He was leaning over the pool, making sweeping motions – I was puzzled as he could no longer hook the vacuum up.

As I got closer, I saw his genius.

The heavy fireplace tongs were duct taped to the handle of the vacuum pole – plucking bricks out of the pool!

Sadly, the bricks had landed on pointed edge and ruined the liner in several places – as witnessed by the low water the next morn.

Two thousand and three marked the end of our swimming days – we had the pool removed in 09.