The words I will post on this blog? My father passed away 19 Feb 2009 at age 80 years and 4 months. The 'official' cause of death......Renal Failure.....Heart Failure......He stopped eating......he never accepted that the same disease he watched his mother suffer through was also robbing and torturing him. ALZHEIMER'S. Each day since, the fear and anger which defined him at his end, haunts my thoughts. But he is always with me as I struggle through my days. He would be no matter what path my life would take. But since his passing, my mother, at 81 years, lives with me. And an old fieldstone house filled with the possessions of 80 years of their lives, 57 years of their marriage, the last years compounded by that heinous disease, ALZHEIMER'S....has become my responsibility. To clean out, organize, maintain and finally, assist my mother to sell. As I've struggled with all that entails, my father is right beside me. Sometimes saying 'I can fix that'. At times chuckling with an 'AH-HA, you should have listened when I talked about how it worked'. Sometimes a 'HEY, don't throw that out, we may need it'. Frequently a 'No No, not that way, forget it~I'll do it myself '.

Over the din of him talking I routinely hear myself saying HM, BET I CAN FIX THAT. Words that no doubt he is whispering in my ear as I'm faced, once again, with another problem, something broken, or facing a task he always insisted on doing HIMSELF. For my father, for all he was and accomplished and all that was stolen from him in his last years......HM, Bet I Can Fix THAT!





Sunday, June 19, 2011

POOL WARS~YEAR 2-OPENING THE POOL

The pool company closed the pool at the end of year 1 as a cover was needed due to my destroying the patched tarp. And they installed the cover, cover which had made the 'crop circle/square' and which I managed to roll, move and lift onto sawhorses this summer. Well, lift perhaps isn't exactly the best description of how I got the cover on top of the saw horses. What actually occurred was numerous attempts to lift it, all of which resulted in the toppling of one or both of the sawhorses, failure. My attempt to put it on a board and tilting the board on an angled sawhorse which I then valiantly attempted to sit upright also failed. Finally despite all defeats, with the end of the cover propped on the edge of one sawhorse I inched the cover up on one sawhorse and then aided by my vast reservoir of 'sailor speak' I slowly crawled it to a position across the 2 sawhorses. Hm, Bet I Can Figure THIS Out. TAKE THAT~~COVER AND SAWHORSES!

When the pool company closed the pool I did note they seemed to drop the water level much lower than my Dad ever had done. But they were the 'pool guys' and did fancy things, like celebrate the closing event with gushers of water blasting up from the skimmer, which they informed were 'blowing the lines'. And instead of the cinder blocks, railroad posts and field stones they filled these 15 bags with water. Well the 15 bags had two compartments with plugs....rather like those rafts we had a kids. You know the ones that normally didn't last til the next year? Assuring me they would anchor the cover, which extended several yards on all sides beyond the pool-think maybe they sold me one a bit too large....ME TOO! I could envision my pool cover transformed into a hot air balloon which, one day when I arrived at the house, I would observe it living nicely atop a stand of trees. It all survived the winter nicely and in place.

The second year I had them open the pool. Hindsight is the one that is 100%, right? I tried to clean most of the leaves off the cover and had pumped some of the standing water but as I'd never hired a company to open the pool I really didn't understand what 'prepare' meant to the 'pool guys'. After 1 'pool guy' pumped a bit of water off the top and removed a large portion of the leaves and the other 'pool guy' had reassembled the pump they pulled a corner of the cover off to look at the water. At which point seeing how low the water in the pool was, the 'pool guy' looked at me and said "Did you order a water truck?" {15 years ago that bill was $600-think NOT 'pool guy'}. "NO, no water truck." Silence.

'Pool Guys' next question was "You don't have a well do you?" Hearing my therapist's voice in my head saying "congratulations on using your impulse control Susan," as severe impulsivity is key in my ADHD-I decided not to look around at the fields, streams, trees and farm buildings in mock horror and yell OH MY GOD, WE HAVE A WELL....NOT CITY WATER!! Instead I calmly stated "yes". To which he then informed me that they could open the pool but wouldn't run the filter as the water needed to be above the skimmer unit. Fortunately for him he didn't add, "because you only have 12" of water in your pool. I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE ASKED WHY THEY PUMPED IT SO LOW WHEN THEY CLOSED IT IN THE FALL.

I should note that the entire time they pumped the water off the cover, oh! during which they left for an hour and a half because it was taking so long, 'pool guy' kept hinting we must have a hole in the cover. Impulse control still working I didn't finally implode after the 'hole' theory was presented for the 10th time with, YOU MEAN THE TOO BIG POOL COVER I BOUGHT FROM YOUR COMPANY JUST LAST YEAR!!!

Also, another incident involved the 15 2~compartment bags. As they emptied the water to roll and stack them, for use in the fall, I noticed a few of them being placed in a separate pile. Asking why?, 'pool guy' said that one side on each in that pile had holes and hadn't survived the winter so he would dispose of them for me...????? At $15 a bag Xs 4 bags=$60 I stated that as one side still functioned why would I throw them away? 4 bags Xs 1 side leaking= 2 bags. I'm speculating that much like mechanics at a car dealership, I'd interferred with his commission for 'work outside of original issue'. Looking unhappy 'pool guy' grumbled "well if you want to keep them" as I walked away. Small victory but I cling to any victory no matter how minute.

When the cover was removed, cleaned rolled and put on top of the sawhorses, by 2 'pool guys' with numerous grunts, they left. Assuring me that 'when' the water was at the required level I could run the filter. Meanwhile though, since water level wasn't going to happen overnight, in 3 days or a week.....I could operate the filter on recirculate mode which would at least keep the water moving and some chemicals would keep things in check until then. They left.

The entire time 'pool guys' closed the pool and now opened the pool I could hear my Dad grousing. These were evolutions he completed, virtually solo, for over 21 years and now I have 'pool guys'-2 OF THEM-doing it. {Don't worry Dad the pool will be up and running soon, I promise}.

It took 2 weeks to get the water level at the required level. Meanwhile a steady leak from one of the 2 pipes on the side of the filter had been epoxied to a small drip. This 'fix' was recommended by the 'pool guy' and it worked. So the day arriving when I would turn off the pump to move the handle from 'recirculate' to 'filter'-- I was ready. I turned the switch to OFF, opened the strainer and cleaned it out thoroughly, tightened the strainer cover back on and it had been running it didn't need priming. I would turn the pump on and after the water started filling and big bubbles broke the top of the water I would do my Happy Dance around the pool. See Dad, I did it, HA!.
I turned the switch to ON, the electric buzz began........along with sparks shooting out of the pump casing followed by clouds of smoke........

Quickly I turned the switch to OFF, took a deep breath and told myself it was just a fluke and when I turned it on again everything would be alright. Reaching over I turned the switch to ON, I was right....no sparks.....no smoke....no electric buzz either......DEAD SILENCE. The pump had died. No Happy Dance for Susan. I went inside, typed in 'Hayward Pool Pumps' into my computer and found the best buy with free shipping and the quickest delivery. $300 and 4 days later at my feet a new pump.

Hm, Bet I Can Install This?
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