linen, bless your heart for putting up with me. this feels like a bob and tom segment, "mr. obvious." maybe if i had read your question before this would have dawned on me earlier, but while back at the store i finally read the ingredients listing on the "shock" that i'd purchased. it wasn't even dichlor, but 52% hypo-cal. so all of this carrying on about cya was moot! i can't help but laugh at myself here, but no doubt your eyes are rolling 
thanks for your patience! i bought four pounds of stabilizer, which once i got home to the pool calculator i realized was not enough. i've got socks with the stuff in the water now. chlorine is good to go, along with pH. maybe i will begin to be able to keep up with the thing now. any goofy side effect to watch for since i used 10 pounds of the wrong product and had times of so little chlorine? i'm crossing my fingers that i'm not told to shock it. it would be a total bummer to close our brand new pool.
thanks for your patience! i bought four pounds of stabilizer, which once i got home to the pool calculator i realized was not enough. i've got socks with the stuff in the water now. chlorine is good to go, along with pH. maybe i will begin to be able to keep up with the thing now. any goofy side effect to watch for since i used 10 pounds of the wrong product and had times of so little chlorine? i'm crossing my fingers that i'm not told to shock it. it would be a total bummer to close our brand new pool.