almost done...

For some unholy reason I was up at 3am this morning. So, I decided to turn the water on to get a few more hours of filling time in. I was sure it would be over-filled if I left it on overnight. When I got up this morning, it's about 3" below the middle of the skimmer basket - right where it should be. So, I don't have too much farther to go.

I'll shut the water off before leaving for work and turn it back on when I get home. I'll be able to turn the filter on and then that's when the real work will start - trying to get the chemicals right in the pool without burning everyone's eyes out in the meantime. Should be fun.

But because I was up at 3am, I'm now running late (surprise) and have to jet. I'm hoping I'll be able to take a dip and float around but there might be thunderstorms and the pool isn't grounded yet so I'm not going near it if there are storms around. I'm playing phone tag with Joe but I'm still hoping he'll be able to come up this weekend and ground it. Oh, he has to add an outlet too so I can plug in my light and the pool alarm. :)

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feelin' better

Ok, so the irony of the situation still hasn't left me but I'm feeling better about it.

I went into the pool to put the mat under the stairs so they wouldn't scratch the liner. I was able to kneel and be neck high in the water. It was actually so refreshing I'm still pretty cooled off by it. :)

After I did the mat, I floated around for a bit, swam for a bit, and played around for a bit. As I said, I'm still pretty cooled off from it so it was really nice. :)

Now I'm going to bed.

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Are you f'ing kidding me?!?!!?

I could not be more pissed off by my neighbor's "good intentions" right now if you paid me. Everyone on the street knows I got a pool installed. Everyone on the street knows I'm slowly filling it up with the hose. So what does my well-intentioned neighbor do while she's at my house looking at my Phlox plants?

SHE SHUT THE F#$%ING WATER OFF!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I lost 7 hours of filling up the goddamn pool. I'm going into the stupid pool anyway but MY GOD! Where is her freakin' common sense?!!?! SERIOUSLY!!!!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Don't call, I'm beyond freakin' cranky right now.

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scorcher

115 degree heat index today. Wow.

I'm debating throwing Millie into the bedroom with the air conditioning all day. I know she'll be completely and utterly miserable being stuck in a room, but I don't feel comfortable leaving her in the heat of the house. I just hope she doesn't eat my books, or my shoes, or the bedding, or the dresser. Sigh. I'll have to stuff a few kongs with stuff to keep her busy. I think I'll leave work early today as well so I can see how she's doing. Yeah, I didn't think I'd fool you on that one - it's to go swimming as well. ;)

But, the pool is UP! It's filled about 1/2 way now after leaving the hose on overnight. I'll leave the hose on while I'm at work too so it can be close to done when I get home. The first thing I'm doing after letting the dogs out is changing into a swimsuit and jumping in! Holy crap I can't even believe I now own a pool.

I spoke to my brother-in-law last night about extending the deck and he said he'd do it. I have a few ideas on how to do it - I definitely want it gated off from the dogs, so I'll probably ask that the existing banister sections stay where they are and one of them become a gate that I can lock. I really don't need anyone dying while I'm not here.

Which brings me to a thought I had yesterday. I don't want people swimming by themselves without anyone else there for safety reasons. Good idea, but I don't know how to apply it to myself! I would prefer to have someone around as well. It's only 4' 4" but you never know what could happen. So, I have to figure that one out before too long. Maybe people will just start wandering in from the street to swim and then I won't have to break my own rule. ;)

A few other rules, which I'll post once the deck extension is done:

1) No glass beyond the pool gate
2) No peeing in the pool
(I really can't believe I have to write that since most people I know are adults but that's just gross and I don't want it happening)
3) Want to swim? - bring food
(I know all too well how things get started and I can't afford to stock up my freezer for just in case situations)

Anyone have any more suggestions? :)

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a lot of boxes

I had no idea getting a pool would include having a billion boxes. Ok, not a billion, but way more than I thought! I hadn't really thought of how everything is packaged before I went to pick everything up. There are a billion boxes, but it seems inconceivable that an entire pool is in all of them. Weird.

Anyway, Chris & his parents met me at the pool store with the truck so I could bring everything home. It might've all fit in the minivan if it was empty, but there's a ton of shit in there so that wasn't really possible. They drove the truck straight into the back yard and unloaded everything against the fence so it's not in the way of the workers, but close enough for them to get to it all.

After that I started taking stuff out of the past and future pool area - the fire pit, fire pit tools, dog jumps, wheel barrel, etc., etc. I still need to get the wood out of that area, but I'm hoping there will be a few young strapping guys to help me do that - especially with me all gimpy right now - picking stuff up is not as easy as it used to be.

I started working way earlier than normal this morning since I didn't have to deal with the commute and all. I actually forgot to blog until just now, so I'm taking a little break to fill you in on the time frame. Gary should be dropping off the sand any moment now and Al plus crew should be here within the next 1/2 hr or so. I'm so excited I could scream.

Ok, back to work but I hope to have an update later this afternoon...

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