Apparently, my campaign to have the pool filled has had some effect.  I spent several days writing nasty notes in the complaint book, notes that were all in capital letters with lots of underlining and exclamation points.  Some just simply said FILL THE POOL!!!! While others went into great detail about how my kids were off this week and wanted to swim and we can’t understand what we are paying association fees for and on and on and on….

Then, on Tuesday or so, I went there and spoke to “the man” himself.  I am not sure who he is or what his title is, but he seemed quite taken aback by the crazy, irate American woman dressed very strangly in jeans and a t-shirt howling at him about the useless pool and how she never would have moved here had she known that the pool would not be running and threatening to move out as soon as possible unless something is done.  He became quite apologetic, and assured me that he would fill it this week, to which I responded “You’ve been saying that for 6 months!  6 MONTHS!!”.  He could feel the unwritten underlining and exclamation points, I know he could.  I left in a huff, with him assuring me that it would be done.

2 days later he was at my door, walking around checking water meters. I just came out to see what was up, because there seem to constantly be people in my yard and I like them to know that I notice them.  Of course, I brought Beauty with me.  I said nothing to him about the pool, but he decided it would be a good opportunity to tell me that it was being cleaned that day and then would be filled.  I thanked him kindly and smiled as he looked warily at Beauty and quickly moved to the road and closed the gate between us.

On Friday…what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A fully filled pool!  Yes, that’s right, its been filled.  It was a joyous occasion, the kids were jumping up and down, ready to run and get their bathing suits, dreams of diving and splashing and playing Marco Polo in their little heads.  Except for one little detail.  Its green.  A sickly, pea green, like watery pea soup mixed with a bit of liquid drano.

Now, perhaps its all my fault.  Perhaps I should have been more specific in my request.  I maybe should have said that I wanted it filled AND chlorinated.  Oh…and the pump and filter running….Better add that in there too.  I could add a little information about PH levels and the addition of acids and bases, but that may be pushing it a bit far.  Perhaps I can go ahead and print out pool maintenance instructions from the internet and leave them with the complaint book.  That’ll get the message across.

I did stop by there again today, hoping that the pool would be blue.  No luck.  I spoke to someone there (a different guy) who really didn’t speak much english.  I questioned about the pool and pantomimed “swimming” with my hands.  The response was “Pool has problems, pool not good.”  You think??  “Fix tomorrow,” he tells me.  Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow….

Its ok, I have lots of pens and ink, and a nice little temper that gets harder and harder to control as I get older….I have faith that my kids will be swimming soon.  ‘Cause I gotta have faith! [audio:Faith1.mp3]