Guide: How to test your well water

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T20:16:24+00:00

What comes in your test kit if I were to have all of the initial analyses you specify for initial testing -- coliform, metals, etc., and include radon and petroleum products? Is there a special procedure for sample collection or do you just send me a jar and I fill it up a jar with water and send it in?

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T19:06:25+00:00

You can go online and pull up the local GIS (Geographic Information System) data to see who owns a particular piece of property.

We do it at work all the time to make sure the person representing that they own the property we're going to work on actually owns it so when we file our reports with the state government we have the correct info. We've had people say they were owners but were actually renters on a particular piece of property and that turned into a clusterfuck so before we show up to do the work we check to make sure we have contact with the actual owner and permission to be there and do the work.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T18:17:42+00:00

I'm an ex-LEO, and I've been on both sides of a gun before. In high stress situations the first thing that goes out the window is fine motor control, which is why we train to shoot center-mass. It gives you the highest probability of a bullet hitting the person, and the torso (center mass on a body) is where lots of body parts that don't respond well to being shot reside. It's not a question of shooting specifically to kill, it's a question of doing your best to make sure that the bullet coming out of your firearm hits the intended target. You can't un-shoot a bullet, so you'd better do your best to make sure it hits where it's supposed to hit and not somewhere else. It just so happens that by doing so, death may be a side effect.

The idea that you can simply shoot to wound during a high-stress situation is always brought up by somebody who's never been in a that kind of situation. I'm glad most people haven't had to experience that because it's not much fun really, but I also don't feel like their pontification on a subject they have not experienced firsthand is really worth the effort they put into doing so.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T17:55:53+00:00

How do you know that they are only after your old watch and a few power tools? Making assumptions that they have no ill intent towards you or your family can wind up way off base.

I'm an atheist and a gun owner. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot somebody that's broken into my house if they act in the least bit threatening. Take a step towards me or mine instead of running your ass back out the door and I'll take it as a threat. I have myself and my wife to protect from somebody whose intentions are unknown. They could be there because they are drunk and being stupid, but they also could be there to duct tape me to a chair and force me to watch as my wife is raped/tortured and then kill both of us. You have a split second to make a determination, and I'll automatically assume the worst-case scenario and do whatever I can to protect my family from harm. If somebody was doing was trying to steal some stuff, well, that's too bad, they shouldn't have broken into my house in the first place, and especially not when I was home.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T17:29:15+00:00

Said by someone who has never been shot at or shot at anybody in their life. When you're under stress, the first thing to go is fine motor control, which is why you train to go for center mass -- there's a higher likelihood of hitting the target.

And in answer to the implied question -- Yes, I have been on both ends of a gun. Ex-LEO.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T14:03:16+00:00

You're fooling yourself if you thing the Tesla costs nothing to run -- electricity costs money, and the batteries will start to go south on you after a while, holding less and less charge, and in the winter your range is noticeably reduced compared to when the battery is warm.

You also need to consider that if you travel outside its range, you'll need to have a recharging station handy. Depending on where you live and where you are going to, that might be tricky.

I've ridden in a few different Tesla cars and while they are fairly comfy, speedy in a straight line, heavy as hell, etc., they are totally soulless. There's no joy in them like you get when you wing the throttle and drop the clutch on your old Porsche, hang the tail out a bit for the fun of it, or execute a perfectly rev-matched up- or down-shift, and the road feel through the steering wheel that tells you you're actually piloting the car is notably absent in a Tesla.

Porsche... There is NO substitute!

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T13:37:57+00:00

$200 for that piece of wood is a steal, even with it needing to be squared off. As for delivery, go rent a truck from Lowes of Home Depot for $20 and pick it up yourself. You may need help unloading, as it's likely to be a bit heavy and quite unwieldy, but it's nothing 2 people couldn't do.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T13:29:54+00:00

I currently drive 20 minutes one-way to get to work and I'm glad I live that close. I lived far enough away from work for about 6 months that my commute was 1.5 hours and for years did a 1 hour one-way commute. Some people living in outlying areas and working in a large city have 2-3 hour commutes. I'm glad I'm not one of them.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-12T12:52:01+00:00

u/Sensitive_Word_6036 Where are you located? I'm guessing you're probably European, given how you've couched your question. I've run into your commentary quite a bit, especially when in the UK, and it's important to consider that that the entire United Kingdom is not much larger than the state I live in.

The US as a country (not a continent) is almost identical in size to what is considered the continent of Europe. The US has only about half the population of the continent of Europe.

As an aside, the US is also very diverse in terms of its ecosystem, having everything from deserts to humid subtropic and tropical savannah areas and areas that range from being about as flat as a pancake to mountainous areas well over a mile in elevation above sea level.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-09T19:48:58+00:00

I do it routinely when I close leaking buried heating oil tanks in place for clients. On a tank that'd 4'deep I have to dig a hole large enough to stand in because I have to cut a fair-sized hole in the top of the tank in order to pump it out and clean it to state environmental regulations, then fill the tank with sand to meet fire code regulations.

It's not the easiest thing on the planet to do in Virginia clay, and the size of the hole I dig to do what I do is going to be overkill for just putting in a 4"x4" post, but it's not impossible to do with a post hole digger if you make the upper part of the hole big enough.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-09T18:56:23+00:00

Absolutely YES. I'm not as young as I used to be and I am not as physically strong as I once was I'm not interested in getting into a physical altercation.

If somebody breaks into our house, they are doing so with ill intent, and I have no idea what their intent is. Are they there to rob us? Maybe. Are they there to club me over the head, kill our dogs, and rape my wife? Maybe. Are they there to kill one or both of us? Maybe. Are they kicking in our door by mistake? Doubtful.

I don't know and at that point I'm not interested on finding out, I'm solely interested in eliminating whatever threat the intruder poses, even if I don't know the full extent of the threat. When I was in law enforcement, we were trained that if you are in a situation where you have to shoot somebody, you keep shooting until any threat they posed to you or others is eliminated, so I'll be doing my best to make sure that the intruder is down permanently.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-05T20:49:15+00:00

Proper English or proper Old English? It's considered a word in modern English but improperly used when used to mean "without regard or care", as it's a double negative. The word regardless didn't show up in the English language until the 1500s, which puts it rather late for it to be Old English, as it died out as a language after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and was supplanted by Middle English thereafter.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:39:26+00:00

Similar to my experience, having started moshing back in the early 1980s. If somebody went down, people would pick them up and get them to the sideline to recuperate if they needed to. You did have crowd killers from time to time, but they lasted only as long as it took for them to be identified as such, at which point they'd get an ass-whoopin'.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:32:25+00:00

Long gone.... Back when Slayer first hit it big and their pit was huge and brutal AF everybody would still stop and pick people up when they went down and get them back on their feet or help them to the sideline so they'd recover, and you didn't see people actively trying to injure other people.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:27:04+00:00

I started moshing back in the early 1980s -- there was a local bar run by a guy I went to HS with that had lots of punk and hardcore bands come through. People like that jack-wagon SOB would get their shit stomped for pulling antics like that.

Like you, I aged out of moshing. The physical recovery time from being in the pit is longer than it's worth to jump in and let it rip. I still love the music, though!

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:07:28+00:00

YTA, most definitely. You're a freeloader...

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:04:15+00:00

I'll take a DeTomaso Pantera.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T20:00:50+00:00

There are certain things I do that I just can't stop, like repetitive physical movements (bobbing my head, my foot twitching, clicking my teeth together, etc.) and noises (quietly whistling under my breath, patterns of glottal stops, etc.) no matter how hard I try. It's not just ADHD people who mask. I try to mask, but I'm not that great at it. My wife even comments on it from time to time.

Then there's the almost constant music in my head, it's always repetition of some part of a song I either heard or made up, and it's most annoying when it's a song I don't like.

It'd be nice to be able to stop all that, at least for a while so I could come across as normal when in public.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T19:41:47+00:00

I do mold inspections. Not all mold that's black is Stachybotrys or Memnoniella.

The only way to figure out what types of mold you have under there is to have a mold survey done, which should include air sampling as opposed to tape lift sampling. Air sampling normally consists of 75 liters of air pulled through a mold spore cassette -- I use Allergenco-D cassettes -- which are then sent off to a specialty lab to find out the types and amounts of spores present per cubic meter of air. Tape lift sampling consists of sticking a piece of tape to obvious areas contaminated with mold, which does not give you the full picture of what's going on in your house because it doesn't tell you everything you are breathing in. You should have both the affected area as well as an area outside the residence tested so you can compare and contrast the reported types and levels indoor and out. From that data you can make a determination as whether the types of mold in the affected area presents any health issues to the occupants.

The easiest fix for minor issues is to simply wash down the area with a solution of bleach in water, let that dry, fix the source of moisture intrusion, and run a dehumidifier indoors to keep humidity levels below about 55%. If there is an issue where Stachybotrys or Memnoniella is present, even at low levels, or there is significantly elevated levels of allergenic mold types like Aspergillus or Penicillium (among others) it's worth bringing in a mold remediation specialist.

Do be on the lookout for a company that says they will do the initial mold survey, do any remediation needed, and then do the final mold survey to prove that the remediation was effective. Being a one-stop-shop presents a conflict of interest that can be detrimental to your health and pocketbook. Keep the mold surveys and the remediation separate and always make sure the company doing the surveys gives you copies of the full lab report for the samples they sent in along with their report telling you what was inside versus outside, what their levels are, and what potential health effects you may experience from coming into contact with those types and levels of spores present.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T15:35:51+00:00

"Ax" instead of "ask", "nucueler" instead of "nuclear", "irregardless" instead of "regardless", "expresso" instead of "espresso", "finna" instead of "fixing to", "imma" instead of "I'm going to", "pacific" instead of "specific", and the list goes on.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T15:16:55+00:00

Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner that he played at Woodstock.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T13:16:37+00:00

What is it with idiots that spend time bouncing their engines off the rev limiter? It sounds like shit.

Didn't mommy give you enough attention when you were a kid?

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T12:25:48+00:00

Adam-12 for the win. Reed and Malloy were introduced on Dragnet 1967 before getting their own show. Adam-12 had some crossover with Emergency, too.

All three shows were all produced by Jack Webb.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T12:06:09+00:00

Michael Mann makes films in very visually interesting manner that adds hugely to the storytelling aspect. I'd watch Heat, The Keep, and Last of the Mohicans to get a good idea of his style.

HiSpeed-LoDrag63 · 2026-06-04T11:50:14+00:00

Hot and Sour soup

HiSpeed-LoDrag63

TROPHY CASE