I know it's only February, but I keep staring out the back window at that big, black, ice-covered mass out there longing for weather warm enough that I can open it back up. I wanna play with it. I wanna try out everything I've learned from this site and all of the helpful people here. (I mean that I want to try out what I learned from the helpful people, not that I want to try out the people themselves. )

Once mid-March rolls around, I'm going to have to fight the urge to open the pool just so I can play with it, even though it will still be way too cold to swim. I opened at the end of March last year because the liner had been leaking all winter and the cover fell in (along with all the gunk it had collected over the winter,) which somehow caused the liner to come out of the track and also fall in. Once I got the liner re-hung, I wanted to get the gunk out of the pool, so opened it up and then just left it open, even though I couldn't use it. I won't even mind all of the milkweed fluff I will have to deal with.

When we first bought the house (last year was our first summer here,) I expected that the pool was going to be a lot of work and a real pain to deal with. I found that it wasn't as much work as I'd expected and that I really didn't mind it. Vacuuming the pool a couple of times a week was something I started looking forward to. It was quite relaxing and a great stress reliever. I even found myself vacuuming the pool when it didn't really need it, just because. DW asked me to teach her and the older kids to do it so they could help. I kept telling her "no, it's a lot more work than it looks like." In reality I didn't want any of them "stealing" my job. I doubt that any of them would really enjoy it, but I want to do it. (Is that insane, or what!)

The biggest problem I had last year was that I hadn't heard of TFP or BBB and was relying on the pool store for guidance. That was expensive. You know the drill: add a chemical this week, and next week add something else to undo whatever I just did. (What is really surprising is that even though the retail people were trying to sell me everything in sight, the repair guys (from the same store) were doing everything they could to save me money.)

I started comparing notes with a friend who has a pool, (and who is a lurker here,) and he recommended this site and BBB. He was spending a whole lot less on his pool than I was.

SO..., I can't wait to get started with BBB this spring and try out all this new-found knowledge. Heck, if the pool wasn't a block of ice and I could get water out of it, I'd test it just for fun. COME ON SPRING!!!!!!!

Nice post, Tim!

I definitely hear you on the pool dudes v.s. pool store - I'm the same way

Glad you've had a good pool owning experience and found us to keep your pool 'trouble free'

Spring isn't that far away, it gets closer every day

Sounds like a classic case of Sparklypoolitis...

I can't wait for Spring!

_{*psst... I like to sweep my pool too. It's probably why I never got Wanda the Whale or Diver Dave*}

Ummm...I vacuumed mine last week.

Of course, I don't close mine as it really doesn't get cold enough for long enough to do it. Still, the water temp is in the 40s, but I just couldn't stand the stuff on the bottom that the Baracuda was missing.

Sparklypoolitis. I'm guilty.

AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!! It's snowing!!! We're going the wrong way!!!

This weekend does not look pretty!

It is really nasty out, this morning. It's snowing again, and the roads are just warm enough to turn it into slush. It's supposed to keep up all day and into Saturday morning.

Of course we're not going to get hit as hard as the Mid-Atlantic seaboard. According to the NWS, they are going to get hit with some really nasty stuff.

We have a pond and four wood duck boxes placed in and around it. We have provided homes for mother nature to raise literally hundreds of wood ducks for the past 22 years.

Regardless of the weather, the wood ducks show up in our pond to squabble over the boxes and generally hang out somewhere between the first and second week in February.

I have been looking every morning but so far nothing. They really have been the harbinger of Spring for us (even though we usually have a few weeks of cold weather left) and I'll post back up on the day they show up. It'll make my day!

After I posted the above, I got up to get something out of the living room.

Looking out the LR window towards the pond, there was a pair of wood ducks sitting on the pond....right on que.

Won't be long now!!

Spring? Whats that? We might see a couple leaves on some shrubs by April 20th? I've seen it snow 3 feet (no lie, 1997) on April 1st.

That's just too cool! Signs of spring are always welcome.

I saw a robin earlier this week. They usually don't start showing up around here until March. I don't know if this one was lost, or was reading the wrong calendar.

No robins up here yet. I did see a few crows trying to steal the cats' food. If there weren't any houses around, I'd of blasted them with the 20 gauge.

I saw two signs of an early spring. Home Depot has their patio furniture out and one of their clerks was giving an informational presentation to a family on the various gas grills.

It's snowing again! Granted, we didn't get hammered like the northeast did, but still... We have more snow on the ground right now than we got all of last year. Fortunately we only have a few inches accumulated right now, not three feet. I feel for everyone who's buried over there.

I won’t get too much sympathy form most of you but spring can’t come a day too soon for me either.

It’s been **** cold down here in Florida!!!! I haven’t bothered to try to heat the pool cause of the record breaking, environmentally damaging cold winter we’ve had. I have been clicking on the spa heater an hour or two before cocktail hour though. I call it my kiddy pool.

Sunday the water temp was 79 and the air temp 84. I jumped in for a moment. The warm air allowed me to do some much needed maintenance on the pool and pool equipment. Today, Monday we are suppose to have another cold front come through.

For a moment? If mine was 79 degrees and the air temp was 84, i'd be lounging by the pool and floating in there with a beer. My pool is fozen over solid and we are getting snow/ice/ and rain all week.

You florida people are panty wastes

If I tried to jump in my pool, I wouldn't sink very far. I have a big ol' block o' ice. It's frozen at least 3 inches down. I can't see in there very well, and I can't get my fingers far enough down between the ice and the wall to determine for sure how thick the ice is. The weather guesser is predicting highs in the mid-20s tomorrow I'm really ready for warmer weather.