Opening weekend at the outdoor pool

This weekend was opening day at our little town’s outdoor pool.  The outdoor pool is only open from about now until September, and even within that window – only open on weekends to the general public, at least until the school kids get out in another three weeks.

I know for some of you that have outdoor pool access year round, the concept of an outdoor pool may not be that exciting.  But for me…I love it!

It’s just something different to break up the routine, and the otherwise sterile indoor world of my regular pool.  So between now and Labor day, I take advantage of every opportunity I can get to swim within the handful of lanes they have.

The water is only about 3’ deep, which means that it gets surprisingly warm early in the season.  For example, this weekend it was quite comfortable, despite our only major heat wave having just hit the last few days.  The good news is that they pump in colder water as needed to keep it the right temperature.

Much of the entertainment in the pool comes from watching the never ending stream of kids that pay the $1.00 to use the pool (us grown-up kids pay a whopping $2).  Like much of the surrounding neighborhoods it’s an eclectic mix of the privileged and the not as lucky.  Though, at least within the bounds of the chain link fence surrounding the pool – everyone just gets along.  Belly flops from the diving board in the deep end seem to be a common bond across all races.

I came on Monday hoping it would be a bit calmer, to get some photos for the RCX5 review, showing some of the swimming functionality…but the water was a bit murky after a day filled at capacity (we actually had to wait 10 minutes to enter, since a few dozen people had to leave before we’d be allowed in).  The doubt the highest temps of the year brought out everyone in droves.

No worries though, I’ll do what I can with these and some other shots I have (these thankfully, aren’t the best ones…I’ve gotta save something for the review, after all!).

The rest of the day was largely spent tending to my meat.  You know, my BBQ Pulled Pork (recipe here).  It’s somewhat of an annual tradition.  The Girl actually started the two large pork hunks the night prior, getting them rubbed and injected with goodness (no, not EPO like Pro Cyclists, but rather an apple juice based mix). 

Then I got up early on Monday to get them started on their 12 hours journey.

The key to pulled pork on a BBQ is to know the internal temperature.  So I had a wireless thermometer that I had picked up on Woot.com last year, yet hadn’t used sense.  As we were sitting around waiting for it to reach it’s final temperature the thing started talking to us – literally telling us that our dinner was almost ready.  Craziness!

But I also had another one that was just simpler, as the butt is over a foot across, so I measure in two places.

A short bit later we got to work shredding it.  I wasn’t quite as happy with the quality of the meats this year.  They were picked up from Restaurant Depot, which normally is good with meats – but this one was far fattier than usual, with probably 50-75% of the chunk fat.  Rather disappointing.  While we had enough for everyone, the amount of meat we had bought should have made enough for everyone to go home with considerable leftovers.

Oh well…the noms were still good!

Lastly, in honor of Memorial Day, I leave you with this photo I took here in DC, just a touch over 10 years ago during the Cherry Blossom festival.  Let us never forget the sacrifices so many have made.

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