10:09 – I just mentioned to Barbara yesterday that our water pressure seems rather low. With the washing machine filling, the dishwasher running, and her taking a shower, I was getting very little pressure on the garden hose. Then this morning I was talking to a neighbor down at the corner who’s just sold his house. Among other things, the inspector flagged their water pressure, which was 115 PSI. Normal is 40 to 60 PSI.
Barbara is cleaning house at the moment. This afternoon, she’ll be filling and labeling chemical bottles while she watches Netflix streaming or golf.
How does one check wottuh pressure in a house?
How does one watch golf on tee-vee for more than, say, five minutes?
“How does one watch golf on tee-vee for more than, say, five minutes?”
It’s easy, the same way you watch cricket or soccer for more than five minutes: Be doing something else and just look up when something interesting happens.
I assume Home Depot must sell gauges. Bill mentioned that he’d checked it himself.
As to watching golf, I didn’t mind it so much back in the old days. One could ignore it completely. The commentators often went several minutes without saying a word, and when they did speak it was in a whisper. Nowadays they run their mouths constantly. Very annoying.
We’ve been watching the football (soccer) WM here, off and on. A couple of times, the network has had technical problems: you could hear the audience, but the announcers were gone. Lovely! Much more like “being there” than have the idiotic announcers trying to fill every second with chatter.
Nowadays the TV channels can offer alternative audio channels; here, they often show movies in English or German, depending on the channel you pick. Seems to me that they should offer sports with and without the announcers. They might be shocked, how many people would turn off the idiots.
Remember Howard Cosell? The Swiss have an announcer who sounds just like him, and is every bit as irritating. Of course, he’s been announcing for 30 years, so any major sporting event without him is apparently unthinkable. We’ve been watching the football on Austrian channels, just to get away from him…
I have used the compression gauges that auto mechanics use to check cylinder compression.
Low pressure is easily explained, partial blockage due to rust or other buildup. Low pressure only evident when water is running past blockage, not when all faucets and valves are closed.
High pressure, 116psia, harder to explain, hidden pump in the circuit?
High pressure, 116psia, harder to explain, hidden pump in the circuit?
Or at the bottom of a long hill. Water head is roughly 1/2 psia per foot of elevation.
Water pressure? What’s that?
The town water tank is just a few feet higher than our house. (Like, under ten, if the topo map is accurate. That is, the bottom of the water tank is a few feet higher than our second floor, and the tank is about 20 feet tall.) Presumably there are pumps somewhere in between, but even so our water pressure is pathetic.
Ten story house? 115 psia on the tenth floor and 55 psia in the basement?
How about air? 0.01 mmHg per 9.25 feet (how is that for trivia?).
How does one check wottuh pressure in a house?
You go to your local home hardware place and get a gauge that attaches to an outdoor faucet using a standard hose fitting. You turn on the water and read the gauge.
60 is normal in the Nashville area. My son’s water pressure was over 100 and burst a garden hose. He had the pressure reducer replaced and that solved that problem.
OK, thanks be to all. I will get on that and have added it to my list. We have practically zip for wottuh pressure upstairs to the washer and the bathroom sink but the shower is fine.
And I have the answer from Greg in Oz as to how to watch golf. Do sumthin else until sumthin innarestin happens. I guess I’d be doin’ dat sumthin else pretty much exclusively, then, eh?
I played golf once, on a gorgeous April day down in the Commonwealth at a nice country club; it was kinda fun but not fun enough for me to spring for a set of clubs and a membership and spend many, many hours learning it and doing it. There has to be an object for me, thus the canoeing, hiking, and target shooting. I can watch football games to the tune of two or three a day and the occasional baseball game, esp. if I’m at one, but b-ball leaves me cold and golf likewise.
Still very windy here, with only rain sprinkles.
Heh. I’ve played golf exactly once in my life. It was in college. My regular bridge partner, Bruce Allshouse, was a scratch golfer, and somehow the two of us and my best friend from high school, David Silvis, ended up out on the course, me with my dad’s clubs.
I actually hit someone with my first drive. The first hole was a par 4, and Bruce told me to go ahead and tee up. I did that and then stood there watching the previous group, who were on the green. Bruce asked what I was waiting for, and I told him that I didn’t want to drive until the others were off the green, in case I’d hit them. He started to laugh and said there was no f’ing way. So I drove the ball. Bruce stood there watching it, and then all of a sudden started jumping up and down, shouting, “Jesus Christ! Fore! Jesus Christ! Fore!” One of the guys was standing just off the green holding his golf bag. I nailed him square in the golf bag on the fly.
Poor Bruce. I actually outdrove him by a lot on that hole, something around 300 yards. He kept muttering about how the hell I did that, so I finally told him I hit that drive the same way I served a tennis ball, with every erg I could put into it. (On the next few holes I also drove the ball with everything I could put into it, but it didn’t go nearly as straight. I finally ended up cutting back to about 50%, at which point I could hit straight but the ball didn’t go nearly as far.)
Unfortunately, that was about the only good shot I hit that day. We played 27 holes, and I think I scored something around 150 for the three 9’s. Bruce shot a 35 on the first 9, a 45 on the second 9, and a 55 on the third 9. He swore he’d never play again with the two of us because we ruined his game.
The one golf thing I took away from my one time was that trying to smash it into the next galaxy didn’t work. The one good shot I made I had no idea I made it; I’d struck the ball just right, didn’t even feel it and it went WAY down the course, couple-hundred yards at least, and up on the green. Prior to that I’d dug one divot after another. But that was the end of that. Tried tennis once and on my serves knocked it out of the courts and over the roof of the apartment building a little below us. Hopeless.
I manage to offend lots of people by saying that the only bigger waste of land than golf courses is cemetaries. Or the other way around; the order doesn’t have much effect on people being offended.
I played a round of 9 when I was around 9. My friend’s uncle ran a golf course, so we got to play for free one day. Hooray. I have no idea what I scored on those 9 holes, and that’s not because of failing memory. Mike’s grasp of the rules, particularly regarding when a swing counted as a stroke and when it didn’t, varied from hole to hole and the numbers written down on our cards were more guesses than anything realistic. And that was enough of that to last me a lifetime.
I don’t play golf, but I soon will. As soon as I buy a white belt and white shoes.
Having no tattoos, I won’t have any of those to remove. I note that TV golfers never have tattoos like the stick and ball players, wrasslers and boxers do.
TV golfers don’t have visible tats or piercings, CowboySlim. You can get some that are covered by those so-chic golf clothes. I suggest pierced labia. And if you don’t have labia, you can get a sex change operation — that is, gender reassignment surgery — to get some. And if you can’t afford gender reassignment surgery, you can get yourself thrown in jail and then demand that the government pay for the operation.
I manage to offend lots of people by saying that the only bigger waste of land than golf courses is cemetaries.
Hmm. I have thought that about cemeteries since I was a little kid. Having never heard anyone express that sentiment before, I thought I was the only one who ever thought that. Cemeteries never go away. I suppose it does give archaeologists of the future something to do, but really, put people in a box of wood and metal and then put that in the ground? Where are the recycling authoritarians when you need them?
A kid who worked with me twenty years ago at a New Jersey magazine told me he didn’t like cemeteries and thought they should be abolished as a waste of land. I didn’t like that and argued with him. Now I just don’t give a shit, but will insist that I be buried in one anyway, no embalming, maybe a shroud, and a plain pine coffin. Some abandoned or semi-abandoned boneyard out in the northern Vermont woods somewhere. Headstone will feature the old-timey New England Yankee motif of the winged skull and a pithy epitaph which I have yet to devise. No mention of military service or flags or any of that stuff. Maybe the birth and death dates, in Roman numerals.
“…And if you don’t have labia, you can get a sex change operation…”
Boy, that MrSteveF character is pretty cynical. I’m glad I’m not that cynical.
Land being a bit short here, you only rent your space in the cemetery. After 25 years, up you come. I’ve never looked into the details, but I think the relatives have the option of getting any remains cremated and delivered in an urn.
When I arranged my mother’s burial in the US, I was reminded of the absurdity of it all. That plain pine casket barely exists – it was really difficult finding something that wasn’t fine furniture. Anyway, whatever you choose is then placed inside a vault, because they don’t want the surface of the graveyard to become uneven after the casket disintegrates. You can get solid copper vaults for several tens of thousands of dollars, sealed against the elements. I argued that the whole point of burial was “dust to dust” and they did have something simple and unsealed, but this was apparently a minority view.
With the washing machine filling, the dishwasher running, and her taking a shower, I was getting very little pressure on the garden hose
Sounds like your water connection to the house is a 3/4″ pipe (od – outside diameter). You probably need a 1″ pipe or a 1.5″ pipe connection to get good water pressure to all those simultaneous activities. Note, most utilities charge more for larger pipe connections. Most office buildings are 6″ to 8″ pipe now due to the pressure pump, charger pump and the fire pump capabilities.
Had an interesting lunch today. We went out after church with our friends for lunch as usual. Her 89 year old dad came along with his 87 year old girlfriend. During the meal, his girlfriend showed us her brand new diamond engagement ring. I’m still stunned.
Land being a bit short here, you only rent your space in the cemetery. After 25 years, up you come. I’ve never looked into the details, but I think the relatives have the option of getting any remains cremated and delivered in an urn.
So, cemeteries in Europe are timeshares. Why am I not surprised?
I’ll have to look out on the meter, but I’m pretty sure we have a 1″ inlet.
“I’m still stunned.”
“Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”
No woman will ever get a fancy ring from me. Did that once, and it is money down the drain. Second time, we both were pleased to have something simple in silver for under $20. Any woman who wants more is most definitely not the one for me, as I learned from my first mistake.
That and fancy American weddings have no substance and are nothing but vain show. The modest weddings of Europe (other than RC — which is WAY overdone) are sufficient. No walking down an aisle; the couple appears on the dias with the minister, about a 5 minute ceremony, and it is all over. I found out that the super-expensive, huge wedding my first spouse demanded, where she wrote the vows, ultimately meant absolutely nothing to her. Any girl who wants a big wedding is terrifically suspect in my book.
I couldn’t agree more on golf courses being a waste of land. I think they’ve oversaturated the market around here with country clubs. More and more courses have signs up now saying their restaurant and bar are open to the public (some have even opened their course to the public). Heck, that used to be half of the appeal of belonging to a country club. You could go hang out somewhere where the general public could not. Now they’re struggling for members and the ones they do have aren’t spending enough.
As the population increases the concept of burying people in the ground and then not touching that ground forever will go away. Though, it will probably result in private cemeteries where the wealthy get buried and the lower and middle class will be cremated. I have seen where “green” cemeteries are getting popular in some regions. You can be buried without being embalmed, there is no coffin/vault, and no headstones or markers either.
As appealing as it sounds, high water pressure is a bigger problem than low water pressure. While low water pressure is frustrating high water pressure can damage plumbing and appliances. We had awesome water pressure in Tulsa. However, in the outskirts of Omaha it’s mostly average to slightly below average. Gets worse as they usually slap up subdivisions faster than they add pumping capacity (infrastructure seems to always be reactive and never proactive).
I have thought about putting a well and pump in and using well water for non-potable uses like watering the lawn and washing cars (and as an “oh shit” backup to city water).
Golf courses is cemeteries are a waste. For many years I’ve said the answer is to combine them. Why not? Same largely unused grassy areas.
My water meter is specified as 5/8″ but the line coming to and from it are both 1″. Yes you do pay more for bigger inlets which makes little sense if the water is metered.
Now California is talking $500 fines for wasting water. Really. The rates are already tiered and go up as you use more. Most water systems lose more than the users waste. Who gets the fines. Drive around at 3 in the morning and see how much runs off from watering street dividers.
I have thought about putting a well and pump in and using well water for non-potable uses like watering the lawn and washing cars
I had to replace my well last year, the cost was $9,800. They drilled the new well about 10 ft away from the old well and piped the outflow into my well house so they reused my 225 gallon galvanized pressurization tank, my electric lines and my well controller. Without these it would have been another $2,000 for those items.
Small ring = first wife.
Large ring = second or subsequent.
Re cemeteries: What I want to know is why do caskets have a warranty? Yeah, I understand it’s a manufactured good, but who exactly is going to file a complaint?
And weddings: It seems to me that far too many women want a wedding ceremony rather than a marriage.
I dunno if rented cemetery space is a European thing – I can only speak for Switzerland. Which just doesn’t have all that much land to spare, hence the pragmatic solution.
Well, Europe in general has little land to spare, which is probably why they’ve been having wars there pretty much continuously for thousands of years.
Most Americans who visit Europe for the first time are amazed at how small and close together everything is and how crammed in everyone is. Geez, the whole continent is about the size of the US or Canada. There are countries there that are smaller than some US counties, let alone states or provinces.
One of my pals I drove from Canberra to Adelaide (1200 km) with often remarked that in Europe we would have crossed several decent sized countries.
“Most Americans who visit Europe for the first time are amazed at how small and close together everything is and how crammed in everyone is.”
The converse is also true; they come over here to North Murka and are stunned, gobsmacked, mind-blown, by the vast distances and spaces here. For the last four-hundred years. We can’t wait for my siblings to visit up here because they’ll also be blown away. A tenth as many people; ditto traffic and noise, and everything is green. Well, it’s green if they come right now, LOL. If they make noises about moving, I want them to visit in February and Mud Season.
Yep, and the converse is true as well. Every European I’ve talked to who’d visited the US for the first time was stunned by the size of the place. One couple I met had planned to do a driving tour of the US. They just kind of assumed that they could drive from the East Coast to the West in a day or so. They said they didn’t really grok it until they actually started driving. They’d flown into Kansas City and rented a car. One morning, they left, driving west and planning to spend the day in Denver. They finally arrived in Denver that evening, 600 miles later.
Europe in general has little land to spare, which is probably why they’ve been having wars there pretty much continuously for thousands of years.
Hmmm…I’m not so sure population density is a factor. Sure, the US averages a lot less, but lots of that is in flyover country. If you look at the coasts, it’s pretty comparable to Europe. Maybe there’s nobody in Montana, but there’s also nobody in Norway. The US just has a lot more Norway-like places: Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, the Dakotas, New Mexico, Utah…
I think the historical wars have a lot more to do with the diverse languages and cultures. The US has (well, had) the advantage of being pretty homogeneous.
Certainly the diversity of languages and cultures is a large factor, but land is paramount. As you just said, Switzerland has little land, and the same is true of most western European countries relative to their populations. I mean, a typical European country is the size of North Carolina, give or take, and has maybe five time the population. And concern about lebensraum was not unique to Hitler.
“And concern about lebensraum was not unique to Hitler.”
Hell no; it was also a concern of Koba the Dread and Mao. And before them, our own Manifest Destiny types.