Changes, changes We've had so many changes around the house lately. Patty moving out, the shifting of the guest bedrooms, the new doggy gate... And this morning, we had a baby fence installed around the pool. This was set into motion when my sister planned her visit, since her son is of the age when so many kids in Florida drown -- young enough that they may not be able to swim or that they panic when they fall in the pool, but old enough to get out of the house on their own. It seems like every time I read the local newspaper here, I read about a tragedy involving a kid who got out of the house and fell into their or their neighbor's backyard pool. There's actually even a law that any pool built after X year is required to have one of these gates put up, but the ones built before are not.



So here is ours. It's... an eyesore. It takes up a lot of the patio. The dogs can no longer run laps around the pool. But... I'm getting used to it. On one hand, we can take it down if we want. We don't have the type of yard that neighbors can get into, after all, unless they come over on a boat. On the other, if we leave it up it will be nice for the lady who cleans our house as she brings her three-year-old with her; she won't have to worry about her little one getting out of the house on his own; she would just have to re-open the panels before she left so the dogs could swim if they want. But I dunno; the jury is still out on this matter. In any case, now we have this for when people visit with their kids, which is a bonus, and for someday when we decide to make this house even more crazy than it is already.

Before I took this picture for Chris so he could see what it looked like, I cleaned up the whole patio. Dog toys, poop, leaves, dirt... It looks pretty good for our back patio. :)



:)  ¶ 3:16 PM