In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 295 of 1154
So I had a little adventure that gave me a window into American business.
For the first time ever, I decided to order jeans online from Levi Strauss. Reading the negative reviews, I noted that the most frequent reason for return was poor quality, with one reviewer specifically mentioning that the turning point was after the company moved its production to India* (I didn't find a date for the move after a cursory search, but indeed, they're manufactured in India). When I got them, I noticed that the fabric was far thinner than in the past* and one leg was 2" longer than the other*. So I got a return authorization*, and, using the pre-printed FedEx label*, with all the appropriate paperwork*, returned them the very next day*. After 5 days I started checking my credit card to look for the itemized return, and after 10 days I checked the FedEx tracking number. Indeed, the company had received and signed for the jeans within 4 days of me sending them back, but nothing happened after that*. So I called to find out where was my money, and what the person on the other end told me was that yes, they'd received my return on the date indicated by the tracking number, but for some mysterious reason, the return hadn't been 'processed'* (I have no idea how they could have such a faulty return system for one that was -timely, -preapproved, -sent with paperwork, -to the correct place. Perhaps refunds don't happen automatically as one would assume, and they wait for irate customers to call.). That's when I found out I got charged for shipping using their return label* (it wasn't free, I should have checked). If I hadn't called, I wonder HOW long the 'processing' would have taken. It only took the person on the phone a few clicks on the computer.
Well, the company went public earlier this year, and I guess they have to keep those stockholders happy. But every step of the way looks like a company chiseling its customers at every turn, down to keeping my money to make that bit of interest on it, long after they received the return.
ETA
Well, darn. Today was supposed to be cooler - out of the 90-100F range - but it's not. I guess the weather didn't get the forecast memo.
But Signy - I see you're significantly hotter than me! Your predicted high was 88F and your current temp is 107F. There must be a pretty good offshore airflow, even if there's no wind per se. And I'm sorry you're having to deal with such hot temps!
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Dry where I am and it looks to stay that way through Halloween. So at least the little ghosties and ghoulies won't be wet. 
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That's good news for the little kiddles!
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Quote:Oh I don't think it was THAT hot! I took puppy-wuppy out for a walk between 10:30-11:30AM and it felt cooler than yesterday. I think the temps were about as predicted ... about 88 deg F.
Well, darn. Today was supposed to be cooler - out of the 90-100F range - but it's not. I guess the weather didn't get the forecast memo.
But Signy - I see you're significantly hotter than me! Your predicted high was 88F and your current temp is 107F. There must be a pretty good offshore airflow, even if there's no wind per se. And I'm sorry you're having to deal with such hot temps!
But I was working inside, so even if it had been hot I would have been OK. Still working on cleaning up the office. Not a "detailed" cleaning where I do thru every single paper, but I did set aside a box of files for shredding, recycled a whole bunch of old work diaries, boxed up a bunch of stuff to give away (saving the vaseline glass for you!), tossed a bunch of stuff ... altogether prolly got rid of/ set aside five or six boxes of stuff from the room. Not that it looks TOO much better because now I have to call St Vincent de Paul, but at least I recycled/tossed out four boxes-worth! The desk is cleaned off, I just need to go thru a couple pre boxes. But tomorrow I have set aside to go thru dear daughter's room. Sigh.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
That's good news for the little kiddles!
It is. It's no fun when it is wet and windy out.
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I'll catch up with everyone soon... I'm freakin' beat. What a night....
We got that rain I wanted to test out the pipe, and then about 8 tons more.
Things were going well. Hours into the storm, I did my first test and it was 53+ minutes before the pump went off. The next trigger was 74 minutes. This was after a few hours of decently heavy and persistant rain. I thought everything was going well.
I was on the phone with my brother and kept taking measurements while on the phone with him.
37 minutes... not great, but not the end of the world.
18 minutes... mmmmmmmmmmph
4 minutes.... shit.
That entire hole I showed you pictures of? Completely filled to the brim with water that wasn't moving anywhere (I should have clued in on this being somewhat good news at the time, but I was in panic mode so I did the exact opposite of anything smart for the next few hours).
My dumb ass spends the next half hour manually bailing water out of the well, and after god knows how many gallons I crab walked to the toilet, I still wasn't keeping up and the pump was going off every 3 to 4 trips or so anyhow. Probably got around 80 gallons out this way before I couldn't do any more and my moral was so low because I was fighting a losing battle here.
Then I finally smartened up a bit and said to myself, why am I going to give myself a heart attack here. The power is on. The pump is working...
I then wasted the next hour or so manually forcing the thing every few minutes after it went over the inlet hole to see if it ever "caught up". It didn't...
But after all of this, I went outside and noticed the water in the hole was quite a bit lower at least.
Then I finally got the "genius" idea to take my bucket outside and dip in in the trench and just throw it on my lawn. That's a whole hell of a lot easier and quicker to do than trying to bail it out from inside the house. Not fun when it's in the 40's and your soaked to the bone, but at least I was actually making progress this way.
Not sure how many buckets I (quickly) got out of the hole (10... 15 maybe?), but I finally got down to the pipe and to my surprise (since what was really going on hadn't clicked in yet), the PVC and rubber seals and straps were all still intact and tight.
WTF, right?
Then it dawned on me...
Unlike when I had the cracked pipe there to slowly (or I dunno, quickly) drain out water to the street through the hole, the cleanout shows that shortly after the pump stops that no water goes to the street at all.
So the three to five minutes between the pump going off, the ground around the house just keeps getting wetter since I have no gutters and the hole eventually gets filled with water until the pump goes off and allows more water inside to get pumped out.
Now that the rain has slowed down a little I'm almost 6 minutes between cycles again.
Jesus... Until tonight, I had no idea how much potential damage I've been doing to my house by not having gutters all of these years. What an asshole.
By fixing the pipe, the fact that I don't have gutters is probably 5 times as bad as when the pipe was cracked. Water used to be constantly going toward the street every second when the pipe was cracked. Now it only goes to the street as fast as the well can fill up from whatever french drain system I have, allowing much more water to sit around the perimeter of the house.
To further illustrate this, with only around 1.25 inches of water today, I have more water in the living area of my basement than I've ever had (maybe around 3-4 gallons worth). When we had the 8 to 12 inches in the monster flood a few weeks back I didn't have as much water in the living area of the basement.
First thing in the spring I better get those damned gutters up. I might just call around and see how much it would cost to get them professionally done and bite the bullet and pay 3 times as much to have somebody else do them.
Do Right,
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weather.com is apparently freakin broke tonight. For the last half hour it's said 0% chance of rain by me, but it's never stopped. Holding steady at 5 minute pump intervals with the hole half filled with water. Should be drained by the time I wake up. The heavy rain is behind us but since the dark cloud has apparently stayed right above my house even though we've only had a 30 to 50% chance of rain the last 3-4 hours, I'll probably be the guy on the block who's still getting rain at 7AM when it's only 10%.
Oh well. Can't afford to lose any more sleep over it. Too much crap to do tomorrow.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:I think I'm having a hard time picturing how this is happening.
By fixing the pipe, the fact that I don't have gutters is probably 5 times as bad as when the pipe was cracked. Water used to be constantly going toward the street every second when the pipe was cracked. Now it only goes to the street as fast as the well can fill up from whatever french drain system I have, allowing much more water to sit around the perimeter of the house.
To further illustrate this, with only around 1.25 inches of water today, I have more water in the living area of my basement than I've ever had (maybe around 3-4 gallons worth). When we had the 8 to 12 inches in the monster flood a few weeks back I didn't have as much water in the living area of the basement.
First thing in the spring I better get those damned gutters up. I might just call around and see how much it would cost to get them professionally done and bite the bullet and pay 3 times as much to have somebody else do them.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Quote:
Water used to be constantly going toward the street every second when the pipe was cracked
I can interpret this two ways, neither of which makes sense
1) Because water was "recycling" back to the sump, the pump was on much more frequently and therefore doing an overall more effective job keeping the house dry. That doesn't make sense because it seems like the pump was on just as frequently during this storm as before, but unless that water is being efficiently moved away from the house you'll still have lot more standing water around your foundation.
2) The crack in the pipe was acting as an INflow and draining water away from the house even when the pump wasn't on. Hmmm... it looked to me like the crack wasn't big enough to act as an efficient drain, that it could only potentially move a lot of water if the water was under pressure.
You did mention, if I understand you correctly, that the hole that you left open (so you could observe the repair) was filling up with water, to the brim. That's a LOT of water!!! What was the source? Was is just rainfall off the roof running into the hole? Seems like a lot of water to account for that! Or was it undergound water flowing across your property? Isn't it possible that the hole itself was the source of your problem? That it was acting like a sump, collecting water near the foundation of your house, and allowing it to seep into your living space? That once you fill the hole and put pavers under the drip-line the problem will disappear, or at least mitigate?
Or, what am I missing here?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:I think I'm having a hard time picturing how this is happening.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
By fixing the pipe, the fact that I don't have gutters is probably 5 times as bad as when the pipe was cracked. Water used to be constantly going toward the street every second when the pipe was cracked. Now it only goes to the street as fast as the well can fill up from whatever french drain system I have, allowing much more water to sit around the perimeter of the house.
To further illustrate this, with only around 1.25 inches of water today, I have more water in the living area of my basement than I've ever had (maybe around 3-4 gallons worth). When we had the 8 to 12 inches in the monster flood a few weeks back I didn't have as much water in the living area of the basement.
First thing in the spring I better get those damned gutters up. I might just call around and see how much it would cost to get them professionally done and bite the bullet and pay 3 times as much to have somebody else do them.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Quote:
Water used to be constantly going toward the street every second when the pipe was cracked
I can interpret this two ways, neither of which makes sense
1) Because water was "recycling" back to the sump, the pump was on much more frequently and therefore doing an overall more effective job keeping the house dry. That doesn't make sense because it seems like the pump was on just as frequently during this storm as before, but unless that water is being efficiently moved away from the house you'll still have lot more standing water around your foundation.
2) The crack in the pipe was acting as an INflow and draining water away from the house even when the pump wasn't on. Hmmm... it looked to me like the crack wasn't big enough to act as an efficient drain, that it could only potentially move a lot of water if the water was under pressure.
You did mention, if I understand you correctly, that the hole that you left open (so you could observe the repair) was filling up with water, to the brim. That's a LOT of water!!! What was the source? Was is just rainfall off the roof running into the hole? Seems like a lot of water to account for that! Or was it undergound water flowing across your property? Isn't it possible that the hole itself was the source of your problem? That it was acting like a sump, collecting water near the foundation of your house, and allowing it to seep into your living space? That once you fill the hole and put pavers under the drip-line the problem will disappear, or at least mitigate?
Or, what am I missing here?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
Well... I've learned a lot overnight, although I don't have the entire picture yet. I can really only speculate on things, so maybe I can bounce some ideas around here and you ladies might be able to tell me if you think my logic is sound here or not.
Rather than answer your questions directly, I will just paint the entire scenario as I know it and hopefully this clears things up a bit.
1. Although I've never dug deep enough, I'm really quite confident that I must have some sort of french drain system around the perimeter of the house. (Absolutely unsure if it was original installation, or if it also extends to the porch foundation). There is a 4" inlet pipe toward the middle-bottom of my sump well.
2. Once the pump started going off every 4 minutes and I was doing all the craziness, I saw several dozen times over a few hours that while the pump was going off and immediately after it stopped there was a constant heavy flow of water going right back into the well from this inlet. (Constant enough to keep the pump going off every 5 to 6 minutes until around 2:30 A
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Signy
My interpretation was that the crack was acting as an inflow for the gutter water ... and that the hole (while recycling some water back to the foundation) was additionally mostly just a large flow ballast for the sump, filling up then draining away, filling up then draining away ... (and so not entirely defeating the sump's work to remove water from around the foundation)
Hey Jack - I guess we X-posted! This was to Signy, posted before your expl came up.
I have one quick comment off the top of my head - before I think about I too deeply - "1. I need to shorten the float and get the pump lower into the well so it goes off earlier and stays on until the level gets lower before shutting off without going too low as to make the pump suck in air." Is your pump submerged or above the well? Submerged pumps might rely on water for cooling, so if submerged, you probably shouldn't allow the water level to expose it.
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