Technically I guess, It's summer. We're in Mid-June. Spring just sort of
seemed to happen overnight. Temps went from the mid-40's in winter to "pool
season," which kiddo felt started in mid-to-late May, but we sane adults
felt really started closer to the start of June.
Since that point, I've been in that pool nearly every day. I started by
joining kiddo in the water after school for a couple of hours, and, for the
most part, continued to get in at about the same time every day; sometimes
on the weekends we'll get in earlier. At this point, I'm tan enough that
one can very plainly see where my wedding band and wrist watch belong.
Days I don't take a dip are few and sad.
I find that I'm enjoying keeping the pool tidy. And it say it that way
for a reason: We have a guy who comes and cleans it, checks the water,
checks the equipment. I do a very small subset of that: I use the robot to
"vaccuum" crap off of the basin — partly because I can't tell what's just
leaves and what might have eight legs — and to keep the "thimble" clear.
The "thimble" is an inch-long wire mesh basket that rests inside of the hose
connecting the main pool return to the cleaning robot. It catches small bits of
debris that are collected in the skimmers (and are too small to get caught in
the baskets), flow away from the pool into the pump, go through all the converter
junk, and get returned back to the pool. Cleaning the "thimble" is a lot like
picking a metal nose, but doing it is important because debri blocking that
filter restricts the flow of water into the pool cleaner robot. Seeing the pool
cleaner standing still is a great indication the "thimble" is full of stuff.
Anyway, my point is that I want the pool to look perfect for my wife
and for guests. We've had two instances this year where storms or high winds
have blown a lot onto the surface, and clearing it is a bit of a pain: the
cottony blooms of a nearby Mimosa tree often end up in the water. These
blooms appear grey in the "thimble," having partipated in the salt-to-
chlorine process. A really unusual deposit happened a couple of weeks ago
after a severe storm blew through the area: winged ants. They were only in
the pool -— they weren't flying in the air or on the house or even the
patio. Just the pool. It took about a week to get them all out.
We bought some new equipment this year, based on lessons learned from
last year. First and foremost, inflatables are crap. Buy longer-lasting
foam stuff instead. Secondly, I think we figured out Laurel's minimum
temparature requirement: 30°C, or 86°F. Learned that because we
bought a very easy-to-read thermometer to replace the tiny one affixed to
the now-retired salt tablet dispenser.
Storms came through yesterday, filling the pool quickly
and dropping both the air and water temps. When I checked yesterday
afternoon, the water temp was about 79°. It's going to take a few days
at least for the water temp to climb again to the ideal. But, if it's
sunny and warm, I'll probably be in the pool anyway!