this afternoon I spent three hours outside with the hot tub technicians while they emptied, moved, opened all eight panels, filled, found two small leaks, repaired them, emptied, replaced the panels, moved back, refilled and turned the tub on… it was cold and windy…
now waiting for the two days it will take to heat the water and hoping that this has fixed the problem…
since then I’ve been trying to warm up… finally, about half an hour ago – after five hours – I don’t need any additional blankets and have taken off my sweater…
have been having some problems with the hot tub leaking for quite some time, but wasn’t certain that the water wasn’t just evaporating with the hot weather we’d been having…
finally it was clear that there was a problem so I called up the company I deal with and made an appointment…
a fellow came out on Monday morning and discovered water dripping from a portion of the pump… he thought it would be about forty dollars for the part which needed to be replaced… he worked for well over an hour and then advised that the entire pump needed to be replaced because the new piece wouldn’t fit in properly as they are now made slightly differently…
we contacted a supplier and my son-in-law went and picked up the new one so that the repair person could return the next morning to hook it up…
sadly, that didn’t happen… I made numerous calls to the store and was advised that they would pass along the message, but no one came… finally I called and asked for an actual appointment so that someone would turn up…
two fellows turned up the next morning and set about installing the new pump… they also fixed the loose jets (with silicone) so they don’t keep shooting the water out of the tub when the water level goes down a bit…
they advised the silicone needed twenty-four hours to cure and that the tub should work fine after that….
cleaned it out and partially filled it to just below the jets and waited for the point where I could finish filling it and turn it on to heat up…
after I filled it up and turned it back on, the pump made noise but the water did not move… I called again and a few hours later the guys came back and fixed an airlock in the pump… then it started to heat up…
my youngest grandson and I spent a few days together… it was lovely as we don’t get to spend the amount of one-on-one time that I have with the other boys…
we did a few chores around the garden and spent a great amount of time with the monarch butterflies…
we planned meals, watched the fish, birds and squirrels, and talked about life… he was even happy to take a selfie with me;-)…
we made stuffing muffins (chicken stuffing put into muffin pans), one of his favourites, lol… we had chicken and mashed potatoes for our supper to go along with the muffins… we made twice stuffed potatoes for our second supper and he reminded me to put in green onions as he likes the flavour they add to food now…
we watched the space station fly over from the hot tub…
we slept out on the decks… he thought it was a very funny thing to do, but got right into it, bringing out his comforter, a blanket and pillows;-)… I slept in the gravity chair, which wasn’t as comfortable as the lounger I normally use…
he played games with his friends on his phone and watched tv shows when it was too hot (and maybe boring) for him outside…
how wonderful it was for me to have these special moments with this young man;-)…
my grandson and one of his friends came over yesterday afternoon…
they were here to finish trimming the Virginia creeper and put the piece of siding back up…
it was quite the process as a door was put onto the hot tub, then a ladder on top of the door and then one would climb up and remove bits and pieces of the vine… then they worked from the driveway side to finish… once the vines were removed, they had to do some fancy work to get the siding back up and properly attached…
eventually it was all done and the area cleaned up…
we had a laugh as this particular friend had also helped with landscaping work in the front yard a number of years ago;-)… nice to have him back and helping…
it looks much tidier and more spacious now… after they left I finished cleaning the hot tub and filled it with fresh water… it takes an hour to get it to the top…
it took until around noon to heat it up, although I’ve set the temperature at 99℃ to see if that might be a nice temp for cooling down in this very hot spell we are dealing with…
when I went out for a hot tub first thing I realized the pump had stopped in the pond…
before I went in, I pulled the plug and then spotted a dragonfly sitting on a rock in the pond…
took my breakfast outside and sat and watched it for quite some time… wondering if it had come up from the water and was drying its wings…
it was windy and I watched two butterflies flit past… an orange one, maybe a monarch although it wasn’t close enough to confirm… and a black one… it had some yellow along the outside of the wings…
went into the house for a cup of tea and when I came back, noticed the dragonfly in the pond and thought it might be dead, but then its wings fluttered… I found a stick and pulled it out and set it down in the sun… after about half an hour it flew away;-)…
a short while later I saw my buddy the frog jump in and swim across the pond… and finally the fish came out from under the bridge…
yesterday I was in the hot tub early in the evening, which is not my usual pattern…
I watched geese flying south in the blue sky…
I also watched a number of birds in the elm tree next door… in the sunlight they looked like they were bright red in colour… many flew from there past the garage…
I stared at one of them for the longest time trying to decide if it was a sunlit robin or something else… because there were so many of them I didn’t think they were robins as usually I see them alone… eventually it flew away…
thinking how my beloved would have been able to provide a certain answer as he had eagle eyes;-)…
as soon as I got into the house I checked my bird book and my bird app (of course I have one) and am pretty sure it was a robin…
but it was exciting for a few moments as I imagined all kinds of very red birds, lol..
here’s the photo that my Merlin Bird ID came up with…
today, I got dressed, lol… I know that is a big deal for me and a lot of you, I’ll bet… not having to worry about anyone coming to the door makes pjs perfectly acceptable all day…
in the morning I cooked spaghetti and let it cool down so that the sugars would fly through my system when I warm it up…
looked in the fridge and found part of a jar of spaghetti sauce which I used as a base for my sauce…
the addition of spices, A1, ketchup, and soy sauce, with time to mingle together, makes for a tasty addition to the spaghetti… also added some frozen meatballs to get in the required protein… smelled lovely as it was simmering…
while that was cooking, I went out and shovelled between the front steps and the driveway… snow seemed heavier than in the backyard yesterday, lol… and my back is not so happy just now;-(…
my shovelers came by this morning and did the driveway and sidewalk (but not the connecting area)… very happy they were able to get that done as it needs to be clear for the mail carrier… and Tuesday my grocery order should arrive as well…
supper was tasty and there is enough sauce and spaghetti for two more meals… yay…
rather proud of myself… I have barely done anything for ages, but today I was able to accomplish three things…
first, I went into the backyard and shovelled a path to the hot tub… my shoveler hasn’t been by… likely he is staying at home like everyone else;-)…
being very careful of my back, I worked slowly and made sure there wasn’t too much snow in each shovelful… now I can go out to soak my back if I want;-)…
came in, had a break, and then tidied the hallway bookshelf… I’d organized it back in 2014… made me laugh when I realized it was that long ago…
finally, I redid the living room table drawer… put sea shells in two of them and left the others as they were… one has all the retirement cards and the other has a number of pictures and maps from our trip to Hawaii…
looks good…
pleased with all that got done… maybe I will keep on getting things done;-)…
