Pools and Anniversaries

We've been trying to figure out when the garbage and recycling trucks come through the neighborhood.  The bins seem to be emptied at random times.  Then it dawned on us that it isn't necessary for them to have a regular pickup schedule.  People don't have to bring their cans to the street on a specific day, they just drop off at the garbage areas on their own, so the trucks can come by whenever.  We think that's what's happening: random drop-off and pickup, no schedule required.  It's a relaxed Portuguese way of getting the job done.

Pat found a European Conehead Mantis while she was gardening.  Saturday Night Live coneheads were a meme when Gerrit was mixing sound for his brother Richard's rock band Mantis back in the '70s, so this would have made a great tee shirt.

On Tuesday June 24 our pool maintenance guy Carlos came out for a thorough inspection and cleaning.  He showed us how to operate some things, cleaned the scummy pool till it sparkled, treated it with a chlorine shock, and left it looking all beautiful.  What was a green pond is now a swimming pool.  He will return in a few days for some further work.  He recommended a pool cleaning robot, too.  

But the following day after the pool pump had run about 24 hours it blew a circuit breaker and wouldn't start again.  Carlos said he'd take a look at it.

On Thursday June 26 we celebrated exactly one year in Portugal with a lunch of grilled sardines at a seafood restaurant Pat found in Viana do Castelo, the coastal city about 20 minutes away.  When we arrived here a year ago we had no idea that sardines were such a delicacy in Portugal (also that they are much bigger here than what you find in a can), or that the peak of their season is in June.  Now we're savvy so we took advantage.  Lunch was delicious, and we can't wait to grill our own.  Here's a photo showing the nice old-fashioned decor in the restaurant O Piscador (The Fisherman), and Gerrit badly in need of a haircut.

While we ate we were reflecting on our incredible year here.  It's hard to believe all that we've done!  We started as babes in the woods in an apartment near Porto, learned the ropes, outfitted the place with basic household goods, rented and bought a car, found and purchased a home, moved, installed a lift and handrails, got our residence cards and health system numbers, made close friends and joined groups, got so we could do some minimal communication in Portuguese, got the pool whipped into shape and ordered an automatic pool cover, ordered solar photovoltaic panels, made a few stabs at building a guest house, and all the while found time to explore the beautiful country and rich culture around us.  All this is in the blog here too.  It's fun for us to review, and we hope for you too.

While we were enjoying our sardines in Viana, Carlos came by the house again.  He fixed the pump motor by replacing the motor-start capacitor (just a couple bucks instead of a new pump, can't beat that), cleaned the pool again, did some chemical adjustments, and dropped off some chemicals and equipment including a new brush and a chlorine float.  He also found that our saltwater pool has no salt.

So the following day, Friday June 27, Gerrit headed to the local everything-store Café Martins and picked up 12 bags of pool salt.  He was very thankful for our stair lift, which hoisted 300 kg (660 lb) of salt up to the pool level.  Carlos came by a third time while that was going on, poured in the salt, did some more cleaning and adjustment, and gave Gerrit some explanations about using the whole pool system.  Patient, slow, and English-speaking he is not, so Gerrit used Google Translate as fast as he could and picked up most of what he said.  The total bill for three expert visits and cleanings, chemicals, accessories and repair parts came out to 240 € ($281).

Looking bleak in January

Pond scum under the cover

Clean and pretty

But the salt chlorinator is not starting up.  That's the device which converts the salt to available chlorine, and as salt dissolves into the water the chlorinator should begin its conversion.  Carlos agrees that we should take the chlorinator out and clean it, a regular procedure which may not have been done for a while.  This requires a special cleaning solution, which is readily available locally.  (There are many swimming pool supply and service places around here.)

We had a brainstorm about a better way to get power from our soon-to-be-installed solar panels down to the conversion and battery equipment and connected to the home power and grid, so Gerrit drew up some annotated photos for the installation guy and sent them off.

Gerrit has been having trouble getting the butane tank for his grill connected.  Try as he might he couldn't get the regulator to latch onto the tank.  (Here in Portugal they use a completely different scheme than the propane tank screw threads in the US.)  After two trips to Café Martins and the purchase of a new regulator, he found to his chagrin that he simply wasn't pushing the latch ring down hard enough!  It felt to him like it was about to break, but it wasn't.  When Nuno at Café Martins showed him how to do it, he was filled with envergonhado (embarrassment).  So now, weeks after getting the grill, he has fired it up and is ready for BBQ season.

And he has his pressure washer back, repaired at no cost under warranty.  He checked the warranty, and that is indeed the way they do it here.  The warranty provides for repair during the warranty period, not replacement.  Sensible, except for the customer being out of his equipment for weeks.  It's been very hot here for a few days, 32-36 C (89-97 F), so the pressure washer spray provides a little relief.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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