Welcome to the HOA where Patrick and I discuss the topic that consumes ever-increasing amounts of our time and mental energy as we get older, making home life a little more comfortable and a little more convenient in a world where everything seems like it is going the opposite way.

So Patrick, you were, last we talked, you had plans for a little, a little summer fun.

You were going to upgrade your, your yard game with a pool.

Yeah, we, we talked about the tree, right?

Like, that was the, the arborist was like, the tree is, is dying in the sense that everyone is dying.

But, like, it's okay.

So, like, tree safe.

Tree was safe.

And that was able to give me authorization to some landscaper.

So we, our area is, was, I think we've talked about this before, where it was a flood zone decades ago.

And then different things have been done to the area where it's no longer a flood zone.

But boy, in the backyards of the houses, can you tell where things might have gotten gnarly in decades past?

But like, the yard is sort of graded as such that when water comes in, it sort of pools

to the back.

As a result, when I was thinking of getting a pool, and I don't, like, I spent most of my youth,

like in the water, like big swimming, not family.

My dad didn't care to go in the water.

My mom didn't care to go in the water.

But I did.

And we spent a lot of time around a lake. And so I have really strong memories of being in the water all the time.

And I have always wanted to have something like that in our house.

But it's like, where do you, like the structure of our backyard, it has this big, beautiful

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