If you read my blog entry from May 11th, "Our Pool is Cool" you already know where I'm heading with this:

It's 105 degrees in Sacramento and it's too hot to swim. Our pool temp, which I've been obsessed with for the past 4 months, has now hit an all-time high of 90 degrees.

Jeff and I were going to take a dip this afternoon to "refresh ourselves". But there is nothing refreshing about 90 degree water on a 105 degree day.

What do we do now? Will the pool be 90 degrees-----or even warmer------for the next 4 months? Will it be September before it's cooled down enough to where we'll enjoy taking a "refreshing dip"?

We've been so obsessed with making our pool warmer for so long now that we're at a loss of what to do when it's too warm. We never thought that would happen.

Should we add ice? And how much? Would dry ice work or is that dangerous?

Everyone told us that having a pool is a lot of work but we didn't see this coming.

Of course, it seems ridiculous to be complaining about a swimming pool, doesn't it?

Still, we love our pool and we're getting it figured out. On hot days we swim after 8 PM......and in a "natural state", if you know what I mean. Now that's real refreshment!

Last October my husband Jeff and I decided to bite the bullet and put in the pool we've always wanted. Living in the Sacramento, California region means that a pool is almost mandatory for survivial. This is one blazin' HOT area. A comfortable day in July is 95 degrees. We don't even consider it hot until it reaches 105.

The hole was dug in November and it was an interesting process to watch. By mid-January our dream pool, with a flagstone wall and neato water feature was done. And, we were excited to try it out. The problem was that the pool temperature was 46 degrees.

We figured that by the time the pool reached 60 degrees certainly it would be warm enough to take a maiden swim. When the pool hit that 60 degree mark in early March we were disappointed to learn that 60 degrees, while warmer than the original 46, still wasn't swimmable.

Soon we became obsessed with the watching of the pool temperature gauge. I'd call home from the office and instead of asking Jeff how he was, the first thing out of my mouth would be "have you checked the temperature of the pool?"

Our first "official swimmers" were my best friend Sheri's kids: Matt and Jamie. It was April 1st and I believe the pool temp was around 68 degrees. (Yes, real April fools!) They're from Seattle so that temperature probably felt balmy to them. To us Californians: it was still too cold.

I forgot to write down on the calendar the first day I actually went "all the way in" but I believe it was around April 15th and the pool temp was about 76 degrees. Still too cold for Jeff, though. His ideal pool temp is 90 degrees. He became spoiled on "hot water swimming" in the Florida Keys.

Jeff wants our pool to be exactly like the Florida Keys. We even put spotted eagle ray tiles in the bottom of the pool to mimic a tropical oasis. And, he put enough solar panels on our roof that they could film National Lampoon's Florida Keys Vacation right in our backyard.

Today, which is Mother's Day, the pool temp got up to 84 degrees......which is perfect as far as I'm concerned. Jeff said it is still cool. But, he did get in......although VERY SLOWLY.

So, here's to summer.....and our cool pool!