Sparkling Pool

Finally: the swimming pool in the courtyard below our apartment — which management likes to refer to as a “sparkling pool” — is open.

It’s unheated, so it wasn’t open in winter. And then this spring it was resurfaced, which went something like this: drain the pool and jackhammer out the old concrete liner. Leave it for six weeks to collect leaves and standing water while residents mutter to themselves about incompetent contractors and rent reductions. And then, sometime last week while we were house-sitting in Danville: spray in a new liner, refill the pool, let it settle, and take down the “pool closed” signs.

But hey; it’s open. And although the water’s still pretty cold, it’s wonderful to be able to pop down for an evening swim, as the shadows lengthen and the swallows stunt overhead.

(Update: after tonight’s swim I did a quick walk around the pool, measuring width and length in strides. About 5 yards by 12 yards. Which makes the diagonal a neat root-sum-of-squares 13 yards; my habit of swimming diagonally for more distance between turns is not really worth the effort.)