Monday, May 4, 2009

RECLAIMING THE BACK YARD

The back yard . . . it looks really yucky right now but, hopefully, it won't be long before it's pretty again. We've had a couple of guys working since last week to remove the pool, and they finally got it out of here today. It was a huge job for them! They had to dig a little (a lot, really) and cut away portions of the deck, which was perfectly okay since we won't be needing all of that deck now. We'll just keep enough to making getting into the storage building easy. The pool had been here for the past seven years, but we haven't really used it in the last two years. I feel confident in saying that we got our money's worth from it, and it cooled us off on many hot days! One of the BEST days to have the pool was several years ago when I went to buy a swing. I think Chadrick and I went to three Lowe's stores to find the one I wanted and ended up buying it in Statesville. It must have been 100 degrees that day--terribly, terribly HOT! When we got home with the swing, we had to take it out of the box--piece by piece--and carry it around the house to the deck. After we got all of the pieces to the deck, we put on our swimsuits and as we got hot during the assembly process, we'd get in the pool and cool off until we'd dried off and it was time to get in again. Since the swing was on an A-frame, we had to balance it off the deck so we could reach to hang the swing and to assemble the canopy. We were so proud of ourselves for getting that thing put together, and we did a great job--just the two of us! We still have that swing, and I still love it! It's comfortable, and the canopy and seats are made of a mesh material that doesn't hold water and isn't hot--absolutely PERFECT for outdoors! Removing the pool is something that I really wanted, but now it seems bittersweet . . . it's yet another part of Chadrick's childhood that's come and gone. :-( We had some lunches on that deck, enjoyed music and fun lighting, played games . . . yes, it's bittersweet.

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