Well, that's ironic...

Our pool is a botanical paradise. I'm not talking about the plants growing around the pool, although there is a lovely Japanese maple that's my favorite. I'm talking about the lovely algae colony/colonies growing IN the pool.

For the past few days, we haven't been able to keep chlorine in the pool. Jimmy cranked up the chlorinator to the max and STILL, where we're supposed to be between 1.0 and 3.0 (whatevers per whatever), we're at 0.2. Hmmm... So you know what you've gotta do. You've gotta get the water sample and head over the the local pool company for testing.

Bubba over at the Pool Supply company ran the sample through the fancy testing equipment, printed out the results, and said, "What's your water look like?" We say, "It's clear, but it looks like there might be algae growing on the walls all of a sudden. And we can't keep the chlorine level up."

Bubba says, "Well, you have an algae problem." Really? Hmmm... what gave you that idea? The test numbers or the fact that we said, "... it looks like there might be algae growing on the walls..."? In defense of Bubba, it was both. What tipped it for him was when we said it looked like algae was starting to grow on the walls of the pool, that explained the very low chlorine reading and the very high phosphate reading. Plants, evidently, thrive on phosphates. (And yes, I know algae is technically in the Kingdom Protista in the five-kingdom system, but I'm simple and two kingdoms is about all I can handle.)

So, a lesson in the eating habits of algae and $186 later, we head home with a bunch of chemicals and a plan. What's ironic is that, while I can't seem to keep anything green alive in my house, I have no problem doing it in my pool.

The other irony is that as I type this, we are watching Caddyshack on AMC. They just did the scene with Chevy Chase and Bill Murray... pool or pond. Pond would be good for you.

Our pool IS pretty much a pond. So I suppose ol' Carl would be right at home. Natural mineral waters and all...