DocAndersen
It depends, is the answer you would have gotten from me, was it great having a pool being the question you would ask. Yes, having a pool was wonderful when with clear and shiny water we had friends over. Everyone standing around the pool, relaxing their children, my children playing in the water. The adults with younger children watching carefully, just in case. Laughter ringing in the air and the day seems perfect. You didn’t notice on those days how hot it was. That the adult only hot tub was full of children splashing the water all over. The journey that was life was full then. Yes on those social event days a pool was a great addition to our lives. Our backyard for those moments transformed into a magical theme park.
There were as well afternoons when the pool was a glorious addition to our lives. My wife and I, relaxing by the side of the pool as the Ya-Ya’s were released into the wild. Our neighbors wandering over and sitting us as well. The passage of time, seeming to slow to almost incremental time. Each second seeming to last a week, a month. Then the world would come crashing back in, and with the turn of a button, the pool cover would slowly move across the pool, covering the shiny water. The sound in the distance of the pool pump churning water. The diving board is seeming to fill the space above the pool, but now the cover in place we would go indoors for the evening. The pool day is done. Yes, those were the times the pool was a joy.
Then came the other times, out of town for work for two weeks, coming home to change the filters and skim the pool. It seems an easy job, but it isn’t. Sometimes frogs got into the pool, and not being animals meant for salt water, they would expire. Someone had to remove those. Or to clean the drain at the bottom of the deep end of the pool when leaves filled it. Jumping into the pool not to swim but to pull the leaves out. Walking around the edge of the pool not thinking where shall I jump in, but instead looking for leaves, for bugs for anything that one surface of the pool could be grabbed with the skimmer. Seeing a low water level, and pulling the hose to the pool to fill it. Oh yeah, those were the days when having a pool was more pain than pleasure.
There is always a trade off in this thing called life.
there are always trade-offs. After having pools at two different houses, I am happy instead now to have a neighborhood pool, that trade-off works for me!
Clening and taking care of the pool seems like a lot of work, but seeing the kids’ happy faces makes it worth it.
That is very true, funny thing is after having their own pool for 12 years, they don’t go to the neighborhood pool, ever now.