Did you ever read this post before? It wasn’t about PowerShell so much, as it was about taking our efficiencies in automation and using them in regular life, too.

Do you know how every version 1.0.0, is nothing more than a place holder for the first version to come after it? You know… 1.0.1, or 1.1.0, or maybe even 2.0.0. If you read that post, then you may remember these photos.

Its design was far from perfect. The diameter of the hose (used to remove dirty water from the pool filter) is 2″. It’s the exact same diameter as the entire piece of white pipe I found at The Home Depot. I looked and looked everywhere and I finally found something better! This had a smaller diameter pipe where the hose would attach while still being 2″ and threaded at the other end. The problem was (as you can likely imagine), that the hose could barely handle being wrapped around that 2″ end. It was unbelievably difficult to attach and it never took long for the hose to begin splitting and eventually failing. Enter, version 2.0.0.

Like any automation before it (in the actual automation world), I haven’t looked back. Here’s the newest backwash hose for my pool. It’s made life much easier! New ideas, improvements, and proper implementations tend to do that. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to discussing PowerShell soon, but just in case someone read the previous piece and would appreciate the follow-up, then here you go.

I started this blog post prior to listening to (and viewing) the PSConfEU’s free virtual mini-conference on June 2nd. I didn’t see/view it all, but I did enjoy what I was able to consume. While there were multiple members of the PowerShell Team present, there was Jeffrey Snover, too. The below quote from Jeffrey lined up so well with the topic of this post, that it had to be included.

“What gets people excited is solving problems.”

– Jeffrey Snover

It’s true. Finding quicker and better ways to automate is why many of us keep coming back. There’s an addiction here, and while I’ve used that term, I think it’s okay. It’s a healthy addiction. Yeah, we’ll go with that. We want the simplest, yet fastest, and cleanest possible solutions to our problems. We want our automation to shave off seconds of time when it’s possible. We’re out to save the seconds; we all know they add up.

I’m not one of those people. You know the ones: Every weekend it’s another house project. Sure I can do some things, but I’ve never tiled, built a bookcase from scratch, or added an addition to my house. I’m only so helpful, and for that I’m sorry. My wife deserves that guy, but no, I’m just a computer guy without all of the handyman skills. All as in most.

But, a couple of weekends ago it was different. You know those times where you write a piece of automation so perfect and revered at the moment it’s written, that you take a picture of your screen? You do that too, right? You literally take your phone out of your pocket, take a photo of VS Code, or whatever, and put it back in your pocket. I’m not the only one, am I?

Occasionally, I’m so pleased with a solution or I’m right in the middle of creating one, and I can’t keep working on it at that moment. So, while I’m away from the computer, I may want to be able to reference what I’m working through if I can. If you’re like me, you already know you’re going to be thinking about it. I’m obsessed with automation. If you are too, then a picture might make sense for you, as well. That’s the excitement in all of this. “How do I make this better when it does that, so I don’t ever have to do that, this way again.”

Let’s take a look at this image.

One of the household tasks around my home is backwashing the pool. This cleans out our filter by pushing pool water through the sand that’s inside of it. The water, without the sand, then exits the filter from the above PVC pipe. In order to do this, you have to prepare for where the water is going to go on exit. Recently, I had left a pool discharge hose connected to the pipe. Over time, it did exactly what one might expect when left outside in the elements. A hole was born. I fired up the backwash and I was drenched, head to toe in seconds, as I struggled to stop the pump. It was early enough that no one saw me; however, there were questions from my wife as to why my sopping wet clothes littered the patio at 8 a.m. in the morning. That was fair.

I was able to cut off the failed portion of the discharge hose, but what had I just signed up for? It took me at least 10 minutes to reattach the hose back to the pipe and backwash the filter. The hose is the same size in diameter as the opening of the pipe, so it took some muscle and help from a flat head screwdriver to get the hose in place. The hose, by no means, wanted to go over the pipe easily. Was I really going to do this once every seven days to keep the hose out of the elements? I guess so. But, that’s at least 40 minutes per month, lost. That’s not how we automation experts do things. I had a better idea, and I believe that the credit for my idea belongs to my career and how I think about problems and their solutions.

My solution was to attach the still working part of my discharge hose to an adapter I picked up at my local Home Depot. It had a female threaded end on one side. On the other, I permanently attached the discharge hose with a hose clamp. Brilliant, am I right? Okay, maybe it’s not brilliant.

When I need to backwash, I screw on the female adapter and toss the hose over the wall and out into the desert, as I had done before. I used it for the first time a weekend after these first two pictures were taken. Have a look! Like automation often is, it wasn’t perfect the first time. The best part is that I have other ideas to make it better. I need an adapter that 2″ female threaded end that goes down to something smaller. I think either 1 3/4″ or 1 1/2″. This will allow me to get the hose on easier, and fold it over itself, so there are two layers of the hose under the hose clamp. There was some small leakage the first go around, and like automation, we’re not really satisfied until all the additional fixes are implemented.

This next one wasn’t as nearly as ingenious. I literally cleared a path between a gate in my back yard down to the wash. Occasionally, we’ll carefully head out into the desert to explore. Until now, this meant walking a ridiculous path that was much too close to dips, holes, dead cactus, small bushes, etc. This has all been cleared. Simple, sure, but again, every trip to the wash after this change, is safer, easier, and it takes less time. Additionally, the water that pools up by the gate no longer comes back into the yard. Instead, it also uses the path, heading it’s way down to the wash behind the house. I may have only cleared a path here, but it wasn’t a requirement. I did it to make every other trip down there, just a bit faster, and a lot more safer. Speaking of which, I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake in the desert recently. I’d like to skip that from happening again and I hope this path can help.

While I’m no home improvement guru, I can still get excited about doing non-typical types of automation for my home improvement tasks. There’s a certain way a scripter or programmer has to think. You can try and teach it, but I think, based on what I did at home, that a part of it comes naturally. We’re problem solvers; we’re determined to find the best possible way to get something done. It’s not true, but my wife just thinks I’m lazy. It’s not about cutting corners and being lazy in general; it’s about making the things we have to do, as efficient as possible over time.

Read part II here.