Archive | January 29, 2022

Of Snow day, Pool maintenance

I am making up for yesterday with two posts today. We are dealing with Snow storm this weekend. I am typing this post while LHB and M are busy clearing our driveway outside!

I am dealing with this nagging headache today. Woke up thinking I will take a break from kitchen today but ended up making mutton liver fry, chicken pepper masala and peas jeera pulav. Story of my life!! *rolls eyes*

Alright, coming to the today’s topic, I want to write about how I single handled pool maintenance last year. As you all know, M was in India almost all summer and I decided to maintain pool so kids can have some fun! As its my luck, pool filter stopped working few days after M left to India. Let me tell you something, I call pool as M’s third baby as it requires that much of attention. Its high maintenance from all aspects.

LHB’s friend’s dad from our neighborhood stopped by to take a quick look and we found that the pipe closer to filter had air leak. He suggested to either call someone professional or try some DIY options. I spent next few days visiting local home improvement shops and seeking google baba’s help. Google and Youtube babas gave suggestions about a plastic mix that can be used to seal PVC pipes. I decided to give it a try as calling a professional would take long time and cost exorbitant money! Ordered the package in Amazon, it arrived 2 weeks later and one fine day I followed the instructions and applied this mix to seal air leak. In these two weeks, more algae formed and pool turned into dark green color!!

It was few days of wait time again to validate my DIY fix! And it worked yayyy! The happiness I felt on that day didn’t let me sleep 🙂

Now that filter started working, I let it run 24 hours and started following instructions from local pool store to kill all algae and bring water back to usable state. It took another 2 weeks with every day trip to pool store. The store guy could spell M’s last name by heart by the time the pool was ready 🙂 I woke up at odd hours to add shock as shock works better in absence of sunlight. I acted like a new born’s mommy caring for the pool 24×7. I had to feed the pool every two hours, brush the sides and floor, check filter, clean surface, check pH level et all.. Liquid shock gave better results so bought 5 gallon jars of liquid shock and dumped them in intervals. All this was learning at different level as I didn’t even know what a shock was until few weeks back!

One afternoon after few weeks of following all treatments religiously, Adi summoned me to backyard. She was like you have to see this Amma, just come for few minutes. I wrapped up my work call and went to backyard to see this beauty! I don’t know how to express that moment of happiness!

It was all worth the effort as pool was accessible. LHB used it many times, Adi/her friends had fun one of the days and I got to dip my feet 🙂

Advertisement

16th birthday party

Yesterday was a crazy day with back to backs from the time I woke up until it was time to crash that it slipped my mind to do a post!! One of those days 🙄

Its easier to write about facts so let me write about Adi’s 16th birthday party. She wanted to keep it low key, invite few of her friends and have a simple party outdoors in a local park. In Amreca, 16th birthday is a big deal. Some make it a grand affair more like a marriage function printing invitations, renting hall and inviting families/friends.

She planned it all and I just helped with execution. M had a medical procedure around that time so I had to execute the plan all alone. One same day, LHB had a scout event so it was crazy day for me but it all ended well and everyone was happy.

Speciality cake was pre-ordered at Nothing bundt cake. Adi bought cup cakes of all flavors, we made it a family task to taste each one of them, rate it to settle on the flavor to buy for her party!

Food was Pizza, Guacamole (made at home), chips and soda. One of her friend was Vegan so we bought Vegan pizza and cup cake for her.

We all left home at 12pm. First stop was at the park. M and Adi got off to find a spot and setup the space for party. LHB and I went to his scout event, came back home to change his dress, pickup black mask for Akka (she is specific about black mask) and returned to park. I dropped LHB at the park and went about next set of pickups!

I was on road for next 3 hours

  • Pick up cake
  • Buy return gift for LHB’s friend who is also little brother of Adi’s friend and decided to come for the party
  • Pick up my surprise for Adi (It was number 16 humongous balloon, costed a bomb but worth it) She kept asking where did you get it and I replied with my standard smile 🙂
  • Visit home, heat up Vegan pizza
  • Pick up pizza
  • Return to party

We spent about 5 hours in the park, Adi and her friends spent time playing some games, roaming around the park and chilling out.

It was a tiring day for me but all is well that ends well and everyone is happy! I couldn’t believe that I have a 16 year old daughter and the urge to make her feel special on her birthday kept me going 🙂