Welcome back, blog nation. This is going to have to be a short one this week, because I seem to all of a sudden have more things to do than I have time to do them. And, to make it slightly more frantic, it looks like it’s about to rain and that will only make the challenge greater. But, I’m up for it. Or at least I’m going to give it a shot.

As today’s headline suggests, one of the things I’m doing is draining the hot tub, then I’ll be putting in a new filter, soaking the old filter in a solution that’s so toxic it actually cleans the baffles of the filter almost back to new, and then filling the tub again. It’s 3:30 right now, so that pretty much rules out the use of the tub tonight. It takes about an hour to 90 minutes to drain and refill, but once that’s done the water is around 50-degrees. It takes another five hours or so to get it back up over 90. This time of year, I keep it right around 93.

So why all this today? Well, I knew I needed a new filter but I didn’t plan to drain the tub. The water is relatively new and I’ve been on a roll with the balance lately. Hot tubs are really just miniature heated pools, and any spa or pool owner knows how hard it is to keep the chlorine level right in the middle of the “Good” zone, while also keeping the pH where it’s supposed to be. Once they get out of whack, it takes a while to get everything back to where you want it. So I had planned on keeping the water.

My local Woodbury pool & spa shop called this morning to let me know my replacement filter was in, so I drove over there about an hour ago and picked it up. When I got it home, I unscrewed the old filter to take it out and once I lifted it up I discovered something. Some nearby trees have been dropping a ton of spores/seeds lately, to the point where the cover of the tub was covered in them. I hadn’t seen many in the water though, so I wasn’t worried about it. Until I pulled the old filter out and hundreds of those little buggers washed out of it and into the tub. They’re everywhere. The last thing I wanted to do was put the new filter in and turn it on, because then my new filter would be full of that stuff.

And speaking of hot tub filters… If you own a spa you know there are so many different styles, sizes, shapes, even thread counts on where you screw them in to insert them. Within the Jacuzzi brand alone there are seemingly hundreds of different styles. It’s kind of maddening that even one company can’t find a way to make the filters interchangeable. Sure enough, when I got my new one home it didn’t fit.

After another fun drive all the way across to the other side of Woodbury, where it’s “tear up the roads season” and traffic is constantly snarled, the guy at the store took me back to the storage room and we literally picked through three or four dozen styles to try to find one that would work. My other option is our closest Jacuzzi store, but that’s in Burnsville and I’m in Woodbury and that’s half your day shot. We found one that was an inch shorter and an inch narrower than my old one, but the thread count was the same. I tried it when I got home and it fit. So now we drain, and clean, and refill. Hot tubs are definitely like pools, and sorta like things such as boats and motorhomes. There’s always something, and you need to stay on top of the daily service stuff. It’s a lot of work, but I take pride in making sure my wife and I have a clean sparkling tub to lounge in whenever we want.

I just checked on our progress, and the sump pump has it about halfway drained. It goes pretty fast once the level gets below the seats, so you gotta keep an eye on it. Let that pump run for even a few seconds without water, and you’ll be buying a new one of those. And what’s the first thing you do when cleaning and refilling? You turn the power off at the circuit breaker. Let your tub automatically run the circulation pump without a full load of water in it and you’ll be buying a new motor as your next chore. But… On cold winter nights, or even warm summer evenings, it’s all worthwhile.

When we lived at our old Woodbury house, I wasn’t smart enough to buy a pump. I drained it the old fashioned way, by hooking up a hose to the drain plug at the bottom. Gravity did the work. Gravity is a solid thing, but it’s slow. The pump cut the draining time by about 80%. I’m all for that. Sorry gravity.

I also need to rinse the old dirty filter and soak it in that solution overnight. That should make it a suitable backup for this new one. There’s a lot involved here.

I’m not going to Denver for the Mile-High Nationals this weekend, which is too bad because I love that race. I am, however, heading to Sonoma next Thursday, so that may entail writing a blog on the plane. I’m staying at a place I found on Airbnb. It’s an apartment attached to someone’s house. Ought to be interesting. Also WAY cheaper than any hotel or motel within 15 or 20 miles of the track. The Best Western (!) in Sonoma, where I’ve stayed before, is just under $500 per night during the race weekend. No, thank you! Maybe next time. I am planning on seeing my old Paintsville teammate, Vince “The Bronze Fox” Bienek and his lovely wife Mary. As you know, they actually met in Paintsville when we played there, back in 1978. Always a good time to meet up with Vince and Mary.

Well, I’m getting down to needing to be out there to finish the draining. Talk amongst yourselves while I handle the critical last moments of the process.

OK, all drained, and it’s 4:20. The fill up is happening and that can take 45 minutes at least. One reason for that is the fact there are pesky little things you need to do when you fill the tub, as well. First off, you insert the hose directly into the intake hole where the filter will screw in. That’s to force water through the system and hopefully blow out much of the air that got in there when it was empty. Then, you attach another sort of filter onto the end of the hose. I’m not even sure what it’s supposed to do, and I never used one in the 10 years we lived at the old house, but when a repair guy came out to replace my burned out motor on this one, all he said was, “You need to use that every single time you fill it up after you’ve drained it. It will add years to your tub’s life.” So, OK.

This past Sunday we went on a really fun river cruise on a neat boat. The entire boat was rented out by our friend and real estate agent Angela, who sold our previous Woodbury home for us (after getting six offers at the Open House!) and who guided our purchase of our new downsized home. She had 165 of her clients on the boat as a “thank you” gesture and it was really great.

We did it on the St. Croix River, which is the body of water that separates Minnesota from Wisconsin, until it pours into the Mississippi further south. And it’s a good thing the St. Croix is there. Minnesota and Wisconsin are two states that sometimes need to be separated. Especially during football season.

Now, I’ll admit that most of the times your invited on something like a river cruise it’s because you’re going to be pitched something. You know: “Come to this FREE cruise on the St. Croix and hear about out new timeshares…” Or “investments…” Or “financial services…”  That was not the case with Angela. We aren’t buying or selling anything and nothing like that happened on the boat. It was just a very gracious thing to do and we met some other fun people, as well. And it keeps our relationship with a great broker fully intact. Thanks Angela, and thank you to Eli and everyone else in the Angela Sadat Group! We had a great time, and it was enormously generous for you to rent the boat and feed us so well!

The tub is rapidly filling! It’s about 50% full, but the process slows down now. Why? Because the water is up over the seats so now it’s filling the entire circumference of the tub, not just the part where your feet go. It’s going faster than I thought though. Maybe tonight isn’t out of the question. Hope springs eternal!

I think I’m going to wrap this one up. This has been, officially, enough total nonsense for one day. Seinfeld would’ve been proud of this installment about nothing. But you do know more about hot tub ownership. Right?

Despite the flimsy subject matter, if you did just read this and found it even remotely likable, please hit the “Like” button at the top. I’m saving up “Likes” for a new bicycle.

See ya next week, most likely from a Delta flight headed for Sacramento, home of the one and only Gary Gerould!

Bob Wilber, at your service and now looking at a tub just about 75% full. Onward!

PS: Holy Moly. I almost screwed up royally. Here I was, blissfully typing away when I thought “I bet it’s getting close. I better take a look.” So I looked out the window and not only was it full, it was a little over full. You’re supposed to fill it to within a half-inch of the bottom of the headrests. It was, instead, about a half-inch ABOVE the bottom of the head rests. I went running for the spigot, to turn the water off, then I bailed four big orange Home Depot buckets worth of water out of it. I think it’s still too high. A couple additional buckets need to be scooped.

The good news is that this time of year the water comes out of the tap at exactly 60 degrees. I’ve refilled during the winter when it went into that tub at 45, so we have a 15-degree head start on getting it back up to 93. And, other than the bucket brigade moment, it took almost exactly 90 minutes from start to finish. I’m pretty much an ace at this.  See ya!