The chlorine, it burns

After several weeks of waiting, the pool is ready again - just in time to go out to Montauk for a week. Last month, the water level started dropping precipitously in our pool. Past the skimmers, past the lights, down towards the bottom. At the same time, the filter stopped working, so in effect we had a stagnant breeding ground for West Nile-loving mosquitoes. Finally, we figured out that the only place the water could be escaping was in the drain pipe. So Gibbons came and drained the rest of the pool, patched it up, and put the hose in it. It takes only about three days to coax 24,000 gallons out of a garden hose, in case you're ever wondering.

On Saturday morning, though, the filter still didn't work. Gibbons came back to prime it this time, and we were off to the races. I thought it would be a good idea to chlorinate the water a bit, seeing as how our municipal water supply is actually 10% less chlorinated than bleach. Just my luck, the pool guys had left a container of "super-chlorinator tabs" at child-level in the cabana. I opened up the can, and the immediate chlorine gas rush from these tablets actually burned the back of my nose and throat a bit. So I stagger out of there, choking and wheezing, throat tightening up, and spend much of the rest of the day seeking proper ventilation. Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Don't inhale concentrated chlorine gas.

To top off a great day, I even got my server working again, which is how you can see this now.

For some reason the mood struck me and I did 250 situps in five groups of 50 today. It's the little things that keep me going.