Even though we’re already one third of the way through July, we are just now beginning to get a handle on our swimming pool. June was pretty much a lost cause due to the record breaking amounts of rainfall we received here in Oklahoma. That pushed everything back at least one month, maybe two. We will be having mandatory swimming sessions around here through at least the end of October, maybe longer.

Saturday morning Becky came down to watch the kids for a bit while Susan and I tackled a few pool-related projects. One thing we completed was the assembly and reattachment of the pool ladder. Previously our ladder was attached to our deck. When the pool people came a few years ago and redid our pool, they moved the hole three feet further away from the deck. Susan temporarily solved this problem by screwing down some 12′ planks of wood and attaching the ladder to that, but it was not intended to be a permanent solution, nor was it very safe. We fixed the problem Saturday morning by moving the ladder to other side of the pool, away from the deck. We attached the other half of the ladder by using a jigsaw and cutting it down to size. We then used screws and permanently assembled the ladder together.

The other project we worked on was actually getting the pool swimmable. To some people that means getting the water blue, and clear. Really at this point we would settle for “bluish.” Once again we are paying the price for not covering our pool. The end result is a giant tub of water with a big pile of leaves and bird crap in the center of it. At some point it becomes obvious that either Susan or myself are going to have to get into the pool with our long-sticked net and fish out the gunk. Later, it becomes obvious that it’s going to be me. Fishing out leaves is an interesting experience. While a few of them have actually retained their leafy shape, the majority of them have rotted and turned into a leafish-mush concoction held together by nature’s glue, bird poop. The minute you touch the stuff it explodes, turning the close-to-blue water into a big, muddy, stinky mess. I forgot to mention that detail — it stinks. When the rotten leaves mixed with bird crap hits the air, it stinks. For a couple of hours we fished out leaves and poop until what was left was so miniscule that you have to let it resettle on the bottom of the pool before you can start all over again.

My biggest problem with working on the pool is that I don’t feel like doing it when it’s hot outside, and when it’s cold or rainy I’m not interested because who wants to swim when it’s cold or rainy? Hopefully between all the filtering, leaf-removing and chemical dumping, the water will eventually approach some shade of blue and allow us a few days, weeks or months of enjoyment before swimming season passes us by.