Well, the spa has been in for a week now and the family is loving it.  There is nothing quite as relaxing as sinking into 104 degrees of chemically treated water and letting your cares melt away.  Getting to this point was less than easy though.  The hot tub purchase was plagued with frustration right from the get-go.  In my previous post, I mentioned the missing 'Standard Features' that had been removed as part of the promotion.  Well, I talked to the people at the pool store and they ordered me an ozone injector at no charge.  This is great because the injector is easy to install and the hot tub is pre-wired and pre-plumbed for it.  The installation should be a breeze.  That's not all though, they are also throwing in two terrycloth bath robes for my troubles.  I must be fair to the pool store by stating that they have worked hard to make up for every blunder that was created.

All told, they have given us a considerable amount of 'free' stuff to compensate for the issues.  The list includes:

• Free shipping
• A full case of Peroxysan Chemicals (as opposed to the standard 1/2 case)
• An extra filter cartridge
• A filter cartridge soaking canister
• Matching front steps
• A bottle of cleaning solution (to clean the plumbing out since rainwater got into the spa before delivery)
• $100 off the price of the cover lifter
• An ozone injector (yet to be delivered)
• Two terrycloth bathrobes (yet to be delivered)

I'm happy that they have gone out of their way to correct the mistakes, they could have easily taken the 'we have your money so go away' attitude.  I'm not as impressed with HydroPool as a company.  Don't get confused, HydroPool is not the pool store, M.P. Paradise Pools is.  HydroPool is simply the manufacturer.  So let's start with the props.  The hot tub is very nice and functions as expected.  It's easy to operate and easy to maintain.  The self cleaning feature simply rocks and the improved plumbing/pumping system is the best I have seen yet.

Now for the downsides...  The company is virtually unreachable.  There telephone system is awful and it seems to take days to get someone to return your call.  The automated phone system gives you the option to press 3 for technical support, then gives you a list of employees and extensions.  How hard would it be to have to go to a call centre?  Certainly do not try to reach them on a Friday afternoon after 3pm, nobody will be there.  When the electrician was trying to wire the tub, we discovered that there is no entry port for the wiring into the cabinet.  A call to the pool store (after no answers from HydroPool) revealed that this is by design.  They claim the spa is 'critter proof', therefore you must make your own hole.  I found that to be a little absurd.  It makes sense to provide a conduit for the wiring.  The only way to get it in was to use a hole saw on the cabinet and feed it through.  I think my electrician did an excellent job though.  You can see it in the pictures below.  The last issue I want to bring to light is the fact that one of the jets wasn't working at all once it was up and running.  I took it apart and found what appeared to be scraps and leftovers of plastic from the installation clogging the jet.  This is after the company advised me that they wet test the spas for quality assurance purposes.

All in all I am very happy with the spa and the purchase, regardless of the mishaps and blunders.  I'm looking forwards to the years of enjoyment that it's going to bring.

Well, after a couple of years we finally broke down and purchased a new hottub.  The old one stayed with the old house when we moved.  I used to spend at least an hour a day in the hottub at the old house, sometimes more.  Since we moved, I have longed for the relaxation that only a spa can deliver.  Not surprisingly, a couple of weeks ago I was at the pool store getting chlorine and I came across a pretty good deal.  I talked it over with the wife and we decided to go ahead.  Once the order was placed, we started the prep work for the concrete pad it would sit on.

We had a 4-5 week wait for the new tub, so we decided to remove the bricks from our interlocking brick patio to make room for the new concrete pad.  It was a lot of work.  At 10' x 8', we removed a lot of bricks and a lot of dirt.  We found a great place to get concrete from.  You basically go there with your vehicle, they hook up a trailer full of stone, then you take it home and dump it.  Once you are done, you simply take the trailer back and pick up a load of pre-mixed concrete.  In less than a day we had poured the new pad and just had to wait for it to cure.  Usually a couple of days.

Well the tub was delivered a couple of days ago and we arranged for the electrician to come tomorrow to put in the new line for it.  Once we got the tub in place, we noticed a couple of 'standard features' were missing that were outlined in the brochure.  One was a waterfall jet and the second was an ozone injector.  I made a few calls and it turns out I can install the ozone inject after the fact, but the waterfall jet is not likely going to happen.  The most frustrating part is that the pool place removed this stuff for their promo, yet failed to identify that.  Anyway, I expect to have it full this weekend and to be in it by Saturday.  Wish me luck!

How many weirdos does it take to make us realize that the world is a sick and twisted place?  Apparently a lot.

Over the past few weeks I have taken an interest in reading the headlines at CNN.com - particularly the Crime section.  One of the top stories today revolves around a man who kept his wife and four children hostage and no one new about it.  This family was held in a trailer that was complete squalor for several years.  Believe it or not, the trailer was located in a trailer park with plenty of neighbours around.  How does something like this happen?  How is a mother and four children, aged 11 - 14, held captive in a populated area and nobody knows?  What about the extended family?  Did nobody care about these people?

The squalor described was unimaginable - it caused a seasoned police detective to actually vomit and forced another to wear a gas mask.  The trailer is described as being wall-to-wall filth.  The counters were covered by a layer of insect feces, the stove was home to a maggot colony, cockroaches ruled the refrigerator, and the master bedroom housed several ant hills under the mattress.  The once clear shower curtain is now a chocolate brown colour and drawing it back revealed what looked like a moving floor in the bath tub.  Cockroaches again.

Another article was about the ongoing saga of little Caylee who has been missing for weeks.  Her mother is absolutely useless and several key indicators point to foul play on her behalf.  That little girl never even had a chance.  New stories like these pop up everyday.  The gaps in the system are truly incredible and show some of the signs of over-population.  Human life has become expendable.

Here are some additional CNN headlines that got my attention today:

• Female bomber blows up pilgrims, killing 18
• Newlywed charged in wife's tub drowning
• Demons made man punch church
• Police: Parents force kids to fight

Parents force kids to fight??  What the hell?  There is something seriously wrong with the world today.

Well, this weekend was the maiden voyage of our new old popup camper.  As expected, there were a few hiccups.  We did our best to have the camper ready to go, but inevitably a few things were overlooked.  The good news is that the cables I installed into the lift system worked great.  Raising and lowering the roof proved effortless and I was very happy to see that they held up against the test.  In fact, I am happy to say that the trailer went up without any major problems.

There was one small issue I guess you could say.  I had opened up the zippered window on the end of the kids bunk.  That wouldn't have been a disaster, but the poles that hold the canvas upright have a clamp that had weakened over time.  When the thunderstorm struck, the downpour was more weight than the canvas could handle, so the water ran down and into the open window.  As the bunk was flooding, the kids were yelling to me and advising me that there was a leak.  I didn't hurry, because I didn't expect it would be a flood. 

Since we were unsure as to how waterproof the camper would be, we were trying to get a large tarp over then camper when the storm hit.  My advice to anyone else out there is to put the tarp up before you raise the roof.  It makes things much easier.  So back to the bunk end, I zipped it up and was trying to put the pole back up when the canvas ripped open near the corner.  Things were looking down for our hero...

I did some makeshift patching and got us set up as best I could in the rain.  The kids ended up sleeping on the bed made from the dining area instead of the bunk on the first night.  Day two was much better.  I picked up some fabric repair glue stuff and patched canvas up.  We propped up the foam mattress and ran a fan under the setup to dry it out.  That did the trick and the kids were able to sleep up there on the second night.  The weather held out on day two and three, so we managed to enjoy the park much more.

The only other real dilemma was that sink leaked a little and needs a little bit of plumbers putty to seal it up again.  Other than that, I think the weekend went really well.  We've learned a few things and can't wait to do some more camping in our new old camper.

It's shameful to admit, but I'm one of those people who can't drive stick.  Manual transmission vehicles have scared the hell out of me for most of my driving life.  I've avoided them like the plague - that is until a couple of years ago when my girlfriend decided to teach me.  It was embarrassing, but we spent many a night in a large, empty parking lot just practicing to get the feel for it.  Now, it would be good to note that driving in general is pretty easy for me.  At the point where I started to learn how to drive stick, I had been driving automatics for about 10 years.

I ended that learning campaign on a high note, with a complete trek across town.  If memory serves me, I only stalled it once on that trip.  For some reason which is failing my memory now, I gave up driving the standard car after that trip.  Fast forward a couple of years to today.  I recently replaced my Saturn Ion with a new Chevy Colorado pickup truck.  Still automatic, but much more fun!  The problem is that I bought it right as gas prices started to go through the roof.  Well, we still have our manual Saturn, so it became obvious that we could save some fuel costs by carpooling and taking the Saturn to work.  The only problem is that the logistics require me to drop my spouse off first, then continue on to work.  Eek!

So, I decided that tonight was the night and I once again got behind the wheel.  It took me a good half hour to remember everything and I asked a great number of questions.  In the end, I drove around town and down some back roads where I only stalled a handful of times.  I also managed to make the car jerk forward and back quite heavily a couple of times.  My biggest challenge is first gear.  Everything else is relatively easy.  After sever attempts at starting from the stop position, I discovered that it's mostly about giving a little gas, then slowly letting off of the clutch.  Real slow.  It's a good thing I didn't stop on any hills, I probably would have rolled into somebody.  I guess that is what I will work on next!

That was the headline from an article I read this evening over at TorrentFreak.com.  It never ceases to amaze me just how low people will go.  Don't get your panties in a bunch, this is NOT an anti-piracy rant.  Instead, it is a rant about idiots.

Imagine for just a moment that you are interested in seeing The Dark Night (not that tough to imagine for many of you).  Now stop and think about why it is you want to see it.  Likely you will come up with an answer that is something like - great plot, awesome special effects, big names, big fan.  The list could go on for a while.  The trick is to now think about the sound and video quality of the movie after it is recorded with a handled camcorder in a dark theatre.  It's going to suck.

Case in point, only an idiot would put himself at that must risk to film such a movie.  So much quality is lost.  I totally get the DVDrip guys.  They rip a DVD quality video, so that any user gets the same experience with the pirated video as they would with the actual DVD.  Screeners is another one that I kinda get.  You take a movie like the Dark Night, that a tonne of people want to see, and make the DVD screener available and you are going to be worth gold.  See a screener is a DVD quality video that is somehow marked and made available for award show review.  Could be the Academy Awards or some other variant.  The video is usually marked with an annoying message scrolling across the bottom of the screen, or sections of the movie become black and white for a few minutes at a time.  Again, these make sense because they only have limited quality reduction.

I ask all of you out there that are planning to take your camcorder to the movies to just stop and think about it.  All you are doing is hurting the bandwidth for good downloads and other Internet traffic with your horrid and un-watchable video.  If you make the choice to proceed, I hope you suffer the same fate as the guy who tried to film The Dark Night.  They should throw you in prison, not for pirating, but of simply being that stupid.