Virtual Private Network . . .

I signed up for the Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a security software package to protect my accounts from Internet scams, etc.  VPN does two things, the first is it encrypts your correspondence so others can read your message traffic.   The second thing it moves your Internet address is relocated to some odd location.  In essence it is my private network and it constantly changes.

This means when you use the computer your signal bounces from your computer to the false address located somewhere else and then the message goes into the system.  It slows down your connection but that's okay for the level of protection you get.  And you get some interesting things show up in the side bar ads.

For instance, I used the United States of America as  a source location and next thing I notice is an advertisement for a casino in California.  The odd thing is that I used to live about a half mile from that indian reservation and used camp on the reservation with the Boy Scouts.  Today, that area is off limits and closely guarded because of the casino.  I am told by old friends that each and every member of the tribe gets $140,000 a year.  How times have changed.  That was forty years ago.  Then they were poor as dirt and friendly.  Now they are very standoffish.

Later I switched to Canada and sure enough the side bar ads were definitely Canadian.  The intro web page now had stories for Canada not the US.  Ye, the big US stories were headlines but the lesser stories were all Canadian in nature.

I switched to New Zealand and got similar things from that part of the world.

It means that when the service is turned on, and it is own most of the time, people think I am in those countries and not the USA.  And when I use the USA, it relocates my location to somewhere other than where I live in Texas.

So I know the system is working.  This keeps people from locating you and hacking into your computer.  This is ideal if you have a laptop computer and you want to use it at the book store or coffee shop somewhere that is very public.  Some one can see you and then try to hack your laptop and can not find you, so they are stymied.    VPN is a great security tool and does not cost very much for what it does for you.

Yes, your emails to me will reach me.  They will not be blocked.  But all the scaming activity will be screwed up.  There are nine or ten companies that can provide you the service.

Irrigation System . . .

Well it was not a valve.  The bane of all irrigation systems are roots.  I suspect a root was the cause of a joint separating.  It is either that or the heavy zero turn lawn mower being used on our yard.  No matter, the problem turned out to be a separated joint.

To begin with the joint was not really a good one but it lasted 10 years.  I had to dig a lot to find the joint.  A first it looked okay but all you had to do was push on the pipe and you could see a clear separation.  Well I had to dig some more to get around the joint.  And I had to remove a tree root that must have been an inch in diameter.  I saw another root under all my plumbing but I was afraid to cut it as there are irrigation wires running all over the place.  Those wires control the valves and run back to the main control box.

Any way the bad joint has been reglued and I used a piece of Cedar wood to make sure the joint would not pull apart.  It would have been major work to replace the valve and redo all the plumbing.  So a repair job is a swifter mending and allows the system to be back into use in this dry time of the years.

The yard is not suffering yet but soon will be.  And then the grass turns brown as it goes dormant.  I do not intend to allow that to happen.

So the repair is in place and I will test it shortly.

I am getting to old to do this kind of work.  Well maybe not, maybe I need more exercise.

Irrigation System . . .

The good old irrigation system has struck again.   We found large areas of the back yard flooded.  I shut the water off at the well.  There is a shut off valve there for that purpose.

Then we went hunting.  The back yard slopes away from the house, so it was an uphill search.  Pretty soon I found the leak.  It was a control valve leaking.  I have bailed it out, and must do it again as there is plenty of water around to seep back into the control valve housing.  No big deal, just got to get the water out and then disassemble the control valve.

And I must clean up the valve, wash the innards out and get rid of the sand.  The sand is not what you would imagine.  It is a very very fine particle, kind of makes the water gritty.  It is basically harmless but the control valves do not like it.  It causes them to do weird things, like leak.  In this case it leaked a lot so I think it really pushed the valve apart.  Water can be very powerful under the right circumstances.

I bailed out the control valve housing but there is so much water in the soil it will seep back into it again.  So I will wait, then bail it out once more, maybe by this afternoon around two or three PM, I can get the valve apart.

Then I have to put it back together again.  Open the shut off valve and see if everything is okay.  It may take two or three times to get the valve tightly closed and working correctly again.  Patience is necessary

I have said it before, irrigation systems are constant maintenance.  Fortunately I am adept at the job and can do the work myself.  That saves time and money and gets the system back running like it should.

Maybe I will invest in a "dirty water" valve which has an internal back flushing capability and washes itself clean.  In other words it is a self cleaning or self flushing valve.  Getting them is no big deal, getting them installed is a big deal requiring more excavation, gluing of joints, etc.  I am not sure I am up to that kind of thing.

All I can say is Geaux Tigers!

Investing . . .

Many years ago while living in Alexandria, LA I formulated a few simple rules to use when investing.  They were always invest in only New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks, in stocks that also paid dividends and if investing in mutual funds do not invest in funds that paid 12B-1 fees.

Why NYSE?  NYSE is the big board.  It is the world's largest stock exchange.  And it was closely monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission which had reasonable but stringent rules.  Other exchanges did not have as generally as good stocks as the NYSE.  Some stocks do not want to be traded on the NYSE and preferred lessor stock exchanges in San Francisco, Chicago and even New York City (the American Stock Exchange).  The NYSE has specific rules in listing the stocks on their exchange.  Usually a certain size (that means big enough to trade all the time), certain capital requirements and adherence to stringent accounting processes.

I required dividends because that is cash money in return.  Usually only mature companies pay dividends though today paying dividends is much more common than not paying dividends.  For instance, I do not invest in Berkshire-Hathaway, Warren Buffet's company.  It does not pay dividends.  They certainly invest in companies that do pay dividends like Coca-Cola - but they keep the dividends to reinvest in other companies.   I have a few shares of KO, the symbol for Coca-Cola and collect the dividends for me to use.

12B-1 fees are used to reimburse brokers for selling the mutual fund.  In other words you the fund holder are paying the broker to sell the funds even though the fund maybe charging you a fee to buy into the fund.  The funds back then routinely charged you 5% up front for their services.  Then along came the "No Load fund" funds where the management did not charge the customer anything to buy into the fund.  That is not to say the fund does not pay fees to buy and sell shares, those fees are expensed to the net profit of the fund, you do not see them.  Brokers soon learned they had a hard time selling funds with a 5% front end fee.  They design funds that had no up front fees but had exit fees.  If you left the fund, that is sold out your shares, they charged 5% if you bailed out in the first year, 4% if you bailed out in two years, etc, until you had owned the fund for 5 years.  They still do that and call those funds no load funds when in fact they have an exit load on the fund.  Read the fine print.  There are several large fund companies like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity that have pure no load funds.  If you feel like that is the way to invest, by all means used funds from those no load fund companies.

Today I have modified my rules.  I still require an investment to pay a dividend or interest.  And I read daily "Seeking Alpha" a forum on the Internet.  It is comprise of articles written by financial advisers, some of the certified, some are foreign and all of them seem to be specialized in some form of investment.  There those that only cover big oil companies, some energy companies (oil, electrical generation, wind farms, pipe lines, etc.), some only Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs), some closed in funds, some in Master Limited Partnerships and so on.  It covers the gambit and is educational.  I also subscribe to Kiplingers Magazine, a magazine that covers investments as well as advise on a host of topics from credit cards to buy automobiles.  It gives good advice and is equally educational.

Today We hold Exchange Traded Funds, a new kind of mutual fund that is actively traded on the stock exchanges.  We both have life insurance, which is a kind of cash investment for your heirs.
Annuities another kind of insurance policy.  We also own some old style mutual funds, all no load funds, that I just let them do their thing and watch them grow.   We have some real estate, our home which is paid for, our autos which we either own or lease, a camp (Judie's family place on False River) and I have shares in the family corporation that owns the plantation.

I am fortunate in that I have a pension earned as retiree of the USAF.  Coupled with that I have compensation from the VA for my disabilities from my military service, and we collect Social Security.  We have Medicare paid out of out Social Security take care of our medical needs for the most part (we do have to pay for prescribed drugs albeit at a discount).  Our secondary medical insurance is TRICARE for Life, another earned military benefit.   So for the most part our day to day needs are met by the pensions and VA compensation.

That allows us to keep being well invested.  And the cash thrown off can be like Warren Buffett reinvested to grow out holdings.  We always lived within our means while in the military.  When I retired from the military I started drawing my pension immediately yet I went to work and had a second income.  I retired from Raytheon (and Texas Instruments at the same time) and took a cash settlement that I invested.  I rolled it all into an IRA and continue to mange those assets today.  Yes, we must take an annual minimum required distribution annually but generally make that back though the year in the investments.

It pays to plan ahead.

The Bathroom . . .

Well our bathroom is finished.  We retained the tile floor and the bath with jets but completely redid the shower (it needed it too) and Judie has always wanted granite tops for the two sinks.  We also replaced the toilet with a taller one (we had no idea that there were different heights for toilets until a discussion with a neighbor).

The old toilet had a loose bolt and it kind of wobbled on the floor.  It never leaked except when I had to replace the filler assembly.  Filler assemblies are plastic and tend to break down with time.  The new toilet has 1.2 gallon tank and swift flush function.  It really works and is very fast.  The old toilet had a 1.5 gallon tank the flush chain had a float in the middle of it.  So when you flushed, it you held the handle down you got a full shot of water.  If you had just urinated, a quick handle movement and the water was exchanged and not the whole tank was emptied.   The new toilet is so much faster to empty and refill.  We really did not care about that but we did want a taller unit.

That quick flush did not always work.  But great idea.  The new toilet does not have that but uses some much less water it is not necessary or a benefit.  All the holes for water discharge from the tank are twice the size as the old tank on the old toilet and that leads to fast rapid flow.  Uses less water to flush and less time to flush.

We had to buy the toilet and the contractor's plumber installed the new toilet.  He reinstalled the old fixtures on both sinks and the shower head.  We did not get new ones and we like of the old ones anyway.  That ended up with a couple of leaks but since it was a Delta fixture, Delta are warranted the fixtures for life.  So the contractor ordered up a new one and we got it pretty quick.  So it all is functional now in good working order.

We had the entire room repainted.  It had several places that needed touch up.  It takes a beating from the cleaning lady, not intentional but did a little damage here and there.  So we had it completely repainted including the ceiling.  The molding had some age cracks from drying out and the painters filled those cracks in with spackling and the new paint did a great job.

Judie picked out the granite.  And it is almost three quarters of an inch thick, so it is quite heavy.  Once installed it ain't gonna go no where.  They measure precisely.  The granite was also used in the shower.  It is a lighter color, not dark granite so it does not darken the place at all.

We had the old synthetic plastic surfaces removed.  We had a nice new tile installed, large squares were used.  We had the stool in the corner of the shower expanded to a bench.  And we had four niches added that were at least a foot high (shampoo and other bottles are getting taller now days).  The bottoms of the niches had the same granite and the bench across the back of the shower had the same granite in the seat.  And the door floor jam is also the same granite.  The niches had small oblong tiles in the back of each one.  The floor is small squares of matching tile and new drain that one can remove to clean down below floor level if one wants to do that.  They also reworked the floor so it had a definite slope and drained toward the new drain cover.

Lastly we had the shower light replace with a new low wattage high out put light.  We are no longer taking showers in an dark corner.  It is well lit now.

The tile, granite, and paint job look great.  The new paint makes the place look all new.  It all makes Judie happy and the old shower was an eye sore.

Working on the System . . .

Yeah, the irrigation system.  Maybe is should be the "irritating" system.  The control valve on circuit number 2 has begun leaking.  Along with the leak in the control container, a sprinkler is also leaking.  That sprinkler is the low point in circuit 2.  Not a giant leak, just seeping and keeping the driveway wet.  The driveway has a slight grade to one side and the sprinkler is located on the high side, so it becomes a large wide spot.

I got my plastic cup out and started bailing out the control box.  I had to go shut off the well pump and open a faucet to drain the pressure tank.  I got out an old seat pad for the outside chairs and plopped it on the ground by the control box and began bailing out the standing water.  I finally had to result in using a coffee cup to get the water level down low enough to get at the control valve.

First one removes the solenoid that opens and closes the valve.  Simple, just unscrew it and set it on the side on the ground.  It has two wires going to it and one has to be careful not to disturb them or you will have to work on that too.  The top of the valve unscrews, it has a large ring that holds the parts of the valve in place.  In this case it was loose, and that was a big part of its problem.  I took the top of the valve off and removed the spring that holds the diaphragm down.  Then I removed the diaphragm and the top was indeed cover with fine sand.

The well produces the sand, and there is not much you can do about it.  I had a separator for awhile that removed the sand but it developed a hole in the side.  I patched it once.  But it developed another hold that was beyond patching.  So it just took it out of the system.  The sand is microscopic and forms a sort of build up on the diaphragm causing it to malfunction.

I had replaced a number of control valves with so called "dirty valves" that are designed to handle the sand but I did not replace all the control valves, just those that gave me problems.  And the system ran for about 10 years with out a problem.  Last year we lowered the pump almost 30 feet to avoid over drafting the well.  Well that meant more sand and I have had to open up and clean out several clean  water control valves.  Just something you have to do.

I borrowed a new diaphragm off one of the old replaced valves.  Yes, I kept them around and now glad that I did.  The old diaphragm was not bad, I just decided to change it.

I reassembled the valve and screwed the top back on.  It had a little arm to manually operate the valve and it kept the control solenoid from doing its job.  So I removed the arm and reinstalled the solenoid.  Then I trotted out back, turned on the well and came back.  Yep, that fixed the problem.  Just to make sure I turned on #2 at the control box to runs the valves and yes, it worked as advertised.

Went out and checked and found another sprinkler not working.  That usually means the little filler is clogged up.  I took it apart and back washed the filter and reassembled the sprinkler.  Turn on the circuit, #6 circuit, and it still did not work.  I took the sprinkler head off and ran a wired down the tube and it was blocked by something.  So I had to take it apart again, and remove the tube also.

I tapped the tube inverted and a couple of same stones came out.  That is the last sprinkler in the circuit so I figured the water had gradually move that debris to the last point.  I reassembled and it still did not work, so I have more work to do to clean it out.

Like I said, the irrigation system is constant maintenance.  Just when you think it is all okay something new crops up.

Fritzes . . .

I had written earlier about the absence of any of the fence lizards.  We call all of those lizards Fritz or plural Fritzes.

Well, the weather has heated up and cold blooded animals are out and about.  Fritzes fall into that category.  Also along with the Fritzes are their arch enemies, snakes.  All I have seen of snakes is one little one when I was repairing a sprinkler control valve leak.  He was in the control box enclosure.  He died of a severe case of shovel breaking his back.

I was walking along the sidewalk along the North side of the house,  Judie had piled up some branches from the oak trees out front.  I reached down to pick them up and spied a full grown Fritz looking up at me.  I picked up the sticks and he then took off into the bushes.

Later I saw another Fritz run up one of our oak tree in the front yard.  They tend to do that to pick various insects that reside in the trees.  It is also spot for them to cool off and their coloring blends in with the bark of the tree.  So it is sort of a defensive maneuver for them.

Since then I have seen several of the lizards in various sizes so they have not left us.  They have just come out of hiding and the warm air provokes their activity.

It is good to see they are abundant and living around us.  We also see an occasional Chameleon lizard roaming around.  But they are not as common as our Fritzes.   And the Fritzes love crickets and keep those little pests under control.

Seeing Fritzes running about tells me summer has really arrived.