Did you get your MRI? It sounds like things are progressing nicely for you. I just had my 2nd hearing on Nov. 3rd & I think it went well. Looking at my denial letter from the April hearing, things that were focused on were 1) I do laundry 2) I food shop 3) I drive my daughter to school. When I went back this time I brought with me a page I made in Word, explaining my laundry area showing I have a "dirty clothes" basket on a chair, so that I do not have to bend. I also highlighted the dryer which is set up on a base so that I do not have to bend. On top of the dryer is the clean clothes basket- clothes get folded & go straight into it. To the right of the dryer are hangers, any shirts coming out of the dryer get hung. If you food shop, be sure to note if your food shopping consists of picking up 2 or 3 bags worth of groceries to get you by till someone can go with you. Also note that if you do food shop, how often you go (me- every 10 to 14 days). If you food shop & get employees to load soda or heavy items in your cart, or if they unload your cart into your car for you. At this hearing I also made sure they knew that it was incorrectly noted that I drive my daughter to school & that I drive her to the bus stop which is around the corner. Your symptoms mimic mine. I've got a computer desk, my monitor is to the left, a wireless keyboard & mouse. If you can picture this, I have 2 chairs in front of the desk, 1 my high back computer chair, the other a fold up chair I keep my feet on. A heating pad is on the computer chair. I get up, turn on the heat, then sit down & put my feet up. My keyboard is on my lap. I'll sit here for close to 2 hours before I'm able to get up & do anything. The heating pad has been a life-saver. Where are your spasms? What are you doing for them? I've found that the heat plus trigger points helped with those. I used to be really bad, so much so that my legs would shake like jello. I keep crutches just in case. We found out by accident after I had a discography (5 needles) that showed no results (Dr did it wrong) I was in worse shape due to him hitting a nerve. My neuro prescribed methylprednisolen dose pak, let me tell you, that was the thing that stopped the bad spasms. It was like this magic pill, after that, going back for trigger points every 4 months or so instead of every month. I'm also taking Zanaflex at night with Skelaxin as needed during the day. If you want to email me from my member page, let me know where your pain is. If it is lower back, down to the toes like me I've got some great photos I found on the web that I put into a word file detailing my treatment, medications (current & tried) as well as a description of my pain along with the photographs which I edited to show exactly where my pain is. I just uploaded 2 of my edited pics- & . I've also got some muscle views, side spine views. If you notice, each pic has different color pain lines- they each mean something different like stabbing, shooting pain, numbness, etc. Took me about a week to find the various pics, it was not easy. Good luck

John, Joe, thanks for the replies. I was hoping I might be ready to start decking, but it looks like a have a little bit more framing to do. Its starting to get cold here in MA and I'd really like to have the decking down before winter. Although, I'd rather take my time and get it right than rush it and do it wrong. As for the forstner bit, is that something that can be done free hand with a drill? The countersink bit I have is very easy to place with the center bit. I would be worried about the bit walking on me. How does the Tightbond work as an end sealer? Do I just paint it on? Do I have to avoid the face for stains? I probably don't have the time to go over the joints and seal them with sawdust/glue, but I sure would like to have the time. When you guys plug, when do you put the plugs in? I only work on the weekends and I wasn't planning on plugging until the entire field was laid, but that could take a few weeks. How long do you think I have to install the plugs before the joists get affected by the pools of water? Thanks again. Peter PS - I almost used the Deckmaster system until I came here and you guys talked me out of it!

TOS, Okay, honey, you're not old, you're middle aged. I never said you were old, I said DH's ex is old. Maybe you are 55 and look 35. Ex is 55 and looks 70. No, DH doesn't pay alimony. His divorce settlement and child support for 20 years should have been enough to support her for life, if she had invested the settlement, but it didn't work out that way. She has had a tough time managing her money. Now you can jump all over that, but that's just the way it is. Sylvia, if you make it to 70, you have survived some of the things that kill 20 year olds. i.e., you won't die in childbirth, you are less likely to be killed by domestic violence, you are less likely to be killed in a car accident, etc.

Hi Alice, I really like the idea of running two pre-filters in parallel. Will certainly do that. Coming into the house is 50psi. Probably obvious, but also 50psi at input to current softener. 1.5" piping going into the house, and current softener has 1.5". There currently is a 1hp booster pump (Goulds J10S) w/bladder tank (~70Gal) that receives the gravity fed well-water and then directs it to the softener inlet. And just to be clear the 50psi mentioned "at input to current softener" is measured before the pump. The 50psi "coming into the house" is measured after both the pump and softener. Both measurements were taken while the pump was not actively running. Re: valves - I initially did narrow the Fleck valves down to the 5812, but quickly realized there is very little availability online. I found 3 Pentair (Fleck residential) distributors in my area (San Jose, CA), but all appear to be very small businesses and none returned my call. Do you happen to know whether this valve is only available from local dealers, or is there a reputable internet source? Re: sizing, yes that's my understanding so far. I've seen a few posts on this forum that suggest you can 'oversize' your resin, and just backwash less often. I thought that sounded fine, but at the same time wonder whether channeling (which I know very little about) would be an issue and whether I should be looking for something like an upflow valve rather than downflow. Not sure if you have thoughts on this? Re: iron, this is such a pain. ;) To add some color (excuse the pun), it was definitely a noticeable issue last winter when we had the water sample taken, but over the last couple of months has not been noticeable. Not sure if the heavy winter rains in CA had anything to do with it - I have read in some places that mineral content is seasonal and fluctuates with water tables - but it is what it is. In any event, I'd like to design to withstand even such possible fluctuations. I've seen your other posts re: different iron removing solutions including stand-alone filters with various media types. I'm generally leaning toward that type of filter (in contrast to an ozone system like Triple O -- I really don't want to hike up to the storage tank, pull out the filter media, wash it, then dump it back in every few months). My concerns though in this regard are twofold: (1) can they even support services rates of 20GPM+ (without running multiple units in parallel) - one local company says no (not sure what type of resin they're using), but BudgetWater says 2.5cu ft of Terminox would do the job; and (2) would the current PSI w/booster pump be sufficient to support a backwash. Best, Brad.