OK, Time to Pull Some Loose Ends

Now I'm a multi~tasker by nature but I'm at a loss at what to go back to? little joke, very little joke. So although the summer is 2/3 of the way over, I'll go back to the pool filter first.

43 years and my Dad kept it on life support most of the last 15 years. I CPR'd it, badly, the last 2 summers and then the 'dyke broke'....did say I ordered a new one? It was really a very difficult thing to face. On a practical level another expense which won't assist to sell the property. Pools are not BIG lures. But when you have a 43 year old swimming hole, which would cost a fortune to build in this day and age....inground cement bottom and steel sided pool, you have 2 choices. The first is to drain it. The cost of 'filling' the hole is excessive. And a big empty cement hole=major safety hazard and would always be filled with debris blown from the fields. Constant upkeep housekeeping wise, a lose/lose. Thus the big 'showing point' would be a chipped paint cement and sides with growing crap blown in? Raise your hands....who thinks we should vote for that?

Or we could do what I've been doing for 3 years, cover it properly in the winter and open and maintain it during the summer.

Now as I mentioned...a pool isn't a big draw for a buyer. And most normally will either not use it or fill it. Or they can have a trash hole in their backyards, not my problem. BUT, when its on the market it is far more attractive to have a well maintained pool than the hole. So back to my dilemma. I would be having a new filter installed. Difficult as in $$$ and effort but practical. But on a personal level it meant I'd failed. I left my Dad down. I know if he had lived and been 'up' to the work he no doubt would have found a way to keep it working. I couldn't, I failed. And now I was replacing his filter. Watching that filter being disassembled, cut up and taken away was bound to be painful. I failed. 

I went up to the house the morning of the installation feeling very bad although at that moment I hadn't identified why I felt so badly. 

The van from the pool company pulled into the dirt road next to the house obviously unsure as to where to park. The driveway wasn't an option as the filter had to be unloaded and the old filter pieces loaded. So I walked over to the van to discuss their options. The young man in the passenger seat-a grizzly adams sort-pulled off his sunglasses and said "Do you know who I am?" I didn't. So he said "its Lemar." 

And I felt a relief I hadn't expected. The young man is my 1st cousin/once removed, the son of my father's only brother's son.  

Lemar Graybill/Carl Walter Van Hyning

My uncle's only son is my cousin Lemar Graybill Van Hyning II. The young man in the van is Lemar Graybill Van Hyning III.

Susan Elizabeth Van Hyning/Lemar Graybill Van Hyning III

Now I knew I would be able to watch the old filter leave. I realize many may be skeptical about woo-woo paranormal issues. I don't make decisions on woo-woo. But I've had enough happen to me in that area to decide I have no clue why/how strange things occur, I just know they do. And somehow I just knew this was a message sent from 'over there'. My Dad was telling me it was alright, I wasn't a failure. I did my best and the new filter was fine. Why was my cousin there? I can believe he was 'sent' by my Dad. I can believe its part of some big cosmic 12 act play. I can believe it was dumb luck. Doesn't matter, over the next hour plus Lemar and his supervisor/co-worker did their job. The supervisor just seemed to understand the situation and encouraged my cousin to do the work to disassemble the old filter.

So first they cut it apart.

Then bit by bit they shoveled the sand out into buckets. We dumped the sand in the field.

The new filter was installed and the old and tired filter went into the van. It was done. Before they left all was up and running. And somehow the dread went with it. Yes, I failed to fix it but I knew it was alright, I'd done my best.

Thanks Lemar, thanks Daddy, thanks 'whatever'.