Turborita Celebration

As we built this pool, we posted on a swimming pool and spa website whose people helped us through every up and down. One thread that came through was "Everyone's Favorite Poolside Drink". Well, one member posted about a drink called a turborita and raved about it. Others made them and said the same. It started out as a joke, and as thinks took longer and longer with our pool it became a goal to celebrate our first "swim" with turboritas.

Well today the weather was so beautiful, we fired up the heater, made some turboritas (Coke for the kids) and jumped in. We had a wonderful time. So, everyone out there, join us by raising a glass to toast our family and our new pool.

Our New Family Member

Well, everyone, meet the Black Mamba! Yes, we finally go our new pool cleaner, a black Hayward Navigator. It looks great, for a pool cleaner. It seems to be doing a really great job.

As you can see, Kara is not afraid of the dangerous Black Mamba lurking in the pool's depths. She thinks the pool is her own water bowl where she can get cool water for a change! We're trying to teach her how to drink from the sheer arc. I don't know if we'll be able to, because everytime she bends in to do it, her ears hit it first and go flying! She gets scared and backs off.

Tried Out The Spa

Since they fixed our heater, and we were going to have "pool school" today, I told Konnor to do an "experiment" with the spa. I told him to start up the heater, and to write down the progress as it heated. Last time we used it, it took 7 hours to heat it to 94 degrees. Last night it took 2 1/2 hours to go to 100. We have a heat pump, and it was a chilly night, so we were happy with that. Whatever they did must have worked. I think the pool temperature was in the low 60's.
Well, with the hot tub hot, we ALL decided to get in!

The steam was rising up everywhere. I was worried that I would get in and be disappointed, but I loved it! It was cold for Florida last night. We had had frost that morning, so the diffence between the spa and the air temperature was really noticable.

Kyle had jumped into the pool another time (when it wasn't as cold), so he dared Kevin and I to go in like him. I said OK. He was so shocked when I walked out to the sunshelf, walked down the steps, and swam across the pool. I started back and literally had to sort of thread water and walk the rest of the way. The shock had set in. I casually walked up the steps and back into the spa and said, "How was that?" Everyone was shocked. Kevin said he had nothing to prove and besides, I didn't have to worry about shrinkage. LOL. I don't know, I think something must have shrunk...but I didn't let on. We had a lot of fun.

Later, we tried out the colored lenses for the lights in the spa. The spa looks lower because everyone else got out and I was the last one to the shower!

Pool school was very, very basic. The man was very nice, in fact he was a couple of my students' dad, but he basically dropped off some stuff and quickly went over the basics. We needed the more advanced course. Luckily, we have some backgroud knowledge and are trainable!

Clear View

They came and moved the electrical box and spa vent that was behind our spa. It looks sooooo much better! I'm so glad that they saw that this was not a good asthetic choice and made it right. They also tried to stop the vibration from the pump with some rubber pieces. It helped, but was not enough to stop the vibration. I called them and they said that they would do something to separate the pad from the house. They were very nice about it.

That small thing in the distance is the Good Year blimp!

Clear The Way

Well, today they finally came to take away our mountain of dirt. I forgot that there was a lake behind our house! Here are some pictures of the intial cleaning that was done a week ago Wednesday, and what they did today. I chose these pictures because they show the trickle affect on the side of the spa and the change in the water color.

I spoke to my supervisor the other day and told him that with one last push we would be done. He responded with, " No one wants to get this pool finished more than me." How nice. Too bad his desire throughout this process hasn't matched his actions.

We have a thumping noise in our heater, and I was told that they were coming to fix it for 3 days now. When they come, they are also coming to work on the vibration from the pad and moving the spa vent and electrical box to a more asthetically pleasing location. :) All we'll need to do after that is finish painting the deck, final clean-up, and pool school.