POOL IT!

If you’ve read my recent “Busy and Back!!” post, you will understand that I don’t have 5 minutes to myself these days. If fact, I squirreled 5 minutes last night so that I could shave. I indulged myself because three people yesterday walked by me and said “Hey! You growin’ a beard!” I’m not!! . . . .Well, technically I am. . .but it more of a time constraint than a fashion decision.

With all the other things going on in my life, last Saturday I was in my yard, looking at the pool. With the lack of rain that we have had and the excessive heat, there is bound to be some evaporation going on, right? Earlier in the week, I asked my neighbor, “Jade, is your pool low?” Yeah, I just put water in it!” To which I think “AWESOME!” My neighbor’s neighbor (my neighbor once removed?) also put water in his! Even Better!
Now we are back to Saturday. The water again looks about an inch lower than the night before. “Not Good” thinks I.

Now the problem of finding a water leak where there is no water coming out (similar to the sound of rain when it’s not raining). If there is water leaking there would be no way to find it unless the leak was so bad that your yard was flooded . . . .a mixed blessing. Fortunately, I have a 6 year old and am familiar with the Blue’s Clues “Thinking Chair”.

What changed from the time that there wasn’t a leak and when there was a leak (a maybe leak). I did have problems with the ladder. The screws got loose and the steps shifted. I don’t know how that could be a problem but I got nothing else. Goggles On . .. . and Under! I turns out that there isn’t a hole . . . . there are 3 of them. Apparently, if the ladder is cocked (heh heh . . .cocked) and your son is jumping around on it, the ladder wears a hole in the liner. I don’t know how much a new liner is, but I estimate that it will cost 2-3 times more that the cost of the liner to have it installed. Plus, if I don’t get this taken care of, the water will slowly leak out all winter and the pool will collapse sometime in January.

Meanwhile, at the pool store. . . . . .
I walk in to the pool store and get a “patch kit”. Before I go I inquire about a new ladder. The style of ladder that I already have is $80. Nice! After 5 years will it fall apart and begin to shed its paint into the pool . . . . . .probably! Hey! How about the PVC looking on? $100! I’ll take it! More on that latter. . .I mean later!