Howard

I would not do that. When you do the pool excavation you loosen up all the ground. You have to totally pack everything again to be sure there is no settling. When I had my pool built in October many years ago they built it filled it and covered it and the builder did not pour the walks. He told me it would be much better to wait until the spring when they opened it to pour the decking as the ground would fully settle and they would tamp it and it would prevent future problems. I guess he was right as it has been over 15 years and we have never had any cracking.

I just wonder how many people here have ever actually run into a situation in their homes, or business where they needed to have a gun, and how many have actually fired one at a person. I am sure there are cases, I just have never heard of anyone I know being put in that situation. Maybe where I live is very different than where you live. I just question when I hear people telling about the 12 guns they have scattered through the house, "just in case". So who here has actually used a gun in self defense and what ramifications followed ????? {feel free to add info about another person that you know very well that has gone through this -- not a thirds hand story please}

A couple of weeks ago I went to Bermuda and had a great time.

New Jersey State Police have announced the discovery of an arms cache of 200 semi-automatic rifles with 250,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 anti-tank missiles, 4 grenade launchers, 2 tons of heroin, ... $25 million in forged bills and a ring of 25 prostitutes all in a housing project behind the Camden Public Library. Camden residents were stunned. A community spokesman said: "We're shocked. We never even knew we had a library!!"

Bulpup - I don't disagree with you. I just wonder how many people here have ever actually run into a situation in their homes where they needed to have a gun, and how many have actually fired one at a person. I am sure there are cases, I just have never heard of anyone I know being put in that situation. Maybe where I live is very different than where you live. I just question when I hear people telling about the 12 guns they have scattered through the house, "just in case". So who here has actually used a gun in self defense and what ramifications followed ?????

I first bought a Dolphin Dynamic and had lots of problems with it. It would walk about 10' in a straight line over and over and over and do nothing else. I returned it and got another one and after a few weeks it did the same thing. I got the Blue Pearl which when on sale was half the price of the Dolphin and works great.

Welcome from Randolph NJ.

In my town they extended mine on the day I got them. When I used the last of that batch it was an issue at my FLL as they said they already expired because they are only valid for 90 days from the extension day, even though my town said they can extend them by signing that on day one for the full 180 days. The last one was 93 days old from the date of the extension and the FLL let it go through and we never heard anything from the state. This is all very stupid that no one seems to know and it varies by each town how they handle this.

I ordered 1,000 rounds of .45acp from them a few days ago. Today I get a shipping confirmation that 5 boxes of ammo have shipping today and the other 15 are expected to ship on July 24th. That seems rather weird.

Robots are the only way to go for pool cleaning. I have a Blue Pearl which is a not to expensive one and it has worked great for about five years now. Had a Polaris unit originally which ran on a separate booster pump plus the main pump had to be on too - never cleaned as well as this unit. One other thing, if you have a high water table and go with a liner you should do what my builder did for us, that is build a dry well under the deep end of the pool. This will prevent the liner from floating. Whenever we have heavy rains I just valve the main pump into the dry well and set it to waste and pump all the water out to keep the liner nice and tight.

Don't know about benefit, but if you are in an area with a high water table they tend to pop out of the ground when the water table rises - not a good thing.

I agree it "could" happen, but what are the chances? Maybe where you live it is a lot higher than where I am. I am more concerned with such things as the house being hit by lightning, being attacked by a black bear in the back yard, fire, etc.... If I lived in one of the inner cities in the state I would be more concerned with a bad guy breaking in.

Very nice shot Nikos. You are right, you never can be exactly sure until you process them on your computer.

Maybe I'm wrong (it does happen at least once every 5 to 10 years) but what is with everyone's fear of being attacked in your home? I'm curious how many people here have ever had that happen? Maybe this is being over thought. Maybe its just a heck of a lot more unlikely where I live than where others live, but I have never heard of this happing where I live. If you live in an apartment you are already fairly secure, especially if you are not on the ground floor. The first thing you should do is invest in a good deadbolt for the doors. That said, probably a handgun with HP or frangible is your best bet for tight quarters where you don't want to risk killing the baby in the next apartment. As far as what actions to take, the last thing you want to do is go searching for an intruder to shoot them. Your life as you know it will be significantly changed if you ever shoot someone in this state - no matter how much in the right you are. Your best bet is to figure a safe place to hunker down and call police. That said a gun in hand is still a good idea, but you really don't want to be using it. I know in my house my dogs would notify me or scare anyone away, if that failed the alarm system would likely do that. That failing we hang out in a huge family room on the third floor with a clear kill zone for anyone coming up the steps so I have one gun up there. Our bedroom is down a long hallway with a nice safe kill zone for any intruder so I have a weapon there as well. But my goal would be to be on the phone with police and let the intruder know they are on the way and that we are armed and ready to off them if they poke their head in. While prepared and capable, the last thing in the world I would want to do is pull that trigger.

Good point on the warranty issue. There are lots of companies that charge more and give great warranties, the only problem is I know several that have fallen for that and then good luck getting the people to ever return a call or show up when you have a problem. Honesty is key in picking a company. When I first installed mine I asked about the thicker liners, and did the same thing when I replaced one. The honest people told me not to waste my money unless I had really badly behaved kids that would abuse the liner. The guys with the warranties told me I was crazy not to get the thicker liner as the normal ones would only last five years. What I did go with, after talking with an engineer at a company that actually manufactures the liners, was one with enhanced additives and extra UV inhibitors. That is money well spent as the sun baking down on the liner does deteriorate it over time.

If you want it done wrong then buy a kit, supervise it yourself, and hire day labors off the corner to build it. This is not an attack on your skills as a project manager, rather you have never built a pool and there are tricks that you learn over time to do this better, cheaper and faster. I would highly recommend you get a company based on recommendations and avoid any that do massive advertising. Also you want a company that does not sub out anything with the possible exception of electrical work. There is an art to doing this well. When I had mine built about 16 years ago I got three estimates and picked a guy that I was very comfortable with. He was the owner of the company, had all his own people and did not sub stuff out. He was a mason years ago, and he was the one that actually operated the backhoe and dug the pool himself. They showed up on time, did the work well, and I did not pay them a cent until the work was done. I asked the guy about that and he explained he was a good judge of people - very surprising to have a company work that way. In any case, he had some health problems a few years ago and sold the company to two of the guys that worked for him. They are operating it under the name Riverside Pools out of Somerville NJ http://riversidepoolsnj.com/ , I don't know if they would do anything that far away but its worth a try. The original owner got tired of being retired and is now working as a sales person for them. When I needed to replace the 15 year old liner I called them and the two owners came to show me liners and measure the pool. They remembered me from when they worked building the pool and actually had all the original papers with exact dimensions as the pool was built. The entire liner on the 20'x40 pool was done perfectly in one day. I have several friends that have had liners replaced and they all have loose areas and wrinkles, while mine looks like it is the original liner. Bottom line, don't try to save a couple of dollars and end up with a problem down the road. Go with recommendations and don't try to do the first one yourself.

I forget the name of my filters but they are pleated material. Each section is about 4" deep and there must be about 40 or 50 of these sections. They work great and only need to be replaced about once a year.

The comment about acidic water, trichlor and soda ash makes no sense. Trichlor is acidic and tends to drop pH. Soda ash is alkaline and raises pH. It is sold as pH up not pH down. Cheaper than that is borax which also raises pH.

Make sure all the piping is a good size, too many builders skimp on that and that will cost you big dollars down the road in pumping costs. Make sure all lines are 2" or larger. Also make sure there are lots of valves and that you at a minimum get a two speed pump but better are the newer inverter controlled ones that offer an infinite number of speeds. With my Intelliflow I can just dial in how many GPM or RPM I want and the pump handles it. That will save you a lot of money on electricity. I highly suggest an electric heat pump over a gas heater if you are going to want to extend the season. Gas is cheaper up front, but a heatpump costs a lot less to run. But with gas you can raise the temperature much faster. I only use the heat pump in April and Sept. The rest of the time I have two solar mats that are each 20' by 2' and that provides enough heat for my 20' x 40' IG pool. Most of the season those mats keep it between 80 to 85 degrees, but with the heat we have had right now it is sitting at 90 which the wife and kids love -- way too hot for me. There are some great pool forums out there to get advice, troublefreepools.com is a good one. As for chemicals, these forums as am I are big advocates on the BBB method. I use bleach, 20 mule team borax and baking soda - don't ever use those expensive pool chemicals except for a little stabilizer. Also I would go with a DE filter, not sand. You get a much cleaner pool that way.

This was my first match ever, heck it was my first time shooting outside period. I had a great time and learned a lot and met a bunch of great people. Thanks to everyone that pushed me to go and especially to Luis who set me up with some great equipment.

Very cool, hard for a local town show to compare with that.

No, just people that have not shot before. They want the new person and everyone else to be safe, and that means making sure they know how to handle a weapon so they only put holes in the targets

Yup, RTSP is on RT10 in Randolph - not very far from there. Just hop on 24 west to 287N to Route 10 West.

Thanks. That sounds way cool, try to take some pictures for us. See if you can get some reflections of the show in the water - that would make for a great shot.

Did the firework thing last night in Morristown at the Morris Lewis Park - one of the best fireworks shows I have seen in years. I took lots of pictures. I will post a few below and for those that want to see more you can find the entire set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbinster/sets/72157634484885313/ For those that want to take fireworks shots, I know there are many more shows over the weekend. The Morris County College in Randolph has a big show Saturday night. As a General rule of thumb one should have their camera on a tripod and set the lens to around f/8 and take an exposure of about three to five seconds. Check what it looks like and adjust from there. The ones from last night were super bright and required more like f/13 but that is unusual: