Saturday Pool Update August 19, 2006
Posted by daveintexas in Pool Blogging.trackback
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you’re doing and listen.
CANNONBALL!
Ooooo-oooh!! It’s wet!! Congrats, Dave – I hope it’s as fun as it looks like it’ll be.
Beautiful Dave.
How many gallons do you think it is?
That’s important knowledge for when you add chemicals.
Geezer, I’m thinkin, 2, 3 hunnert gallons.
I go to full deal pool school on Tuesday.
OMG, it’s a real pool!
So when are you flying everyone in for the party?! :-D
You got anything booked for Sept 9?
Can we play Marco Polo?!
More like 5-10k gallons.
Hey! Congrats, Dave. Webcam coming out soon?
just kidding…
Congratulations!
I just visited my parents who had a pool put in about 30 years ago. Dad said it cost $5,000.
So the Sunday pool update better you have you floating in the middle accompanied by a floating cooler of beer. Having weathered the construction gauntlet, you deserve it. Plus you’ll want to be maxing out the envy factor.
Yeah…my pond is waaaayyy smaller than that and it is 1800 gallons.
Lipstick, the sticker price has gone up a bit in 30 years.
but I don’t care!
lauraw, I think this is around 1800 gallons.
but the faucet is still running!
Yeah Dave, I just thought I’d throw that old price out there to be bratty.
We can’t even put in a spa for that now :(
Bart’s probably closer to the correct figure. I’m betting 10k gallons.
I checked the water meter before and after I filled my pool and it was about that amount.
*hollers*
“Marco”
Gorgeous! Now we need to see the huge splash generated by an enthusiastic cannonball.
Man that looks sweet.
I suppose you have heard this, but I’ll make sure:
Always announce, and ruthlesslyenforce, safety rules with kids. Keep it simple:
NO running near the pool.
NO diving (except from a designated location into the deep end).
NO glass near the pool.
NO pushing.
Very pretty.
I would compliment more, but I’m a bit bitter about pools at the moment thanks to our neighbors. We’ve put up with a lot of shit (driveway blocked, driveway muddy, mail not getting delivered because mailboxes were blocked, my BRAND NEW CAR being COVERED WITH FRIGGIN’ LIME, etc.) for them to have their pool, and they haven’t set up the drainage right and there is a long puddle of stagnant water at the end of our driveway, with a lovely mess of scum floating on top of it. It’s been like that for months now. We’ve tried to talk to them about it, but they run away if they see us coming.
Thanks Michael. Actually I hadn’t heard that from a pool owner’s perspective, and it’s all good advice. Slipping and hitting your head on this stuff would ruin your whole day.
Mrs. Peel, sorry you’ve had difficulties with the neighbors. Construction sites are messy things (my yard looks like a war zone).
And my truck is covered with the same stuff. Or was.
And thanks for the nice wishes everyone.
Michael, how do you do a cannonball without getting a running start?
…*Polo*
Well? Sunburned yet?
Michael, thanks for differentiating. Those rules are for *kids.*
Adults can run, push each other in fully clothed, take alcohol in the pool, eat in the pool, take phone calls in the pool, jump off the roof into the pool and rudely splash anyone who “doesn’t want to get wet right now.”
They can also have chicken fights: IB wimmins on the men’s shoulders, pulling and rasslin til someone falls over. It’s also okay to untie bathing suit strings and generally try to drown each other.
These were the rules at all my pools, at least when the kids weren’t around.
It’s also okay to untie bathing suit strings and generally try to drown each other
I’m cool with that.
Me and KC, we’re taking all comers. It’s on beeyatches!
Oh, and it’s 103 here today and I’m the damn POOL! BOOYAH!
I had one of these things once; took up to whole back yard. Then the piping on the discharge side of the pump started to leak (underground); then the piping on the suction side of the pump started to leak (again underground). It was gonna cost $10K+ to bust up the cool deck and fix the leaks. Then I found a man who’s skill and dexterity with a backhoe was unequalled and told him, “fill the son-of-bitch up”. And he did. But when he backed the dump truck with the fill dirt up into my driveway, it crushed my 1920’s era driveway which apparently had no re-bar. So I got a new driveway. Total cost: pool demolition plus new driveway – $10K+. Did I come out ahead?
BTW, if you’re not out there every day – and I mean every day – to pour in chemicals and clean all the bugs, leaves, and other crap that falls in, it’ll turn into a sewage lagoon overnight. Enjoy!
Actually I hadn’t heard that from a pool owner’s perspective
Well then, I’ll tell you a couple of other things relating to The Rules.
1. Pools naturally incite riots among groups of kids, especially sixth-grade males. It’s unbelievable. Ruthless enforcement of The Rules (see above) will be required to preserve law and order. It helps to have some foam toys (like Noodles) that they can use to whack each other without too much risk of serious personal injuries.
2. Parents in attendance, especially non-pool-owning parents, should not be relied upon to prevent their kids from killing each other. It’s up to you. You’re the one with the relevant insurance policy.
Average depth x square footage of pool area x 7.55 will give you the approximate gallons of h2o in pool.
5 ft depth
433 sq ft
pajama momma’s numbers say 16,354 gallons.
Michael, how do you do a cannonball without getting a running start?
A running start makes no difference. The key variables are:
1. Altitude. A diving board or some other platform (like the rim of the hot tub) helps, of course, as does a good high jump. A running approach of more than a couple of steps does not really help achieve the desired vertical velocity upon impact with the water. In fact, it can hurt by diffusing the impact or your ass horizontally across the surface of the water, which negatively affects vertical velocity and water displacement. Running starts are a common error amongst cannonball neophytes.
2. Ass size (and the attendant general body mass). Mature men tend to have an advantage here.
3. Form. This is what separates the novice cannonballer from the professional. It’s important to approach the water with the proper tuck in order to correctly present your body mass to the surface of the water in order to effect maximum water displacement. You don’t want to be sprawled out too much or you will simply smack the water with too much resistance and superficial splashing. You also don’t want to impact with a severely tucked wedge-like approach that generates too little resistance and water displacement. The correct form is an ass-first entry with a moderately V-shaped tuck that displaces the maximum amount of water, causing the classic cannonball geyser (after you are below the surface) as the water rushes to fill the void you have created. Remember, the goal is not to “splash.” A good cannonball is achieved by digging the biggest possibe hole in the surface of the water given your body mass. If you do it right, you will never see it, because you will be submerged beneath the hole when the geyser occurs.
Avg. 5ft. depth? Holy crap, how deep is your deep end? Obviously big enough for cannonballs.
5 footies in ze deep blue sea.
it only goes from 4.5 to 5
hey we’re getting ripped off. where are the pictures with the spillway going?
patience grasshoppah… pumps and shit monday and tuesday
gonna look good too
patience grasshoppah
Argh, you sound like my torturous brothers. Cept I think they called me weekhopper for some reason.
Dave,
Any pictures of the completed pool in the daylight? It looks great but it is dark.