THE STORY BEHIND THE POOL [CONCLUDED]

So I had the pool in my possession. Now what next? Well of course, set it up. Getting a 9 foot wide four foot deep pool set up, filter in place, and filled with water could not be that hard, right?

WRONG.

I woke up this lovely morning to major humidity and temps that were going to reach upwards of 90 degrees. Not the best weather to be assembling a large pool, but what the heck, I was going to give it a go.

I corraled all the kids into the car and headed to Wal-Mart to find an air pump. We were successful in finding the air pump, and some kick boards, and some diving rings, and some water balls. [One can never seem to leave a store like Wal - Mart when kids are along without anything extra that was not on the list.]

We arrived home, where I loaded the what seemed to be 100 lb. pool all wrapped up into the kids wagon, and dragged it into the back yard. Already I was sweating. I layed out the protective bottom mat strategically trying to place it in the most level spot I could find [which took about an hour.] I then gave it the old heave ho and carried the pool to the middle of said mat, unwrapped it, and began rolling it out.

After I accomplished this, I went to find an extension cord to reach from the house, all the way down to the yard where I needed to hook up the electric pump in order to fill the top ring of the pool. After searching in our garage for a good 20 minutes, I was only able to come up with 1 cord which was not going to be long enough. SO, I went to the neighbors and borrowed another one. Went to the back yard, attached it to mine, still not long enough. Went back to the neighbors, borrowed another one, went to the backyard, and attached it to the others, still not long enough. Went back to the neighbors AGAIN, borrowed ANOTHER extension cord, attached it to the others, and FINALLY it was long enough. Whew. Thank God for the neighbors and their huge supply of extension cords.

I then was able to fill the top ring of the pool with air, which in turn made it possible for me to fill the pool with water. Or so I thought. After reading the manual a bit further I found that the filter needed to be hooked up before filling the pool with water commenced. Darn.

So, I pulled out the box with the filter, opened it, took one look at the parts involved in putting it together and decided it was not going to happen without some assistance. Some assistance from my wonderful Father - in - Law. He came through yet again and came over and got the filter assembled and hooked up to the pool.

Now for the easy part, putting the hose in the pool, sitting back and letting it fill up, right?

Wrong. Again.

We put the hose in, let it fill for about an hour, and found that the water was all pooling to one side. Guess the area I chose was not as level as I thought. Darn. We emptied some of the water, and moved the pool this way, and that way, discussing, thinking, trying to come up with the most level spot we could find. And by golly, we thought we had it.

Until later in the evening, when I looked outside to find that the pool was obviously not filling equally.

A few swear words, a couple stomps of the foot later, I decided that there was nothing I could do, it was too full now to move, so it would just have to do for this summer. Next summer per Mr. Shelton's request, we are going to pour a concrete slab in the backyard, stick the pool on top of said slab so as not to have to spend a day attempting to find a non-exsistent level spot in our yard. Good thinking on his part, very good thinking.

Later the next day, the kids were begging to go in the pool even though it was not filled quite yet. I thought, what the heck, and let them swim. Turns out the frigid water temperature and the fact that the pool was only half full did not really seem to phase them.

By the end of the day, the hose had done it's job and the pool was completely full. Well, as full as it was going to get with the unlevel ground. I was thrilled to find that I was finally done getting this pool set up. I even managed to get the ladder put together [another long story, that I will refrain from going into]. So it was less than level? So the filter was not operating quite yet [need to fix the outdoor outlet], so the chemicals had not been purchased much less put into the pool? It was filled with water, and the kids were able to get into it, which made them happy. That was all that mattered at this point.

48 hours later, sans a husband, but with the help of my wonderful Father-in-Law, I managed to get this God forsaken pool ready enough for the kids to swim.

It was certainly not done perfectly, and there were a few things that still needed to be taken care of, but they didn't care, they loved it. And this is what made all the work over the past three days worth it. For sure.