"I Won't Be Long ...."

Famous last words. Whenever he who helps stranded motorists says this, it always turns into hours. And it seems like it happens whenever I have prepared a decent meal. I will give him 30 minutes. Then I eat.

Not that I have much of an appetite in this heat. I went out about 30 minutes ago and checked the thermometer ........ 109. In the shade. I was thinking about mowing the side yard. Now I am thinking it looks okay. It is mostly clover anyway and is only growing because I water the vegetable garden. We haven't mowed in almost a month. The insane heat and lack of rain has managed to turn the lush green fields into a brown desert with an occasional weed sticking up.

The pool is green. I noticed it had a turquoise sheen last Wednesday. I grabbed my scrub brush and bucket of Clorox water and set about scrubbing the water line. It looks like a tub ring of soap scum, but is suntan oil and sunscreen residue. Only way to clean it is with a good brush, bleach and elbow grease. As I approached, the water looked like the blue water in the toilet bowl after you pee. Turquoise. And you all know you look at the water after you pee.

So, there I was scrubbing away. I decided to clean the skimmer baskets as I was right there. What do you suppose I found? A bouquet of flowers from my very own garden. No, I am not kidding. I am assuming it was a child. Okay, the mind of a child. That was skimmer number one. They looked like they had been in the water all day releasing all their green plant substances to the pool water as the sun cooked it. I decided to check basket number 2. This one was even better. A clump of grass, complete with roots and dirt. It was probably a clump I pulled up myself in my flower garden. Opportunist not only picked my precious few flowers, but grabbed up some of my weeding, too.

Gee, I wonder why the pool is filled with algae? I ordered the Green To Clean for overnight shipping. This stuff was guaranteed to work. It didn't. I am sure the intense heat is not helping. I don't even want to think about the money sitting in the green residue at the bottom of the pool. Lost revenue. The money saved from not mowing gone. Oh, wait it was already gone in the power bill for the air conditioning that I normally don't run in my house. Over-nighters with kids don't want to stay without a pool.

We will be installing  surveillance cameras at the pool. So beware, swimmers who would deign to disregard the rules, I am watching you. As if my time behind the desk was not boring enough ......