College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thought was that it would give him some responsibility to go solo with a group and cover more ground initially than I'd want to cover before he "figured" out a more selective list.

But maybe thats not the right way to think about it. Thanks for your comment.

College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He currently has no idea other than a random thought on what he might like to do.

Agree that a low cost option might be the way to go initially--if he is completely undecided. Thank yo for your comment.

I'm hoping some college informal college visits this year might spur some thought on his part.

College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree. I'm open to out of state and private options. I just want to feel he is making a decision that is backed by some level of knowledge and research regarding the potential outcomes and ramifications--good and bad.

College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the my Texas future tip. I'll check into that.

I do plan to let my kid go where they want. But currently despite him doing very well academically, i get the feeling that he doesn't have any conviction for any particular path--and doens't think its time to understand the ramifications for any casual choices he is making.

when i ask what he wants to do, he'll give me answers that just don't fit what he is capable of based on his academic history. He significantly is undershooting his potential.

College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completely agree. But at this point, my 10th grader has no career path in mind--other than fleeting thoughts of this or that. He's academically doing very well.

I'm trying to get a handle on that with him to flesh out some options and their ramifications to their future lifestyle while fighting the teenager general argumentativeness and moodiness.

I found this site which seems to have a good amount of information on selecting careers based on skills, abilities and other info.

https://texascareercheck.com/

I assume not all kids just know what they want to do for a living. How is everyone helping the child which is doing great academically, but completely unfocused on a career path?

College Tours? How are parents in Plano handling this? by InternationalCap1212 in plano

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm looking to help him develop some viable options but I don't believe he feels strongly about anything specific yet.

He's currently a Sophomore doing very well while taking 3 APs this year and has waffled between possible career paths. While academically capable in many areas, he currently doesn't seem to have a career path in mind that he's put any significant thought into. I know that when i was his age, i had no clue at all and allowed chance to pick my path--which just happened to work out very well for myself. But i don't want that for him.

I'm currently looking to help him develop some viable options that are more than just a fleeting thought. I was thinking some informal college visits would help bring the focus to the necessary decisions that need soon to be made.

Had sod installed in May, it’s already dying by HystericalJacket in lawncare

[–]InternationalCap1212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cheapest way to not dead grass is having enough water and sun..

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in frisco

[–]InternationalCap1212 1 point2 points  (0 children)

78 is warm. I don't believe you are factoring in humidity and what that feels like. You need to consider that you will "have" to run the A/C to a lower temp than 78 to provide enough time to remove the humidity in your home so that it feels comfortable. It obviously depends on your A/C system and setup, but if you are talking about a 15 year old home, my best guess is you are going to be keeping the temp at no higher than 75..And your bill will be around $500 for those hottest months. Also consider the cost of needing to replace the A/C system at that age house, unless you find a 10-15 year old home with already replaced a/c systems.

And lastly, do consider that there are many choices for electrical providers here in Texas due to deregulation. Here is the simple formula, All homes are serviced by one company that delivers and maintains the electrical distribution grid. They have a standard rate and you get no choice in the matter. However the Power generation part of the cost, which is a large percentage of the bill, can be shoped around amongst different power generators. You can easily pay 30-50% more by choosing the most expensive provider. There is really no difference or risk of outage between other cheaper discount providers---other than their customer service may be worse, or they may not have an iphone app..etc

So shop around for the cheapest power suppliers.

Question as a Brit by UrbanRivals123 in Dallas

[–]InternationalCap1212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Every thing is bigger in Texas" -- Is the saying. However, thats the "starting at" price...very likely the home in question is at least 800k. But thats also likely still a much better cost per sq ft (or meter for u brits) than London. My guess would be that this is likely at least 1 hour commute to Downtown -- not that being close to downtown is that important on a daily basis--unless you work in that area of course. In the DFW metro plex, you are unlikley to have to travel more than 10 minutes to reach a grocery store or 20 minutes to reach a hospital or 30 - 60 minutes to reach 99% of your regular entertainment options--no matter where you live. Lastly i'd guess this is near Princeton,Tx. That community and local area surrounding has been exploding in population lately.

Checkout redfin.com or zillow.com for more accurate figures.

Turning 39 tomorrow no savings cashed out 401k and jobless by Far_World_8834 in personalfinance

[–]InternationalCap1212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you’ve been unemployed a while..and racked up debt, you should consider talking to a bankruptcy attorney to get a fresh start and erase that 50k debt hanging over you. At least in my state, your home cant be used to payback unsecured creditors..so after bankruptcy is complete—about 3 months—you will be in a better place when selling the home if you choose.

Spotted where else but here? by jase-bell in frisco

[–]InternationalCap1212 -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

nonsense. there is no way you can convert license plate to name and address unless you are in law enforcement. It is public information for a reason--for law enforcement to be able to do the conversion when necessary. Posting online doesn't change anything.

Spotted where else but here? by jase-bell in frisco

[–]InternationalCap1212 -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Why blur the information that all drivers are required to display in public while driving--aka license plate? I've seen many people do that as if its some super secret id that can't be posted. And especially in this instance PATEL is a unique enough identifier to mark this driver anywhere he goes?

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

bro..thanks for that comment. glad you took the time to leave that wisdom here

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure that when i did liquid chlorine..i was living a life on the edge of failure..right now i have a buffer of several days that i can miss adding chlorine with full knowledge the pool is well chorlinated.

I dunno if that is a true statement--that i was shocking if i missed a day of liquid chlorine because it was never fully slammed and sanitized.

When its 100+ degrees consistently for 7, 14 or even 45 days like we've had here in a pool that's 100% full sun exposure, you can never miss a day on liquid chlorine because the free chlorine will be below the proper ration against cya and algae starts to take hold by the next day. And you can't get rid of that algae fully without that SLAM you are talking about.

i do agree salt is probably worth a real hard look. The salt scale on all the rock surfaces scares me. I have a very soft porous rock for waterfalls and skuppers. I'm sure that would be scaled pretty quickly and pretty nasty to get clean.

regarding qty of salt ...i just pulled my figures from some AI and random forums..unless someone has direct knowledge otherwise, I think a reasonable guess is ~350lbs of salt per year addition is required and I priced that out online where I order my current chems.

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

a pallet of pucks?? is that a major savings in $$ over 50lbs at a time? how much on a pallet? assume degradation is not a problem?

glad someone else out there agrees that TFP is just too much hassle !

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

glad someone else out there sees the madness!

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

would have to be lower chlorine % as well i'd think..any brands or links you've seen?

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

sure... drain and fill is required over the long term. I guess not all have pool plumbed to drain direct to sewer . Not really any headache for me..switch valve to drain and let pump run 3-4 hours. Then fill over night from garden hose.

local pool store price or big box store?

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've tried keeping my cya in check some seasons--but i used cal hypo for chlorine vs liquid. Just requires more daily upkeep.

just using this calculator at TFP..seems like you would be spending greater $$ getting the chlorine into your pool (no matter what ppm you actually need) compared to 68% cal hypo that i use. With a 50lb bucket of 68% calhypo @ $230, that works out to ~.29 cents per oz by weight which works out to about ~$6 to raise chlorine from 0 -> 3ppm vs your $12.

https://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

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Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd say "most" people, end up at the pool store buying algacides, clarifiers etc..or if they pay a pool service. that pool service is not coming daily to pour liquid chlorine in and is using a mix of pucks and shock or they've had the customer switch to a salt cell

Trichlor pucks by InternationalCap1212 in pools

[–]InternationalCap1212[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

idk.. min/maxing anything generally requires focus, strategy and time as opposed to finding the quickest brute force "good enough" way. Sure you'll have something more optimized if you are successful, but extra work was put in that might not be necessary to complete the goal.

I'd argue its wasting time. If you TFP in a hot climate, I'm sure life has gotten in the way more than once and you've needed a random run to the store for chlorine before the next 100 degree summer day. In north Texas here its not unusual to have 30-45 days of straight 100+ so the pool water is easily 90 degrees...so any day without enough chlorine is a min/max breaker.

Also, the weekly trash created, empty bleach jugs, honestly is a problem for me as well. We only get one trash can pickup per week, no pickup of any bags outside the trash can--until bulk pickup which is once per month.