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Tighten that board!

Finally.  After a long and very snowy winter, spring has arrived!  I had the opportunity to get outside this morning and go on a run in this beautiful weather and it was nothing short of amazing.  This type of weather sure does bring back some memories of my days out on the field as a pool service technician…that’s for certain.  So, invigorated by my morning run, I’ve decided to share a story with all of our loyal customers and the rest of cyberspace that may have stumbled upon this local Long Island swimming pool service blog.

A Sincere Thanks

It’s pool opening season right now so first I’d like to thank all of our customers that have scheduled their appointments with us online and by phone.  Your business means the world to us and we are looking forward to another great season with you this year.  We’re also very happy that customers have been enjoying the convenience of scheduling their appointments online.  If you haven’t scheduled your appointment yet, don’t fret; we still have slots available in May and June but they’re filling up fast!  If you’re going to take the road less traveled, i.e. open your pool without the help of an experienced technician, then you’ll probably want to keep reading so you don’t make the same mistake I did.  For everyone else, I suggest you keep reading as well…it’s a funny story.

My Story

It was an early spring day very similar to today, about 65 degrees and sunny, when my father and I were out opening Long Island swimming pools like he did every year.  I say “like he did” because this particular year was my first year out actually opening pools with him.  I was a novice indeed.  And what, pray tell, do novices consistently do? Well, they make mistakes, and that’s exactly what I did.

We were out at a client’s pool in (I want to say) Oyster Bay, our first pool of the day.  It was a brisk morning, so we were wearing our sweatshirts and jeans like we typically do during early season openings.  We got the cover off and it was easy to see that this pool had been battered pretty badly by the winter.  We’re talking pea soup here, and not the kind momma used to make.  Whoever winterized this pool certainly didn’t subscribe to the Paul Romanelli & Son school of thought.

These problems, however, are easily handled and my father – experienced as he was – didn’t even flinch at the pool that could be harboring a family of Swamp Things.  He told me to get the diving board out and start hooking it up while he proceeded to give the pool a Shocking of a lifetime.  I took the diving board out of the shed and placed it on its fulcrum, so all that was left to do was get the wrench and begin tightening.  Just as I was doing that, my father asked me to give him a hand with the chemicals so, like a good son and helper, I did.  A few minutes later I found myself walking around the pool with two streams of Shock flowing from the gallon bottles I held and into the Green Monster.

Now it gets interesting.  As I’m walking around the pool, I step on the diving board simply as a shortcut to get from one side to the other.  Well, my “shortcut” really turned out to be more of a detour than anything else.  A detour that spit me out kicking and screaming into the depths of an icy cold, saag paneer colored swimming pool…alongside the diving board that I neglected to bolt down!  And…don’t forget that I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, plus it was the first pool of the day.  I’d take a cup of fresh Colombian coffee to start my day over that scenario any day of the week.

My father did eventually help me out of the water, somewhere between making sure I was OK and having a few chuckles at my expense.  I don’t blame him.  Luckily, I was alright – besides being wet, cold, annoyed and slightly concerned that I was just wading in a freshly shocked pool.  Also, no damage was done to the pool and we admitted that we were very lucky in that regard.  So, long story short for all you pool owners out there: don’t put the diving board in it’s place until you are absolutely ready to…

TIGHTEN THAT BOARD!

Tags: comedy, diving board, lessons learned, safety

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 5:59 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.