Mixed Feelings

Normally I'm in no big hurry for it to get hot in Arizona. It gets hot soon, and it stays hot late, and I try to enjoy the cool weather as long as it sticks around, and I usually beg it to stay longer than it really wants to. But around the middle of April the cool weather says "Man, it's going to get hot soon, so I'm outta here." And then it does get hot, and at that point the only saving grace is that it is a dry heat (or a dry heave) for most of the summer. That's not much to hang your hat on, but when it's 115 degrees out and your face starts to stretch and split like a hot dog, well, you take comfort from what you can.

But over the winter we had a swimming pool put in. It was a rather amusing procedure, with most of the amusement deriving from the fact that the guy who marked the pool's location on the ground with spray paint couldn't read his own blueprint and put the pool in the wrong spot. That was no big deal to me - one advantage of having a two and a half acre lot is that it doesn't make much difference if they put the pool three feet further out in the yard than they were supposed to.

But in spite of the surveying shenanigans, they managed to get the pool built and we had it filled by a water truck company, which conveniently enough managed to import a few water beetles with said water. But I think they're now all dead - at least I haven't seen any for a while, and that's okay with me.

The point is, the pool is in, and now I can't wait for it to get hot so I can use it thoroughly. I've been in it five or six times, but it's still just a tad too cool for it to be fully comfortable, and this sudden cold front that we're experiencing will probably cool it off another five degrees. It's not quite as cold as the North Atlantic, but it's still no fun to be in.

There a bunch of reasons for wanting to swim. Making maximum use of a $20,000 investment is one. Health is another. Just the sheer joy of splashing around in water is a powerful one. The ability to have pool parties is a factor. But the one that most nags at me today is that I realized what a profound farmer tan I have.

I feel like a strange, mismatched action figure, with a tanned head and tanned arms attached to a fish belly white torso and legs. I noticed it when I saw a photograph of myself wearing shorts. So there's another reason I can't wait for it to warm up enough to go swimming a lot.