Hello again – Kammerer here…
Some of you may remember that last year we had a family reunion at our house, and that, just prior to that FR, Judy and I sort of inherited a 5×18 swimming pool.
It had belonged to Jennifer and Dean, our beloved daughter and son-in-law. They had bought the thing and had it errected in the backyard of the house they were living in at the time, but moved before they ever filled it with water. This, of course, made it a “new” pool, having never been swum (swam? swimmed?) in.
Upon moving, they decided that the pool would not be usable any longer and they decided to rid themselves of the item all together.
The problem with the pool was not that there was a problem with the pool, but that the house into which they moved had a much bigger one planted in the ground in the back yard. This made the large above-ground brand new never been swam (swimmed? swum?) in pool a bit obsolete for their tastes.
Well, so as not to bore you with all of the in-between details, it ended up at our house via our son, Billy, and his lovely wife, Lacey.
As I mentioned above, we were in the preparing stages of the 3rd annual Kammerer Family ho-down at our house, so we put it up and had it ready for the big event.
For a short diary of the events immediately after the assembly of the pool, click here…
For a somewhat less short chronicle of how to empty the pool once you’re ready to take it down, click here…
As it happens, we are now two weeks away from this year’s event, and we are way behind in the getting ready department. (In fairness, we have had a lot going on this year, including, but not limited to, reconfiguration of some of the property around the house. I still have a lot of work getting the trails in the back yard in shape – walking on some of them is like skiing – very slippery – lots of oak leaves everywhere. And the grass is hip deep in some areas back there, so I’m doing a lot of weed-whacking.. But I digress…)
Well, this year we aren’t going to put up the pool. In fact, There is now a shed standing right in the middle of where the pool was standing last year, and much of the pool is currently cluttering up – I mean – standing inside the shed.
So, I’ve decided that I’m going to raffle it off at this year’s KFR in two weeks. Here’s how I see the raffle going down (the rules)
- All living members of the Kammerer family will have their names put into an appropriate container. This container will be called “The Loser’s Bin”. (This includes ones who don’t show up.)
- Everybody who does show up will have the option of selecting the size of paper on which they want their name to appear. (The larger the size the less chance of driving home with a swimming pool in the back of your car.)
- All non-attending relatives will have their names written on something about the size of a fortune-cookie fortune, making it difficult to find amongst all of the poster-sized names in the bin, thereby enhancing their opportunities to obtain the pool.
- Every two minutes throughout the weekend, Max, our dog, will reach in with his mouth and pull out a name.
- That name will be placed in a “winner’s” bin.
- All names in the “winner’s” bin will immediately become exempt from the raffle.
- The last name left in the Loser’s Bin becomes the owner of the pool with all rights, privileges and entitlements that go along with that honor (including the bill for shipping it to your house).
- You do not have to be present to lose.
Obviously, if you show up for the party you stand a better chance of not getting stuck with the pool.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of Kammerer relatives and with a drawing every two minutes throughout the weekend, there may not be enough time to get through all of the names in the Loser’s Bin. If this happens, there will not be a loser and I may retain ownership. Hence, the reason for this posting…
Anybody want a 5 x 18 above ground pool at a really good price? It’s really in pretty good shape, though it’s going to need to be cleaned up pretty well.
Things With Six Strings 