First swim of the season

Our pool has a solar heater. There are a few advantages of having a solar heater. First, you don’t have to pay a hefty gas bill when you want to use the pool. Second, your pool heating is much better for the environment than a gas heater. The advantages stop there. The great thing about a gas-heated pool is that you turn on the heater, wait a short while, and your pool is warm enough to take a dip. With a solar heater, you have to wait until the days have enough sunshine to initially heat the pool — and for a pool as big as ours, that’s a lot of days of sun needed — and then pray the overnight temperatures don’t drop too much to cool it all down again. Most often, we don’t get into our pool until June, but after a string of really sunny and hot days, the temperature got warm enough — not warm, but warm enough — for a first swim in late May. There is something wonderfully refreshing about that first swim of the season: a lightness that is unlike all the other times you jump in during…