It slimed me...

This weekend I'm at the parental's for one reason and one reason only... to get the pool open.

For those of you who have pools, you will understand my feelings of dread when I was informed by my mother (aka flip-flop... she wanted a nick-name too) that I would be joining them this weekend for this wondrous event. Oh joy...

So this morning we start with the pool covers. Yes, covers... plural. Before anything else can happen the debris has to be removed from the covers. And since the covers have been on since last October and since my parent's house is next to a park there was a lot of debris... you know, leaves, branches, roof shingles... did I mention my parents really need a new roof?

So I strain as much off as I can. And then we start to remove the first cover. The first one is a net like cover that is supposed to keep all the major stuff off of the winter cover. So we pull that and it comes off without too much trouble. The only problem? The net is too big to keep the thousands of pine needles from falling through and to the winter cover below. Dang it!!

Oh well... I hose that one off, we fold it up and then start to remove the big, heavy winter cover. This is where it all goes awry.

Because all of the pine needles are now on the winter cover we can't just pull it off. We have to grab it by one end and walk it along keeping the pine needles gathered up in the middle. I'm thinking that as we pull it along the water will drain as we go. Um, yeah... not so much.

So we have the one end of the cover down to the other end of the pool... Flip-flop and El Dub have the cover by both ends while I am standing in the middle pulling from there. And as we start to pull, not only does the cover start to come out, but all the water and pine needles do too. Next thing I know, I am ankle deep in green goo (known as pool water) and pine needles. My once-white socks now resemble something from the swamp-thing. My shoes are nowhere to be seen under all the water and needles.

The cover, which is covered in green algae, has rubbed up against me and has left slime trails up and down my left leg and both arms. I look like I've just been hugged by a giant slug... not my best look. Flip-flop figures that as long as I'm covered in slime and wet anyway, that I should just finish the job and hose the cover down as well. As I start to hose it down, it starts pouring down rain. I don't even notice because I already resemble a drowned rat.

But the covers are off.

However, the pool is still green.

And a stunning shade of green, too... 

For now, we'll just let the chemicals work on that little problem...