Cleaning the pool.

Anytime we do any work at Dad's house it's extremely frustrating. Nothing is where it should be and crap abounds.

We worked very hard last year getting the pool into useable shape. Jim's been maintaining it throughout the year although it's been a while since it was really cleaned. We went over there today to vaccuum it and get the chemicals current. We thought we could get it all done in a couple hours. It took a while to get started because we had to run around searching for stuff. I don't understand why the pool supplies should in be any place different from where they were left the last time they were used. I'm sure the dogs didn't hide them. Dad and Rosa are pretty much the only people who go back there. WHY are the pool cleaning supplies scattered or missing?????

We managed to find almost everything. What we didn't find was the ring that holds the vaccum filter screen thingy together. We ended up using duct tape. Grrrr....

Jim had to take the whole filter apart to get things working again. I won't blame the "Dad Effect" for that one. It just needed cleaning.

I hacked out some palm trees that had started growing against the wall by the pool. I think they would push the wall out if they were allowed to stay there. That wall holds up the WHOLE yard, including the pool.

Dad has this thing about those stupid effing palm trees that spring up everywhere. He has assigned value to them. He won't allow them to be killed. He has some very nice plants in pots, expensive plants that are infested with these stupid palm weeds. There's a beautiful mimosa tree that is being choked by two palm trees. They're growing in pots on his front deck. He thinks he can eventually sell them! He'll sacrifice thousands of dollars worth of plants and important structures for evil palm spawn that could bring him at most twenty bucks. Well, today I killed three of them. And it felt goood.

I also cleaned up the ton of dog poop in the yard. I put it all into two huge holes that Maggie had dug. I've heard that the way to break the digging habit is fill the hole with the dog's own poop. Don't know if it will work but it saved me from having to haul it all out. I covered it with a thick layer of dirt and tamped it down.

But that leaves the 2 big garbage cans that are full to the brim with dog poop. I guess Rosa's been picking it up and dumping it into the cans. But no one's emptying them. I'll deal with that another day.

Jim dumped in some chemicals but we'll have to wait a few days before he can add the algicide. We're planning to work some more next Sunday. I did ok today. My back didn't bother me much and it was a couple hours of physical activity. And Gracie got to swim to her heart's content.