The few, the proud, the filthy....

I am a guarder of lives. No really, I am...in the summer at least. Summer is the one season where I would be a lot better off if I grew fins and a tail since I practically live in the water for those three months. Between work at the pool, swimteam everyday, plus the swim lessons that I usually teach, my skin is in a constant state of pruniness. But it's fun, well, MOST of the time. If the public knew what the pool is like several weeks before opening, I can almost guarantee you that most people would retire their bathing suits indefinitely. For one thing, the chlorinated water isn't regulated over the winter, therefore come summer and you have a nicely painted, concrete pond. We started vacuuming the crud from the bottom and collecting the various types of wildlife that inhabited and died in the enchanting blue/green/black water. Today I emptied out the skimmer boxes (you know, those nifty little square holes around the pole that you always wanted to store things in as a child). Let me tell you what, when you empty those after a year...um, it's interesting. I would pull off the cover, insert my hand, close my eyes and whisper "Please just be leaves, please just be leaves." I was lucky this time around, the worst specimens were the millions of waterlogged caterpillars.
After overcoming my fear of reaching into the unknown, I set to work scrubbing hardened cheese sauce from the refrigerator in the snack bar. Whoever invented nacho cheese needs to work in a snack bar some time. That orange, sticky artery clogger gets EVERYWHERE. After cleaning out my locker last year, I was not surprised to see it sticking to the hinges of my locker door. Yummy.
There will be another week or so of "reconstruction" work before the pool is ready for business. I promise you that by then the water will be clean, the animals corralled, the snack bar scrubbed, and the hot nacho cheese bubbling in it's full, cholesterol-ruining glory. Soon I get to sit on my raised gold and blue throne, surveying those under me as I soak up some rays and mentally practice my "Baywatch" run...oh, and protect your children of course! : )