Pool Chemistry 101...

At my high school there were two chemistry teachers --the one everyone loved, who taught for 6,000 years and was legend for making his students want to become doctors and pharmacists, and the crazy one who was working on her PhD but couldn't explain the chemical structure of carbon dioxide vs. carbon monoxide to students, yet she was allegedly brilliant in a research environment. Allegedly.

I had the crazy one.

So when pool chemistry goes awry, as it is wont to do the latter part of June every single year, I am clueless. And impatient.

In the middle of June, our pool looked like this:

And today it looks like this:

Wait... it's hard to see just how bad it is from a distance. Let's try that again. Here it is two-ish weeks ago:

And here it is today:

Hmmm... notice a change? Yes, it is a different color. Copper-colored, to be exact.

As I understand it, what had happened was this: the chlorine and pH levels dropped. A lot. We added a ton of chlorine (and repaired the automatic chlorinator, leaving it set on MAX-10).

Then we filled the pool with about 8" of water because between the lack of rain and the prevalence of diving championships, the water level had fallen significantly. The unbalanced chlorine and pH helped leach copper out of the pipes in the pool heater. Mind you, if the heater were a little newer, it would have been plumbed so that when it's off the water flows around the copper pipes and not through the copper pipes. But no, it's old, so water flows through the copper pipes of the pool heater whether it's on or not. Over the course of a week, the pool went from pristine blue to pond-muck green-brown. Lovely.

Only here's the thing... now the water chemistry is near-perfect. It's the pool liner that's stained. I feel like I need to call Bill Murray and invite him for a swim.

Other pool-or-pond, pond-would-be-good-for-you visitors we have include insects...

(OK, you have to be a little impressed at the sparkles under the cricket's feet. Downright Disney, don't ya think?)

...and amphibians...

We are waiting on someone who majored in science and understands chemistry (i.e. won't kill every living thing in the neighborhood) to get off work one evening while it is still light and finish the de-staining treatment.

In the meantime, I'm headed poolside to chat with the enchanted creatures who have taken residence in our backyard pond pool. 

Belle...

What I did on Saturday (and Sunday)...

Bright and early Saturday noon, I decided to tackle the deck furniture and get it spiffed up for Summer 2011. Saturday was primer day. And Sunday was top coat day.

Thankfully, I was able to resurrect the dining set for yet another year, which is good because replacing the decking boards is on our pro-jik list for July (and probably August and maybe even September, if things go the way they usually go when I tackle DIY pro-jiks).

Last year I left the cushions out all the time. They faded, mildewed and even grew some lovely algae which very rudely wouldn't come off completely in the washing machine. I believe that's the outdoor fabric triumvirate of ick. I ended up scraping and scrubbing them by hand before they went into the attic. When I took them out of storage this year, they were faded AND stained. Ew.

So I did what every cost-conscious DIYer would do. I flipped them over. :)

I blame last year's cushion debacle on my own laziness. It seemed like too much trouble to untie each cushion and take it inside when we weren't using the table.  This year, instead of tying the cushions to the chairs, I made bows out of the ties and laid them in the chairs.

And it looked so very lovely. Seventeen minutes later, the loud thunder clap signaled the beginning of "Operation Save the Cushions."

Less than a minute after that, all six cushions were safely tucked into the stairwell of the bonus room, conveniently located next to the back door that leads to the deck. I'm guessing it's fewer than ten steps from dinette to stairwell. I think it'll work, because let's face it, if it takes a lot of effort, it's probably not happening in the summer. Except for the decking thing. I hope.

Mighty little man...

Still my favorite song by Steve Burns (including the planet song from Blue's Clues, and that's saying something).

Confession...

All those things I always say I'm going to do during the school year but never actually have time to do... that's what I'm doing this summer.

And it is fun...

Old Navy rocks the 80's...

It's official. The 80's are back. Old Navy has pleated jeans.

Old Navy pleated capris in dark blue - click here.

Old navy pleated capris, light blue version - click here.

Oh, 1980's, I always knew you'd come back. And now... enjoy this lovely photo of the 1986-ish me, making a college spring break stop at South of the Border on the way to Disney.

English major armadillo #2...