Well, that was sheer comedy gold. i discovered I cannot reach the return from outside the pool! So in order to cram a plastic bag in the eye so I can disconnect hose and use the pool lube, I had to stack two pavers and stand on tiptoes on top of them. So, I do this, disconnect hose at both ends, apply lube, and reattach - then climb back on my homemade step to remove plastic bag. The hose connection at the pool feels dry - yay! But the one at the pump isn’t dripping slow, it’s a trickle, which made no sense because it wasn’t leaking at all before! So I’m feeling under it going “what the heck” and in the ever encroaching darkness I spot... the o-ring! Yes, somehow i dropped it without noticing. So after a few more exclamations of “golly gee!“ I clean the mud off, climb back on my pavers, cram the bag in again, remove the hose connection to pump, re-lube and this time with o-ring firmly in place, reattached hose. Back on the pavers, remove the bag, hold my breath... and no dripping! Yay!
by this time I could only see well enough to lube the skimmer to hose connection, and that hose to pump connection seemed to be dry so I left it alone.
Water is back on, and we’ll see what happens when the water gets up into the skimmer. If it leaks, it will just have to leak, because I’m working at the office tomorrow and Friday, and gone most of the day on Saturday!