The Excellent Adventures of Kim and Kev: The Pool Is Open For Business!

I had this dream once. Not a sleeping dream... but a wish dream... to have a swimming pool. I didn't care what kind it was. I just wanted to be able to float around in the hot summer months. Kind of like a manatee minus the lettuce. I am pretty easy to please... mostly.. and I gave Kev a couple of inexpensive ideas.
1. Dig a big hole and fill it with water.
2. Get a kiddie pool or four...one for each limb.
3. Buy me a house that already has one.

For whatever reason he chose #3. I just went with it... I'm not much for arguing... mostly. Here is the pool that he chose and this is what it looked like on the day we officially signed the papers to buy our house....

Exactly what I had hoped for. It looked like my suggestion #1... a dirt hole filled with water. Except for this is a pic AFTER the real estate company drained the pool. When we first started looking at the house, this pool was filled to the TOP with green and black sludge!! It was so thick and murky and muddy that just thinking about it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Kev thought there might be a creature living in it ... like an alligator, the loch ness monster, or a slug.

I thought we would find a dead body.

It was so creepy to look at ... let alone walk past. I would keep my mace can aimed at the pool at all times when I was in the back yard. I didn't know how we would ever get it cleaned out. And what would we do with the dead body?
Then one day we stopped by the house and it had been drained of all the evil and murk and a wooden/metal grate had been placed over the top. For safety. Suddenly the agency was worried about someone falling in to an empty pool instead of falling in to a black slime sludge monster-living horror movie pool. I was just glad that I could see the bottom and my dream was coming true.

It was about a year and a half before we started working on the pool. Yes, there was really that much to do on the inside. Kev actually climbed down in to the pool and started scooping out the rain water... with a sombrero. Once he was down to the last little bit... he noticed that something was splashing and thrashing around. And this is where you will discover that we are NOT alike in some ways. I would have screamed at the top of my lungs, stomped my feet up and down and yelled curse words at the top of my lungs hoping to banish the evil creature away from my presence. Kev did not do any of those things. Instead, he looked around until he saw what it was, scooped it up and let it go free. It was a toad. But not just any toad...... THE BIGGEST TOAD I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! When it stood on it's back legs to thank Kev for it's life... it was waist high. He hopped off in to the sunset... only to return again within a couple of hours. He lived in our pool for a couple more months.

And now to the good part..... so we finally got the pool professionally cleaned in March of 2008. And yes, the pool man (unfortunately there were no "boys" for hire) scrubbed every inch of the pool with bleach and such... by hand. He worked his fingers to the bone... literally. He did an incredible job and got the pool back to looking brand new.

I fell in love... with the pool... not man.

Let me just tell you that some of the best days that I have lived in this house have been spent outside at the pool. It was worth the trouble - 100% - and still is. Because there is a LOT of up keep that Kev has to do. Me not know pool stuff.

So, it is May of 2009 and I am chomping at the bit to get in for a swim. I checked the Red Cross' website for appropriate temps to swim in. 72 for younguns' and 78 for elderly. Kev said I should wait for 78. It is almost time.... the temp is now at 75.

That is a pic of a pool thermometer. It looks weird in this picture. So, the water is almost ready... but who the heck can swim when your grass is too tall and you have landscaping to do? Me. I can swim under those circumstances... but Kev won't stand for it. So, he cuts the grass...

And cuts some more. Notice the ear protectors that he wears in this picture. These are not just for protecting his cute little ears from the loud lawnmower..... but from loud me as well. He wears them most of the time.

And then we had to make sure we had an audience. This is a pic of our friend Patches. She hangs out with us some times. But you can't feed her because she is feral (wild).

Now what the heck are we going to sit on? Last year, me and Bethany braved the collapsible lawn chairs. You know the kind that rust and are extremely hard to balance on. It usually took three tries to actually sit in the chair without it falling to the ground and knocking your teeth out of socket.

Kev thought of that too.... and surprised me with two new lounge chairs. Except for Bethany has moved away and will not be my pool buddy this year. I sure hope there is some one else who would be willing to hang out with me. Look how lonely these chairs are... just waiting for some fun.

And that about covers it as far as what we needed to do to open the pool for business. Except for there is something missing. I just can't put my finger on it. What could it be? What would make this outdoor experience complete?