top of page

#0041 Author Life: The Children of the Pool

Writer's picture: AlexanderAlexander

I’m unsure if this is a horror story or a nature documentary. You can decide for yourself.


About two years ago, we decided to take the plunge—literally—and have an inground pool installed in our backyard.


Our first big surprise after installation was when the pool company kindly offered to handle the monthly maintenance for the modest fee of $300+ a month. By then, we’d already drained our bank account on the pool itself, so we decided we’d handle the upkeep ourselves: cleaning, chemicals, and maintenance. That first year was an adventure, mostly because we had no clue what we were doing with the chemicals, which meant it was still expensive, just in a different way.


Fall arrived, and with it, the need for a pool cover. The pool company quoted us a cool $3,000 for a fancy safety cover—our second big surprise. That was definitely not in the budget, so we opted for a cover from Amazon secured with water bags. Spoiler alert: this was a nightmare. The water bags seemed to have commitment issues and wouldn’t stay in place as leaves, rain, and sometimes snow piled up.


The first year, I found myself out there nearly every weekend adjusting the bags, fishing out leaves, and trying to keep the cover flat so water could drain through the mesh. Of course, the cover would sag into the pool, and if it sagged too much, water wouldn’t drain, turning the whole thing into a sad, sagging mess.


Year two rolled around, and we confidently thought, “We’ve got this.” We didn’t. My enthusiasm for pool maintenance waned, and I let water accumulate on the cover. When it was finally time to open the pool, we were greeted by our third big surprise: hundreds of tadpoles had moved in.


Not wanting to play the villain, we devised a plan to relocate most of the tadpoles to a kiddie pool, where they spent the summer being pampered guests. Many extra hours were spent scooping them up and playing Frog Rescue. The good news? A bunch of them made it and hopped into the world as tiny frogs. Here are some photos:


But wait, there’s more! Not pool-related, but we also had a surprise visitor that I mistook for a stick leaning against the fence for an embarrassing amount of time.


And that, my friends, was our summer adventure. The moral of the story? When you install a pool, you might get a few surprises. Pay for the expensive cover.

 

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

I'll call it an inspirational track from an ancient anime. Honestly, I struggled to get into the anime, but this theme song. OMG. It's life changing good. It makes the entire show worth watching. The song is called Hadouken Theme from Street Fighter II V.

Comments


Commenting has been turned off.
bottom of page