Leaks

I cancelled the appliance repairman appointment because I have concluded the 50-volt potential I discovered in the microwave oven ground wire is a "phantom charge". It has no measurable current - won't even light a flashlight bulb. According to some Internet source, electromagnetic coupling occurs between wires that run near each other where one wire that is not connected to anything (the ground wire) acts as an antenna and picks up signal from the adjacent wires which are energized with their 60 (0r 50) hertz AC field. Brother Don got me on to this phenomena when we talked last week and he said the complex circuity of a microwave oven can induce a combination of AC and DC currents. He said only the DC can cause electrolysis in my pipes, but now that I have installed a good earth ground, our pipes will be neutralized. I'm still trying to get confirmation of this from Frigidaire but so far the weasels will only say to call an authorized repairman.

Not to be outdone, the sprinkling system sprung a leak at the driveway. I hate to dig up tees although it's a fairly easy job once you get started. This one turns out to be the saddle type that you just have to bolt on a replacement.

We're coming to grips with Pyrite's malady and we've received nice emails from our animal loving friends.

The new surround sound system works like a charm, however, the additional component (receiver) is counter-intuitive to Dix's instincts. To her, the TV should be the focus, but the channels are changed by the cable box remote, while the sound is controlled by the receiver and the TV is sourced to the HDMI cable running through the receiver. I have been summoned in the middle of the night more than twice to reset the system after many buttons have been randomly punched and the audio no longer has any relation to the video. I need one more HDMI cable to have a default bypass setup that mimics the simple pre-surround days for Dix's night time viewing.