a Tango stop, then reverse direction using the Schafer push. A genuine blast. Love learning.

Then had a well deserved coffee.

 

[devans0]

Had an appointment with our accountant to get taxes done. He asked why I was still w***ing. He talked about how well my investing was doing compared to most of his clients. He told me to max my Roths, that my RMDs will be very high by the time I get to 70 1/2 years.

The complements were nice to hear, but I cannot take much credit, I picked up a lot from some savvy investors.

Thanks for all of the great postings.

 

[Khan]

Thought about doing housework.

 

[simple girl]

Thought about doing housework.

Me too!

 

[redduck]

...test of the water coming out of the new softener is 190 ppm lower.

Wow, that's just great... (isn't it)?

 

[REWahoo]

Wow, that's just great... (isn't it)?

Yes it is. Now we no longer have "liquid rock", we have "liquid sodium".

 

[Nords]

Got a "Contact me" on the blog from Jon Anderson at Military Times. (These days the blog pretty much rules Google searches for any combination of <military financial independence>.) We chatted for over an hour about his proposed article on "military millionaires"... after I got done laughing about the title.

He's an Army veteran, though, and after we talked for a while he got pretty enthusiastic about ER. I may have converted one over the phone. He even wanted to know what cars we drove, how old they were, and how many miles we got out of them. Brat, he lives up in your neck of the woods and his spouse takes a lot of ferry boats for her work commute.

I don't know when or even if the article will be published, but it was good to practice my pitch. I also sent in yet another surfing photo, this time with our daughter and me surfing together.

Maybe I should retitle the blog:
"The Military Millionaire Next Door"

Gee, someone should write a book!

 

[redduck]

REWahoo...

I Googled "Liquid Sodium" and this kind of jumped out at me:. "Researchers concluded that the liquid sodium released during the accident, could have melted steel doors..."

Sounds like " Liquid Rock" might be safer. But, then again, I don't have 400 posts as of yet.

 

[Nords]

Researchers concluded that the liquid sodium released during the accident, could have melted steel doors...

Yeah, but they save a lot of money on hot water...

 

[Buckeye]

Did another day of AARP free tax prep. Ran out of customers before we ran out of time. I'm sure all heck will break loose again the week before April 17th.

Spent 4 days last week in Seattle (actually, at a cabin on Whidbey Island) hanging out with 7 girlfriends. Our 19th annual winter gathering. Great time had by all but I'm glad to be back in FL in the 80 degree weather instead of the high 30's/low 40's. I much prefer our summer get togethers at the end of July.

Tried to take the cat for a walk. It's going to be a loooooooong process. Bought her a camo kitty holster and a retractable leash. Maybe in a year from now we'll be strolling through the complex! For now, she's doing a good impression of a potted plant.