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Writer's pictureEmily Taylor

Summer's Last Gasp


Toy Soldiers before the storm

The pool was both one of the best things about the summer, and also the bane of my existence this past season. Despite careful balancing of the pool chemicals, we managed to have a pool that would make the Chicago River's St. Patrick's Day color “green with envy.” (Har, har.) It was a struggle dealing with the algae, especially since I was measuring chemicals and testing levels every other day. We ended up getting a better pool filter than the one that came with the Quikset package. Next year, we can run the new filter for a longer period of time, and hopefully prevent the murky green color we suffered through this year. As far as swimming goes, we're lucky enough to be able to give him some extra time. It's one of the benefits of both homeschooling and running a self-publishing business. However, it's a struggle to get back into the Fall mindset. Boychild doesn't like getting back to schoolwork after a summer of relative freedom. One of the benefits of homeschooling, though, is that it doesn't need specific hours, and, depending on your style, doesn't require a specific curriculum. I can trick him into learning despite himself. Because we're located in the Midwest, I was able to turn on the TV last week and spend an entire day discussing weather and, specifically, hurricanes. It may have been bright and sunny here, but we watched Florence roll into the Carolinas. Between the 24-7 news channels and Explore.org's live videos on Youtube, we learned about the eye of a hurricane, the wind speed and categories, and what happens beneath the ocean's surface. I imagine it was probably funny to watch the Boychild and I sitting in front of the computer staring at a video of the murky gray water from the churning of the ocean and trying to pick out what fish were swimming around underneath. We also enjoyed The Weather Channel's video on the height of storm surges and what they would look like in person. (Seriously, watch that video!)

Of course, this brings us full circle to the discussion of taking down the pool. We watched the waves and swells on the TV, so I can only imagine that it had an impact on one of his final swimming sessions as he created a “hurricane” in the pool. Apparently, this involves giant waves. I was impressed by the size of the created waves in our small-ish pool.

Also, for the record, there were toy soldiers and boats which were apparently caught in Hurricane Boychild. I'm probably going to have to scour the grass next to the pool to find them after we take the pool down but before we mow. These poor guys don't need to get chewed up even more.

 

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