Remember this fun little story from grade school? We lived it yesterday.
I will say our day didn't start off bad. It started out pretty good, actually! I made coffee for Scott and I. We have both recently quit drinking coffee (2 days prior), but there is something about a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning when you don't have a schedule to follow. I was looking forward to a hot cup of deliciousness. It wasn't as good as I anticipated, but it was still good.
I enjoyed my cup of coffee while tackling my chore of the day...CLEANING MY BATHROOM. I don't know how I can destroy such a small space, but lemme tell ya. I can. I typically use Bare Minerals make-up. If you are familiar with that brand, you know that it gets EVERYWHERE! It was nice to throw away so much crap and get everything neatly organized in the drawers and cabinets.
Okay, Okay....back to the point of this post. Do you recall me saying Saturday was supposed to be our Fun Day?
After I completed my one task of the day, I was ready to move on to the "fun" part of the day! The kids got to choose what we did (within reason). Guess how well that went? 3 kids....3 different answers. After several hours of researching online and throwing out options that we could all possibly agree on, we were still sitting at the house...doing nothing. (I was okay with this. I am just as happy at home this weekend, as I am anywhere else).
After more wasted time and no solution, I go and check on the pool. (Still filling from Friday). I discover we do in fact have a leak. (We were pretty sure we did, but hoping for the best.) I immediately start searching (thank you YouTube) for ways to repair the leak, since our pool does have some water in it. We have a plan in place, all we need to do is to purchase a pool repair kit and we will be good to go.
The video we found on YouTube suggested Home Depot. There's a Lowe's 10 miles away, so we headed there. Sold Out. Holding our breath, we made the short drive across the street to the incompetent pool store. (we have had many unsuccessful dealings with this pool store. I seriously would rather poke a needle in my eye then have to deal with them. It's THAT bad.) Sold out. (I may or may not have said a few hateful things in that store before we left). We tried Target. Sold Out. Wal-mart. Sold Out. Big Lots. Sold Out. Called Home Depot, which was another 10 miles down the road. We were told we can order them online. Really?!?! Online?!?! That's convenient....NOT!
Frustrated and tired, we head back home and decide we can make do with some old inflatables we have in our pool shed. As luck would have it, I found an unopened, lounge chair that we bought last season at Dollar General. It is clear on top and could possibly assist in repairing our leak(s). (I did call another pool store in OKC and they have authentic repair kits, just in case. Thank the Lord!)
Getting everything ready to drain the water out of the pool, we soon discover that our pool pump is locked up. No Bueno. We have to have this, in order to drain the water from the pool.
I immediately get on the phone and start calling different pool stores to see if they have the pump we need. In the meantime, my husband is diligently disassembling the pump to figure out why the motor is locked up. I found several places that have a pump that would work, but their prices are $300-$400. I give in and call the pool store in which we purchased our pool from (not the same store mentioned above). They do have the exact pump we need. Same brand as our current one and a little cheaper then the other places I called. They lady told me they close at 7pm, (it is nearly 6pm at this point), and they are closed on Sundays.
We pack up the kids and the motor and we drive to North OKC. It's about 30-35 minute drive, so we didn't have much time to waste. We made it to the store with time to spare, only to find them closed. WTF?!?!? Another trip wasted. We were bummed.
Since we were already out, and we were already on the North end of OKC, Tyler suggested we eat at Pop's. It's a fun little diner in Arcadia, Oklahoma on Historic Route 66. I had suggested the other day that we go there to eat at some point this weekend. We were practically there, so why make the trip again another time? You can read about Pop's here. The kids love it because, they can pick out a six pack of bottled soda. With so many choices, it's a challenge to get only 6.
Here's our selection:
As soon as we got home, my diligent husband continued tearing the pump apart. He was able to discover the problem (it just needed a good cleaning and W-D 40). He got it all put back together, and it runs perfectly! Ah! What a relief! I'm so glad it was an easy fix and I'm so glad we didn't waste nearly $300 (or more) on a new one.
The craptastic day ended well! Here's to hoping today will be better than yesterday and we can get this stupid, money-draining pool repaired and filled!
