The Backyard Pool

I’ve spent the better (or worse) part of the last week trying to get my pool ready for the summer. With way too much shade and way too little direct sunlight hitting the water on a daily basis, I’ve waited to open the pool hoping the afternoon heat will compensate for the overnight drop into the seventies.

When the water temperature is below 80, it can be a real shock to the system! I will generally brave 76 or above. My wife, on the other hand, balks at anything not within a degree or so of the aforementioned 80. (Once I even dared the water at 74 to vacuum the bottom one last time before the end of season closing. I’ll never do that again!)

It’s a short season, but I’m really not much of a swimmer anyway. I will admit that I am more motivated to work in the yard, knowing I can cool off in the pool when I finish. In addition, some of my best novel ideas have come while floating in the pool. Of course, some of those disappeared before I could actually write them down! Ahh, the perils of old age and a faulty memory.

Anyway, I’m still waiting on the tons of chemicals I’ve dumped into the pool to work their magic and miraculously clear the water. All the ones added before closing the pool last fall have once again failed to live up to their promise to keep the water sparkling clean and clear beneath the cover. Instead I pull back the leaf covered tarp and discover water that has varied over the years from mildly green, to deep ocean green, to brown, or in the case of this year, almost black.

After several days, the chemicals have worked well enough to turn the water a cloudy blue which although not very inviting is considerably better than before. So let me go and dip another test strip into the water or perhaps take a sample to the local pool place for a quick analysis. And then, ready or not, I’m going in!