Ducks!!!
There's always a couple of pools that seem to be nice "vacationing" spots for ducks. There's seem to be more ducks "vacationing" this season than usual.
Remedies: Actually, the only ones that work are not feasible in a community pool, or are illegal. Based on research, while many swear hanging tin pie plates from trees, using fake animals (owls, snakes, fox) and all sorts of creative methods, the ducks quickly find that they pose no threat and return.
So, since using a pellet gun or some instrument to cause their demise and using a swimming dog to scare or catch them is not an option, they will move on when bather load increases and there's just more activity in the community.
Over the years, I have found another key contributor...homeowners. It only takes one animal lover to be throwing out bread to the cute little duckies before the ducks realize this is a terrific place to hang out.
DO NOT FEED THE DUCKS!!!!
Pool sanitation: It certainly isn't pretty but we keep the chlorine levels a bit high in these instances. Unless it gets unreasonable to manage, we keep the pool open and filtering. It is, however, a judgement call. We clean the deck as best we can, knowing that we clean the pool, five minutes after we leave the ducks return.
If anyone living next to the pool would take every opportunity to make noises and chase the ducks away it would probably help, though with people working, the ducks just lounge during the day if there are no bathers.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
"It must be the swimming pool gods!" Common pool opening repairs.
I realize that community managers care about the condition of the pool and the satisfaction of the community. This is a brief "pool school" for community managers who need just a bit of information regarding usual pool opening repairs.
While I have seen everything and anything during pool openings, there are some repairs that just happen a lot as part of opening, especially when starting a pool up after sitting dormant for the winter.
Suction leaks:
The primary ingredient needed for pool operation is suction. The pump is the motor that supplies the suction, but it's everything else connected that determines the integrity of the circulation system. So, every place there is a valve or gasket in the circulation lines, is a potential "suction losing" seal that needs to be addressed. For instance, the pump lid is separated from the strainer basket by a gasket. If this gasket doesn't seal 100%, circulation is severely compromised. The same can be said for each and every rubber gasket along the way. The filter valve, depending on the style, has one critical gasket or a series of "O" ring gaskets, if it's a plunger type. The chlorinator, too, depends on a gasket.
Additionally, every joint in the pvc is a potential leak. The two places in the pump room where there are the majority of these leaks is at the suction and discharge sides of the pump. The connection between the pvc going into the pump and leaving the pump must be air-tight for perfect suction/circulation.
Hardware issues:
The pool safety cover is removed and stored during opening. In a perfect world, each and every brass deck anchor screws back down flat for the summer. In the real world, some refuse to screw down. In this case, the brass anchor, which is now sticking up and is a scraped foot waiting to happen, must be removed after liquid wrench and other industry materials do not loosen it. And, if it needs to be removed, a new one will have to be drilled and installed come closing.
Ladders and rails often need new escutcheons, landings, brass wedge bolts, foot treads, stainless steel nuts/bolts and rubber wall bumpers.
Gate/lock repairs:
Often times the board decides to change the locks and key entries to the community pool. Other times, the locks work, but the gate doesn't close completely, the lock works but is sticking and will only get worse, the lock and catch need to be adjusted, and lastly, the gate has a safety lock or a chain and padlock for emergency lock out during the season and throughout the fall and winter.
Coping Stones and tiles:
The coping stones are the cement stones around the lip of the pool. They generally hang a little bit over the water and are rounded on the water's edge. These are held together with plaster/grout type material. These stones become loose after years for a number of reason. They can be easily repaired, replace, grout. The tiles are at the water's edge and go around the entire pool. There are different styles and shapes. They too, after years, start falling off and need to be replaced. Once one tile falls off others connected will surely follow. And, kids just love to pick at the tile next to the missing one!
Lights:
The submerged pool light is another common opening repair. Usually it requires a new bulb and gasket. Sometimes, though, the entire light housing needs to be replaced. This amounts to "snaking" new electrical lines under ground and through conduit to the pool wall. Also, photo cells and light timers, as well as circuit breakers and GFI safety components are tested and replaced if not working properly.
I believe there truly are pool gods! We often joke about why never on a Tuesday. The joke is, it is absolutely amazing how many times we have a pool up, opened, clear, clean, warm for 3-5 days before opening weekend. And boom...Friday night, Saturday morning, something that had been functioning perfectly for the last week, decides to die. This season it was a couple of pool lights. They were tested during opening, but were not turned on until opening day to dissuade early swimmers. Sure enough, all three lights that worked a week ago, need some electrical repairs. As the season goes on the same continues. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the days most likely to have mechanical issues. It's not the bather load, by the way. The number of people in the pool have no effect on a pump motor that up and freezes. So, we say, "Why does nothing ever break on a Tuesday?!" I really don' t know, pool gods is my only explanation.
While I have seen everything and anything during pool openings, there are some repairs that just happen a lot as part of opening, especially when starting a pool up after sitting dormant for the winter.
Suction leaks:
The primary ingredient needed for pool operation is suction. The pump is the motor that supplies the suction, but it's everything else connected that determines the integrity of the circulation system. So, every place there is a valve or gasket in the circulation lines, is a potential "suction losing" seal that needs to be addressed. For instance, the pump lid is separated from the strainer basket by a gasket. If this gasket doesn't seal 100%, circulation is severely compromised. The same can be said for each and every rubber gasket along the way. The filter valve, depending on the style, has one critical gasket or a series of "O" ring gaskets, if it's a plunger type. The chlorinator, too, depends on a gasket.
Additionally, every joint in the pvc is a potential leak. The two places in the pump room where there are the majority of these leaks is at the suction and discharge sides of the pump. The connection between the pvc going into the pump and leaving the pump must be air-tight for perfect suction/circulation.
Hardware issues:
The pool safety cover is removed and stored during opening. In a perfect world, each and every brass deck anchor screws back down flat for the summer. In the real world, some refuse to screw down. In this case, the brass anchor, which is now sticking up and is a scraped foot waiting to happen, must be removed after liquid wrench and other industry materials do not loosen it. And, if it needs to be removed, a new one will have to be drilled and installed come closing.
Ladders and rails often need new escutcheons, landings, brass wedge bolts, foot treads, stainless steel nuts/bolts and rubber wall bumpers.
Gate/lock repairs:
Often times the board decides to change the locks and key entries to the community pool. Other times, the locks work, but the gate doesn't close completely, the lock works but is sticking and will only get worse, the lock and catch need to be adjusted, and lastly, the gate has a safety lock or a chain and padlock for emergency lock out during the season and throughout the fall and winter.
Coping Stones and tiles:
The coping stones are the cement stones around the lip of the pool. They generally hang a little bit over the water and are rounded on the water's edge. These are held together with plaster/grout type material. These stones become loose after years for a number of reason. They can be easily repaired, replace, grout. The tiles are at the water's edge and go around the entire pool. There are different styles and shapes. They too, after years, start falling off and need to be replaced. Once one tile falls off others connected will surely follow. And, kids just love to pick at the tile next to the missing one!
Lights:
The submerged pool light is another common opening repair. Usually it requires a new bulb and gasket. Sometimes, though, the entire light housing needs to be replaced. This amounts to "snaking" new electrical lines under ground and through conduit to the pool wall. Also, photo cells and light timers, as well as circuit breakers and GFI safety components are tested and replaced if not working properly.
I believe there truly are pool gods! We often joke about why never on a Tuesday. The joke is, it is absolutely amazing how many times we have a pool up, opened, clear, clean, warm for 3-5 days before opening weekend. And boom...Friday night, Saturday morning, something that had been functioning perfectly for the last week, decides to die. This season it was a couple of pool lights. They were tested during opening, but were not turned on until opening day to dissuade early swimmers. Sure enough, all three lights that worked a week ago, need some electrical repairs. As the season goes on the same continues. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the days most likely to have mechanical issues. It's not the bather load, by the way. The number of people in the pool have no effect on a pump motor that up and freezes. So, we say, "Why does nothing ever break on a Tuesday?!" I really don' t know, pool gods is my only explanation.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Could I do it again? Was this summer luck? Gulp, I'm gonna keep going. PART 11: "From Classroom to Pump Room"
So, the way it all went down, we already had signed contracts for the next summer which was a couple months away. I was saddened at my friend's demise, I was sick to have witnessed a great guy completely implode due to alcohol dependency and...I was freaking out about the business. I needed the money. Two daughters soon to enter college, two future weddings to look forward to funding, deteriorating health on my part, more and more hours spent doing what I really love, working with kids, and I was forced to literally put my big boy pants on and see what I could do alone. I felt a little responsible to a couple of our employees and a lot responsible for the state of our company. My reasoning was simple. I had been pretty much running the company the last couple years around Jerry and succeeding in spite of him rather than because of him. I learned so much overall that I thought, if nothing else, I'll try it this first summer and the worst that could happen is I stumble and lose all my contracts, but still make one last little pay day. My reasoning, hell, the worst case scenario was they wouldn't fire me until I had repeatedly messed up, based on our reputation alone. And the best case scenario was I succeeded and now pocketed all the profits, rather than the 50% I had been. So, I began thinking like a sole proprietor. It was actually refreshing. I had only myself to answer to and I answered myself a lot. I answered in my sleep, while I was driving, sitting, not really relaxing, that's all I did was talk to myself and answer. Then, without really consciously realizing it until much later, my business tendencies and decision making traits were nothing more than my teaching and administrating tactics with high school students, parents, teachers, support staff, only in a capitalistic environment. Additionally, I noticed myself going back to my twenty years of coaching high school basketball. The whole thing was to form a team, train them, coach them, support them, and then, wholly crap, charge money for their efforts! If I found the good to great players and coached them, they would perform accordingly. The one caveat, I completely went to hiring, "Nicks." No more high school kids, ever, no more college kids, ever. Well, thats not totally true, I have and do employ one or two high school/college athletes to deliver the chemicals to our pools. I realized the obvious, like sports, the more you anticipate, the more you plan for all kinds of defenses (obstacles), the hungrier you are, the more conditioned mentally and physically you are, the better your team plays. The better they play, the more we (our customers most importantly) win.
The first thing I did was I made sure old Don, the handy semi-retired school custodian who had been moonlighting as our repair was on board for a few more summers. He's a great guy, taught me a ton about a lot of things, couldn't be a handier guy, builds and shows antique pumps and motorized things and though he has long since retired, I can find him any time I need some advice sitting there drinking coffee and telling stories at the McDonalds, with all his old buddies, from 6am to 10am every morning. Once I knew he would literally make all the repairs all I had to do was find more "Nicks" to fill my roster. I intentionally began searching for and hiring "old guys." I can't lie and say every one of them was terrific, but I can say that my worst "old guy" was still better than my best young guy. Along the way I've employed some really interesting gentlemen. That's a key word, I hire gentlemen. If you are reading this and you don't actually get what I mean by they are gentlemen, bless you, your'e probably young! I'm not talking holding doors open for females, of course they would do that as well. No, I'm talking about men who served in the military, grew up in poverty, some are educated, some are the smartest people I know sans college degree. There's a fairly famous band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The drummer's dad worked for me for a couple years. I remember him telling me his son was in a band and they were getting a little popular. After a couple of summers, he resigned. His son was famous! I've hired a tough, old, retired railroad worker. Great guy, Marv, was. Our phone conversations were hilarious. He was as close to completely deaf as you can be. I would be literally screaming over the phone, repeating myself, over and over, but his pools were pristine. I have another guy who's worked for me for years, he told me his wife is finally retiring and so this will be his last summer with me. Way back in the 60's, I'm talking Richie Cunningham and the Fonz, this guy, Tim, is one of the original north Denver car/cycle club members. In fact, there's a locally famous decal you still see today on vintage cars in Denver of a lion. It became the official decal of every one in north Denver who was involved in car clubs. I'm not talking gangs here. I'm talking the James Dean types. Sure they were rebels without a cause, but really they just liked their hot rods and liked cruising 16th Street before it became a trendy open air mall. I could go on, maybe some day I will write something completely about dealing with old guys for going on 26 years. What's the connection? Every once in a while someone will comment or email that this post or that post were misleading in that they veer away from the business of running a small business. My response is, hell, I'm just telling my story. I have spent many years formulating, perfecting and repeating my process. I'm certain I could show the right people; the motivated, hungry people, to follow my formula. My point with this post was merely to talk about my "teams" over the past 25 pool seasons. And, all but one of my guys from last season, is coming back this season. The one not coming back has some family health issues, wants to stay involved, and asked me to please call him during the summer if we need an extra hand, or a pool needs a little extra TLC.
I proved to myself I could go it alone. I pocketed 100% of the profits. I continued to do things the right way. While other pool companies, to this day, pay "contract labor" in order to save on matching Social Security, Medicare payroll taxes, I have a payroll company do all my payrolls, quarterly reports and the like. I run an above board company. I feel good about my little contribution to our nation and the medicare, social security benefits to which I contribute. Could I do it again? Was this summer luck? Gulp, I'm gonna keep going...
The first thing I did was I made sure old Don, the handy semi-retired school custodian who had been moonlighting as our repair was on board for a few more summers. He's a great guy, taught me a ton about a lot of things, couldn't be a handier guy, builds and shows antique pumps and motorized things and though he has long since retired, I can find him any time I need some advice sitting there drinking coffee and telling stories at the McDonalds, with all his old buddies, from 6am to 10am every morning. Once I knew he would literally make all the repairs all I had to do was find more "Nicks" to fill my roster. I intentionally began searching for and hiring "old guys." I can't lie and say every one of them was terrific, but I can say that my worst "old guy" was still better than my best young guy. Along the way I've employed some really interesting gentlemen. That's a key word, I hire gentlemen. If you are reading this and you don't actually get what I mean by they are gentlemen, bless you, your'e probably young! I'm not talking holding doors open for females, of course they would do that as well. No, I'm talking about men who served in the military, grew up in poverty, some are educated, some are the smartest people I know sans college degree. There's a fairly famous band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The drummer's dad worked for me for a couple years. I remember him telling me his son was in a band and they were getting a little popular. After a couple of summers, he resigned. His son was famous! I've hired a tough, old, retired railroad worker. Great guy, Marv, was. Our phone conversations were hilarious. He was as close to completely deaf as you can be. I would be literally screaming over the phone, repeating myself, over and over, but his pools were pristine. I have another guy who's worked for me for years, he told me his wife is finally retiring and so this will be his last summer with me. Way back in the 60's, I'm talking Richie Cunningham and the Fonz, this guy, Tim, is one of the original north Denver car/cycle club members. In fact, there's a locally famous decal you still see today on vintage cars in Denver of a lion. It became the official decal of every one in north Denver who was involved in car clubs. I'm not talking gangs here. I'm talking the James Dean types. Sure they were rebels without a cause, but really they just liked their hot rods and liked cruising 16th Street before it became a trendy open air mall. I could go on, maybe some day I will write something completely about dealing with old guys for going on 26 years. What's the connection? Every once in a while someone will comment or email that this post or that post were misleading in that they veer away from the business of running a small business. My response is, hell, I'm just telling my story. I have spent many years formulating, perfecting and repeating my process. I'm certain I could show the right people; the motivated, hungry people, to follow my formula. My point with this post was merely to talk about my "teams" over the past 25 pool seasons. And, all but one of my guys from last season, is coming back this season. The one not coming back has some family health issues, wants to stay involved, and asked me to please call him during the summer if we need an extra hand, or a pool needs a little extra TLC.
I proved to myself I could go it alone. I pocketed 100% of the profits. I continued to do things the right way. While other pool companies, to this day, pay "contract labor" in order to save on matching Social Security, Medicare payroll taxes, I have a payroll company do all my payrolls, quarterly reports and the like. I run an above board company. I feel good about my little contribution to our nation and the medicare, social security benefits to which I contribute. Could I do it again? Was this summer luck? Gulp, I'm gonna keep going...
Saturday, April 12, 2014
"Jerry, is on life support, doesn't look good." My business story.
Well, what just happened was, Jerry's wife had been more and more angry at him for his drinking. At first, looking back, I didn't notice anything. Now, my wife will tell you, I'm a guy. I don't notice much. But, slowly, Jerry's wife began to get more and more antagonistic toward me and certainly, Jerry. So when she was called from her job to the hospital, she was immediately angry at him. Still, the anger I felt was more of a selfish "now you've gone and embarrassed me", than a holy crap, my husband could have died. Just my opinion.
Jerry survived, he returned to work, was "clean," I think, for a while. Come to find out, Jerry, damn, I get emotional writing this, wanted so badly to kick his drinking that on his own, with no medical supervision, he went cold turkey starting a couple days before his first day back to school. His body was so conditioned to exist with a high percentage of alcohol, that he literally had seizures as his withdrawal time increased.
Jerry proceeded to teach his classes, at least show up and pretty much weather his days at school. His pilot light was going out slowly. He laid low at school, did what he thought was a good job of hiding his behavior and continued his weak performance with our company. Our friendship was terribly strained. A complete reversal had taken place. It was Jerry who was the leader, the head coach, my "big brother" leading the way. It was Jerry on his way to becoming a high school principal, then just like an unexpected pH bounce (sorry) I was the big brother...
People say, "you just never know," and they are so correct. It only got worse. This is very sad for me to write about, but it was the turning point in my career/business. Jerry went on to drive drunk through his neighborhood, miss a turn, and plow into a neighbor's front yard tree. He was pulled out of his truck by a friend of mine who happened to live across the street from the accident. He also happened to be a police officer.
Then, and I'm jumping ahead a bit because this isn't intended to be a melodrama, Jerry showed up drunk at work one too many times. He was reported, the principal, thankfully, didn't have me involved, personally went and got him out of his classroom. I saw him as he walked past my office door. He looked dark. She told him what was going on, had our school resource officer administer a blood alcohol, suspended him with pay temporarily and took his car keys so he couldn't drive home. Strangely, I can't remember if someone took him home or he walked. Either way, he returned with another set of keys and moved his car out of the teacher's parking lot.
That was, as I recall, and a lot of conjecture, the final straw for his marriage. Though there wasn't talk of divorce, at least not that I heard. Jerry moved out and was living in an apartment. I didn't have much to do with Jerry after that. He sent me an apologetic letter telling me he would love to drive around with me, since he lost his license, and check pools. I continued to split the profits 50/50 with him because it was the right thing to do, but he had cost us so much money and credibility I could not bring myself to encourage any involvement by him in our business. Business wise, we were still profitable, but for the first time, had we not had such decent employees, we would surely have been out of business.
One day, I answer the phone and a mutual friend and teacher is on the other end. He says, "Jerry, is in intensive care and on life support. It doesn't look good." Dammit!!!! He did it again. He went cold turkey trying to kick the disease. This time, though, he had done it in his lonely, sparsely decorated apartment. He seized and laid there, alone, on the floor. I can't even remember now exactly who found him. Our mutual friend and I went to the ICU. Jerry was unconscious, his wife, daughters, and parents were at his side. I went over and whispered into his ear. I doubt he "heard" me, and only he and I know what I said. Ultimately, there was no hope as he was brain dead. They pulled the plug and my partner, my friend, my big brother, died.
I have explained Jerry's demise partly to honor him, but mostly to establish that if I've learned anything in 26 years of business it's that resiliency, resolve, hunger, desperation, greed and pride will all be tested and displayed at some point, sometimes foreseen and others completely out of nowhere.
Jerry survived, he returned to work, was "clean," I think, for a while. Come to find out, Jerry, damn, I get emotional writing this, wanted so badly to kick his drinking that on his own, with no medical supervision, he went cold turkey starting a couple days before his first day back to school. His body was so conditioned to exist with a high percentage of alcohol, that he literally had seizures as his withdrawal time increased.
Jerry proceeded to teach his classes, at least show up and pretty much weather his days at school. His pilot light was going out slowly. He laid low at school, did what he thought was a good job of hiding his behavior and continued his weak performance with our company. Our friendship was terribly strained. A complete reversal had taken place. It was Jerry who was the leader, the head coach, my "big brother" leading the way. It was Jerry on his way to becoming a high school principal, then just like an unexpected pH bounce (sorry) I was the big brother...
People say, "you just never know," and they are so correct. It only got worse. This is very sad for me to write about, but it was the turning point in my career/business. Jerry went on to drive drunk through his neighborhood, miss a turn, and plow into a neighbor's front yard tree. He was pulled out of his truck by a friend of mine who happened to live across the street from the accident. He also happened to be a police officer.
Then, and I'm jumping ahead a bit because this isn't intended to be a melodrama, Jerry showed up drunk at work one too many times. He was reported, the principal, thankfully, didn't have me involved, personally went and got him out of his classroom. I saw him as he walked past my office door. He looked dark. She told him what was going on, had our school resource officer administer a blood alcohol, suspended him with pay temporarily and took his car keys so he couldn't drive home. Strangely, I can't remember if someone took him home or he walked. Either way, he returned with another set of keys and moved his car out of the teacher's parking lot.
That was, as I recall, and a lot of conjecture, the final straw for his marriage. Though there wasn't talk of divorce, at least not that I heard. Jerry moved out and was living in an apartment. I didn't have much to do with Jerry after that. He sent me an apologetic letter telling me he would love to drive around with me, since he lost his license, and check pools. I continued to split the profits 50/50 with him because it was the right thing to do, but he had cost us so much money and credibility I could not bring myself to encourage any involvement by him in our business. Business wise, we were still profitable, but for the first time, had we not had such decent employees, we would surely have been out of business.
One day, I answer the phone and a mutual friend and teacher is on the other end. He says, "Jerry, is in intensive care and on life support. It doesn't look good." Dammit!!!! He did it again. He went cold turkey trying to kick the disease. This time, though, he had done it in his lonely, sparsely decorated apartment. He seized and laid there, alone, on the floor. I can't even remember now exactly who found him. Our mutual friend and I went to the ICU. Jerry was unconscious, his wife, daughters, and parents were at his side. I went over and whispered into his ear. I doubt he "heard" me, and only he and I know what I said. Ultimately, there was no hope as he was brain dead. They pulled the plug and my partner, my friend, my big brother, died.
I have explained Jerry's demise partly to honor him, but mostly to establish that if I've learned anything in 26 years of business it's that resiliency, resolve, hunger, desperation, greed and pride will all be tested and displayed at some point, sometimes foreseen and others completely out of nowhere.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Huh, what just happened? Part 9 of "From Classsroom to Pump Room"
I've alluded to having to go it alone. In the long run, it was a blessing in disguise for me. I didn't want it to happen. I sure didn't think it would happen. But, here's what happened...
After a couple of summers with Jerry, which I have somewhat summarized, I was a complete mess. Our daughter was born with a serious health issue, would need life saving surgery at eight years old, and what I thought was indigestion was a heart attack, complete with emergency, quadruple bypass surgery. I mention this because these events preceded Jerry's path. Please understand this next sentence or two. While I was recuperating from open heart surgery, Jerry kept us afloat. It was killing me, being in the hospital knowing what Jerry was probably doing, or not doing, having seen his contributions. But, bless his heart, he stood tall and did the best he could. Was it as good as the way I deal with things while giving myself a heart attack from stress? No, but, given Jerry's condition, and, umm, his wife who had had enough at the time, he manned up.
You see, when we started this little venture, Jerry and I would occasionally drive around together checking pools, trying unsuccessfully mostly to make repairs, and...always stopping for a few beers. We coached together, golfed together, socialized together, his kids taught mine to swim, but from where we started, I watched firsthand, how alcohol is a vicious, relentless disease.
In the span of a couple of years, Jerry went from admired, loved father, teacher, head basketball coach, interim assistant principal, pool business owner to living, isolated and alone in an apartment.
The first time I actually realized Jerry had a serious problem was the first day of school one year. Jerry had fallen from respected teacher, interim assistant principal to the teacher who has parents and students whispering about vodka on his breath. Somewhat embarrassingly, Jerry completely screwed up his interim administrator job. I say embarrassingly, because, geez, I keep saying this, no one was more surprised than I when they came to me and offered me the job. Not, an interim, I was full time administrator. And Jerry went back to his classroom.
So..I'm a new administrator, I didn't mention, at the same school we were teaching and coaching together. It's the first day back for teachers. Always a fun day. We had a new principal. She injected a much needed enthusiasm into the school with first day team building activities, games, catered lunch, etc. I vividly remember being in the main office hearing all the returning teachers and staff out in the commons area when a teacher runs in and yells, "Call 911, Jerry ***** is convulsing in the commons!"
I followed the ambulance to the emergency room. The principal knew we were close and I was his friend. I sat out in the emergency room, adrenaline blasting through me, hoping he's not gonna die and leave a wife and two kids. I kept waiting for his wife to show up. Eventually, they had him under control and he was unconscious but looked okay. While I'm standing over him, his wife walks into the curtain cubicle. I'm expecting a grieving, sobbing wife. Instead, she walked in with a cold look I had never seen, and haven't seen since. She looks at me, gives me a dirty look, asks the doctor if he will be okay and when he says, "Yes, with rest." she did an about face and walked right back out the door.
Huh??? What just happened here??
After a couple of summers with Jerry, which I have somewhat summarized, I was a complete mess. Our daughter was born with a serious health issue, would need life saving surgery at eight years old, and what I thought was indigestion was a heart attack, complete with emergency, quadruple bypass surgery. I mention this because these events preceded Jerry's path. Please understand this next sentence or two. While I was recuperating from open heart surgery, Jerry kept us afloat. It was killing me, being in the hospital knowing what Jerry was probably doing, or not doing, having seen his contributions. But, bless his heart, he stood tall and did the best he could. Was it as good as the way I deal with things while giving myself a heart attack from stress? No, but, given Jerry's condition, and, umm, his wife who had had enough at the time, he manned up.
You see, when we started this little venture, Jerry and I would occasionally drive around together checking pools, trying unsuccessfully mostly to make repairs, and...always stopping for a few beers. We coached together, golfed together, socialized together, his kids taught mine to swim, but from where we started, I watched firsthand, how alcohol is a vicious, relentless disease.
In the span of a couple of years, Jerry went from admired, loved father, teacher, head basketball coach, interim assistant principal, pool business owner to living, isolated and alone in an apartment.
The first time I actually realized Jerry had a serious problem was the first day of school one year. Jerry had fallen from respected teacher, interim assistant principal to the teacher who has parents and students whispering about vodka on his breath. Somewhat embarrassingly, Jerry completely screwed up his interim administrator job. I say embarrassingly, because, geez, I keep saying this, no one was more surprised than I when they came to me and offered me the job. Not, an interim, I was full time administrator. And Jerry went back to his classroom.
So..I'm a new administrator, I didn't mention, at the same school we were teaching and coaching together. It's the first day back for teachers. Always a fun day. We had a new principal. She injected a much needed enthusiasm into the school with first day team building activities, games, catered lunch, etc. I vividly remember being in the main office hearing all the returning teachers and staff out in the commons area when a teacher runs in and yells, "Call 911, Jerry ***** is convulsing in the commons!"
I followed the ambulance to the emergency room. The principal knew we were close and I was his friend. I sat out in the emergency room, adrenaline blasting through me, hoping he's not gonna die and leave a wife and two kids. I kept waiting for his wife to show up. Eventually, they had him under control and he was unconscious but looked okay. While I'm standing over him, his wife walks into the curtain cubicle. I'm expecting a grieving, sobbing wife. Instead, she walked in with a cold look I had never seen, and haven't seen since. She looks at me, gives me a dirty look, asks the doctor if he will be okay and when he says, "Yes, with rest." she did an about face and walked right back out the door.
Huh??? What just happened here??
Friday, March 28, 2014
My go to, "Nick, you knock yourself out." Read Part 8 of my business journey.
Now I confess, I'm writing this from memory because I had no intention of ever revisiting these times for any reason. So, at this point the pool seasons kind of blend in for few years. Basically though, I kept paying our debts, making payroll and all the tax payments that go with running a reputable business, being thankful that I had found Don and he was working out so well, learning from Don more than any one source about pools, sharing the profits with my partner, accepting that I basically am running the company in spite of my partner rather than with the help of my partner, and feeling blessed and fortunate and smart for owning a profitable small business. I was now seeing first hand, capitalism. I liked it.
Summers began to get pretty stressful. We were making good money, I had taken to driving around to all our pools in a random fashion to keep our young employees on their toes as best I could. I pretty much isolated my partner and took over the entire operation. If you know me, you know I am confident but I am not full of myself. I was in fact, running the show. All the while splitting the profits 50/50. Now, in a perfect world, I could solve the employee/hiring/training/ dilemma. I asked old Don one day if he had any retired, semi-retired, friends who might want to work cleaning a couple of pools, a couple of days a week. Sure enough, he did have a friend. I hired, Nick, and as I write this he is still working for me. I realized very quickly that Nick, though he was overweight and out of shape, understood the concept of daily maintenance, working smarter not harder, calling me to report repairs necessary that he didn't do and making minor repairs himself and just letting me know what he did. At first I had him get everything approved by me. The routine, because I'm a simple guy,, was Nick would go to Home Depot, buy whatever he needed, make the repair, send me the receipts, I reimburse him for his Home Depot purchase, I pay him for his time, I don't make anything on the Home Depot purchases because I would be adding on to the retail and I just don't operate that way. I have said this to Mike recently quite a lot. I have always "left some money on the table" before I get greedy. It's worked well for my credibility, which as we all know, is the most precious commodity to the customer. Because this is a blog, I am omitting a number of steps it took to get to this place. Suffice to say, in a service business, employees will make or break you. After writing that, I realized that could be said about all businesses! That being said, I also made a little money in my hourly charge after I paid Nick and paid all the required taxes. I could have done some things to make more money, I suppose, but at that time, I was just realizing that I actually do have the ability to organized and run a small business profitably. I may not have said this enough. No one was more surprised than I. And, part of my never being greedy was because as a teacher, with no real business education, I actually felt guilty charging what I was. Sure, I read all the articles about what my time is worth, and expertise, blah, blah.. I was afraid someone, somehow, would figure out I didn't have the slightest amount of confidence that this would succeed, that I seemed to have all the answers. Wow, I'm just writing randomly here. If this were a book, I would have this edited, But it's not. So, things just started to become clear to me. My original vision of how this would look a few years into it, was nowhere close. I started thinking I was going to do my thing, and Jerry, would do his. I mean, I was hoping we would make a little money like some of our other teacher friends that were out there madly aerating lawns after work for $25.00.
From that vision, I started seeing things differently. Mike tells me a lot, I'm great at explaining, and putting a plan in place, keeping all informed of status, and executing. This is so simple. I had read about this in the many books I read as mentioned earlier. Axioms are true for a reason. I already saw that we had found a need and began filling it with quality service. Haha, the hilarious part is I can't begin to tell you how our young adults were still doing a better job than our competitors. I knew I could improve. I had to. There were lots of emergency things that would come up and I would panic having to deal with them, all the while slowly, silently, seething that I was splitting the profits.
Then I realized I can make money having Nick and good old Don do the work that came up. Duh! With that, the next axiom has to do with yes, a pyramid, but not the Amway kind of crap. No, this axiom is the basic concept that I can make that repair myself, and pocket all the money...if you see where I'm heading here, you see the premise that is yes, I could do that. Or, I could spend my time getting more business, and making more by increasing volume. Yes, I may only make $20.00 only their labor, but if I have Nick and Don and more, I could have five guys, making me collectively $100.00 an hour. A point I valued watching my teacher friends, aerate, mow, house paint, for $25.00 an hour. I'll say it again, I felt guilty for some reason learning what I was learning and fearing it would explode at some point due to some idiotic thing I did. With this plan I completely changed my plan of attack. I went about looking for more Nicks to replace the young adults. I worried, for good reason, about our young adults getting up early enough to service the pool before the swimmers showed up. With Nick, one of the first things he said the day I met him at a McDonalds, was, "I know you said I should be at my first pool by 6:00 am in order to be done with the other 2/3 pools on my route by our 10:00 am open pool time. But, could I get to my first pool like 5:00 am?" I remember my answer, it has become my go to. I said, "Nick, you knock yourself out. If you want to be done by 9:00 that works for me." Here's the punch line...Then Nick says, "I realized some times because my pools are so close to each other, I can leave one pool filling while I run to another one to get the equipment out instead of watching the pool fill. And, if I need to make any repairs, I will likely have them done before opening." Is there a Double Duh???? Heck, that is not the conversation I would have with a 20 year old! It would have been more along the lines of, "Well, I didn't get home til late last night, then I forgot I needed to get gas in my car, and my mom made me drop my brother off at his friend's, but I was only done an hour later than I should have been.
Yup, only an hour.
Summers began to get pretty stressful. We were making good money, I had taken to driving around to all our pools in a random fashion to keep our young employees on their toes as best I could. I pretty much isolated my partner and took over the entire operation. If you know me, you know I am confident but I am not full of myself. I was in fact, running the show. All the while splitting the profits 50/50. Now, in a perfect world, I could solve the employee/hiring/training/ dilemma. I asked old Don one day if he had any retired, semi-retired, friends who might want to work cleaning a couple of pools, a couple of days a week. Sure enough, he did have a friend. I hired, Nick, and as I write this he is still working for me. I realized very quickly that Nick, though he was overweight and out of shape, understood the concept of daily maintenance, working smarter not harder, calling me to report repairs necessary that he didn't do and making minor repairs himself and just letting me know what he did. At first I had him get everything approved by me. The routine, because I'm a simple guy,, was Nick would go to Home Depot, buy whatever he needed, make the repair, send me the receipts, I reimburse him for his Home Depot purchase, I pay him for his time, I don't make anything on the Home Depot purchases because I would be adding on to the retail and I just don't operate that way. I have said this to Mike recently quite a lot. I have always "left some money on the table" before I get greedy. It's worked well for my credibility, which as we all know, is the most precious commodity to the customer. Because this is a blog, I am omitting a number of steps it took to get to this place. Suffice to say, in a service business, employees will make or break you. After writing that, I realized that could be said about all businesses! That being said, I also made a little money in my hourly charge after I paid Nick and paid all the required taxes. I could have done some things to make more money, I suppose, but at that time, I was just realizing that I actually do have the ability to organized and run a small business profitably. I may not have said this enough. No one was more surprised than I. And, part of my never being greedy was because as a teacher, with no real business education, I actually felt guilty charging what I was. Sure, I read all the articles about what my time is worth, and expertise, blah, blah.. I was afraid someone, somehow, would figure out I didn't have the slightest amount of confidence that this would succeed, that I seemed to have all the answers. Wow, I'm just writing randomly here. If this were a book, I would have this edited, But it's not. So, things just started to become clear to me. My original vision of how this would look a few years into it, was nowhere close. I started thinking I was going to do my thing, and Jerry, would do his. I mean, I was hoping we would make a little money like some of our other teacher friends that were out there madly aerating lawns after work for $25.00.
From that vision, I started seeing things differently. Mike tells me a lot, I'm great at explaining, and putting a plan in place, keeping all informed of status, and executing. This is so simple. I had read about this in the many books I read as mentioned earlier. Axioms are true for a reason. I already saw that we had found a need and began filling it with quality service. Haha, the hilarious part is I can't begin to tell you how our young adults were still doing a better job than our competitors. I knew I could improve. I had to. There were lots of emergency things that would come up and I would panic having to deal with them, all the while slowly, silently, seething that I was splitting the profits.
Then I realized I can make money having Nick and good old Don do the work that came up. Duh! With that, the next axiom has to do with yes, a pyramid, but not the Amway kind of crap. No, this axiom is the basic concept that I can make that repair myself, and pocket all the money...if you see where I'm heading here, you see the premise that is yes, I could do that. Or, I could spend my time getting more business, and making more by increasing volume. Yes, I may only make $20.00 only their labor, but if I have Nick and Don and more, I could have five guys, making me collectively $100.00 an hour. A point I valued watching my teacher friends, aerate, mow, house paint, for $25.00 an hour. I'll say it again, I felt guilty for some reason learning what I was learning and fearing it would explode at some point due to some idiotic thing I did. With this plan I completely changed my plan of attack. I went about looking for more Nicks to replace the young adults. I worried, for good reason, about our young adults getting up early enough to service the pool before the swimmers showed up. With Nick, one of the first things he said the day I met him at a McDonalds, was, "I know you said I should be at my first pool by 6:00 am in order to be done with the other 2/3 pools on my route by our 10:00 am open pool time. But, could I get to my first pool like 5:00 am?" I remember my answer, it has become my go to. I said, "Nick, you knock yourself out. If you want to be done by 9:00 that works for me." Here's the punch line...Then Nick says, "I realized some times because my pools are so close to each other, I can leave one pool filling while I run to another one to get the equipment out instead of watching the pool fill. And, if I need to make any repairs, I will likely have them done before opening." Is there a Double Duh???? Heck, that is not the conversation I would have with a 20 year old! It would have been more along the lines of, "Well, I didn't get home til late last night, then I forgot I needed to get gas in my car, and my mom made me drop my brother off at his friend's, but I was only done an hour later than I should have been.
Yup, only an hour.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Community Manager/HOA board swimming pool beginner's guide
An easy to understand guide for community managers and HOA boards summarizing different swimming pool terms, repairs, operating procedures and all things community swimming pool related. This is not a how-to for industry professionals. This is a "Dummies Guide to Pools" effort for communities.
Pool Opening:
Since we are seasonal here in Colorado, the pool has been dormant for the winter months. The hope is that last year's pool company properly winterized the pool. This can go both ways. Essentially, depending on the water quality when the safety cover is removed, the pool needs to be thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed. Often, the pool is drained (not by the pool pump) and power washed to remove surface grime and algae. A plaster pool may need to be "acid washed" which is a method of diluting muriatic acid with water and spraying on the pool surface to remove stains, algae, scum lines, etc. This is like bleaching your teeth. It eats away at the plaster like bleach eats away at your enamel.
The pump room is put back together. All drain plugs are installed, unions connected, hoses checked and connected, electrical connections checked, the filter inspected and cleaned or new filter media added, the heater is checked, the chlorinator and it's hoses are inspected, the submerged pool light breaker works and the light and timer work properly. It is much wiser to replace bulbs while they are not under water. Rarely is there not a few minor repairs that need to be done during opening.
All the pool hardware is installed. This includes all ladders, rails, steps, fill spout and life-hook.
The safety cover is folded and stored and the cover anchors are screwed down.
The pool is filled with water and hopefully, circulates when the pump is turned on. It can take from a day and a half to four days to fill a pool depending on the size of the pool and the diameter of the main fill line.
The heater is turned on and tested. Adjustments to heater are made to insure safety and constant pool temperature. The chlorinator is charged and begins chlorinating the fresh pool water and the service tech begins adding chemicals to maintain industry standards.
Any/all pool furniture is brought out, cleaned and staged around the pool.
A daily sign in sheet for the service techs is placed in the pump room, usually on a clipboard. Chemicals are delivered, tiles are scrubbed, deck is power washed and the pool heater gradually brings the temperature up for opening day comfort. Many people think a pool can be filled and brought to 83 degrees in 24 hours. This is not the case. It takes a couple of days when starting from 40 degrees or so. Any pool operator that doesn't have the pool a few degrees higher than normal on opening day is foolish and either doesn't care or didn't start heating the pool soon enough. There is a huge difference between 82 degrees (industry standard), 80, 79, yikes. Why not open at 84 degrees, all the parents are happy because they can easily get into the pool for the first time, the kids get in and stay in because it's warm. People only notice that the pool they pay HOA dues for was and is cold. So, no complaints, parents happy, kids happy, community manager happy, pool guy happy. Win, win, win and win.
Occasionally, there are some major surprises that arise. There's always a solution, it's a matter of time, cost and type of repair. If a community pool is 30+ years old, it is tantamount to a used car with 120,000 miles on it.
Pool Opening:
Since we are seasonal here in Colorado, the pool has been dormant for the winter months. The hope is that last year's pool company properly winterized the pool. This can go both ways. Essentially, depending on the water quality when the safety cover is removed, the pool needs to be thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed. Often, the pool is drained (not by the pool pump) and power washed to remove surface grime and algae. A plaster pool may need to be "acid washed" which is a method of diluting muriatic acid with water and spraying on the pool surface to remove stains, algae, scum lines, etc. This is like bleaching your teeth. It eats away at the plaster like bleach eats away at your enamel.
The pump room is put back together. All drain plugs are installed, unions connected, hoses checked and connected, electrical connections checked, the filter inspected and cleaned or new filter media added, the heater is checked, the chlorinator and it's hoses are inspected, the submerged pool light breaker works and the light and timer work properly. It is much wiser to replace bulbs while they are not under water. Rarely is there not a few minor repairs that need to be done during opening.
All the pool hardware is installed. This includes all ladders, rails, steps, fill spout and life-hook.
The safety cover is folded and stored and the cover anchors are screwed down.
The pool is filled with water and hopefully, circulates when the pump is turned on. It can take from a day and a half to four days to fill a pool depending on the size of the pool and the diameter of the main fill line.
The heater is turned on and tested. Adjustments to heater are made to insure safety and constant pool temperature. The chlorinator is charged and begins chlorinating the fresh pool water and the service tech begins adding chemicals to maintain industry standards.
Any/all pool furniture is brought out, cleaned and staged around the pool.
A daily sign in sheet for the service techs is placed in the pump room, usually on a clipboard. Chemicals are delivered, tiles are scrubbed, deck is power washed and the pool heater gradually brings the temperature up for opening day comfort. Many people think a pool can be filled and brought to 83 degrees in 24 hours. This is not the case. It takes a couple of days when starting from 40 degrees or so. Any pool operator that doesn't have the pool a few degrees higher than normal on opening day is foolish and either doesn't care or didn't start heating the pool soon enough. There is a huge difference between 82 degrees (industry standard), 80, 79, yikes. Why not open at 84 degrees, all the parents are happy because they can easily get into the pool for the first time, the kids get in and stay in because it's warm. People only notice that the pool they pay HOA dues for was and is cold. So, no complaints, parents happy, kids happy, community manager happy, pool guy happy. Win, win, win and win.
Occasionally, there are some major surprises that arise. There's always a solution, it's a matter of time, cost and type of repair. If a community pool is 30+ years old, it is tantamount to a used car with 120,000 miles on it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)