I’M A DRUG PUSHER!

Yes, you’d think a guy like me would have a different hobby, but no, I push drugs. Well not drugs but chemicals. If you remember the Vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who ran with Walter Mondale, the stickers looked like an Italian poster, the name ‘Mondale’ does look Italian, even if it isn’t, had a son who was selling drugs, and consequently, they the school mates in college called him ‘the chemist.’

Well, while everyone who owns a pool in the sweltering heat tomorrow will be in it, I will be at the pool, pouring chemicals into it to get it up to snuff.

I purchased a new pool cover last fall with a mesh that although is strong, lets in all the fine dust and debris over the winter. When I opened the pool this summer it the water was green, making me believe it was St. Patrick’s Day! It seems the algae doesn’t want to go away, so after one attempt, I had the water tested and sure enough it is suffering $100 worth of algae, what it cost in chemicals to bring it back to swimmable condition. I love the pool, go in it and don’t mind the cost. But still, that is a lot of chemicals to spill into the pool and that doesn’t even count for the shock I have to still pour into it.

The chemicals themselves must weight about 60 lbs, and some of it is powder and some liquid, and it will take the whole day to apply, along with my robot that has to clean up some of the residue in between applications. That is $.60/lb.

I went into the pool store nearby and this young fellow still in high school took my water sample and tested it. It is a very impressive procedure using electronics such as a computer, meters and little things that he puts samples of water into with long syringes, tallies the whole thing up and says I have algae. Gives me a printout and bill all at once. His daddy must be proud of him! The pool is probably where I caught the algae, and the only cure for the pool and me is $100 worth of chemicals!

But so help me God, I will rid the pool of the algae, and when I do take a victory lap around it, then call the guy to close it, because it will take me all summer to rid the pool of the algae and for me to get into it one more time!