The words I will post on this blog? My father passed away 19 Feb 2009 at age 80 years and 4 months. The 'official' cause of death......Renal Failure.....Heart Failure......He stopped eating......he never accepted that the same disease he watched his mother suffer through was also robbing and torturing him. ALZHEIMER'S. Each day since, the fear and anger which defined him at his end, haunts my thoughts. But he is always with me as I struggle through my days. He would be no matter what path my life would take. But since his passing, my mother, at 81 years, lives with me. And an old fieldstone house filled with the possessions of 80 years of their lives, 57 years of their marriage, the last years compounded by that heinous disease, ALZHEIMER'S....has become my responsibility. To clean out, organize, maintain and finally, assist my mother to sell. As I've struggled with all that entails, my father is right beside me. Sometimes saying 'I can fix that'. At times chuckling with an 'AH-HA, you should have listened when I talked about how it worked'. Sometimes a 'HEY, don't throw that out, we may need it'. Frequently a 'No No, not that way, forget it~I'll do it myself '.

Over the din of him talking I routinely hear myself saying HM, BET I CAN FIX THAT. Words that no doubt he is whispering in my ear as I'm faced, once again, with another problem, something broken, or facing a task he always insisted on doing HIMSELF. For my father, for all he was and accomplished and all that was stolen from him in his last years......HM, Bet I Can Fix THAT!





Monday, June 13, 2011

Ah yes, POOL WARS-year 1

In the 3 summers since my Dad passed my knowledge of pool systems has increased dramatically. But I am not the 'master of the fix' that he was. When they purchased the house with pool in 86', the filter was the original which put its age at 18 years. All vendors engaged in 'POOLS' told him it couldn't be fixed and needed to be replaced. Thus began the 21+ year~~Hm, Bet I Can Fix That. He wouldn't have repair people come out to the house regarding the pool because all they would do was try to sell him a new filter. In those 21 years he found parts, rigged parts, manufactured parts and FIXED parts. When he passed I was left in charge of this---

He built the stand it was on and in all probability worked on every piece, connection, and switch. It dripped a bit here and there but that first summer when I anxiously flipped on the switch on the wall, after numerous attempts to prime it, it ran. Pressure wasn't 15-18lbs but it hadn't been for a while so no big deal. Finally I hooked up the vacuum and proceeded to clean the bottom of the pool. It did seem to be removing dirt, at least the first 5 minutes. When I went around to check the pressure gauge was bobbing merrily at 2lbs. NOT GOOD.

For the next month I fought algae, fiddled with settings, called and asked questions. Finally I called the pool guys out. Although it was ancient, OH REALLY POOL GUY  I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! it was functioning. That is F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N-I-N-G. Not working well or effectively. But functioning. After an hour of work and adjustments and $128 later it was working. Pool guys last words were 'don't touch the handle to the value as the tiniest bit of movement will undo all the work. I could change the value out but IF you don't touch it it may work the entire summer.

A while later a phone call from a friend asking to use the pool to which I said, "Sure but the Pool guy was just here and got it fixed so just swim. Nothing else". I went to an appointment, came back and walked around the corner. 'Friend' had the vacuum hose out looked over and said, I can't get it to work. Turning to the filter the valve was NOT where it was when I left. Pissed wouldn't come close to describing my reaction. For 3 days I tried to find the sweet spot the Pool guy had set it on with no success. Called them back and had the valve installed and it worked adequately the rest of the year. That year I had the Pool guys close the pool with the cover that ate Cleveland.

At this point there is patches with epoxy, lines rigged with gaskets, bit of a drip from the two pipes into the actual filter. I could never get the chlorinater {on the wall} to work and when they closed the pool I was informed they didn't even make them anymore. Next year, I'll just toss chlorine in, works for me!!!!
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