The pool saga seems to be resolved at this point. Recall that last Friday, I drove up to Grove to buy a temporary pump from FB Marketplace. That worked the treat for us, especially because we were able to go back to our normal hose setup, instead of the workaround with the small pump for our little pool.
This temporary pump holds almost the same rating as the regular pump, so we were almost back to normal. We bought 16 or so gallons of bleach over the course of this whole adventure though, since our chlorinator wasn’t making chlorine for us.
The replacement pump arrived Thursday, a little earlier than we’d expected based on Intex’s emails. We got it installed Friday night after dinner, and it’s working just fine. The chem levels are working their way back to normal, too, since the whole system is working again.
I asked Diana if she wanted to hold on to the temp pump for a while or go ahead and sell it. “You know me,” she said, so we’re keeping it, “just in case.”
I note Intex’s contact form now has a bright pink banner warning that they don’t charge fees to process a warranty claim. They’re back to using their regular intexcorp.com domain, too. At one point, they were using intexdevelopment.com, likely while they were cleaning up the hacked code.
Menu Changes
I’m going almost all-in on the menu changes needed for my alpha-gal diagnosis. We’ve never been exactly huge beef eaters and ate even less of the more exotic mammal meats. But a couple of months ago, we really cut back from 5-6 beef meals a month (out of about a dozen) to 2-3.
September’s menu has one, and it’s a versatile recipe that can use any kind of protein. We tried it with shrimp once, but most of the kids weren’t big fans of seafood, so we just made it with beef or chicken.
I’ve been asymptomatic since that first night in the ER, which I’m grateful for. I still had an itchy nose after one night at a restaurant though. I’m back to thinking that’s a spice allergy because none of the fume-sensitive people I’ve talked to have a similar reaction.
I suppose I could have said something to my VA care provider this week during my semi-annual checkup, but that’s life.
More Home Movies
I spent Thursday morning at the library in their Memory Lab, starting the process of digitizing a dozen home movies I’ve been carting around for years. I know the ones I have aren’t all that my dad shot, because the reels stop in 1974 and I recall him recording Christmas mornings into my teens. I’m just not sure where the rest of them are. There’s a chance the lady who bought my childhood home has them. I should contact her.
This first one was dated from May to November 1961. I got to see my parents in their 40s, and my brother as an infant. My dad’s brother and his wife were in it along with their oldest daughter, then about 15. My mom’s niece and nephews also made an appearance, the oldest just 12.
I carried more than a little paranoia when I sat down at the digitizer. I’ve had these movies since early 2000, carrying them through almost half a dozen moves, and probably not always storing them well. I remembered something from the liner notes in Boston’s Third Stage about how when the band started playing the master tapes that had been archived years prior, the tape almost suffered a catastrophic failure, gumming up the playback machine. I worried I’d run into the same thing.
I’d considered professional digitization services over the years, but anxiety over sending the movies off to a total stranger always tied my hands. Using the library’s equipment lets me sit down and watch the entire process. I didn’t see any major problems with this first film, or at least none that I’d attribute to age or storage conditions. That encourages me about the condition of newer stuff.
It took about 3.5 hours to run through a 7-inch reel of 8mm film. Dad’s notes said it was about 23 minutes’ worth and 20 or so feet. The digitizer ends up taking an image of each frame, then stitches them together. The file ended up at 1.45GB. Oddly, once I clipped off some white leader space at the end, the file size went up to 1.53GB.
That’s the only editing I’ve done. I downloaded CapCut, though I’ve also used OpenShot to edit videos in the past. That’s only installed on the old MSI machine though, and I wanted something I could use right now. Turns out I’ve got some other stuff on the MSI that I haven’t moved over yet, so that’s a project for the coming weeks.
I’m uploading the files to my YouTube channel, but I’m keeping them unlisted for now. I may clip out short scenes to share on my genealogy site, because it’s just cool to see images and videos of family members who aren’t here any longer. I probably won’t publicly share entire videos though, at least not any time soon.
And I think my dad would have gotten a huge kick out of the brand name of the digitizer.
Are You Ready For Some Football?
It’s that time of year. Michigan opens its season against Western Michigan tonight at The Big House. It’s Bryce Underwood’s second season at the Wolverine QB, and lots of people are expecting big things from him. He didn’t get much training going into his first season, and it showed. With Kyle Whittingham at the helm now and a long off-season of development with a dedicated QB coach, I think Underwood’s going to shine this season.
Elseread
Reason: The Belated Backlash Against Flock Cameras
Wired: Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
Truthout: I’m a sucker for stories about language and cultural preservation. Yup’ik Immersion School Program in Alaska Opens Doors to Cultural Connection
Mother Jones: The Other 9/11 Memorial
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for this post has been Ch. 66 – xmplaylist.com, inspired by SiriusXM’s Watercolors station (which is actually Channel 68 on SiriusXM).
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