Friday, August 17, 2012

School and the waters running again..

Its amazing how many of you commented on the fact that school is starting tomorrow.....  And with that in mind, I thought I would make some observations on how the school years seems to work here.

I think the first thing that changed the school year here is that all of the school buildings are air conditioned...  They could go all year round if they wanted....  And the second thing is that they all finished last year in mid May....

Back in my day, we had to go until the first few days in June, so yes we did not restart until after labor day... And even then, the buildings were old, and didn't have any AC at all, so the windows were wide open....  Bugs!!!  Us boys paid more attention to the flies than we did the teachers, and if your class was on the afternoon sunny side of the building you fried!!

Our old school had a long row of classes on the South side of the building and my 2nd grade class was let out early on many afternoons because no one could stand to stay in the building in early September.......

Also the principal's office was in the center on that South side, and when he couldn't stand it any more, we all got to go home....  His office was small and back in the back behind the main office.......  Now what was I doing in the principal's office?  Uh, some things need to be kept under the hat so to speak...!

I was up early this morning and off to the Kansas University Hospital...  First to see the vampire, and then to the X-Ray department, and then to the surgeon's  office to help him fund his retirement...  I got a clean bill of health, for this quarter, other than some ongoing infection, which landed me some more pills to take......

Oh, I emailed the Arizona caretaker lady, and she stopped over to see if the landscaper's took my calls seriously yesterday..  Seems that part of the irrigation pipes had been dug back out of the ground with some of the pipe replaced....  And most of the trees had been returned to upright and staked into that position....

She also thinks that the watering system had been shut down in order for the yard to dry out....  Something in their system must have broken...  Darned good thing I found the House Management Service lady!!!!  Otherwise we would have had a flood right off the bat...

So I'm two for two on irrigation systems, they were both broken within a week...  I'm scared what two broken pipes will cost us in water, in the same month.....  Ouch...

Retired Rod

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update on the schools, I didn't realize the kids got out in mid-May so it's not as bad as I thought.

    Good thing you were on top of that problem in AZ!!

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  2. I truly don't pay any attention to school starting anymore. I just know that after Labor Day, we can get our pick of campgrounds. Yippee!! Saw on the news this morning where they are talking flooding in parts of AZ. And only 98. Maybe it will stay in the 90's when we get there.

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  3. One of the big mistakes a lot of newcomers to Arizona make is not setting the times properly for watering. Most set the water to run frequently for short periods of time. The tree then develops a shallow root system; if you get a heavy rain with heavy winds, the tree will topple. When you see a tree blown over, note it's root system. Often it is no more than 1 ft deep! You should water deep, and maybe once a week or less. This will cause the tree to send roots down deep looking for water. Those deep roots will help the tree stand up against heavy winds. Phil in Phoenix

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  4. Since the home is so new and under warranty you could send the water bill to the contractor since it was his soddy work that caused the problem in the first place.

    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  5. Up here, somewhere just north of summer, the kids get out of school right at the end of June and go back usually just before Labour Day. Guess that is because the snow has melted enough that things start to warm up or maybe the teachers are just tired of the little buggers. Anyway I know my grandkids are sporting fancy new shoes and I am sure shiny new clothes this week getting ready for the day that they will return to the classroom. And by the way, only in rare cases is the first day of school ever a "snow day".

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