Ah, Let's begin with the POOL!
First let's start with a bit...who am I kidding...a lot of background on this topic. The pool was built around 1968. In May of 2009 I was faced with this pool and how my father had done things for over 20 years, alone. The filter-same one as in 1968. Through the years the parts support disappeared, OBVIOUSLY. So my Dad's creative brain had found ways to make, alter or fix everything associated with this pool. He wouldn't have a contractor come out to help him fix it. Because he just knew when they saw the age and how long it had been off the market~they would have spent all the time trying to sell him a new system.
The summer after my Dad passed and I began to 'attempt' the pool issue I had to argue with a local pool company. They informed me this pool wasn't cement and MUST have a vinyl line. Fortunately I whipped out my camera and showed the clerk the pool. "I've never seen one like that....I can't help you". {Hm, not as dumb as he looked!}
Over the last 2+ years I've done battle with everything from friends who thought they would 'help' me, no pressure so vacuuming and maintenance impossible, chemical battles to keep it as it should be, pumps which smoked and sparked just as I was ready to run the filter. Sometimes I think I'm an ongoing Alien Experiment and they must be ROFLTAO watching, as I deal with this pool.
So now I'm in my 3rd summer of pool wars and each year I know what to face and have managed quite nicely. But the filter.....still the one from 1968. And this year the leaks in PVC which my father patched, repaired and replaced over the years, are back with a vengeance. Plus my usual 'entertain the Aliens' with everything from removing the pool cover to pulling the frogs, mice and voles out of the water. Oh yea, the background. Might as well start at the top with the entire property....here goes~~
A telephone pole with a tiny Hydrangea bush to its left, the Hydrangea is now 10 feet tall and that tree next to it is over 30 feet high. The actual land goes a bit further and then straight down to the '1100' trees.
The house is over a hundred years old and when the guy put the pool in 68', {I am thinking its the story I heard} he also winterized the inside. Which meant a stairway, landing, stairway to the second floor to a loft area with a walkway all around, 3 bedrooms and a bath upstairs. Downstairs a great room with beautiful stone hearth/fireplace. But it has pine paneling throughout and deep set windows so just doesn't let in much light which can really wear during the winter. Utility room passing from the great room off which is the downstairs bathroom and then into the kitchen.
Why, you ask do I tell you all this? Because in 86' when my parents purchased it, my Dad was 58 years old and my Mom 57. He had already bought the old farm in Maine and 'fixed' up that house. And he insisted on doing it again. He was inventive, determined, talented, a hard worker and just didn't listen to reason. Through the years the plans he kept making grew, many were accomplished. But he also commenced substitute teaching for 21 years. And as he aged with normal health issues it was a full time job with substituting and doing the pool, yard, garden and all the normal tasks of maintaining cars and homes. But he just wouldn't lower his goals.
I would say that is a good thing for any of us to do, have goals....its what keeps us alive. But, here we go again.....Alzheimer's. The houses and his projects had always been a source of contention between my parents and all in all when younger, my support was on his side. But as he aged and his brain began to be attacked, plus just plain nearing 80, my support logically drifted to my Mother's side of the debate. He couldn't physically do all he wanted. He wouldn't admit it to himself let alone others. And eventually could not understand or even accept his limitations. But give up.....GET A GRIP!
I always have said about my Dad .....THE QUALITIES WHICH MADE HIM SO SUCCESSFUL WHEN YOUNG WERE THE QUALITIES WHICH PREVENTED HIM FROM DEALING WITH HIS ALZHEIMER'S. I'm certain the same could be said of all who suffer with the disease.
So here I am, my third summer.....POOL WARS
No comments:
Post a Comment