Posts Tagged ‘static electricity’
Just Ask
My curiosity was genuine. A year ago, we had the asphalt company that put in our driveway come back to patch cracks and reseal the entire surface because it seemed the original protection hadn’t lasted as long as expected. Over the winter, those same cracks just opened right back up.
I was a little disappointed, but surmised the natural freeze/thaw conditions were the culprit, not necessarily a bad job on the sealing/patching quality. It seemed to me that hiring them to come back and give it another try would be throwing good money after bad.
But after weeks of walking over these disconcerting cracks and moping about them each time, I finally decided to call the owner to ask if he would come look for himself and to offer his professional opinion about the crack repair not lasting. Mostly, I wanted him to know exactly how the driveway they installed looked after only four years.
You never know how this kind of call will go, but to my surprise, my timing was perfect. They were finishing a driveway in the area, and he would be able to come look at it that very afternoon. Doubling my surprise, two company trucks pulled in together. He brought two of the guys who do the work so they could all see it and put their heads together to come up with a solution.
Oh, I forgot to mention, before they even arrived, he texted me that he intended to make any improvements necessary at no additional cost. This all happened on Friday. The crew is coming today to repair any cracks that need attention.
All I needed to do was make the call and ask the first question.
“Could you come out and look at it?”
I give some credit for the fortunate results of my query to the fact that I wasn’t trying to get something for nothing. A form of altruistic reverse psychology, maybe? Something like that.
Meanwhile, here’s a shot that reveals how dry it’s getting around here:
Like the static formed by rubbing a balloon on hair, Mia’s swishing tail was building up a static charge.
If she would just ask, we could wet it down for her. Maybe that is why the horses seem so happy when Paddock Lake has water in it.
.
.
Wrong Use
We put out a water trough to give the horses an alternative place to drink on the days I will cordon off their automatic waterer to install the new shade sail posts. They took to it right away and seemed to appreciate having the drink available up close to where we serve their grain twice a day.
Unfortunately, Mia considers the large tub an ideal place to wash her feet. I guess since Paddock Lake has dried up again, it’s the next best choice for her. We have seen her splashing her hooves in the Ritchie waterer and not entirely understood her motivation. The girl just loves to splash, it seems.
I tried to catch a photo of water spraying everywhere, but wasn’t quick enough. She can be seen resting her left front foot on the edge of the trough.
Also visible is the static electricity built up in her tail. Is that from the splashing? I don’t know. None of the other horses are showing signs of being staticky, despite our notably low dew point, which triggered warnings to be careful burning outside.
I could tell her tail was bugging her because she kept trying to swish the phenomenon away, which tended to only make it worse.
Eventually, a long lie down in the pasture for a nap seemed to ground her sufficiently. If we’re lucky, maybe that will teach her that splashing in the water trough is the wrong use of that amenity.
.
.
Relative Something 