Don't you just love it (hardly) when stuff breaks...important stuff which you rely on daily...like electronic devices, vehicles, appliances, heat pumps/air conditioners and similar modern day necessities. When such happens to me I remember long ago when we did not rely as much on these sorts of "things" as we do today...so our levels of stress seemed lower.
Anyway my recent encounter with a "broken thing"was the day after Memorial Day when I discovered a small leak in the filter pump at our in-ground swimming pool...a convenience I wish we did not have...but it came with the house when we moved in and we liked the house, so there you go. I called the pool maintenance guys who had installed the pump and they came out a few days later to replace all the gaskets, etc. Took forever it seemed because the PVC piping in and out of the pump had to be modified a bit when everything was taken apart, but eventually it all went back together. Still leaked. So...they took it all apart again, eye-balled every crevice, said, "hummmmm" and then put it all back together. Turned the pump back on, still leaked. Third time they took it apart, and a third time they put it back together. Leak remained.
I elected to give up and decided this was a truly dead pump and the fixing process was a journey to nowhere. So, the decision was made to let it leak until a new assembly could be ordered (it was not really a big leak... drip or so every second). So, I turned it back on so the pool would remain useable over the weekend and they left promising to call back Monday when a new assembly had been located. As soon as they drove away, the circuit breaker by the pool pump popped...because (apparently) the "small" leak had shorted out the pump's electric motor. My sense of urgency to replace the thing NOW heightened, and I immediately called them back. So, they returned early the the next day (Saturday) with a new pump/filter assembly (fancier too...and more costly). Installed it, and now we're back in business poolside. We are also going to be poorer when we get the bill.
We never had these sorts of problems when our "backyard pool" was an 8-foot circular inflatable thing that always left circles of dead grass where it sat usually full of kid play toys throughout the hot summer. But, it was cheaper and easier to replace grass than an electric pump/pool filter!
