esrosedotblog

CONDO DAZE

Sometimes when I look around our complex, I have to smile about the show that goes on.

Our pool, which I am not really using this year, had its temperature raised from 82 to 83 degrees F.

I just saw that in the HOA news/minutes which are posted on line. Home Owners Assn. Funny. One degree. They were trying to figure if it cost them more on gas. Are you kidding me?

There are a number of things like that. Diddling. But that is the HOA way and we knew that coming in.

We know enough to stay clear of it, pay our dues, elect the board members and reflect on micro-organizational behavior. There are significant cliques which we have not decoded, so we don't bitch and gossip with the neighbors about what "they" are doing. We might be talking to "them".

New rule for living in a smallish town that calls itself a city. Everybody is somebody's friend. Discretion.

This is the time of year for scalping. I have talked about this before.

All the lawns in the Coachella Valley are bermuda grass. Otherwise a weed, here it grows well in the summer but dies back in the winter. They scrape the earth and plant annual rye seed for the "winter". Dust, shit, corruption. Keep the doors shut until it is done. Two or three days minimum.

Labels: condo, pool

IN HOT WATER

I got John a go-to-the-spa white terry robe--thick turkish cotton--for his birthday the other day and so we went the hundred yards to the spa to try it out.

The spa was cold.

Bummer!

A first.

I am sure that it will be fixed as it gets a lot of traffic from the old and young folks over here. One neighbor calls it the "therapy pool". That takes it into a whole different class of activity. Not for pleasure but for near medical reasons.

John and I are not obtuse about it. We go to the spa because it feels good and it is a good unwind at the end of the day. Stars, heat, mountains. Palms. Gorgeous.

The big pool still works fine so that means they are not on the same heater. Good.

I did not meet my goal to take a swim on christmas, it was too hazy cloudy for good sun. But I did go the day before and it was glorious.

We have never had a heated pool for winter swimming.

I am all for it.

The water temps are more than the air. But if I stay in the sun when I get out after my laps, I warm up in minutes. The air can be in the 60s but the radiation of the sun feels like 90.

If there is any cloud cover, though, I am screwed and I get cold like everyone else.

The pool here is largely unused. I use it more than anyone as far as I can tell. There is another woman who comes down to our side of the complex to use our pool. She is almost always there when I am.

Otherwise, it is usually people who are leasing the income units. And not all of them by any means.

I will be in the pool any day that it is sunny enough.

This next week will be in the high 50s and "mostly sunny" or "partly cloudy". Not a good combination for pool time but I will be there if the window opens.

Labels: pool

POLAR BEAR CLUB

As it got colder this week, I retreated from my daily pool routine of three laps, ten minutes of sun (front), another lap in the pool, ten minutes sun (back) and then a last lap before I go home.

I felt the sun when I walked out to see how it was but I wasn't convinced enough to put on my bathing suit and go try it out.

Today, I said "the hell with it" and went.

The reason for this is that it was fucking cold in Long Beach. A record last night of 38F for the day.

I wore shorts. I walked on the beach. I got my feet wet. I went to dinner and we sat on the patio and it rained on us a little.

I got through it all.

So today, I went to the pool. It was windy and the air temp was 67. But the pool water was 82. I jumped in and it was warm!

And I got out and, while there was a chill in the wind, it was fine in the sun. That is what makes the difference. There is no moisture in the air and, if I am in the sun, I am baking. UV. Ultra violet heat.

And in the middle of my routine, an older woman came (with a bathing cap) and dove into the pool and did about the same.

So I am OK with the winter swimming.

Hardened.

Labels: life, pool, weather

SUN TIME

Speaking of downtime, I am reverting to an old practice that I began when we moved here to Palm Springs 13 years ago.

This latest move has gotten going back to first principles. Well some of them.

I am spending 20 minutes in the sun at the pool every day.

Ten minutes a side for the sun and a backstroke swim up and down the pool before, during and after the 20.

I am getting my tan back and my natural Vitamin D but, more importantly, I am getting down time. Quiet.

No one is at the pool or if there is/are, they are as quiet as I am. There can be some social time if necessary but that is not the point.

Sun. Quiet. Light exercise.

There is something about being "near" the sun, too. Engulfed by its light and heat. Universal. Like I could hold it or, perhaps, that it is holding me.

We are in a heat wave for three days. Emergency warnings. 115 degrees.

I still go out.

It is all relative. The only danger is the hot metal on the lounges.

Today I discovered that if I lie down closer to the bushes, I get a spray of water from the sprinkler for a few minutes. Nice.

Labels: meditation, pool, quiet

SEVEN DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I have had the pool cover on for a week and have gotten a rise of seven degrees. One a day. 67 degrees. Almost enough for some people to take a dip.

We will need another fifteen degrees for the SoCal body to take it.

I will not get a degree a day for the next period of time but this is a good start.

I can keep the cover on and just remove it for the pool guy twice a week.

The goal is to have it up and warming by April. I think we will make it.

The weather has been warm again this week. We were supposed to get rain and a cooling trend yesterday but it didn't show up.

They have also taken the wet weather out of the long range forecast.

All tee shirt weather. Very nice.

Labels: pool

WARM UP

I know the rest of the country is not thinking about this. Well, maybe in Florida.

But we have to get our pool ready for visitors in April.

The water temperature right now is 57 F. Not very good for swimming. We have to warm it up.

That means, for the first time in a long time, I will be using the "solar cover" instead of the solar heating.

Our solar system hit the skids last summer and after seven years would have to be replaced. The ultra violet rays are killer even on the nylon from which the solar mats are made.

I wasn't ready to cough up the 4,000 dollars plus to replace it.

We use a bubble wrap looking pool cover. It absorbs the rays in (radiation) but doesn't let the water's heat out (convection). Not to get technical but, actually, there is heat transfer from conduction too. The ground is not all that warm yet.

The pool cover lasts three years and costs about $200 to replace.

I will get a degree or two a day rise. Maybe three.

It doesn't sound like much but figure this. All the days are sunny. Most. In 20 days I will have a 20 degree rise which is just what I want. Actually it is not a geometric curve. It will tail off. Say 30 days. It will be 80.

Best guess.

By April, actually, the night temps will get to about 70 so it will be in equilibrium. Or something.

It is aqua incognita.

Labels: pool

PLUNGE

Every spring, I hang back from my first dive into the pool.

Today was the day I took the plunge. I am about two weeks late.

I had cut my own hair this morning and was prickling from it. So I went and got it off in the pool. And changed my shirt.

The water is just right. In the low to mid 80s. The air the same. Nice and dry.

It felt great. Now, I will be a pool regular until, maybe, November.

A Bigger Splash: David Hockney

Labels: pool

DRAINING

As I type, the pool is being drained.

Every three years.

It takes about 12 hours.

You need a permit!

Why?

So that when people complain about flooding, the cops will know it is temporary and paid for and will tell them to stuff it.

You can only do it at night although Frank set the pump up earlier today and tested it. He started a siphon so it began draining immediately. He came to turn the pump on and thought I had turned it on. No. I had to explain siphoning to the pool man.

It will cost about 50 dollars for the new water. In summer it would cost over 100. We have sliding scale transpiration pricing. Desert.

Why do we have to pump it every three years? It gets so hard from constant levelling to cover evap that the soup gets thicker and thicker with minerals. The water is so hard we would bounce off it if we were salt ions. And that is what we use to keep the saline system of chlorination working.

None of us have bounced off the hard water. It is only the ions.

The water is going down the outer drive to the corner where that house sits right on top the flood plain. The water will pool there to about 4-5 inches before it runs out to the main street and down more hill to the bottom. The pool of water at the corner will seep down to the water table. We are giving back!

Well, it wasn't intentional but so what? Don't we get green stamps anyway?

You do not want to empty the pool after a heavy rain especially in clay soil. The pool will rise out of the ground.

It hasn't rained here that much in a long time and clay doesn't really exist here. Not in my neighborhood anyway.

End of story.

Labels: pool

HEAT

We just bought one of these.

A new spa heater. Ray Pac. NOX. That means that it conforms with the new CA environmental laws plus the regulations in Riverside County.

Our old ten year old model was operating in fits and starts all last week.

The guys said that it had even melted one of its core elements.

Dangerous.

This is safe but a hard surprise in the pocketbook.

It works good and looks good.

We are happy to have the spa each night.

But, keerist, I had other ideas for that 2500 dollars.

Believe me.

Labels: pool

FIRST DAY

When I was a kid backeast, we all waited for the first day that we could swim.

There was Seguine's artificial lake in the early years. It featured water snakes and a wide variety of local types with whom we would not normally mix.

But we are all one on the first swimming day.

I don't know how we were able to know when it arrived but I think that it was these same unsavory types who blazed the wet trail.

We would drive by on the way to somewhere else and there were cars parked along the woods that led to the lake.

You did have to be careful as the place was also a good site for snoggering. You needed to see a wet person in a bathing suit through the trees or else you might wander into someone's love nest. And I don't mean the water snakes.

There was a spillway so you didn't have to dunk entirely. You could wade your way in and then dive if you were so inclined.

I do remember that it was fucking cold.

Later, they re-opened the community pool and the starting day was determined by the authorities who opened up when they were damned good and ready.

Later still, I got to swim in the pools of local resorts. All you had to do was snag a friend who stayed there or had pull to get in; usually an employee of the hotel.

My Uncle Hank worked for the Onawa Lodge and my cousin Phil and I spent many happy days at their 'natural' pool. A mudhole lined with drywall rocks. Also snakes. I don't know if the lodgers saw them or not.

The Onawa had a social director and so each week there were water shows with games and clowns and all.

We often got to help. We greased the watermelon for the contest of the same name. We hid the confetti pail so when the 'water' got thrown into the crowd no one got wet.

I had my first homosexual experience there with one of the social directors. Maybe it was molestation but I don't think it is if you kinda liked it.

My cousin Phil and I were doing it anyway but an older man; well!

Maybe we were doing the proverbial 'asking for it'.

A whole separate life.

Where was I?

Oh. First Day. Pools.

When I went to MIT, seasonality vanished and the first day sort of disappeared. The clean olympic plus sized pool was indoors.

After that, the first day would move to the sea side. I don't know how we could tell when it was time to go into the icy waters of Cape Cod Bay. But we did.

All of this adds up to the news that today was our first day in our very own pool. The first for 2007.

John was first.

I was inside and heard him calling me. He was naked and wet out by the edge; just out.

It didn't take me long to be just in. Second but still.

The water is 83 degrees. Cool and crispy for us but very refreshing.

We had our first day.

Summer is here.

Our air temp is in the 90s and the humidity is down into the single digits.

Labels: nostalgia, pool