A little hard work is worth the effort

     Loftis

My wife, Lisa, loves anything to do with water. She loves to fish. She loves to swim. She loves to relax on the beach, preferably in Florida.

So it didn’t come as a surprise when Lisa decided to purchase an above-ground pool for our back yard a few weeks ago.

I’m not handy, and a project like putting up a pool offers a good opportunity for frustration when two people are working together. But we did it. It took us a little while longer than it should have but we got the pool in place and began filling it with water.

It didn’t long, though, before we realized our mistake. We’d chosen a spot in the back yard that isn’t level. We thought it was close enough, but once we began adding water it was obvious that things were lopsided. I was afraid the pool would collapse, so we agreed we’d drain it and move it when we had a chance.

As it turned out, Lisa decided that Memorial Day was a perfect time to move the pool. She’s off that day, like most folks, but it’s actually one of the busier days of the year for me since it’s deadline day for the paper and there are usually multiple events honoring our military veterans.

I covered an event that afternoon at the Blossoms in Berryville, then decided to run home for a quick bite. I walked in the house to discover Lisa in the back yard, trying her best to deconstruct the pool and drag it to a more level spot. It wasn’t until later that I realized she had sent me a text message asking for my help.

I’ll be honest. It was hot. I was dressed to work in the office, not the back yard. I was a little frustrated but I wasn’t going to let Lisa hurt herself trying to wrestle that heavy pool liner across the yard. Once again, it took us a minute but we got the pool set up in a better spot.

Lisa filled it with water, kept it clean and applied the right chemicals. It was great, except that it wasn’t warm enough. That was frustrating on days when the high temperature approached 90.

The problem, of course, was that the heat wasn’t consistent. The mornings were too cool (speaking strictly in the sense of warming up the pool).

Once the morning temps go up, I told Lisa, the water will be just fine.And so it came to pass.

Over the weekend, the water was perfect. It was still cool but it was the refreshing kind of cool.

I wasn’t thrilled about working in the heat on Memorial Day getting that pool put up, but it was sure worth the effort in the end.

Now, it’s time to wrap up this newspaper and take a dip!