Algae Blooms and Bruschetta

The last few days around here? A little hectic. Monday afternoon, I was expecting my friend and her 5 boys to come over and swim with my little guys, so after lunch I went outside to take off the solar cover and give it a good vacuuming. Holy algae bloom, batman! Wow - that never happened before! Blame the combination of lots of rain so far this summer and a bit of lackadaisical pool management, but nevertheless, there it was. 2 hours later, I had the whole thing brushed down and shocked, but it was still very cloudy. The kids came over, everyone swam anyway. Not a horrible day.

Then yesterday, water was still cloudy, so we put in some chemical to help that - it helped a bit, but was still cloudy this morning. More kids over to swim yesterday afternoon. By the way, did I mention that Match Box cars sink VERY quickly to the bottom of the pool and are very difficult to fish out with a skimmer net?

ANYWAY, this morning, we still weren't happy with the water clarity, so I was going to re-treat with the clarifier, but when I went out there, I noticed that the dead algae had settled on the walls. I vacuumed again, then brushed down the sides, and immediately, the whole pool started to clear out. Good, good sign. Back in business, almost. I added a maintenance dose of the clarifier instead of the heavy-duty dose, and was putting away my hoses and equipment, when I notice a small child submerged in the shallow end....ummm....that would've been Matthew! Fully clothed and with no flotation, he somehow fell in - and I never heard a sound - splash or anything. Thank God he was bobbing himself to the surface and never even seemed to swallow any water...I fished out the poor little guy and thanked my lucky stars it wasn't any worse.

But enough about pool mishaps - and onto the bruschetta I'm about to make! We have some fresh tomatoes in, and it's way too many for salad - so I'm giving bruschetta a try. Crushed tomatoes, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Smeared over some nice bread brushed with olive oil and toasted. And if I have enough leftover, might heat it a little and put it over angel hair for dinner with some grated cheese on top. Yum - is it dinnertime yet?