Susan's 366 Project: Day 485: Hello new pool!

We broke ground for our house in early May, 1988, and labored through a long, hot summer till we could move our family into it in October. It wasn't really finished, though, cause there are always a million small jobs that do-it-yourselfers never get around to. I had spent months drawing floor plans that were then turned into architectural drawings. My parents worked with us nearly every day. They had built their first house on Chestnut Street back in 1955 and Dad had done lots of construction work on the side. They were far more experienced than we were. What do a nurse and a history teacher know about house construction? Very little. At least today, people can search the internet and get a youtube video to show them how to do everything. We listened and learned and pressed on.

The one thing that was missing was a pool! Ever since I was a little girl, I had wanted my own swimming pool. When we were kids, Mom had bought us a little 6 ft wide, 1 ft. deep baby pool that I spent hours in. I told everyone that our pool was for the kids, but it was really for me. In the summer of 1991 or 1992, I decided we had waited long enough. We spent a full summer mortgage payment on it and then had to figure out how to repay the mortgage account before the payment came due on September 1. No problem. I spent all of July cleaning out the basement, attic and closets to find things to sell at a yard sale. I made all the money back plus extra.

The pool has been the center of my summer life ever since. We held the summer Olympics in it and devised a series of events using the long, foam noodles as horses or as poles for the pole vault event. Steve and the boys played ferocious basketball games with the boys all piling on top of him. They taught me how proper breathing techniques. They, of course, were taking swim lesson with Hammerhead, but I had never learned the correct way to breath between strokes.

While I was still teaching at both the college and the HS, I would run home at 3:00, change, swim for twenty minutes, shower, change and be at the college a 4:00. In the five last years, I have become obsessed with racking up the miles. I love the serenity of swimming, dipping my feverish body in cool water on hot days, the birds over head as I backstroke across the laps.

It's really a miracle the pool lasted as long as it did with the original liner. The first pool and the new one are worth every penny. Great exercise, fun, family time, and solitude, all in our own backyard.