Pools and Taxes

I have access to a pretty nice pool through the gym I have a membership at. It's a pretty nice, private, pool. It's extremely clean, there's usually no one in it if you go at the right time, and the change rooms are passable. It's no Winnipeg Winter Club, but it'll do.

My pool is closed for repairs right now, so I had to go to the public pool tonight. I know... woe is me... but just wait a sec! It left me with a bad taste in my mouth -- literally. I seriously hadn't realized how crappy these places are considering how much they tax us to maintain them!

Let's start at the beginning of my journey...

I show up for the late lane swim and the front desk is deserted. The pool is open, but there's no one home basically. I venture into the change rooms and approach another girl getting ready to swim. I explain that I don't have a pass but that no one is outside for me to pay. She shrugs and says that no one is ever there at night and that she just usually goes right in without worrying about it. Huh. Maybe if they had someone staff the desk so that people could pay, the change rooms wouldn't be so gross...

So... the change rooms... They were disgusting. Low lit and dank... Water ALL OVER. I know that it's a pool, but usually, there are drains and the floor, well, drains. Not this floor. The lockers are all rusted and there are no locks because the front desk is closed. The whole area looks like it hasn't been updated/cleaned in about 60 years.

I shower before going into the pool and get squirted with a fine mist that lasts all of three seconds before crapping out on me. The water is freezing cold and the shower curtain doesn't cover the whole stall.

In the main pool area, things look a little better. I get into the pool and the water is pleasantly warm. It's not too crowded, etc. Good swimming conditions. I get a face full of water and realize something. Tasting chlorine at my regular pool reassures me that there's no kid pee in the water. I don't really taste chlorine at all in this pool... but the water still tastes awful. And, no, it's not a salt water pool. I spend the rest of my swim wondering if this is what kid pee tastes like.

Once I'm done swimming, I head back into the gross locker room. Now that I'm trying to get cleaned up, the grody, dirty water on the floor is that much more noticeable. I take a shower in one of the gross stalls and head into a changing stall. It's pleasently clean, but I have to roll my pants up so that they don't get wet because -- and this is the best part -- there's a big sign outside of the change room asking everyone to remove their shoes before they go in... like they're trying to keep the place clean or something.

By this time, I'm ready to go home. I stuff all of my crap into my gym bag and go to leave. This is when I find that the hallway out of the changeroom has flooded and there's water everywhere. I wade out, grab my flip flops, and hightale it for the door.

Call me pampered or what have you... but I don't ever remember public pools being this gross when I was a kid. I remember them being brightly lit and smelling of chlorine and cleaning products. I remember the water being cold but clean. I remember the changerooms not being flooded. I remember the front desk being staffed.

This whole thing made me sad. I'll go back to my pool and hug it next week when it reopens, but it doesn't change the fact that even though we sink money into the public pool, it needs a whole lot of work. I don't expect the Ritz at a public pool... but I expect atleast a Super 8, you know?