My new job...the pool manager.

Steve and I bought our first house this past December. It is perfect for us…and I LOVE IT! With the house…came an above ground pool. Steve and I were excited because of HOW HOT AND HUMID it gets here in the summertime. So April rolls around and we don’t really know what to do with the pool. It has a cover on it…there’s water in it…we have no clue what to do. Luckily Steve found all the papers for the pool, and he called the company that the previous owner of the house bought it from. They recommended someone to come “open the pool”. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Like it’s a ceremony or something. We should mark it on the Calendar and hold our hands on our hearts while they take the cover off. So the pool guy comes to our house. Of course Steve is out of town on business, so I’m supposed to soak up all the information of what to do. Well…he put together our filter…and it works! He starts to take off the cover, but there is some water on top…from all the torrential downpours in the winter. So he says he will leave the pump with me, and come pick it up in the morning. Then he recites a list of chemicals I am supposed to get. As he is reciting the list…I am noticing that the pool is an interesting shade of green…

When Steve returned from his trip, I told him the list. So one day I make my way to Leslie’s and ask for all of these things that I’m not even sure what they are. First of all…chemicals are expensive…pools are EXPENSIVE!!! I managed to spend $150 on chemicals that day…a couple days after paying the pool guy $125 for opening it. Then in talking to my dad…who was a pool manager to our pool growing up…and whom I should have paid VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO…told me I need to shock the pool before putting all these chemicals in. So off to the pool store again…for Shock. So…we put in the Shock. We wait for the next day to put in 15 pounds of baking soda…8 pounds of conditioner…chlorine…and Super Algaecide (as if algaecide wasn’t enough). Okay…that should do it. We should be good to swim in a couple of days. The next day…the pool is BLUE!!! HOORAY!!!! But it’s a little foggy…we can’t see the bottom. But we also just dumped in 100 pounds of white powder…so I think it’s okay. The next weekend we go to Chicago for 3 days. When we return…much to our surprise…the pool is that shade of green…AGAIN!!!!!!! So the next morning…Steve gets a Mason Jar and fills it with pool water to take to Leslie’s. When he takes the water out…it is crystal clear! No joke…looks like it came straight from the tap. We are scratching our heads. No clue. So he takes it to the pool store. The guys says…that’s water is perfect and safe to swim in. NO WAY…I’m not getting into the green lagoon! He asks us if we’re SURE that it looks GREEN. HELLO…how would you mistake that!?!?!? So he suggests a couple of things, so we dump $50 more into chemicals. This time it’s Acid Plus and Hardness something or other. 2 days later…SAME! So we decide to shock it again. The next day…YAY…it’s BLUE!!! But the pool guy did say to get in and scrub the sides and bottom. So I bravely get into the murkiness and brush for 2 hours. By the way…half way through, the pin that was holding the brush to the pole…magically disappeared…so I had to spend the last hour scrubbing the bottom with my foot guiding the brush.

We decide to call the pool guy who opened out pool because the water is still foggy. We told him about what the pool store said to do. He said…you didn’t need that…they were just trying to get you to buy something. GOSH…just mess with the suckers that don’t know anything about pools. I mean heck…I can’t think of anything better that I would like to spend $50 on!!! We asked if he could come and access the situation. He said…”I would…but that will cost you $70.” We decided to take a pass. But he said maybe we should try some liquid that will clear up the fogginess. That’s another $30 at the pool store. They probably know us by name now…and laugh when they see us coming thinking…”suckers”.

We put the clearness in…doesn’t help. I decide to get back in and scrub again since it’s been 3 weeks since the first brush. Well…let’s just say that there is A LOT of algae still in there. It tossed up so many particles…I almost freaked out!!! That was on Sunday. I guess I should mention that on top of all of this…our weekly routine is 3 tablets of Chlorine and 2 capfuls of super algaecide. Well…this morning…looked at the pool. It looks the same. Murky. It’s been 2 months…we’ve spent over $300 and no swimming. And for some reason…I noticed that our filter is running lower than it is supposed to. What’s next?!?!?!? Probably another $300! If you’d like to donate to Steve and AJ’s pool fund…please make checks payable to…just kidding. So are we the only ones who can’t figure this out? Does anyone have ANY IDEAS?!?!?!