Well, today, they added the steel rebar to the pool, preparatory to blowing the shotcrete:


                 

That is, it was preparatory to blowing the shotcrete. Now it's preparatory to a long, long wait.

Seems that the folks putting in the fence redid their permit, and the County decided that it involves a hillside (there's no natural hillside here - this lot was graded) and so now the entire construction project has to be put on hold - and it took them nine weeks to give us the original pool permit. We may never, ever swim in this pool - and we've given them many thousands of dollars.

(Ethel, of course, is sure that everything is fine. Ethel was thinking everything was fine during the week that we were waiting for the permit - I mean the three weeks - I mean the nine weeks. And then they dug the hole, and then waited two weeks after it rained to put in the plumbing and the steel, and now this. Hah.)

Now they won't do anything, and then the pool company takes two weeks off for Christmas. Happy holidays!

I'm of the opinion that we should just cut our losses and shovel the dirt back into the hole and give up on the "hole" thing. Ethel says no - she's sure that it will work out. However, Ethel signed a construction contract with - as far as she knows - no performance requirements at all, no ultimate end date - the pool company can just keep our money until we are dead if they want to, and there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it.

(Once upon a time I wouldn't have concerned myself with such a thing - but that was before I bought this house, and found out that, yes, indeed, sometimes companies DO just file bankruptcy and fail to honor their agreements; in fact, that a "corporation" as such has no soul, and thus has no karmic consequences for doing such a thing. Now I've learned that I actually have to see what is in front of me)

When I used to call my old sponsor, the Old Poop, and complain about this new wife of mine (this was a long, long time ago :) the Poop would listen for a few minutes, and then say "Okay, are you gonna leave her?"

I'd mumble a bit, and then, well, sorta say "....no."

So he'd say "Then shut up - because you're not going to change her."

I'm not going to change Rondo Pools, nor am I going to change the Maricopa County building inspectors (or whoever it is that does this stuff). But I'm quite willing to leave them.