pool

i took my camera to the pool on friday.
my purpose was threefold.
firstly, i wanted to show you just where i worked, my environment where i have to entertain myself 16.5 hours a day or more.
second, i wanted to show you people that i've talked about and interact with three times a day or more.
finally, i want to show you just how disgusting some parts of my workplace are.

other than the pool, we have the weight room.
it's kinda small, but it's got almost everything you need.
including mirrors at almost every angle.

when i get bored of watching kids in the pool, i'll go into the weight room and pick up a few weights.
when it gets slower at night, clement and i convene there to BS.
its has a very strategic location in being able to view both the back door for the boss, and the front door for customers.
in the summer it's air conditioned, whereas the pool is hotter and more humid than fuck.
so i watch the pool from there when i can.

speaking of clement, there he is. he's at the pool two of the three days that i'm there commanding the front desk. he's got 3 computers at his disposal and has WAY more responsibility than i do.
he's gotta keep track of whoever comes in and make sure swim lesson parents actually pay for services rendered.

next is emma. this is the 15 year old who has a crush on me.
she writes those love notes that aren't wholly comprehensible.
when she's not sleeping 15 hrs. a day, she does actually get her learn on.
maybe a few more hours of school a day would help a bit...

i wanted to get a picture of connie, my kickball buddy, but she split on me early on friday. maybe next friday i'll snap a shot.
other than that, i couldn't really get myself to take photos of people in their bathing suits.

but i did get a picture of my sifu.
here is arturo, my good friend who teaches me kung fu.
even though he's mexican, he does bear a slight similarity to mr. miagi.
other than clement, i probably talk with him the most at the pool.
some days i may even talk more to him than to clement.
he's a very friendly guy and converses with almost everyone at the pool.

a bit blurry and behind arturo in that picture is again emma, and her 21 year old nanny hanging on her.
emma hates it when she talks to me ;)
that's emma's mom further to the right.

now to the fun stuff.
we do have a vending machine.
but i don't advise you to get anything out of it.
the majority of that shit's been sitting there since i started working there a year ago.

but that's nothing compared to the nastiness of the boiler room.
those big blue barrels are full of chlorine. yummy.
got some on my shirt the other day. bleached the fuck out of it.
good times.

first up is the pool's filter. i guess that water's supposed to be kinda gross,
but look at all the shit that sluffs off of people.
next here are the pipes that drip on into that filter system.
if you flip that small red handle on the right side of that blue pipe in the first picture, the water diverts to refill the water that had evaporated off the hot tub.

on the opposite side of the room is the actual boiler.
well. that round thing to the right is for the pool.
and the squarish one on the left is for the hot tub.
notice the nice iron deposits building up there on the floor.
before they replaced the pool boiler, it leaked and brought a liquid form of that green goodness out from under the boiler room door.
people would warn me that some green liquid was oozing out from under the door, to which i could only reply, "yeah, that happens."
once in a while i'd sweep it away, but to no avail.
that drain's only there for looks.

oh. and did you want to take a closer look at the top of the hot tub boiler?
yeah, i'm not really quite sure what that is. other than hopefully red caulk.

now just take a look at the far wall.
apparently when they re-tarred the roof, it leaked in side just a little.
luckily it didn't do that in the lobby or i think it might still look like that as well.
that big round thing and the black thing infront of it are the hot tub filters.
the long, cylindrical column is the bromine feeder.
you use bromine in the hot tub as opposed to chlorine, because its boiling point is a bit higher.
so you fill that tube with big, chalky-looking tablets that make you choke if you stick around long enough for it to mix with the water without putting the lid back on.

mustard gas must have been the shits back in the day (chlorine).
it just makes your throat constict and tickle making you want to hack the nothingness in your lungs out.
very healthy.

well. i think that's about it for this round.
maybe next week i'll get that picture of connie with her favorite ball.