The Tale of the Yucky Pool

    We have lived in this house for almost 23 years. This coming week marks our 23rd anniversary. Anyway, I mentioned in an earlier post that we moved into this house because of the pool. Every year, Hubs and I learned more about the pool and how to care for it.


    This year was different. Trust Karma to throw you a curve ball when you think you know and have seen it all. As usual, the water was such a dark green that it appeared black. We've seen this before.


    I should mention here that we usually don't get the pool open before July 4th. This year, we had it open the first week of June. Anyway, back to the algae. This year, we had a carpet of yucky, slimy dark green algae on the bottom of the whole pool. As we ran the filter, It was floating up to the surface looking like jellyfish. And the green wouldn't go away.


    For two weeks we battled the green slime. Hubs bought gallons of a liquid shock. and a couple gallons of a liquid algaecide. Nothing worked. All it did was create a gross foam in the skimmer basket. I was afraid to reach in there, I thought something would grab me back. Poor Hubs, we went through perhaps three 25lb bags of earth. He vacuumed. He took the filter apart and cleaned out the green slime. Over and over again.


    Eventually, he decided to go and get our usual shock, Power Powder from Leslies Pool Supplies. That evening, he sprinkled the pool with all six bags that he had bought. A few hours later, we went down and turned the filter off for the night.


    The next morning, I looked out the bedroom window, and LO the pool was no longer green! It was still a bit cloudy, but there was no more green. I went down and completely back washed the old earth out of the filter, then recoated it through the skimmer. Ever since then, it's been fine. YAY!! I actually swam in it a couple of days ago, and yesterday too.


    I still have to be careful, my sunburn has turned brown on my torso, but the new skin on my head is still sensitive. I am swimming once the sun is off the pool, in the late afternoon. And I promise, I will never again forget my Dark Tanning Oil.


    It was so cool. Saturday, my daughter Sara was here, her dad was fixing her car. She sat down by the pool with me, and peeled the dead skin off my head. It really felt weird. Some of it came off in big pieces, but some did not. I am well on the way to being healed now.