Rant #2,708: Pool It

I am having a bit of insomnia as I write today’s Rant, which is being published at the normal time I usually put this up for all to read, but is actually being written at some ungodly hour of the morning, simply because I can’t sleep tonight.

 
It is just one of those nights, as they say.
 
I actually fell asleep at about 8:45 p.m. or so, and slept until about 10:15 p.m., so it isn’t like I didn’t sleep at all.
 
But I simply could not fall back asleep after that, and I have been up a couple of hours as I write this, as wide awake as if it were the p.m. rather than the a.m.
 
I have no idea why I can’t sleep tonight, but I can tell you one thing that is bothering me a bit.
 
I think that our backyard pool is dead in the water.
 
After many years of use—and it generating a lot of pleasure to my family, in particular last year, during the height of the pandemic—I think that the pool has finally kicked the proverbial bucket.
 
What happened to it was not unexpected.
 
When we opened the pool in June, our pool man told us that he thought that this would be the final year for the pool.
 
The above ground pool had blown one of the brackets that holds it together, and while the pool was not leaking, the bracket was too far gone, and could not be fixed.
 
The pool man said he felt that it would hold for one more summer, and that was going to be it.
 
We bought all the necessary ingredients for our pool, even though it was on its deathbed.
 
We purchased the shock, the algaecide, and everything else,
 
We even bought a “beer pong” game to use in the pool.
 
The days got hotter, and we began to use the pool.
 
Last year, during the height of the pandemic, my wife and I used the pool about 15 times from June through late August.
 
Gong in the pool gave us something to do, and quite frankly, it kept us away from others and helped us to keep our sanity during a completely insane time. 

My wife’s work schedule last year was conducive to this, as her work, as a precaution, scheduled her one week on, one week off, to try to stem the virus, so we had plenty of opportunity to use our pool, what with me hopelessly out of work with absolutely no chance of getting hired by anyone.
 
Our son also used the pool, but not as much as we did. He is simply not much of a swimming person.
 
This year, things are different.
 
My wife is back to her regular work schedule, which means that the weekdays are out for going into the pool, because I won’t go into the pool without her—it is a family thing, not a single thing, or at least to me it isn’t.
 
So our pool time has been relegated to the weekends, and in our part of the woods, the weekends have been rainy and not very conducive to taking a dip in the pool.
 
Thus far this year, we have been in the pool maybe two or three times, and that’s it.
 
And in recent days, not only isn’t the bracket still in its current state, but the pool’s motor suddenly died on us, too.
 
The motor is used to mix into the water whatever chemicals we add to the pool to make it clear and bright and ready to use.
 
But if there is nothing swirling around in the pool, whatever we put in there just sits, and does not get to all points of the pool.
 
The last time we used the pool, there was some algae in it, mainly on one side of the pool, the far side.
 
We kept to the other side of the pool, and it seemed to be OK.
 
But even though I have continued to put the needed chemicals into the pool, since the chemicals need the motor to swirl them around, I believe that without even looking at it, the pool is probably full of algae, and might not be usable, and the continued rain that we have gotten—I would say we have gotten rain at least three or four days a week this entire summer—hasn’t helped matters at all, even with our pool cover on tightly.
 
This weekend is supposed to be perhaps the last good weekend of the summer—it is supposed to be in the high 80s with lots of humidity—but I don’t know if we can get into the pool this weekend because the water isn’t clean enough and there might be plenty of algae in there since the motor is dead.
 
(The motor putters, but it simply will not start up.)
 
So, it looks like this pool has seen better days.
 
What will we do next summer?
 
I guess we will have to buy a new pool and a new motor, basically starting from scratch. We obviously will have to have the old pool dismantled and removed, and no, I have no idea what all of this is going to cost … but it is something that is going to have to be done.
 
My wife and I love the water, and yes, we know how lucky we are that we have had this pool to enjoy when so many others have nothing like this, in particular last year when the pandemic closed down so many things.
 
Is all of this why I can’t get to sleep again tonight?
 
I just don’t know, but when I finish writing this Rant, I am going to try again.
 
Maybe instead of sheep jumping over fences, I should think of swimming to my heart’s content—
 
But no, I am sure I will then think of darting back and forth to avoid all the sharks that have infested our waters this year … yes, I know there are no sharks in our pool, but you know when you have a nightmare when you are sleeping? Guaranteed that will be my nightmare tonight..
 
Either the sharks or the algae will get me for sure.
 
Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.