Category: techno

So… what’s been going on at Casa de Blundell as of late?

Well as previously posted, Laurie gave us a bit of a scare earlier this week after doing a nice double-tuck roll off of an examination table at the doctor’s office. She landed on her head and ended up with a mild-concussion as well as a super sprained neck. She’s been suffering ever since but Thursday we took a drive to Garland to see her Primary Care Physician (PCP). Her PCP was able to prescribe some muscle relaxers and anti-inflamation pills. They’re not a “cure all” but they seem to be helping – and at least are helping her get some sleep at night.

Changes to SSL

While staying home with her this week I’ve made several online changes to SSL. As you may notice, its now SSL 3.1 (beta) – in addition to some new layout changes (hence the new “version”). I’m still debating a couple more possible changes but for now I’m mostly happy with the change. A few things you may notice and/or want to take note of:

• No left hand sidebar.
• Wider right hand sidebar.
• The family & friend links that were on the left hand sidebar have now been combined with the rest of the links on the link page. You can visit the link page by clicking “links” on the very top bar of the page.
• New prominent search function. I’ve bumped the search feature up to the very top so you can quickly and easily search the site via Google.
• New follow me on the web. I’ve created a new list on the right hand side (along with new icons) to help you easily track all the various/random sites I post content to on the web.
• New ad layouts. With the wider right hand sidebar I’ve changed up the layout on some of the advertising on the site. Of course the goal is to attract you to click links, buy things from Amazon.com through this site and help us in the “Pay Off the Debt Campaign.“
• New archives page. I’ve removed the long categories list as well as archives list from the sidebar and moved it to a new archives page, which can be accessed on the top of the page. This should also help remove some clutter on the site and making browsing the archives a bit easier.

I think that’s all the major changes. Let me know what you think.

New podcast posted

The latest version of the Something Beautiful Podcast is live. This week I interviewed Jamie Moffett, a filmmaker who’s currently working on “The Ordinary Radicals” movie. I had a fun time interviewing Jamie and getting to know more about him. You can download the Mp3 of the podcast from the site, or simply click the play button within the show notes and listen to the podcast that way.

Red Oak Water Supply

Finally…
[rant]
What’s the deal with the Red Oak Water Supply? I’ve never had much of a problem with public water supplies. But after nearly 9 months of living in Red Oak, we’ve still been unable to get used to the horrible taste of the water and apparently the super soft water is ruining countless shirts, pants and more when doing laundry.

We’ve tried using a Britta filter and it makes no difference whatsoever in the taste of the water. So, we’re “forced” to buy gallons of “bottled” water from the store… in addition to paying what seems like an extra high price for poor quality city water.

The taste is one thing, but it also appears that the soft water continues to make the colors run in our laundry. We try and do a good job of separating lights from darks but the other day another one of Laurie’s shirts was ruined with splotches of red across the front of her white t-shirt. There were no other dark colors in that load of laundry that I could tell – in fact the only thing I could deduct was that the red rings around the collar and sleeves of the shirt actually bled on to the white areas of the shirt.

Granted, I’ve found no solid “proof” that soft water makes colors run – but neither of us have ever had this kind of problem with our laundry until moving to Red Oak. I did however find this:

With the exception of a few higher tech systems, most water softeners require electricity and an avid supply of softener salt. Depending on the amount of soft water you use, your salt needs may differ. I have known families to go through more than a bag a month, and others go several months on the same bag.

In addition to the “hard” costs of having soft water (no pun intended), there are also some undesirable side-effects that may occur, including corrosion of water pipes. There has also been undocumented “speculation” as to the health risks associated with drinking water treated with high levels of iodized salt. (The easy solution is to make sure softened water is not being supplied to drinking faucets or fridge water dispensers.)

You may also not be a fan of the “slippery” feeling that soft water can leave on your skin. The only solution to this is to simply use far less soap, or switch to a synthetic option.

It also seems odd to me that the City of Red Oak chose to add additional supply to the water system by connecting to the City of Dallas (10-20 miles to the north) rather than connecting to the City of Waxahachie water supply which is building a brand new water treatment plant 2 miles south of the Red Oak city limits – and is adding more supply by tapping into Tarrant County Water Supply.

I look forward to getting “normal” Dallas water. But I’m not looking forward to hearing constant warnings about conserving water every summer as the Dallas water supply diminishes (not that I’m against conserving – its just that suddenly Red Oak becomes a very very little fish in a huge pond that’s already having huge water shortages) and I’m not looking forward to the “wonderful” taste Dallas water gets each fall when the “lakes turn” (something Waxahachie combats by keeping the water moving year round in Waxahachie Lake – their primary water source).

Finally, yesterday morning we woke up with maybe half of our normal water pressure throughout the house. And being a holiday there was no one at City Hall to answer any questions – but worse than that – there was no news item on the city’s website (I’ll save a rant about the annoying flash on that website for later), no recording telling folks what was going on on the water dept. phone line. No indication of anything – other than we had no water pressure and we just had to wait and hope it fixed itself before we called a plumber to have a look.
[/rant]

Well that’s about it. Now if I can just figure out why the tree in our backyard isn’t looking too healthy and why Presley’s paws are so red and why she keeps licking them….

Related ::
Vertigo :: Laurie’s recap of her fall
The Casa de Blundell Amazon.com store
Something Beautiful Podcast
Jamie Moffett
The Ordinary Radicals
Save Dallas Water
What is lake turning?
Red Oak Texas website