w00t! It’s only the first 100-degree day here, and already the pool is warm enough to plunge!
Yay!
This morning while returning Harvey to the drink after an extended rest, watering plants, and generally puttering around, I happened to stick my feet in the pool.
Hm. Not too bad. Stepped in deep enough to get the hems of my cutoffs wet. Legs did not turn into blocks of ice. Amazing.
Threw off the clothes and jumped into the drink!
woooHOOOOO!
Deliciously, perfectly crisp against the hot sun on the skin! It is almost ideal.
😀
Of course, I forgot that the neighbors across the street can now see into my backyard from their front windows, in the absence of the devil-pod tree. So had to slink into the house.
Undeterred, I tried on one of the El Cheapo Costco T-shirts over the bottom part of an old Land’s End tankini. And…yes! It works! Tucked in, it works just like a swimsuit in the water. Pulled out, it looks like a tank top or coverup over a bathing suit. And with the AC set at 80 degrees in the house, a damp orange T-shirt keeps you feeling mighty cool while parked in front of a computer. And it’s SO much more comfortable than the hateful girdle of a woman’s swimsuit.
The pool is so gorgeous. It liked being emptied and refilled last November—the water is sparkling clean and clear. And boyoboy, did it ever like the assassination of the devil-pod tree.
Despite concerns that the Satanic tree’s last blast had killed Harvey the Hayward Pool Cleaner, he survived and now trundles around the bottom and up & down the walls for days without much attention. Overall the water can always use a little more acid, but it doesn’t seem to matter much. No algae is growing, no bushelsful of gunk collect on the bottom. Harvey needs a new tail…that is, new hoses. But otherwise the whole system is working magnificently.
The hopseed bushes have taken hold and are beginning to put on new growth. My guess is that by next spring they’ll be tall enough to block the eye-rays of nosy passers-by. Meanwhile, because I started pouring more water in that part of the yard, the cat’s claw along the west wall has sprung to life. If that continues, in a couple of years it will do what the vines on the north wall have accomplished: piled up so much vegetative matter that they add a good three or four feet to the height of the wall. So. Soon there should be plenty of relatively benign vegetable screening between me and the neighbors and prowling burglars.
JEALOUS! We had the most pitiful excuse for a summer and I did not go for a single swim. Seems now we’re close to winter though, the weather is clearing…just as the chill sets in.