we may never go swimming at this rate!

May 20, 2023

This morning, it’s rainy and in the mid 50’s. Clouds are so thick, I’m not sure there’s even a sun up there. The pool was installed yesterday and it may be August before the water is warm enough to swim in.

It all started out normal.

Lots of digging since I wanted the pool close enough to the house it didn’t cost a fortune for decking to reach it. Hendrix Pools came prepared. The photo below was taken at about the time they cut the fiber cord and cut off my Internet connection to the world. 😬

digging for pool installation

Hendrix kept digging and I called my provider, REMC.

No one had any idea that lines would be out there behind the house. The cable comes from the road to the house… why it was way back there is a mystery.

Digging finished, plastic was laid down and a dump truck of sand went on top of that. I heard the owner of Hendrix tell a new employee, “This takes 14 minutes. It’s 14 minutes of Hell, but it’s only 14 minutes.” That’s when they all grabbed a shovel and spread the sand evenly across the bottom.

The outside was up within 10 minutes and the liner was next…

pool sides up and sand spread evenly

pool liner being placed

Internet restored!

REMC came to the rescue with a line locator and “patched” the cable. I have Internet again! Yippee!! They marked it with flags and instructed me to keep everyone away from it. That’s one order I plan to follow.

Flags for underground fiber beside the pool

20 plus years ago…

It’s been more than 20 years since I helped install an above ground pool. We offered free beer and the neighbors arrived to help. So many mistakes! Hours of hard work and the liner finally placed by drunk people, the fire department arrived with water.

They shot it in with so much force, it scooted the liner and the wrinkles were there forever. And lumps. We had plenty of lumps at the bottom too where we didn’t get the ground flattened. And the water? It was brown and took a bajillion dollars to clear it up.

A loss of Internet for a few hours was a small price to pay. Now we just wait for it to fully fill and the sun to shine. 🙂

TIL (Today I Learned): People who work at U.S. nuclear power plants are exposed to less radiation than what is given off by the granite walls inside the U.S. Capitol Building.