Leigh Costello
05-26-2010, 2:21 AM
First, I love our pool. And I love Missouri weather. And I love the moonlight. But, I don't like the weather messing with my pool cover, especially if I have to go out in the moonlight to mess with my pool.
Rewind to late November, Thanksgiving weekend to be exact, recovering from arthoscopic knee surgery, and the first of many winter storms blows the cover off the pool. Drat! Hubby replaced the cover and secured with all sorts of techniques. Another storm, off blows the cover, and so on until the cover is frozen into the ugliest ice cube you can imagine.
Moving on to spring. Fully healed from surgery and the ice has thawed. Skim the debris from the pool and re-cover. This goes on for several weeks. I got very good at re-covering the pool securing the cover. Guess what?!? The beagle got equally good at attacking the pool cover cable latch. I only caught on to her antics while weeding a flower bed and she trots right over to the latch and jumps up and releases the cable.
After a gust of wind powered by an approaching thunderstorm, the cover comes loose on one side. Deciding to wait in the house for the storm to pass, I go to a window and watch my pool cover waft off of the pool. Then I watch my darling beagle tear a gaping hole in the cover!
With no other choice we decide to open the pool. Skimming, filling, setting up the filter and pump, etc. But decide to leave the ladder for later. This was last Thursday. The evening brought yet another storm and boom! Something hits the pool. So I grab a flashlight and head outside. Yep, a branch in the pool. Hmmm...
I get the skimmer and pole and try to fish it out. Success, but the debris needs to be skimmed out. So I carefully stack 3 rocks and balance on them and skim out some of the debris. Almost finished...just one more swipe...oh shoot...the rocks are slipping...don't tear the liner...let go of pole but not enough time to...ooph...I hit one of the pool supports squarely with my sternum. After several seconds of OMG did I break anything and nope nothing broke I retreat to the house. The now bright quarter moon lighting my way.
I have no idea where the flashlight is, but that solar cover that we put on has not moved once in the 3 storms since it was put on on Saturday!
Rewind to late November, Thanksgiving weekend to be exact, recovering from arthoscopic knee surgery, and the first of many winter storms blows the cover off the pool. Drat! Hubby replaced the cover and secured with all sorts of techniques. Another storm, off blows the cover, and so on until the cover is frozen into the ugliest ice cube you can imagine.
Moving on to spring. Fully healed from surgery and the ice has thawed. Skim the debris from the pool and re-cover. This goes on for several weeks. I got very good at re-covering the pool securing the cover. Guess what?!? The beagle got equally good at attacking the pool cover cable latch. I only caught on to her antics while weeding a flower bed and she trots right over to the latch and jumps up and releases the cable.
After a gust of wind powered by an approaching thunderstorm, the cover comes loose on one side. Deciding to wait in the house for the storm to pass, I go to a window and watch my pool cover waft off of the pool. Then I watch my darling beagle tear a gaping hole in the cover!
With no other choice we decide to open the pool. Skimming, filling, setting up the filter and pump, etc. But decide to leave the ladder for later. This was last Thursday. The evening brought yet another storm and boom! Something hits the pool. So I grab a flashlight and head outside. Yep, a branch in the pool. Hmmm...
I get the skimmer and pole and try to fish it out. Success, but the debris needs to be skimmed out. So I carefully stack 3 rocks and balance on them and skim out some of the debris. Almost finished...just one more swipe...oh shoot...the rocks are slipping...don't tear the liner...let go of pole but not enough time to...ooph...I hit one of the pool supports squarely with my sternum. After several seconds of OMG did I break anything and nope nothing broke I retreat to the house. The now bright quarter moon lighting my way.
I have no idea where the flashlight is, but that solar cover that we put on has not moved once in the 3 storms since it was put on on Saturday!