I haven't posted any new items to the museum site in over a month. I have actually acquired several new sets, about a dozen or so, which will be going on line within the next couple of days. We have had a series of disasters over here, which put a lot of the museum work on hold.

We went to Europe at the beginning of May, visiting Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Upon our return, we were greeted by a large piece of sheetrock, ca 1 meter x 2 meters, which had crashed through our living room ceiling and had landed across our coffee table. There waa approximately 3 gallons of water on the floor, along with assorted chunks of gypsum fragments from the sheetrock.

The airconditioner condenser tray had overflowed because the cutoff switch malfunctioned. The drainage pipe was clogged, and the water soaked the ceiling. The good thing about it was that the overflow had occurred about 40 hours earlier, so there was no mold or mildew to contend with.

Fortunately, the museum is in a different part of the house, so the cups were not affected. However, we had to move furniture out of the living room, which put a big kink in my photographic activities.

It took two weeks for the A/C people, the sheetrockers, the painters and the carpet cleaners to get the mess cleaned up. We were covered by insurance, so we came out just fine. But it was a big hassle, and it was extremely stressful.

To add to this, I had just completed the construction of a new light table to use for photographing certain cups that were difficult to light. I'm still learning how to use this, so I will be requiring a bit of practice to get things the way I want them.

In any case, there will be new photos on the site by Saturday evening. There will also be an announcement of very great importance.

I know how you feel. I had a tree crash thru my ceiling during a major rain storm in N. Calif., then next week a flood in Linda's house where a backyard drain clogged and the living room had a foot of water on the floor... followed a year later with a burst pipe and 5 feet of water in our basement...

NO FUN AT ALL... I pray for the folks from the Katarina mess and now the Mississippi river flooding.

Don't know what is worse... fire or water damage?

Sorry to hear of your ordeal Bill! Glad things worked out and I hope nothing was damaged beyond repair! Looking forward to the new adds although I can still wander around the museum and see things I swear weren't there on my previous tour!

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Bill, but glad that everything is on the mend.

Fortasse

Sorry to hear it Bill. I'm glad you're getting it all worked out and I look forward to the new pictures.

Jeff

I remember that you mentioned that in one (or more) of our messages.



I knew a lot of people in both of these things. The damage from Katrina went very deep. Some people were so depressed by it that they are still feeling the pain from it. One of them who was really affected was Ralph Fountain, a magician from New Orleans, who had a huge kid show business at one time. He was Pete Fountain's cousin. Ralph was completely wiped out by Katrina. He went to live in Florida. Passed away last month.

It's hard to say which is worse, fire or water. I guess it depends on how bad a fire or a flood they are. Some folks down the block lost their attic to bad wiring a few years ago. Their son was asleep in his upstairs room, but he got out just fine. They felt that they were blessed because they didn't lose much. Their house was fixed about six months later.

Floods are hugely insidious. The damage is very, very difficult to deal with sometimes. Here we have what I would call "low level" floods, where water might get into your house and soak the floors and the walls for a few inches. There are parts of the Greater Houston area that have been condemned because of the way they lie in the new flood plain maps.

I'm glad to hear that the flood damage is quite minor Bill, it's great to hear that you're getting back to normality.

Sorry to hear of your big hassle, I use to install A/C equipment in L.A. for 5 years, I belive you did not have a proper installation, besides the normal hookup
to the drain sistem we use to install a custom made sheet metal drain pan bigger than the fan and coil unit, this pan is not hookup to the drain sistem, it just go all the way the through the attic and through the wall and just an elbow down to the out side of your house where you can see it, it shoud always be dry, if you ever see a single drop of water coming out of it is time to call the service man.
I think this extra drain pan works better than a float switch that can alert you to a possible overflow.

Sorry to hear of your AC disaster Bill, but know that there are a lot of folks who consider the Cups and Balls Museum one of THE resources in magic, and appreciate EVERYTHING you do to keep it online.

I'm not primarily a cups and balls worker, but the addition of the Shell Game sets to the museum has me visiting a few times a week.

There are a LOT of folks who truly appreciate what you did and continue to do in pursuit of creating and maintaining the museum.

Thanks Bill.

Thanks very much for your kind words.

The important thing is nobody, (or cups) were hurt.

Walid:

I wish the installation would permit that. However, the location of the A/C unit would make that very difficult. They did move the unit a few inches, though.

An A/C tech can make as much money as a brain surgeon here!

In Las Vegas, they can make more.

Glad you got everything sorted Bill, I love browsing the museum

I seriously doubt that. Even though there are boucoups casinos, hotels and motels, we have about 1,000,000 private residences and apartments -- each one is airconditioned. The guys who service the casinos are pretty much in-house maintenance people.

The guy who really makes the money is the jobber.

I was referring to the crooks who go to individuals houses. They take advantage of people, I knew a guy who used to work as an A/C tech in Vegas and he knew some real crooks.

Crooks? I am not familiar with this word, does it mean thief?

Crooks is very general word for a criminal. It can include many types of criminals, including thieves and cheaters.

Then an A/C tech and an crooks are VERY diferent kind of people.
I don't get Magikrn's point.

I don't know what he means. I'm a magician and a mentalist, not a mindreader.