Free To Good Home

Free to a good home – or to anybody, good or evil who will come dig it up and fill in the hole – a 26,000 gallon in-ground vinyl pool, complete with pump, filtration system, diving board and expansive concrete patio/deck. 

The pool has served us well, providing untold hours of fun and relaxation over the years, and it was the site of several almost legendary pool parties when the kids were home. 

In some ways, a pool is like a puppy; everybody loves it and enjoys having it around, but somebody has to take care of it and  keep it healthy.  At the old Boggy Thicket, that somebody has always been me.  

Unfortunately, I think we’ve come to the point where the pool has (or  maybe I should say I have) outlived its usefulness.  Sadly, it has gone from being that well-loved source of fun and relaxation to just being a big expensive pain in the ass.

The trees around the pool have all grown 20 to 30 feet taller since the pool was installed, so now it only gets about four hours of direct sunlight per day.  Actually, at least some small part of the pool is in shade except for the period between about 12:15 and 2:45 p.m. As a result, the water temperature will cause immediate and deadly hypothermia until sometime in late June. 

Those same trees drop all their leaves in the pool beginning in early October, and continuing until about Mardi Gras.  In spite of my best efforts, and I do scoop numerous bushels of leaves out of the water every winter, by late February the water is opaque and about the color of a fresh cup of Earl Grey tea - no lemon, no cream.

Each spring, I spend multiple hours of manual labor and a few hundred dollars on chemicals just getting the pool to the point that Honey doesn’t think it is too ugly to sit beside.  Then I have to wait a few more months before the water is warm enough to jump in without giving myself a heart attack. 

Just about the time the water gets tolerable, we load up the 5th wheel and head out to see America.  By the time we get back, it’s time to start scooping those darn leaves again.  Our next-door neighbors have kept up the pool maintenance while we've been on the road for the last couple of years, and of course we told them to feel free to use the pool any time.  I suspect that they have gotten more enjoyment out of it in the last year or two than we have.