Hot Tub Repair Redux +Addendum

 

Regular readers may recall that I had a problem with my hot tub last year. The circuit breaker kept tripping.

There were 2 attempts to schedule an appointment with the Thermospa repairman. One no show and another no show at the appointment time but he showed up on a totally different day when I wasn't home. And - he claimed to have looked at the tub but it was running fine for him. Uh huh.

Eventually, the electrician who wired my house replaced the circuit breaker and removed the air blower pump as it was showing a fault. However, when the pump was looked at by a local repairman - no fault could be found.

We reinstalled the pump and it's been running fine - until a couple of weeks ago.

The tub tripped again but this time the circuit breaker wouldn't reset.

Hmmmmm . . . .

Tried to call my electrician - but his phone number is no longer in service.

What gives?

So - called my builder and he happened to have his new electrician with him right there on a job. Made an appointment with Tim Gautier and he came to the house right on time yesterday.

In short order he tracked down the trip fault to the same air blower pump. When we pulled it out - you could smell where the motor was burned up.

Today I got on line and the pump manufacturer has an easy to use web site - Acura Spa. The air blower was listed right where it should be and I was able to place the order on line. Within 10 minutes I had an email reply from a sales person confirming the order. The correct PW type plug will be connected to the pump and it will be shipped tomorrow.

Now that is what I call a quick resolution to the problem.

Thermospas charges something like $100 per hour plus $50 initial charge or whatever - I can't recall exactly, but it's a lot. And my past experience was not good - hell - I never even saw the Thermospa technician since he was a no show - and he didn't diagnose the problem when he was purportedly here.

Tim charged me $40 for the service call. The pump, with shipping is $110. And it will be really simple for me to plug it in and connect it to the tub plumbing.

The total cost will be less than a service visit alone from Thermospas.

One good thing from the last go round with the hot tub. Danny and his crew had to lift the tub out of it's deck recess to get to the side where the pumps are. The side panels are held on by a screws in a column - which you can't access the bottom ones when the tub is in it's recessed spot.

Before we put the tub back - I removed all the bottom screws (28). So this time - I only had to remove the upper 2 screws in each panel column and was able to slide the side panels up and out - along with the insulation boards. Simple and easy.

The tub is only recessed about 6 inches. It makes it easy to step into and out of the tub without wood steps. And now being able to remove the side panels (without lifting the tub) - access and maintenance is a snap.

I can't believe Tim solved this problem in one short 45 minute visit.

When the new pump arrives, I estimate it will take me all of 15 minutes to install it. Actually, the pump itself only needs to be positioned at the end of the air conduit, a set screw tightened and plugged in to the control / power box. The real time is spent removing and replacing the side panels.

The tub is operational as is. In fact - the air blower was an option. Which frankly, I don't use all that much. Too powerful on the bubble jets which, ah, kind of hurt if you're sitting in the wrong spot. :-0

Actually, I could have just left the blower off. But there's a button for it on the control panel - so what the hay.

Instant Addendum

Got an email at 6:10 local time; 3:10 California time - the plug has been wired onto the pump and it's already been picked up for shipment by UPS.

Between Tim Gautier and the pump manufacturer - WOW!

Thermospas and former electrician only farked around with this (bleep)damn thing for weeks and weeks and weeks last time.

South Florida is no Bull

South Florida University came into town last night with a number 13 ranking and proceeded to show NC State why they are ranked so high.

I fully expected to lose, but you always want the kids to at least be competitive.

Last night, the South Florida Bulls took advantage of a young and weak Wolfpack and put together the perfect game plan. There’s no point in going into detail – the score tells the tale – 41 to 10.

Frankly, it wasn’t even that close. South Florida could have made it a lot worse if they had wanted to.

We have such a young team and are so riddled with injuries that we’re playing backups to backups and walk on players. Kids that came to State knowing they’d be on the scout team – but here they are in the game. These kids are playing so hard – it’s got to be tough on them.

Still, watching them play, you sense they will get better. They are struggling, but you see talent and coaching and a game plan. It’s just going to take another year or 2 for it to all come together.

Thanks to Nuke’s Dad Ward and his friend Chris for going to the game with us.

How Much Is . . . .

How much is $700 Billion Dollars?

If you had $700 Billion Dollars you could:

NFL

Own every National Football League Team - every one.

AND - you could own every NFL stadium every team plays in - every one.

NBA

AND - you could own every National Basketball Association Team - every one.

AND - you could own every NBA Arena every team plays in - every one.

MLB

AND - you could own every Major League Baseball Team - every one.

AND - you could own every MLB Ball Park every team plays in - every one.

NHL

AND - you could own every National Hockey League team - every one.

AND - you could own every NHL Arena every team plays in - every one.

Airplanes

AND - you could buy a Boeing 747 for every team that you own just to fly them around from game to game - that's 122 planes.

You'd have spent about $175 Billion Dollars.

AND THEN

You'd have enough money LEFT OVER - to do it all AGAIN - 3 MORE FREAKING TIMES!

NCSU 30 - ECU 24 +Addendum

ESPN Highlights


Post Game Celebration

The game was a hard fought, dead even, down to the wire classic. The stats were just about even all across the board. But the total offensive yards sums up the game exactly - NSCU 375 yards - ECU 374 yards.

In overtime, ECU had the ball first and fumbled. It's pretty much over if the first team doesn't score in overtime. Both teams get the ball on the 35 and can usually move into field goal range. For NC State - we punched it in to the end zone for a touchdown.

What an exciting game.

Thanks to Chip, Erica and Nuke for going to the game with me.

It was a blast.

Blue Tongue

This little girl sits a couple rows behind us. She was eating blue cotton candy and it turned her tongue blue.

Saturday Evening

Later, got a hotel room in Raleigh to do a little bar hopping. I was thinking about going to see the Batman movie on IMAX but I was too tired. Ended up watching football on TV in the room after going to the hotel bar. Nuke, being younger, in better shape, and more of a lush carried on with visiting local pubs.

This is the Raleigh skyline from the hotel room.

Addendum

There continues to be a lot of smack talk on the blogs and radio call in shows about last weekend's game.

NCSU won the game and we'll be able to talk junk to our ECU friends for quite a while.

However, in all fairness -

ECU should go on to a 10 and 2 or 11 and 1 season - win Conference USA - and play in a big time bowl. Maybe not a BCS bowl - but a big one none the less.

NC State will be hard tasked to reach 6 and 6.

Showdown

East Carolina Apartment Building

Official Car of East Carolina University

East Carolina University and NC State University have a love hate relationship. We love to hate each other.

Starting back in the 1970’s, NCSU was the only North Carolina and ACC team that would even consider playing ECU.

State has always been Tractor Tech, Moo U, Cow College – but compared to ECU - we’re high class.

Put it this way – State was a double wide with aluminum skirts on your own lot. ECU was the 15-year old rusted out rental single wide with the wheels still on (but no tires) and the car up on cinderblocks in the front yard.

State never would play at ECU. All sorts of reasons such as their stadium was too small; why go to ECU when we could travel to Florida, or Penn State - you know – real schools; and so on.

So the couple of times ECU won at NC State – their fans actually tore down the NC State goal posts! These were alcohol fueled affairs that resulted in near riots. And for a while – the games between the schools were suspended.

And I have been at every ECU @ NCSU game – including the riot games.

State and ECU have resumed their games. NC State has actually travelled a couple times to Greenville.

Last year, State broke its losing streak with an upset victory at ECU. Which didn’t exactly send ECU on a skid – but it did hurt them.

Tomorrow ECU comes to Raleigh flying high with 2 big upset back to back wins over ranked teams including Number 8 West Virginia. ECU is ranked 15 / 16 but since they are playing at NCSU they are favored by only a touchdown.

I got on Craigslist last night just to look. There were over 350 entries of people wanting to buy tickets. Clearly ECU fans are buying tickets at just about any price to be at their expected victory tomorrow.

The game will be very emotional as always.

Fortunately kickoff is at noon – so at least the purple rednecks won’t have all day to drink beer. Hopefully they can try and act like they’ve been to a big time game before.

NC State’s rivalry is with UNC. But ECU is the team you just can’t stand to lose to. At UNC – NCSU games, we tailgate together; watch the games together at friends’ houses or local pubs; and pull for each other when playing in the post season.

But EZU?

Fark ‘em.

A confederacy of Dunces

A confederacy of Dunces - And we the taxpayers get screwed.

In 2004, the SEC exempted five firms from required capital/debt ratio regulations.

They are: Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

Thank you George W. Bush Administration.

You Suck.

Random Knowledge

I really like this great site:

http://www.unkno.com/

I am such a such a total geek.

Lamentations

Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.*

As of today’s injury report - NC State now has 10 key players out. Most of them for the season.

http://www.wral.com/sports/story/3549146/

That doesn’t count those who’ve been injured but have returned to playing time (such as quarterback Russell Wilson, Grade 3 Concussion).

How Oh Lord? How hath the Wolfpack displeased thee?

I don't have a goat or an ox. Will a raccoon do?


*Book of Job actually.

Kudos

Sitemeter is a handy little service. I think their enterprise part is selling traffic trends - I think. If you allow them to keep track of who clicks - or . . . something - anyway, you get a nifty counter and the ability to see who visits you.

Their user interface was (is) very simple, clean and functional.

Recently they’ve been warning us users that they were making improvements.

The changes were unveiled this weekend.

SUCK. BARF. CRAP.

A bunch of totally useless 2.0 looking graphs and crap. So FARKING what? Actual information was replaced by pretty colors and bar graphs and pie charts.

Here’s a little clue for all you young web designers. Just because you can ‘do something" doesn’t mean you should. KISS is ALWAYS the best choice.

However, in an instance of awesome good decision making – Sitemeter listened to their users and by the time the weekend was over – they had switched BACK to their prior user interface and pages.

Kudos to Sitemeter management!

And I hope you fired the dumbshit(s) who ‘sold’ you on the idea of completely trashing your old great system and replacing it with the new piece of trash.

Ford Focus

OK – Since I’m ranting about stupid changes for changes sake – here’s the low down on this year’s Ford Focus styling.

SUCK. BARF. CRAP.

The Ford Focus is a spiffy little car. Extremely well designed once they got rid of that crappy oval dash and went to the straightforward design.

Interior room is amazing for a car this small. Fit and finish is as good as on any car I’ve ever seen. Including high end German machines.

Simply an excellent car – especially for the money. The longer I have mine, the better I like it.

A nice clean deign. Elegantly simple. A tad underpowered - but not too much so.

So what did Ford decide to do?

Totally crap up the exterior design last year (and the dashboard too).

Why?

Because it would be ‘different’. Yeah – it’s different. It sucks.

Ford took a great, clean design and stuck on a bunch of – heck – I don’t know what to call it. Crap is the only word that comes to mind. What the heck is that plastic shit stuck on the front side fenders? I mean – that’s all it is. Nonfunctional plastic crap that stuck on the front fenders. The lights look like they were beat in to place with a hammer instead of the nice previous design that flowed with the rest of the car.

FORD - You had a great design! Tweak it sure. But why did you replace the exterior design and interior design with total crap? Like Sitemeter - you Farked up the user interface.

But - take a cue from Sitemeter. Fix future models and go back to it’s classic roots. And fire the dumbshit(s) who ‘sold’ you on the idea of completely trashing your old great design and replacing it with the new piece of trash.

Clean Crisp Design

Ticky Tacky Design - Needs a Fire Bird decal on the hood.

Booing Redux

I spoke about the booing in my last entry. And, I've referenced NC State fan's support and aspirations in the face of disappointing performance by the Football and Basketball teams.

I copied the following from an entry this week in State Fans Nation. A blog about NCSU sports.

I do NOT like booing under any circumstances. I can understand it, and the frustration we State fans feel, but I don't do it and I don't like when others do it.

The main thing I got out of this reprint was the support NCSU fans give the programs which is really amazing given the circumstances.

I am a very average fan and supporter. Between season tickets, booster club donations, pledged capital improvement donations and special requests - this year (a very typical year) - I'll pony up a about $4,000. In fact, my latest check to NC State for $1,156.00 cleared the bank this very week.

I get decent seats. Not great - but pretty good. There's a lot of fat cat donors above me - and a whole lot of people below me who contribute what they can.

The Carlton Tudor columnist quote at the end sort of sums it all up.

The following was copied from SFN. The only editing was my adding the emphasis in the Carlton Tudor quote.

State Fans Nation

A question about the boos in Carter Finley Stadium was bound to be asked, so Tom O’Brien had no choice but to respond last night on his weekly radio show hosted at Sullivan’s in Raleigh.

Coach Tom O’Brien talked about how annoyed he was with the fan’s reactions to Evans play on his weekly radio show.

“It’s pretty frustrating to listen to people boo thinking it’s going to make somebody better,” O’Brien said Tuesday “By booing somebody, you don’t make them better.”

O’Brien went on to talk about how the boos could be a turnoff to potential recruits who attend games.

“I think it was a bad situation, and hopefully we’ll be smarter than that in the future,” O’Brien said.

The intention of this entry isn’t to promote discussion of Tom O’Brien’s comments, but rather to point out some very impressive statistics regarding the supporters of NC State athletics. We did this earlier in the year when NC State fans were one of the few highlights of Lee Fowler’s annual report, but with the recent criticism from at least one member of the local media this seemed like a good time to revisit some of this information. Considering the results of NC State’s athletic department under the leadership of Lee Fowler, some people might be quite surprised to find that NC State fans have been supporting their programs in record numbers by almost every measure.

-NC State supporters ranked 9th among BCS programs in annual donations in 2006.

-NC State supporters ranked 14th among BCS programs in capital donations the five years prior to 2006.

-NC State fans have sold out Carter Finley for 8 consecutive seasons despite the program hitting an almost half century low point in 2006 with a 3-9 record. You have to go all the way back to 1959 (1-9, .100) to find an NC State football team with a worse overall winning percentage.

-Actual attendance (not visual estimates like in Chapel Hill) has essentially been at 100% capacity since the 2000 football season.

-NC State fans have ranked #7, #17, #20, #19, #16, #13, #17, #18, #16 in basketball attendance since the 2000 season. In 2008, NC State fans averaged 15,043 which was the 2nd highest total in the history of the program despite the team not making the post-season.

How happy would NC State fans be if the basketball program had half that number of top 20 finishes?

-NC State fans made the Wolfpack Club one of five booster organizations in the country to exceed 20,000 members this year.

-In the 2007/2008 athletic year, NC State fans set school records in football tickets sold (37,500), revenue from football tickets sold ($10.75 million), and revenue from basketball tickets sold ($5.6 million).

-Additionally, NC State fans donated the second highest total in our history ($25.4 million). This was a combination of an all-time high in annual donations ($10.0 million), the 2nd highest total in capital giving ($13.7 million), and what appears to be an all-time high in endowment giving ($1.8 million).

Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News & Observer had an original take on our quarterback situation today and at the same time took the opportunity to stick up for NC State fans. Thanks Caulton!

"N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien’s decision to start Russell Wilson over Harrison Beck at quarterback on Saturday in Clemson likely will be debated by many Wolfpack fans right up to game time and possibly after the closing bell.

It should be, too. Based on Beck’s performance in last weekend’s win over William & Mary, there’s a legitimate argument for sticking with him. And if there’s ever been a fan base deserving of a voice, it’s the Wolfpackers. Their loyalty — in football and basketball — is far beyond the call of duty."

Weekend Update

Saturday Morning

Hurricane / Tropical Storm Hanna blew through overnight and this morning.

Or, as we call it here in North Carolina - a Thunderstorm.

Saturday Evening

 

Went to the NC State - Bill & Mary game Saturday afternoon. Sister and brother-in-law drove down from NoVa and went to the game with me and Chip.

State's defense is good. Which is the only thing that kept us in the game at the beginning.

I hate to have young college players booed. We (NCSU) generally don't do that. We are demanding - but we try our best to support the team. But over the past few years, our quarterbacking has been sub-par - to say the least.

Daniel Evans has been up and down in performance. A player is supposed to get better with experience. But last year, and going into the South Carolina game last week, and the first half last night - Evans was just awful. Granted - it's a team effort - but we had ZERO first downs until Evans was replaced by Harrison Beck.

The fans have had enough. There were scattered boos - then more and more as each offense series was 3 and out. On the first offensive series - Evans' first throw was an interception.

The defense was excellent - but it was clear the offense just wasn't going anywhere.

Finally, Coach O'Brien made the change.

The change and the cheers for Beck gave the offense the boost that was needed and we started moving the ball. Plus - there were some awesome (and lucky) catches. But I believe you make your luck. The ball has to be there to give you a chance to catch it.

Again, I can't say enough about the defense. The returning guys and the new guys are going to be something special.

But offense - last night - without Harrison Beck replacing Evans - we lose the game.

Russell Wilson will be the starting quarterback next week against Clemson. Beck will be the backup.

I still don't know how the rest of the season will work out. With key senior players who are injured, player shifts, some Freshmen and Sophomores that played awesome, and erratic disappointing play by other juniors and seniors - I just don't have a clue.

Yesterday could be the only game we win this year.

Frankly, I doubt it. 5 and 7 is possible. Any more than that would be icing on the cake.

Sunday

This morning I drove up to Wake Forest to pick up a new toy.

 

 

Complete with cup holder technology.


Thanks to Georgiana, Chuck and Chip for going to the game with me yesterday. Thanks to Chip for the game photo.

Little Raccoons

Yes – there are 2 not so little raccoons. The mama has been bringing them around every night now for about 2 weeks.

Usually it’s the adult raccoon that is skittish and the babies that don’t know to be scared of humans. Not this year. The mom will feed from my hand – but the kits take off like a shot as soon as they hear the door knob turn.

They are actually not really babies at this point. She didn’t bring them around to feed until they were pretty good sized – so they’ve had a chance to learn to fear humans already. Which is the way it should be.

I’ve been trying to get some photos of them – but they take off so fast – I’ve been unsuccessful.

They look pretty healthy and they are already aggressive with their mother when it comes to feeding at the bowl of food. Looks like they’ll be OK. And that’s also probably why I haven’t seen the cats for a while.

Football

Weak One of ACC football was a bust (pun intended).

Clemson started the Tommy Bowden Death Watch right off the bat. Virginia Tech was totally unprepared for ECU. UNC and Maryland squeaked by – who cares? And dear ol NC State just plain sucks.

This week our opponent is William and Mary.

Quite possibly the only game we’ll win all year.

Sigh . . . . . . .

Sister and Brother-in-law are driving down to go to the game (and return my SUV to me – yaaaaaay!) Wonder if they’ll get here in time for kick off?

Plus Chip is going to the game.

Hopefully Hanna will blow through here Friday night so that it’ll be nice and clear for the Saturday night game. Shouldn’t be too much of a big deal. (Ike, on the other hand, is starting to look kind of scary)