Our farm has a swimming pool in a central location. It is next to the original old farm house on our property...that has been there for well over 100 years. My husband's grandparents lived in the house and somewhere around 1960-something, his grandmother had a pool built for her grandkids and the community to enjoy. The current pool is the descendent of that original pool.
It has been modified 3 or 4 times now. But, many of its parts date back quite a way and it is rather larger than your average pool and more than slightly cantankerous. I have been doing the maintenance on this pool for close to 20 years now. We have sort of a love-hate relationship, the pool and I. When we first came back to the farm after Jim graduated from veterinary school, the pool maintenance work was divided up between all the farm families. We made up a schedule and everybody did 1 or 2 weeks through the season. The farm crew mowed the grass of the sizeable lawn. Everybody chipped in for the chairs, the plants, the floats, etc. Everybody took turns shopping for the chemicals, sweeping the deck, carrying off the garbage. It was a community effort.
But as everyone else's kids got older, they quit using the pool so much.
And it all fell to me.
Totally sounds like one of those "first world problems" to complain about the burden of a swimming pool, I know! And anyway, it gets so very VERY hot here in the summer (heat index yesterday 109 degrees...and yes, it did actually feel like 109 degrees!) there is honestly not much else for the kids to do if you want them to exercise and spend some time outdoors. But, usually what happens when we go to the pool is they play and I work. I vacuum the pool and test the chemicals and clean the skimmers and backwash the filter and on and on. Then I water plants and hose the deck and clean up the garbage. And I mow the lawn. The kids play and splash around and jump and dive and just about the time they have had enough for one day...I am finished with the work. And since I really don't enjoy swimming in the pool all that much, we usually just head on home at that point. So...they play and cool off...I work and get even hotter. Sometimes I will jump in just for a minute. Just to chill a bit before we go. But usually it is just simpler to leave my swimsuit at home.
But, this year... this year I have re-discovered the joys of the pool!
Not during the day time when the kids are "rocking the pool" so it looks like the wave pool at Geyser Falls in Mississippi.
No! Rather, at night!
Abby and I are running again. She is doing 5K and I am working my way up to that. We run every other evening when the sun has just set, while there is still enough light to see. It would be cooler to run in the early morning, but the dew is so heavy and we are on a dirt road making it more than a little messy...and then there are the spider webs.
So we run in the evening. It is drier then (with fewer spiders.) It is hotter, too. But I plug in my marshmallow ear buds anyway and listen to Robert Ullrey tell me that I am "doing great!!!" on his Couch to 5K podcasts. I slog along, pounding my way through this week's workout until I am dripping with sweat and gritty dirt is stuck all over me.
And then...we go to the pool!
Just Abby and I.
We jump into the car and crank up that a/c and drive to the pool in our sweaty running clothes. And we do the "Nestea plunge" right into the deep end, sometimes without even bothering to take off our socks. That water feels absolutely fabulous when you have gotten as overheated as we have. It is not too cool...getting more like bathwater now that it is August. But it feels completely wonderful when you have been running. After a few laps, I just lie there floating, looking up at the stars coming out. With my ears under the water, I can barely hear anything...just the distant chirr of the cicadas...quiet underwater noises.
It is so peaceful.
The bats are coming out by now. They fly by, dipping down for a drink of clean water. They swoop around for a second or a third pass until they have gotten their fill. Then they fly off on their nightly hunting excursions.
I don't know if it is a runner's high ... just that little bit of much needed solitude ...the blissful coolness ...or what. But I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the goodness of such a simple pleasure, thankful for the beauty of nature, life's experiences, Jim's grandmother and her generosity, ...pretty much everything.
It is almost prayerful.
Meditative.
Euphoric.
And it makes all that annoying pool maintenance work seem like nothing.
Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment