The pool, the gardener and life in condoville

"So Eleanor - you haven't provided  us withany updates on condoville. How has summer been, anyway?"

Actually, given the absolutely great bordering on fantastic (I love that term "bordering on") July we had with hot temps, life has been idyllic. Most of the time has been spent by the pool and on occasion there have been a dozen people lounging in the new blue chaise chairs, some of whom actually swim. Just being sarcastic. I'm probably one of the few non-swimmers who rarely dip a toe in the water unless the combination of heat and humidity become unbearable. It's interesting that so few people take advantage of the pool, generally, especially it's used by two condo bldgs. On most days perhaps there are eight to ten people on average with your lap swimmers using the pool in the early morning hours. The afternoon is for the "leisure loungers" who take dips between reading a book or listening to music through whatever device. The weekends are for family visits with lots of young people and children dropping by. There have been some complaints (so what else is new!) expressed focusing on children splashing. I mean - c'mon! Pool=water=wet! Don't go in the water if you don't want to get wet is my philosophy! Wear one of those hideous plastic shower caps if you want to retain your newly coiffed hair! The other complaint is that the kids are too noisy! Gimme a break!

Seems that these days everyone is wearing a two piece or bikini bathing suit, even those whose body shapes certainly aren't made for an excessive display of skin. My bathing suit of choice is a one-piece since I've accumulated cellulite over the years along with dropped muscle syndrome. That's what I call flab that has nowhere else to go but down due to gravity's influence. A lot of our discussions focus on the various bikini color choices, style and whether or not the wearer does the suit justice.

Last but not least, the last paint job by whatever company the condo board hired is a bust, with more and more of the former color showing through. This means that the surface is not fully protected. What type of pool service uses the wrong paint, anyway? I mean...really... At least the pool surface isn't slippery any more.

"So Eleanor - what's new with the so-called gardener/whatever these days?"

The flower beds are blech. More than blech - they're blechy/pffffft. In the years I've lived here, have never seen such a mish-mash of flower types and bad color combinations. You have your orange marigolds, which are such - excuse my snobbishness - common types, mixed with pink wave petunias, sedum placed here, there and everywhere, astilbe...you name it, chances are it's growing somewhere in one of the flower beds. Just blechy is the only word that comes to mind but there are others I can assure you. Nobody asked us, the people who pay the condo fees, our opinion. Mind you, in our condo bulletin, there was a piece focusing on the gardener and it appears that people are taking their complaints directly to her, one-on-one. Good for them! The condo board on their part, asked people to complain to the condo director who is in charge of the garden. Been there - done that and didn't do any good. Yup - it's an obsession on my part but one that will be over shortly since summer flowers do disappear in autumn.

Tickets have gone out for the autumn party-in-the-park. Instead of party sandwiches, it will be roasted corn and hotdogs. I'm not big on hot dogs or corn, actually, but I'll indulge and swoosh it down with a glass of cold white wine. In attendance will be the usual singing DJ who will play lots of spanish type dancing music since this gets about a dozen people dancing and everyone will sing out choruses of "New York, New York..." along with "Copacabana"...and some Beatle music thrown in for good measure.

Summer life is good in condoville. Relaxing by the pool, watching and listening to the boats as they make their way over the river, the sound of the river life including the honking of the Canada geese... Their return can only mean one thing: autumn is around the corner.

Aqua fitness is not necessary good for one's health

Picked up a sheet of paper dropped off at the front door announcing that aqua fitness is offered once again in the pool in the first week in June. At the top of the sheet is a photo of the group of participants, hands in air and big smiles on their faces. At least they resemble smiles. Actually, they look like they're having a good time but this could be because the session is over. Ask me about it - I know - having taken it two summers ago with Ms Aqua Fitness Cruella Deville. That's not her real name, obviously, but let's just say that she is a very avid, enthusiastic instructor who really enjoys barking out orders and leave it at that. Her workout includes the use of small weights on feet and hands plus other torturous twists, bends and jerks but for me it's either one or the other and not both, or pain is the result and I'm not into pain. Ms AQdeV, however, could be.

The pool is heated to a temperature ranging anywhere from 79-85 degrees fahrenheit, with emphasis on the higher end numbers. It all depends on whether people using the pool find the water on the coolish side and how many complaints are registered. It could be 95 degrees air tempeature in a blazing sun with no wind but the pool must be above 80 degrees or people complain. But I digress.


The aqua fitness participants seem to enjoy MAQdeV commands and she does count well in two languages, french and english. There is a lot of social chat and interaction between and during the actual exercising focusing on the temperature of the water, always good for a 10 minute opener to where people vacationed during the winter. Perhaps it's a means in which to ignore the pain. Who knows. The icing on the proverbial cake for me was working out in the rain. One would assume that the lessons would be cancelled in heavy rain but this wasn't a good enough reason to cancel. Twice I showed up for aqua under grey, threatening skies in the hope that the sun would emerge, only to have the sky open up with the end result being a torrential downpour. Even more dumb is that five of us stayed and exercised for the entire hour, even though we couldn't see MAQdeV's face. In retrospect, it was probably a blessing.

So I'm passing on her offer but the memory of our encounter remains whenever I hear those infamous words, "five...four...three...two...one." The pain has gone but the memory lingers on.