Poolside Frustration and Holiday Weekend Planning

It had a funny thought last evening as I was standing in a very long line at my favorite pool supply store on an emergency run to get the compound I needed to affix the couple of ceramic pool tiles that had fallen off during the winter. I had suffered though rush hour traffic to get to the store which is a few miles from the house and so I was not too amused by the long waits to check out.

It occurred to me that the line was far longer than usual and the store seemed to be amply staffed by eager assistants. Usually, there my be another one or two customers in the store on a week night, but last evening the store was full. The lines were ten people deep and the staff was clearly frazzled.

And then I understood--here it was, the Monday before Memorial Day and we were all trying to get the pools ready for that first big party of the summer. I turned to the guy behind me in line, who was loaded with pool stuff and made that very comment. He smiled and said, "You got that right, bub."

I felt validated.

To pool owners, Memorial Day is the beginning of the reason we all own pools anyway, to enjoy the summer sun in a cool piece of resort living right in our own backyard.

Pool ownership is not for everyone--it is a project that requires care and planning and effort and not a little bit of cost. But, I so enjoy my pool and watching the family enjoy it too.

But pool maintenance can be frustrating, too. After I left the pool store and began the trek through traffic back to home, I noted the clouds getting darker and more ominous. I really wanted to get the tiles done so I could mentally say that the pool was fully ready for the onslaught of family expected during the three day celebration of a holiday weekend. 

But alas--the rain started even before I got home. Not a lot of rain. but enough to make everything wet and to make doing the tiles an even more unpleasant job than it is to begin with. I decided to wait foer everythign to dry out--which it did by about 8pm.

But by then--I was at Best Buy and then Lowe's on another shopping mission and the pool work had slipped into today--ugh!

So, to borrow a line from Phineas and Ferb: I know what I'm going to do tonight!