Green Water

Knowing little to nothing about winterizing a swimming pool, last fall I went into pool winterizing blind. I read a few things after googling the proper words. Really, how hard can it be after reading the tried and true dos and don'ts from the world wide web.

In went the chemicals. Check. Out came a cover I never looked at until that fall day. Ummm, check? Okay, so it was a pool cover to keep debris out of the pool and not a winter cover. It was too late in the season to buy one. But hey,we'll save some money and use what we have. Right? Mistake number uno. The first wind blew the thing off. Sigh.

After talking to a neighbor who used to have a pool and one who currently has a pool, we decided there was nothing to do but leave it cover-less.

Disclaimer: When I say the word 'pool' I say it loosely. It is a soft-sided metal frame...as in poles to hold it up...pool. Other years we have the soft sided blue pool that has a ring to inflate and it is more like a bigger kiddie pool. Last year we moved "up" in the world of pools. Swimming in it made us feel like we were actually in a real pool.

Suffice to say, after the ice melted, it.was.green. Ewwww!!!

Well, I'll just drain it as much as I can and throw some more chemicals in there and we'll be good to go. At least that was my plan. But, no...not that easy. By throwing the chemicals in I had killed most of the algae. But it still looked nasty and dirty and...ick! After talking to a lady at the pool store, we decided we had to get that junk out of there or we might have problems the rest of the summer.

So, recently, we spent a significant amount of time sucking the green, nasty water and equally nasty debris from the pool. [seriously, there was a dead frog in there! shiver!!] A couple of us were down on our knees at the end of the process wiping up the algae from the hidden areas...aka, the seams. It got me thinking....

The pool looked great, all the water and debris was gone. I had thought we were done. Then I moved a seam and looked behind it. Green. Sigh. Still more work to do. I asked our son to get some paper towels and a bucket of water. Down on our hands and knees we circled the inside of the pool cleaning up the green.

The pool floor and sides looked wonderful until I had made that hidden-green-under-the-seams-discovery. How often do I have a mess going on in my hidden places but look and act on the outside like I'm just fine? What messes am I trying to hide? What if what I'm hiding gets away from me? Quickly I can contaminate and make things ugly...turning a clear "pool" into a icky-green-mess.

In a way, all of this reminded me of Psalm 139.

1 You have searched me, LORD,

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

And, by the way, I already have permission from hubs to get a winter cover for next year! ☺ Lesson learned.