As things change, they remain the same*

* I think I've used that title before.
Another July 4th has passed, only this one has been weird, granted it's COVID-19 weird. What I mean by that is there were no parades, no carnivals, and no fireworks. Macy's spread their fireworks around and over three, four days. They didn't tell anyone where they'd  be so no crowds would gather. So now we have covert COVID fireworks.
Elena bought fireworks. They are the fountain type that are allowed by the state of New York. I'm  glad the state changed their mind. For years you couldn't have fireworks, yet everyone did. After watching Elena shoot off her box of fireworks I wanted to go to Pennsylvania and get some roman candles. They are like the fountain style fireworks. The fountains shoot sprays of different colored sparks from their tops, while roman candles shoot balls from long sticks. Maybe the girls and myself will go to Pennsylvania one day. I just don't want Elena to know what other fireworks are out there. She is cautious lighting the fuse to the point I have to chuckle. She'll put the lighter near the fuse and quickly move it away before it is lit. I taught her to rub the thick fuses on a rough surface to make them easier to light. She let me light a couple, but for the most part I just watched. On the forth as she set off the fireworks, in the background someone, maybe a fire department was having covert COVID-19 fireworks. There were at least three places that were shooting them off. They were very impressive, better than last years Conger's FD fireworks.
                 New York City seems to be devolving back to the bad old days of the 70's and the 80's. Several headline stories about young kids killed by gun fire.Gun deaths are up over 60% to levels from the 1990's.The death of George Floyd has prompted calls to defund the police. I guess they weren't alive in the 70's when you'd drive the Cross Bronx Expressway and see road after road of empty burned out buildings. I thought they'd never be able to solve that problem. Then somehow they did. Are we heading back in that direction?
     Teri and I worked hard leading up to the fourth to get the pool in a swimmable shape. It had started to go green a week earlier and I kept putting clarifier in it and had vacuumed it twice thinking I was getting the problem under control. Teri said I needed to use something for the algae. So I followed her directions (You do that after being married for twenty-five years or you don't get to that point)  I put the chemical in for algae and I also shocked the pool with a large dose of chlorine. The next day I vacuumed the pool and it looked great. Everyone swam in it over the weekend. Come Monday the sixth I look out at the pool and the level of the water had dropped at least six inches. I couldn't do anything about it then, I had work. When I got home I was told Nastia went in to try and find the leak. She checked out the patch, it was fine. She walked around, nothing. So when I get home I get into shorts and slide into the water. It is perfect. not too hot, not too cold, just right for Goldilocks. I walk around, check out the patch, feel for a suction of water leaking from the pool, nothing. I walk around feeling for areas where the sand under the liner has caused a divot, nothing. I notice the height of the water has not changed from the morning. We lost six+ inches over night and since then nothing, it was odd. I walk around and feel the liner at the water line. Everything is fine. I then notice the connection for the filter. The return is just above the water line. I start to think maybe something is wrong with the filter, but no that would be too easy. I pull up the axcess plate and look. I see nothing obvious. I do see or maybe I am hoping to see a place where water might have flowed from a tube. I grab the hose and stick it in the intake and begin to fill the filter. I watch the hose and it starts to dribble water from part of the return hose. I pick it up. The hose is so broken it is being held together by a thread of plastic. Not wanting to wait until I purchase a new hose, I move the filter as close as I can get it to the pool. The broken hose is two shorter hoses connected together. I remove the broken one and use the remaining hose to reconnect the pool. Success, now to refill and brace for another Untied Water water bill with summer rates. Well at least we get some of that back in Teri's pension check.



















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