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tranquil depths

the family swim center (fsc) has become a haven for many forms of wildlife, much to my dismay. there is of course the welcome sort of animal--homo sapiens. these congregate within the fsc's tranquil crystal waters and cavort wildly almost daily. unfortunate visitors to the watering hole include (but are not limited to): earwigs, moths, june bugs, flies, ants, worms(?), and most recently raccoons. telltale dirty paw prints have been left on the lip of this fine oasis.

i must also note that the fsc is most certainly high-maintenance/labor-of-love. in an overgrown yard like ours, dirt and fragments of foliage cling to careless feet and are liberated in the fsc's open waters. the aforementioned wildlife activities necessitate the draining and cleaning of the fsc multiple times a week. the upper tier of its inflated wall requires regular re-inflation or it becomes semi-flaccid.

the interesting thing to me is that i, as a lazy person, would ordinarily find this kind of work to be intolerable drudgery yet i am enjoying lavishing attention on the fsc. the fsc seems like a part of the extended family and bathing her taps into some kind of misplaced nurturing instinct. the pleasure she gives in this heat wave makes me love her and thus i enjoy all of our time together (even the less glamorous moments).

of course the other explanation for my enjoyment of this cleaning ritual is that i am somewhat anal and worked for 2 summers as a pool attendant when i was younger. i prefer the previous reason, though.

things i am interested in doing with the fsc:

-adding copious amounts of salt to the water to see if it improves my float-on-my-back-to-stargaze buoyancy.

-having rubber ducky races.

-setting up a surveillance camera with night vision to make a documentary of the raccoons nocturnal visits.

-adding blue food coloring to the water for that caribbean aesthetic.

-adding red food coloring to the water for that post-jaws-attack aesthetic.

-sitting in the water, using a non-electric typewriter (perched atop a floating object) to write an epic nautical tale (this would make for great dust jacket copy).

before = after