Pool Rules
I often think the standard list of rules posted on the fences of community pools are overly restrictive. But today I think I spotted the person that has caused the great rule maker to act in such an unreasonable way.
Standing around 6′6″ tall he waded in the shallow end of the pool with hot pink shorts and matching floaties. I don’t think he needed the floaties, but by the amount of unopened glass bottles of Corona sitting atop the picnic table he was planning on needing them soon. His posse of four friends, three humans and one dog, loitered near his wading spot within earshot of my fifteen month old sponge using foul language apparently there to watch their overgrown friend swim and drink. As we first stepped into the pool the medium size dog, who I must admit turned out to be very friendly, greeted us with a growl.
We must have broken up their party because not long after we arrived they packed up and left, but one of their members had left some things behind. Now I’m a dog lover so I wasn’t bothered much by this but I could see how some of the older,crankier residents might be angered by the copious amount of dog fur floating on the surface of the spa. I hope the mutt had a nice dip, because he’s ruined the chance to play with “oversized” pool toys for the rest of us.
So you aren’t angry about the “copious amount of dog fur floating on the surface of the spa”?
As a resident of an association with lame pool rules, I would have been throwing a fit.
Please just tell me you didn’t get in the spa!
Allison
16 Jul 05 at 1:47 pm
I did. It felt great. I didnt’ even shower afterwords.
Nate
17 Jul 05 at 1:23 am
As long as the Fido leaves things behind that only came from the “outside” of his body, I would be OK. But if he starts depositing items that come from within. Welt, that’s when I throw a fit. He probably just forgot to pick up after himself. An honest oversigt. Now big 6′ 6″ men in pnk shorts and matching floaties, there definitely should be a rule against that.
ma ma j
17 Jul 05 at 9:33 am
That is sick; there shouldn’t be any pets allowed at the pool at all for that exact reason. Even if the guy had been considerate enough to try to clean up after his mutt, how is he going to get all the dog hair out of the water by himself, without the proper equipment? Hopefully you last statement was a reference to the rules being changed to ban animals from the pool area.
JaredB
17 Jul 05 at 1:00 pm
There are rules that ban pets from the pool area, as well as rules that prohibit glass bottles, playing with oversized pool toys, and pretty much anything else that doesn’t involve laying in a chair and floating in the water.
I agree that the guy was being very inconsiderate by letting his dog swim in the pool and spa. Should I report him? I know where he lives.
Nate
17 Jul 05 at 1:29 pm
If it were me, I probably would, especially because of the dog hair thing. Even if you don’t mind it, I’m sure there are plenty of people that do. If you want to make it not personal (not get him busted), you don’t have to say that you saw *him* specifically there, you could just say that you noticed a bunch of dog hair floating in the water and show them that.
The glass bottle and pool toy things are different for me, since that is the kind of thing where if people are responsible, then there won’t be problems with those, while pets are always going to leave hair in any situation where they’re allowed in the water, and the owners aren’t going to be equipped to clean it up, even if they wanted to.
JaredB
17 Jul 05 at 2:12 pm
what about those net things with long handles on them. can’t people use those things to fish out the dog hair. we have one of those at our pool. but you can never get it all, and then you have to consider the problem that dog hair (human hair too) causes in the pool’s filtering system. big pain. more maintenance. higher association fees.
i don’t like stupid rules, but i can see how they come about. for example there’s one that says that foster parents must have baby locks on their cupboard doors when they are caring for TEENAGERS. (oh, yeah. like there are all these teenagers who want to play with your pots and pans. dangerous!) and there’s one that says that we have to keep our bee-bee gun up in the attic (and a teenager couldn’t figure out how to get into the attic if he wanted to) oh, and don’t forget the rule that says that foster parents have to keep their knives up above eye level, on the frig or something (i guess phychotic teenagers who want to hack the family into little pieces are all less than 3′ tall). can you tell we have spent time wrestling with the foster parent liscencing rules? not that i’m bitter or anything, but every now and then i leave an advil out on the counter just to buck the system.
i do like the “no glass bottles rule”. if some dumb drunk person drops his/her drink it will shatter if it’s in a glass container. even a responsible citizen trying to clean up could miss some glass slivers and inevitivly they will end up in some little 15 month old sponges foot.
the pool toy thing, well that’s just stupid. i can’t figure out what kind of safety thing they are trying to nail down with that one. we have that rule too. what kind of danger is an inflatable shamu, i’d like to know.
ma ma j
17 Jul 05 at 8:56 pm