Gerrit's new obsession is our swimming pool. He's figured out most of how it works from manuals and notes, and the regular maintenance requirements from websites, so look out. He vacuumed the pool and cleaned the filter himself on Wednesday July 2 for the first time and everything is squeaky clean. Keeping it that way will be a full time job though, so getting a pool cover installed as soon as possible will really help keep the bugs, leaves, and dirt out.
Unfortunately the saltwater chlorinator is defunct though. We went to a pool supply center, got some descaler for it, and gave it a good treatment, but it's still not working. The tech at the pool supply told us that chlorinators are usually good for about five years and ours is eleven years old, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway. Now to find one. This brand is a little obscure and they seem to be available only in France (if at all).
At least the Google AI (Gemini) was sympathetic and friendly when Gerrit confessed his butane tank latching screwup to it after having asked it what was wrong (see previous post). Gemini has told him before that reporting actual problem solving helps it learn new solutions to the problem. But can an AI actually be sympathetic and friendly? Gerrit is trying to resist the urge to thank it when it is helpful. He's heard that many gigawatt-hours of energy are wasted by people thanking AIs all over the world.
Now the grill is going great, and he has slow-cooked a pork roast and a grilled a chicken. He got the temperature wrong on the pork roast so it was rather dried out, but a little drizzle of olive oil worked surprisingly well to moisturize it without making it taste like salad dressing. The chicken was excellent, and many more happy BBQs are to come.
On Friday Jul 4 our housekeeper
The all-Portuguese conversation flowed freely, believe it or not, with Gerrit handling most of the verbiage and Pat interpreting the non-verbal part. We talked about our jobs, the political situation in the US, how long we had lived various places, our offspring, and so forth. It turned out that Pedro is an engineer for Formula 1 race cars! He travels all over the world for his job. We became fast friends, took group photos, and parted on the best of terms. Boy, it's really not been our experience that the Portuguese are hard to get close to. They are warm, friendly, and welcoming, they touch and hug readily, they love to celebrate, and it's quite an honor to be included with their friends and family.
Another language success story was at the local swimming pool supply, where no one speaks English. We've been in a couple times now, needing to talk tech about chlorinator cleaning and other things, so Gerrit plunged in and mostly got his point across. It's amazing what you can talk about using only the present tense, with the vocabulary of a six year old, and some mental tap dancing to find words you know to express the things you can't. The patient and friendly staff there help, too.
We went to one of our favorite local restaurants for lunch, but it was deserted. There was a note written on notebook paper taped to the door with just one word:
Here's a new translation we just ran across: to pet an animal is "
Gerrit decided he wanted to drain some of the pool, because too much salt had been added. He did some math to determine how low we needed to bring the water line to achieve the desired ppm of salt, strung together some dryer hose for a drain pipe, disassembled part of the plumbing in the pool equipment room, and several hours later had drained the water level down to the target. Then for several more hours he added fresh water, enough to bring the pool level up again, and the salt level was now exactly right. (See? He's obsessed. Please send help.)
On Sunday July 6 we decided to take a break from pressure washing and gardening (it was getting roasting hot) so we headed to the coastal city of
 Picture postcard scene near the restaurant
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Clams and octopus, half eaten before we remembered to take a picture
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Seafood makes Gerrit happy
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Atlantic view from the restaurant
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And Pat has had her first conversation with a stranger in Portuguese. She was in line at a Chinese store (one of the popular variety stores, actually called "Chinese stores") and chatted with the woman behind her, who spoke only Portuguese. They commented on the weather (hot), their purchases, how we lived in Portugal now and how the woman was so pleased about that, how delighted she was that we were from the US (instead of the UK, which is more commonplace) and other friendly talk. Pat reports that it was natural and low-stress. And a milestone! Not only that, but it was her first solo drive on the exciting roads here.
Gerrit has found the chlorinator which our pool system uses at a distributor near Lisbon, and has ordered two of them. The water chemistry measures in the acceptable range now, so we are just about to dive in for the first time. The chlorine level is okay as it is now, so we don't need to wait for the new chlorinator.
Gerrit also completed the engineering drawings for the granite risers we need in order to support the upcoming pool cover mechanism and bench. There are granite suppliers just on the other side of the valley here (who provided the granite for this house, by the way), so we headed there. Gerrit was rehearsing the Portuguese he'd need to explain it all, but the very helpful employee spoke English quite well and they completed the order to Gerrit's satisfaction. Total cost for granite and custom cutting was under $100, and it should be ready in a week or two.
(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.)