Free to Good Home

Nothing quite says "kids live here" like a bare spot in the backyard that can be seen from space. That said, there's also nothing quite like the squeal of kids playing in the pool on a summer afternoon. For two summers we set up a 15-foot-diameter above-ground pool that looks like this one (that's our pool, but those totally aren't the Gentiles). But now my kids tell me they're too old for it. What does that make me?

Gone are the days when water of any type attracted my kids like a magnet. Even though within the last week they came home from the woods and had to change out of wet clothes because they were jumping in the creek in back of the house, they're in that period of time when they are too old for something that grownups wish they could do. How many pictures do I have of my kids playing in puddles on Kwajalein? It's a rhetorical question, but let me tell you: a lot.

The pool sat unused in the shed all last summer, and I hate the thought of this perfectly fine thing sitting idle, not earning its keep, for another summer almost as much as I hate the thought of keeping the snowblower in the garage for one more summer because there's no room for it in the shed, what with the garage door being broken by the whitewater in the yard during the flood, but that's a story for another time.

So if you would like an above-ground pool for your very own for the very reasonable price of you-make-some-memories, let me know and we'll set up an exchange. Seriously. I want to get rid of the pool.