Seaoat

How do you feel? I am still upset about Z man...trouble sleeping.

It is very difficult when we lose a forum member. It is such an intense sadness which people do not understand when you mourn people you have never met. I spent more time online with Z than I did with many high school friends. The part which is so difficult is his mind was strong to the very end. Bob apparently lost many of his cognitive skills in a drugged state, but nonetheless both these recent deaths have hit hard. I am physically exhausted and hurt because I have simply pushed my body beyond its limits, and it appears that I will have to do painting and some paperwork this weekend. I will not drive. I will not run the bobcat. I may chainsaw and spread some grass seed, but when I chain saw I am standing and cut trees at the six foot level to avoid bending. Little seaoat and the boyz are starting to slowly regain color, but are still black and blue. My guess is the kevlar mesh was compromised with the liver procedure and I had blood leakage with lifting. I am stupid. I did the same thing after my lung removal, and I need to respect the body's healing process.

The good news is that we have two brand new ejector sewage pumps in clean basins, and a squeaky clean gray water tank and a clean black water as the septic pumpers did a wonderful job and saved us from having to work in horrible conditions. They saw all the rubbers and told a story about how they went to pump a tank on a five year old home. The family had three kids under ten with the youngest five years old. When they were pumping the tank, the husband comes out to watch the pumping and asked what are those? They explain that he has been a busy man and that they are rubbers. The man is quiet.......he then says.......I had a vasactomy after our youngest was born and we built this home...........

Hire a kid you damn fool. Just sit there and work your pointer finger.

Sal wrote:

2seaoat wrote:it appears that I will have to do painting and some paperwork this weekend.  I will not drive.  I will not run the bobcat.  I may chainsaw and spread some grass seed, but when I chain saw I am standing and cut trees at the six foot level to avoid bending.

Here's a novel idea ...

... sit in your damn Lazyboy all weekend and watch the conference basketball tourneys.

That's what I'll be doing with the exception of going to watch the kid play in a baseball tourney on Saturday afternoon.

I told you he's been having arm problems, and he's been playing exclusively at first base ...

... last night, they were actually winning 3-0 going into the final inning ...

... and, here he comes strolling out to the mound!

I about lost my mind ...

... he hasn't pitched in three weeks.

Well, he walks the first batter on four pitches ...

... strikes out the second batter ...

... hits the third batter ...

... strikes out the fourth batter ...

... the ss commits an error on a grounder hit by the fifth batter ...

... so it's two outs with bases loaded ...

... and he strikes out the sixth batter on a 3-2 pitch.

Good gawd, my blood pressure is only now starting to return to normal.

Good gawd, my blood pressure is only now starting to return to normal.

Enjoy every minute of your son's play......it is but a precious blink of the eye. Then you have to hope you live long enough to enjoy the grandkids playing.

My granddaughter wants me to work with her on low post and driving to the basket....I can't do a layup or guard any more......very frustrating I can only vocally coach her.

Hire a kid you damn fool. Just sit there and work your pointer finger.

I had a college kid helping last year who was a great kid, but I was going to have him chain sawing and wanted to make sure we had workman comp, and it was going to be about $1,500 even though we only needed him for about eighty hours. Our insurance man gave us an option for him to give a letter as an independent contractor, and pay about $300 for a policy which we were willing to do, but the kid was afraid that the IRS would find out we were paying him. I explained that we only have to send a 1099 after we pay six hundred dollars to a contractor, and he could work for the corp. for five hundred, and us individually for five hundred doing work for each entity. He did not want to get the insurance, and we did not want a young person using equipment where they could have a lifetime injury without workman comp insurance. It really for the most part been a blessing having me do the physical work, but it appears my body is breaking down and even resting on my plastic chair is not enough. We are near completion on the project, and the heavy work is about done. I will adjust. The final answer is that I get an enormous amount of pleasure working and completing physical projects. I had a long career where I did no physical work, just mental work, and my family is blue collar hard working people and I think my body is at home physically working and the pleasure center in my brain lights up when I work and finish projects......stubborn and happy.

Very proud of what the sick guy and birthday girl did on her birthday......

The backflow device assures the next person who pulls the pump will not have backflow from the tank after cutting the pvc. It is a compression fitting and we put a rubber removable two inch connector which will simply allow the next repair to reuse all the pvc and reassemble the pump line by reassertion into the backflow and reattachment of the rubber connector. We are going to dig about four inches below the lip of the basins and put masonry concrete around each basin with a drain pipe to the yard. We also are going to cut the two vent pipes and put a 22.5 degree connector and run the vents out from underneath the deck so no odor can permeate the deck if someone is enjoying the screened in porch. We feel good replacing a working pump as a preventive measure because our rental agent and their repair folks are not the best on repairs and always look for easy answers and outrageous charges, which when a principal is 900 mile away, and the work is hidden by a deck......they get away with robbery, and the problems continue with their incompetent work being rewarded by repeated repairs. No longer on this home.

Also when working with a sump pump, or a sewage pump try to avoid sharp 90 degree pvc connectors. Use lots of 22.5 and 45 degree turns to allow the force of the pumped water to transition to the straight pipe without knocking up against the 90. It cuts the wear and load on your pumps and it minimizes the pump breaking down your pvc pipe over time as it repeatedly gets slammed by the pump. This was one of the nastiest jobs I have done in years, and the bending, twisting, and putting strain on my groin with the very heavy pumps in tight places was probably not the best decision, but we have the satisfaction that this home will have clean service for about eight years, when even though the pump will probably be working fine, we should have the whole process repeated as preventative maintenance is smart maintenance.