Tuesday Twitterdeedum

Today begins another series of hoppin' poppin' days. I take Mother to her regular semi-annual heart appointment with Dr. Jenkins later this morning. He's done wonders through medication for Mother's heart, and we don't anticipate any concerns cuz she says she's feeling great.

Bill leaves after work to pick up Willie at Spokane Airport. He comes in at 7:40 p.m., and they'll probably arrive here close to 11 p.m. because of an obligatory stop at DICK'S Hamburgers. I don't know if I'll wait up for them because tomorrow's a busy day too.

Willie goes to a meeting tomorrow here in Sandpoint. I'll save the full story on that for another day, but it's good. Then, he and I will leave, as Bill and his friend Boz say, at O-Dark Thirty Thursday morning for his 8:30 a.m. flight back to Boise.

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I must be getting very paranoic and seeing blue too much of the time these days. We heard some loud blasts here late last night. One woke me from a deep sleep, and the other awakened me about half hour later when I had almost drifted back to sleep.

And, speaking of drifting, that got me focused on Big Blue. I must have been in a semi-stupor because as my brain analyzed what might have caused the blast, I began to wonder if Big Blue had done one more thing to get out of work.

The reason I wondered was that I began to fill Big Blue (Da Pool) again yesterday. First, I tried to clean the floor of Big Blue, where residue had built up in pockets. Using the hose, I sprayed hard against the dirt, and finally conceded to myself that we would have to get that pool vacuum out to do the job right.

Well, enough water had been sprayed inside the enclosure that Big Blue had several outright mud puddles.

"Can't have this, " I thought to myself. So, I proceeded to try to empty Big Blue by rolling him up and turning him over. Several sagas ago, I mentioned a giant walrus when trying to describe how one manipulates one of these pools. Let's add to that a giant "greased" walrus.

Luckily Big Blue resides out behind the barn a long ways from the road or from earshot of humans. The cows next door heard several "expletives" as I pushed, tugged, grunted and urged Big Blue to just turn over and let that muddy water out.

After I had finally managed a complete turnover, most of the water refused to empty. It just kept flowing to other pockets in different parts of the mass. "Expletive, Expletive, Expletive."
None of my persuasion, physical or verbal, did any good.

So, I gave up cleaning the muck out and turned the pool right side up. To a stubborn mass of vinyl, add dozens of tree toads who have taken up residence in the pool since its overnight draining a few days ago. I'd throw one out, and another would start hopping around. Like the muddy water, they did not want to leave.

After catching most of them and flinging them over the rim, I started filling the pool. Again, lots of physical labor followed in an effort to get the circular seam positioned correctly for 360 degrees. Once that was done, I headed off to the house and decided that I needed to add a new moniker to the pool: the 'Hail Mary, Please Stay Full of Water--Even If It Isn't Holy--Behind the Barn Miracle."

About half an hour later, I returned to my version of Lourdes to find that the southwest portion of the pool is holding most of the water. That means lopsided, for sure. That means I may not attempt to FILL the enclosure but merely pump in enough water for some sit-down refreshment.

I turned the water off and then resumed the filling process after dinner, almost forgetting to go out and turn off the hydrant before heading to bed. Fortunately, I spend enough time thinking about that pool and trying to come up with an idea for filling it properly that I did remember. Thank God.

Still, as the blasts went off last mind, my groggy mind wondered if that pool could be the cause---after all, stranger things have happened in its lifetime here at the Lovestead.

This morning, it still sat there, not blasted off into space, still lopsided and happily waiting for the next chapter in its never-ending story.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, I'm still praying.

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Well, I got off on the pool too much, so this morning's post won't have a lot of twitterdeedum, and you're probably glad.

So, have a nice Tuesday, and I'm headed for the hydrant.