Fixing the side of the Pool

We decided to fix the pool up this year. Several Years ago I collapsed the side of the pool when I ran water I was draining from it on the elevated side and the wall bowed in. And over the last few years I'd made several attempts to fix it and only managed to make things worse. So this year Teri insisted that it was time to replace the pool liner. Early in the year, around February we contacted the pool company that Kristen works for. We wanted the work done early, like April.
     Well about mid May I go run into the pool place. I'd been short of money, even though we'd had a movie filmed at our house and we're paid well. It's funny how while you are sleeping the money gnomes come and steal your money. We were quoted a price of $1,200.00 for a new liner. They would take the cover off, drain it remove the old liner, add sand where we needed it and put the new liner in. I was told it would be two weeks before the liner would be in and then they would schedule an appointment.
     At five-thirty one late May day I Spanish fellow knocks on my door. He tells me he is here to do my pool. Trying to be nice, because I didn't want him to go away and never come back or worse come back late in the season, I explained to him I was not ready for him. He and his assistant opened the pool and started to drain it. I explained to him I needed time to dig out the side and I asked who much for him to do it. He said it would be on an hourly rate, as in they didn't know how long it would take them. I asked them to come back in a few days.
     I start digging the hole the next day. I am or was a physical person and I jam the shovel into the ground, taking overly large shovel fulls of dirt and begin piling the dirt, more like clay a few feet away

from me. My youngest daughter, Elena offers to help. She digs on the far side of where the hole will be and I'm where the cave in was worst. My hole is three times the size of hers in ten minutes. In fifteen minutes, I have to stop. As Danny Glover would say in 'Lethal Weapon' "I'm getting to old for this shit" Elena continues to dig. I dig sporadically over the next hour. We make some really good progress. As We head in that night I think I will be able to call the pool guys back before the weekend. It is Wednesday night.
     It rains for most of the next three days. We try to get back out there. The hole was covered over, but the rain as rain will do found the lowest point it can and that was our hole. All the clay is sticky and slippery. When We are finished, muddy clay is stuck to the shovels and the buckets we tried to use and very little of it wants to come off. At the end of this day, I realize that the job to be successful, I must increase the size of the hole to almost double. As work progresses, I dig less. My elbow and shoulder are hurting and the more I do the worse they are. Like Danny Glover said...
      After about a week of work the hole is nearing completion. Elena has done a good amount of the work and she has done all of the dirt jobs. The worst was getting down near the bottom of the side of the pool and clawing out the clay packed between the side and the bottom piece where the side should be.
     I get home after the pool people have left. I see a bright shinny liner with about six inches of water in it. The day is bright and shinny and it reminds me why pool and summer go together. But when I'm still looking at the bill for this job in the middle of February, I will try to bring back that memory. I hope it will work.

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