what did you do during your time off of AC?

Dangerdoll

Dangerdoll

Global Moderator
Aug 27, 2002
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Roselle Park, NJ
aquariacentral.com
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Cori
ok, a lot of you know that I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago.... along with the new house, there is a pool (waaaahoooo!!!).

Anywhoo.... instead of reagular chlorine, the people who sold the house to me ran the pool on Baquacil (something like Softswim). The lady told me it was a little more expensive (more like a lot IMO) but the reason was because it was better for the environment and was less harsh on the bathing suits, skin, hair, and eyes.

Well, since I moved in, the water has been oh so cloudy and had a grimey feel to it and just didn't have that "swimming pool" feel. I tried to turn things around and get things working with the Baquacil..... to no avail. My neighbor's pool was soooooo sparkling blue, I was so jealous!

So, since I had the free time (no AC), I did a search on Baquacil. Apparently, it's a bit difficult to maintain this system as mega-people have the same problem. So my next plan of action was to convert this pool back to chlorine. All it took was gallons of bleach, stabilizer, and new sand for the filter.

Today, I'm on my last day of bleach before I add the stabilizer. That will go for 3 days then I need to change the sand in the filter.

The first few days of the conversion were sooooo scarey, I thought I screwed up royally!! The water was as green and unclear as Mountain dew and covered in a layer of foam..... but as of last Thursday, the water has been so crystal clear blue..... it's unbelievable how it looked from 2 weeks ago to now.

That's how my time off has been.

Better Lila? ;)
 
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Well, you know where I was!

I spent time reading and writing. I sent a submission of a story to an online e-zine and experienced my first rejection. Many more to come, I'm sure!

I spent time researching markets and marking the ones I want to dig more deeply into. I'm brushing up a story for Woman's World Magazine. After reading some of their short stories, I'm confident I can get something published there.

I've seen you around Doll!

;)

Lila

Oh, and Doll, can you seperate some of that. My eyes crossed trying to read it all!
 
Well, mine wasn't as adventerous. A few of you know that I'm heading to Okinawa in Febuary and will be there for 1 year and leaving my family here. Anyways, I have been gradually taking my tanks down to manageable level for my wife to care for.

Just when I thought I was done with all the ones I was going to take down, I walked by my 150g FW and there was a huge puddle of water on the floor. Upon investigation, it was leaking from the bottom. So I drained it and took the fish to the lfs that I us here. I was so mad that I had take this tank down. So I resealed it, but I'm not going to put it back up until after I come back to the states and move my family. So, now I'm down to a 15g FW, 20g FW, 60g SW.

The rest of the time I was stuck in the house because of all the bad weather we have been having down here in Florida. Luckily, it never came close to Jacksonville. We just got tons of rain and no major wind.
 
I was offline and out of town for much of it, so it was a good week for the site to crash.

First, there was a reunion with some good friends in Manhattan the weekend before last. The kind of folks you can let your hair down with, and stay out all night. And we did. My old body was not ready for work on Monday.

Then I pined for AC for a week, spent more time than usual at nano-reef.com, reefs.org and our local website, and actually put in something like a full work week for once.

Last weekend was our last chance to see some good friends on Martha's Vineyard before their baby arrives and they disappear forever. As the ferry pulled up, my jaw dropped when I saw that they came to pick us up with their two Percheron draft horses pulling a cart. Those guys are huge! Best taxi ride I'd ever had. Spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out in a place with no cell phone service and no internet hookup.
 
"what did you do during your time off of AC?"


Here in Orlando, we survived the worst storm - hurricane, we have ever been through.... They said sustained winds here were at 105mph. The nearby ariport clocked the winds at 108mph.

Luckily there wasn't major damage to the house except for many shingles missing on the south side of the roof. When Charley hit that Friday the 13th night, it was a scary sound of what we thought was our roof coming off the house! I never want to hear that again! All the fencing in our backyard needs replacing. We were lucky to be without power for only around 12 or 14 hours. Many here are still without power. It was incredible to see all the damage Saturday morning. So many trees were knocked down - debris all over the place. There was a trampoline near the road, traffic lights were completely ripped off the lines.. Many trees blocked roadways. Last night, Sunday night, we had a "curfew" from dusk until dawn. No one was to be out on the roads last night, or subject to arrest.

Strange how Tampa was evacuated and no real warnings about Orlando. The hurricane went straight through here. Of course Disney was open the very next morning (Saturday, or was it Sunday?)... I'm sure that made many underpaid Disney workers filled with joy... "Get to work, your damage to your homes can wait...!"

Weather reports mentioned many tornadoes were with the hurricane. I'm so glad we didn't get one of those on top of the 100+mph winds!

Ok, no more hurricanes for me! ...............
Nice to see the website it up again!!
 
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Let's see...

While we were down, I landed a job with benefits. For the first time in 32 months, the Missus and I will have health coverage.

No, I don't count my 10 months as "aquarium service technician" as a job. It was more of a learning experience without any kind of medical benefit. Good thing I enjoyed it, eh?
 
I spent more time only Simplydiscus.com learning more about them... spent more time on my tanks, and, started a new painting.
 
I hung around at aquariumadvice.com and sighed alot every time I tried to get into AC.

My 29 finally cycled so I got that set up with male guppies, balloon mollies, and a pair of blue rams. I just love all the color and character in this tank.

I celebrated my birthday with my son, my parents, my brother, and his family at my parents' house. We didn't do anything exciting but I love getting all together. Hubby decided to run away for the weekend with a friend to help get him a car :mad2 .

The best news is I found a great new home for the border collie puppy my husband got and dumped on me for 3 months. It's a place where they breed and train BCs to be working dogs. Colby's gonna love it! He is a great little animal, really smart and all, but I just don't want the responsibility of another dog. He leaves on Wed. Katie, our adult BC, and I will like having life back to normal :) . Now all I have to do is bully my husband into signing the papers since they are in his name only. He does nothing with the puppy but is freaking out about getting rid of him.

Anyway, soooooo glad this place is up and running.
 
Well, since I've been getting back into bicycling, I started hanging out a bit on a bicycling forum. In many ways they're as diverse a group as AC. Their "soapbox" forum gets pretty heated sometimes. Sound familiar?

Also, last Thursday I became a grandfather - again. Grandbaby #15, Nevaeh Santana Hodge, is a real cutie pie. We spent this weekend up in Albuquerque holding her as much as possible.

And, last Friday, grandbaby #13, Laura Anita Marie Nevarez and her momma came to live with us for a while. We love having them around, but really hope that daddy grows up a bit real soon.
 
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