The Horror in the Back Yard

RIP-Literally

But let me back up a bit.

This was taken on July 4 last year. All my children and my mother and 6 grandchildren here to celebrate the day.

We had a great time and this little one was especially happy as she had spent most of the day floating around in that little inflatable car that her uncle has commandeered in this picture. Most of you have read in previous posts that the next day, July 5, a huge tree fell on my house. As I sat in my room, feeling quite secure, I heard the winds rising and thought, "Darn, we left the pool toys in the pool and they're all going to blow away."

Well, after the big fall, we ended up spending the rest of the summer and part of the fall elsewhere and by the time we got back home, the pool was in pretty bad shape. This was going to happen anyway. We had been patching little tears in the liner for a couple of years, and the tears and patches had been getting bigger all summer. The neglect probably helped things along, and in the end we had to decide whether to fix the liner for several thousand dollars or fill the pool for several thousand dollars. It was a really hard decision, but for a variety of reasons--future expense--the enormous amount of time my husband spent on the pool every summer--the fact that the pool just doesn't get that much use--the fact that I never wanted a pool to begin with--we decided the pool had to go.

So, the big day came and this monster arrived to start hammering holes in the concrete. I just noticed how small the pool looks next to the beast.

When it was finished all the concrete was in the pool. I missed this first part because I was at work. I came home to find all the concrete in the pool. I figured at this point our decision was pretty irrevocable.

Then, the next morning, a Saturday, Junior showed up

and started hauling sand and dirt from the big truck in the drive to dump it in the pool. The truck couldn't get close to the pool because it was too heavy to drive over the line to the septic tank--we weren't going to ask for any more trouble.

Now I want to make sure you notice that the one thing I worried about the day of the storm did not come to pass. C. S. Lewis said that the hundred different things we worry about never happen, it's something new that surprises us. I guess that in this case, he was right.

Ten months later, and here's a little inflatable pink boat. I think the car actually DID blow out of the pool.

But there were plenty of other toys left, and maybe 100 years from now, somebody will find them here.

It was kind of hair-raising to me to watch this guy dump stuff in the pool and then drive out to the very edge of the dirt pile.

And there he sits victorious on the no-longer-a-pool.

And there it isn't. I love it that the angle of the picture makes the well-head cover look like a tombstone.

Unfortunately, we also have a sort of driveway through the yard now. We want to plant grass, but it was too early a couple of weeks ago when this happened and also, as soon as the trucks left, it started raining torrentially and has been doing so frequently ever since. As far as I can tell, Mother Nature is trying to recreate the pool. I think if you stepped on it, you would go to spend eternity with the pool toys.

I have had some sad moments since we filled the pool, but I haven't really had much time to think about it as we have moved on to the next big thing. I'm really glad that we had that nice family gathering on the last day, though. Sadly, most of the kids won't remember the day, and some of them won't remember the pool, but I'm thinking about printing a little book about it so they can see the day pool disappeared.

AMDG

BTW, my granddaughter Tessa, The Great Photographer, took that picture. I think she took it the night before the tree fell, but maybe not.