We had a pretty good 2007 swimming season. We opened up on Memorial Day weekend and were swimming soon thereafter. And we set a new record for latest day in the pool — October 9. As a matter of fact, the pool got pretty regular use in late September and the first week of October because of unseasonably warm weather. We finally shut things down on October 13, so we had a swimming season of a little over 4 months. Contrast that with 2006, when we didn’t open until a week into June, and closed in mid September.
The never-ending pool repair project drags on, although significant progress was made in 2007. The coping stones are now mortared down and grouted, and the entire deck has been caulked with Sika self-leveling sealant. I also resurfaced an area of sunken concrete by the house. Still left to do: re-grout between the coping stones and the tile, although I’m debating how I want to handle this. It might make sense to grind the joint square, which would necessitate draining the pool (because of the mess). If I decide to do that, I’ll probably put this off until a later year, so I can re-tile the deep end and give the pool a fresh coat of paint as well. I know it’s not happening in 2008.
One thing that didn’t happen much in 2007 was mowing. NWS claims this was the “worst drought year since 1999,” although it seems to me that 2002 was worse than either this year or 1999. The past two days, we’ve finally gotten some relief, so I imagine I’ll be cutting the grass one last time after things dry out. Last mowing of the season is typically around the first week of November. Then it’s on to leaf removal.. fun fun.