Whenever my sister-in-law starts talking about the new in-ground swimming pool that she is planning to have installed at her house later this summer my thoughts return to a time in my life when my ex-hubby and I had just gotten married and had bought our very first house. It was a charming old cape style house with dormer windows on the second floor, a fireplace in the living room, a two car attached garage and an in-ground pool. The problem we had, though, was that the fence pool was missing a gate and so there were times that critters found their way into the pool. I can remember one day finding a snapping turtle in our pool! I was none too happy about that discovery, I’ll tell you that!
Some things you just take for granted
by Mary AnneI hate to admit the fact that I was probably a little bit like the “spoiled rich kid” when I was younger. I really don’t like to think that I was, but the other alternative would be to admit to simply not being very observant of the world around me as I grew up. For example, I can remember many times hanging out at a swimming pool during the summer, and flirting with the lifeguards. Heck, I even dated a lifeguard for a while! The pool just seemed like a care-free place where chores and work did not exist.
So when my first hubby and I bought our first house together and had to go to the store and buy winterizing pool chemicals and replace the missing pool filters for the in-ground swimming pool that we fell in love with the entire idea of the work involved in keeping the swimming pool so nice and crisp and clean came as a bit of a shock to me! Fortunately my hubby said that he was happy to take care of all of the chores related to the pool because I was not going to be able to take care of the house and work my full-time job and take college courses and raise the kids AND deal with the upkeep of the swimming pool!
An avoidable tragedy
by Mary AnneGuest post by Linda Bradshaw
When my hubby and I moved into our first house, we were so excited to share our joy with our friends. So we had a big Independence Day party; complete with a pot-luck barbecue and pool party. The guests were completely enamored of our litter of five week old keeshond puppies, which were confined inside their six foot tall chain link kennel run.
One of our guests (which I did not want invited but hubby insisted) decided that he would light a string of black cat firecrackers and throw them into the kennel run. The quick bang-bang-bang and yelp-yelp-yelp brought my hubby and me running quickly to see what in the world was going on. When we saw the inebriated guest laughing at the upset puppies, we asked him to leave the party. Needless to say, feelings were hurt.
The next morning when we went out to feed the puppies, we discovered that someone had removed them from their kennel and put them inside the fenced in pool area. The puppies had all drowned in the pool. My heart was completely broken. Later that day we went to the pool supply store and bought a pool cover for our swimming pool in the hopes that this kind of tragedy never happens again. And I never spoke to that guy that had thrown firecrackers into the puppy pen, as we suspect that he was the one responsible for relocating the puppies. It would have been impossible for the puppies to escape their pen and enter the fenced in pool area on their own.