The summer of the swimming pool

We moved into our current house a little more than four years ago now, in May 2004, so this is our fifth summer here. The swimming pool was here when we moved in, although an incredibly frightening and unnatural shade of green. After much trial and error, and trips with vials of water to the pool store for testing, the pool was finally clear and blue, and ready for swimming. Which we have done, each year.

This year, however, I think we have swam more than the previous four years combined.

Why is that, you ask?

Because my husband is brilliant. And I actually managed to put aside my pride and trust him enough to listen to him.

Our pool is in a spot where it only gets full sun until about 2 o'clock or so. Consequently, the water doesn't really get warm until about right now, when the temperatures get into, and stay into ranges more than 100 degrees during the day.

Because of that, we have bought a solar cover the last few years which helps the water temperature rise dramatically. Which is nice, as the pool feels kind of like a bathtub. Which, again, is nice when there is no sn shining directly down on you. So we would tend to swim in the late afternoon or evening. Again, great. Except for the mosquitoes. Lots and lots of mosquitoes.

The other problem is that it took a minimum of two people to get the solar cover on and off, and then time to clean out all the leaves that fell in the pool in the process. So, if you had a spur of the moment thought to jump into the pool, you were likely to let it go.

Anyway, all of that said to say that this year Mike suggested we not buy a solar cover, and see how the pool did.

And he was right. We have used the pool more than any other summer. Many weeks, at least every other day, sometimes every day during the week, and both days of the weekend. The kids have turned into fish, and I've gained a nice healthy shade of brown.

And the water? Well, with temperatures of 107 predicted today, the cooler water feels just fine!