Ready for summer

Our pool is leaking--significantly.

Before COVID, Tom turned over the pool care to me. I've done a damn fine job, and I notice every little thing--like rapidly losing water.

But, as my readers know, repairs (and things outdoors) fall under the husband-will-take-care category.

Him: "How would you feel if we just filled the pool?"

Me: "I knew that would be your response. No."

I kept bugging him. He finally admitted he didn't know who to call. I suggested the guy that put in our new pump during COVID. He didn't return our calls. Pinch-a-Penney, the pool guru company here in Florida, shrugged and couldn't offer much advice either, according to the hubby.

Finally, while at my writer's conference in May, I spoke to a guy whose daughter had just had her pool leak repaired. He agreed to get me the company's name, and once I had it, I called them. I explained that our trouble began after my husband cleaned out the filter.

Me: "This isn't to say I blame him for the leak, but I think maybe he is the cause of the leak."

We made an appointment. The pool was to be clean and sparkling. It was on the day the repairman showed up. Victor was six feet seven inches. I know because I asked him. I did not tell him I was writing a romance novel with a hero of that height. My children have requested I keep that information to myself whenever I spot tall men.

He gave me an A+ for my pool care, told me he'd be checking the lines, the skimmer, and the light, and told me I didn't need to micromanage him. Thank god, because it was like 110 degrees.

I went back to writing. My office is poolside, so Victor had to pass by my windows to his truck. He did this often. Back and forth. Back and forth. Eventually, during one of my Apple Watch's recommended stand up and move times, I peered out at the pool. Here is what I saw.

My main focus was on Victor underwater. I watched and watched him, and when he didn't come up for air, I started getting antsy. What the heck? I pictured him floating gently to the surface, unconscious. I started panicking. What to do? Jump in and pull him out? Scream at him to see if he surfaced? My lifeguarding certification has expired. What the hell was this guy thinking?

Somewhere among the rapid thoughts flitting through my head, I registered a sound. That's when I noticed the object on the side of the pool and followed the hose. 

OH! It was like the air pump the mermaids at Weeki Wachee use! That is so cool! Then, I wanted to ask a ton of questions. And then, my brain began thinking of how this job was right up my alley.

Eventually, I left him alone. It took him over an hour to find nothing. I paid $350 for no signs of a leak, although he blamed it on the seal to the filter, which led me to believe IT WAS THE HUSBAND'S FAULT ALL ALONG.

He told me what to buy. I took a picture of it and wrote out the check. He told me it was good for 90 days.

A week later, our pool leaked worse than before the leak guy showed. I was filling it every day instead of every two days. I called the company back. A different guy showed up. He was not as gregarious as his counterpart, and he did not use an air pump. This time, I stayed outside until the 120-degree weather melted me. I went inside and left him to the job.

He rechecked everything and delivered the news. Our skimmer was leaking, and he found a cracked lid on the pump system. He was diligent. 

Me: "Are you the closer of the company?"

Him: "I'm the owner."

Okay, so not the most friendly guy, but hey, he sealed the leaks! 

The husband got a new lid a couple days later, and as of now, we are good to go!

Kill the mustard algae

This past summer pool care became my chore. Before then, it belonged to my husband--that whole indoors/outdoors pact I insisted we make and I hold him to it, so he takes care of what is outside the house and I the inside. To be fair, I think he enjoyed maintaining the pool. He found it relaxing after a long day indoors at a desk. But this summer, I took over due to time constraints and my own search for relaxation or maybe an escape from something indoors. I.E., writing the book?

It kicked my ass. Maintaining the pool against Florida's summer weather and yellow mustard algae sneaking in overnight to cover the sides of my pool even though I'D JUST VACUUMED IT SEVERAL HOURS PRIOR, was a nightmare. It was a tiny war I would never become victorious in, and it was a constant fight. If prepping to vacuum wasn't such a chore, I might have won at least once a day, but getting out the vacuum and hooking it up is worse than the task itself!

Our vacuum is coiled inside a plastic bin on the outside of our screened in patio. It has to be uncoiled, brought through the propped open door, attached to the vacuum, and then filled with water. It sounds easy, but believe me, it isn't. 

First, there is the issue of the coiling that has to be done when putting the vacuum hose back into the bin. It doesn't tuck in nicely. Oh, no. It has to be twisted and twisted into various positions, and that means the process has to be reversed when getting the hose out for vacuuming. Secondly, once the hose and vacuum are ready and in the pool, I have to make sure the pole is secure enough that when I leave it to turn on the pump, the damn thing won't slip to the bottom. If it does, I have to enter the pool to retrieve it.

It's a terrible job.

By the time I'm ready to vacuum the pool, which takes all of fifteen minutes, seeing that our pool is small and made of fiberglass, I'm soaking wet. SOPPING WET. Drenched in sweat from the 100% humidity and 95-degree weather and blaring sun we get in the summer. I'm blind in both eyes from salty sweat, and I have a disposition that matches the heat of the sun. It isn't pretty. The only good side is I get to jump into the water when the pool is finally vacuumed. If I don't have somewhere else that I need to be.

By early September of last summer, I decided we needed a creeping vacuum. Last weekend I researched them, so I'd have plenty of time to prep the husband toward this purchase and be ready for summer, which is arriving sooner than last year if heat is any indication. My husband is big into researching any big-ticket items, and thus, I began by Googling the top automatic pool vacuum cleaners.

It wasn't difficult. There were plenty of sites where experts and everyday people tried out several brands of such vacuums and shared their knowledge and wisdom. Most all of the sites listed one vacuum in each category, including the best vacuum for an economical price. This is the one I wanted because not only would it convince the husband, but my pool is not a large hole with a capacity to hold a hydrant of water. It is small. It doesn't need some crazy expensive roving vacuum that licks the sides and bottoms of my pool with a tongue.

I read the comments on Amazon, where I could purchase the vacuum, doing so aloud so the husband could hear. I spent most of Sunday morning researching. By the time I was finished I had decided on this vacuum:

I announced my decision, put it into my Amazon wish list for later, and closed the computer to move on to my writing.

Tom: "Wait, what did you decide? Did you find a vacuum?"

Bottom line? He conducted his own research. He does this often. He tells me to research something, doesn't believe me when I offer the results, and does it himself. I should be used to this by now, yet it annoys me every time. I left him to it, and in the end, he agreed that for less than a hundred dollars, we should buy the vacuum, and he did. Ordered it right up. In February.

It arrived two days later. Saturday, we tackled installation.

He has a system. He likes to take everything out of the box and lay it out to make sure all of the pieces have come in the box. Me? I cut to the chase, read the directions, and pull out the parts when needed. I did that earlier in the day just to be sure we had everything. This way, I was prepared for his nonsense.

It didn't seem that complicated. I read the directions, and he listened. Then he asked questions, and I reread the instructions. From there, he took the manual, read the directions, and did what it said. We should have our own YouTube channel.

It was a quick installation, although there was more horsing around than constructing, and eventually, the vacuum was ready to go. We powered it on, made a few minor adjustments that required my entering the water to knee level, but for the most part, it worked like every vacuum I've ever encountered in my visits to a vast amount of different pools over the years as a swimming instructor. 

If it cleans even half the amount of mustard algae this summer, I will have gotten my money's worth. Fingers crossed. 

Summer 2018 - Cara addition

As this school year, summer 2018 has been different. I had a blip early on but I've made up for that by engaging in other things to occupy my time. My motto this summer is Say Yes to Everything.

• I've found joy in my substitute children, Alex and Sydney. Some days I pick Alex up from summer school and we have lunch and find interesting things to do like wandering the library. Other days I take his sister or sometimes both of them while their mother sleeps for her night shift job. 
• My niece and I have done some bonding this summer. We got quality time together in CA, follow each other on SnapChat now, and I got to watch her in her dance recital. She is amazing. Very much theatrical like her grandmother and cousin Darcy and so very graceful in her dancing. It was beautiful to watch. I've been to several of her shows, have watched her evolve from the kid that watched others to the one the others watch now, and it makes my heart swell with pride to see her commanding the stage. That kid will go places. 

• When we got the pool, the kids were little. Tom did the maintenance, and because he seemed to enjoy that time of solitude, I let him. Once in a blue moon, I'd vacuum but for the most part, it has been all Tom. Lately, he's been making comments about how the pool needed attention, how he didn't have time, blah, blah, blah. One morning after a busy weekend, I decided to forgo the gym for an aquatic workout. Unfortunately, mustard algae had taken over the pool so I vacuumed. The chore is an easy one since we have a fiberglass pool but the setup and takedown is a killer and thankfully I can cool off in the pool because I'm a drowned mess by the end of it. Two days later the mustard algae returned and I repeated my maintenance. The next day I had a swimming lesson and after that had concluded I treated the pool again. By the following day, I was over it. I got in the pool with a brush and scrubbed the hell out of the mustard algae on the sides, the ladder, the steps, and the bottom. I vacuumed again. I refilled the chlorine bobber, and then upon discovering zippo chlorine in our pool, I turned to the liquid container. I dumped what was left in the pool and then I dumped in more from another container. I added water and let the filter run for a few hours. I mean, hello, this was my job for years and years and years. Who better to handle it than me? Well... I guess it's been awhile. Plus, this pool is way smaller than the pools I'm used to handling and so I might have put a bit too much chlorine into the pool. I told Tom I shocked the pool. I did a damn fine job of it too. While the mustard algae has not returned in the five days since my treatment, we also haven't been able to swim because the chlorine is a tad too high. Oops. But on the bright side, the pool looks fabulous out my back window!

• My friend who has recently gone through an excruciatingly hard time and who is starting her life over due to that hard time asked if we could start up our every two week family night dinners. We used to do this years ago with our children and so we resurrected it with each person getting a night to cook a meal. We eat, play games, and just talk. It has been a ton of fun for all of us. My friend decided to also add a weekend here and there and so we headed off to play TopGolf one Saturday. Not knowing what the heck that was I Googled it and groaned. It's a center with small rooms that overlook a huge range. The rooms include couches and a driving tee and the object is to eat and drink while teeing it up to hit targets on the range. Highest score wins. Ugh. Golf. But, I got the idea the rooms were indoors, figured I could handle a couple of games, wore a black shirt, and found out how stupid that thought and selection really was. Golf is played outdoors, Cara, and this is Florida in the summer. I roasted, to say the least in the two hours it took us to finish our game with six players. However, my golfing parents had to have been proud when they saw that I certainly had retained my form (especially compared to the other five, insert rolling eye emoji, oh my!) and proceeded to kick butt against the field despite a herniated disc, sweat in the eyes, and some incompetence in running the scoreboard so that several of my scores were put on others' sheets and their zippo scores put on mine.

• My drum lessons are the best! I've had three lessons so far and each time I'm so pumped that I keep searching for a drum set. My teacher loves me. He loves me so much that the last two times he's given me an extra thirty minutes of instruction due to cancellations and my early arrival. In a year, I'm going to play with a band. That's my goal. I'm so thrilled that I did this. It's a huge step for me and I practice daily everywhere I go whether at a stop light or here at home on the couch. During breaks in my writing, I play the drums. I was at a stoplight yesterday after coming home from my lesson and I was working on the new backbeat when a woman crossed in front of me. She was smiling from ear to ear and rocking out with me, giving me the thumbs up. I didn't miss a beat which is something I'm learning because I tend to want to stop when I make a mistake or am distracted and start over. I nodded at her and kept on drumming until the song on the radio was over. Oh, yeah. I'm a drummer!

• I now volunteer every Friday at the church in the office. It used to be every other Friday, but the other volunteer quit so I picked up the slack. While I enjoy being back in an office and love the women I work with, it's the chance to smooch my boss' daughter that really makes me happy. She brings her 6-month-old to work and I love getting to snuggle her, kiss those cheeks, make her smile, feed her real food, and then hand her back at the end of my shift. Best of both worlds!

• In August I'm going to have an all over medical body scan. To prepare for that I've started exercising. I've doubled my time at the gym, although this week wasn't the best. It has helped me sleep. Helped my back. And it has brought me back into the pool because I'm so sweaty when I get home that I just continue my workout by jumping in there. I'm determined to get this damn weight at least down by ten pounds. Either way, I feel better. 

So is my summer of 2018. Not so shabby after all.