I'm entering month 4 of the "yes, pools are worth it" lifestyle. I don't know how we managed the summer heat without one. It is absolutely therapeutic to enjoy a pool in your own backyard after a hot day with some tunes cranking and your beverage of choice in hand. A couple of the very minor, annoyance thoughts came to mind this morning as I was tending to the pool:
Die, crape myrtles! My neighbor to the south has two large bastards planted next to the fence, and these little shitty flowers are cluttering my pool, skimmers and filter with this blastfurnace wind cranking up to full blast levels.
Die, birds that shit in my pool! I'm humoring the wife with her suggestion of placing several of those rotating, sparkly fans around the pool to chase off the grackles and blackbirds, but I already have the next step in mind. It involves a pellet gun and me spending more time on the back patio.
I wish I had more fully appreciated that those convenient little chlorine tabs also have stabilizing CYA built in that builds up to an undesirable level over a relatively short amount of time. Right now I'm playing a game of chicken with fresh water filing and no CL until the levels come down. After that, I'm going to use more liquid CL and only use the tabs as needed for clarifying or to increase stabilizer.