Ah, yes. It is summertime, this indie author's of year. Slap me if you want to, but I love hot and humid weather. You see, we have a pool and we don't heat it. Because we don't have a heater we depend on the weather to warm it up, and there are a lot of trees in our neighborhood. Many days the water temperature hovers around 74 degrees.
We don't mind that temperature. In fact, it is far more refreshing then 80 degrees. However, most people don't like it so we have given up inviting people over to our pool. It gets tiresome listening to them bitch about the water temperature and mention that we should buy a heater. Well, thank you for the suggestion! It would be great to spend about $1,500 for a heater and installation and then pay $500 a month so that YOU could enjoy our pool.
It would be different if we didn't like the cooler water, but we do. Many times, though, we don't get completely wet. When I say "the swimming is easy" I am using the term "swimming" loosely. We seldom actually swim. We stand in the water and watch birds, talk, and laugh. Or float on pool chairs. My husband can't sleep out there but I sure can. There are few things in life I love more than tying my floating chair so that it stays put, me facing the sun, but and lower legs in water, and just sleeping. Feeling that sun baking into me is heaven. (Yes, I wear a good sunscreen.) I know that the sun can be bad for you, but it is also very healing. I wait until after 3pm to do this so that the sun is not at it's peak. Even with sunscreen, I try to be somewhat intelligent.
Our grandson Gideon is only 10 months old and he loves the pool, even when it is 75. He has his own baby inner tube and we watch him like a hawk, always within arm's reach. Not as many beers are drank then. Not with a gumdrop in the water. If he smiles and enjoys the cooler water, not shivering or getting goosebumps why are so many adults unable to enjoy it? He is not in the tube long and then we are holding him and he gets to be lowered enough to kick in the water and laugh. What fun he has!
Actually, we don't mind. We do love having people over, but it is also nice to just enjoy it ourselves (Gideon and parents included. They are like family and "ourselves" will always include them. When they come it is always better). We are bird watchers and many an hour is spent wet and watching our feeders while standing in the pool.
But when the weather climbs into the 90's our pool warms. Sometimes it is 80 to 85. That is even more fun, because then we have water fights, Do some "swimming", stay more wet. We play like dolphins in the warm water, and it is all the more sweet because it does not happen every day. This year is HOT so it happens more frequently than most.
We plan two to three weeks of vacation around the hottest time of the year to enjoy it. We are in the midst of a two week vacation right now and have another week only one week after Dave goes back to work and I go back to writing and painting. July is playtime in the Rowland household.
We should have moved somewhere tropical so that we could swim every day. Some say it would lose that specialness, but I disagree. However, it would be a struggle to get anything done then because my swim chair would always be calling. I have to confess, the call of the swim chair would usually win out.
Ah, summertime, when the swimmin' is easy. How I love the sun, the water, the pool. How I love being alive.
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