Since moving to Texas, I have realized a few things. A) Everything is not bigger here. In fact everything seems to be around the same size as everywhere else. B) People in Dallas ask me, “What are these hills you speak of?” So I make them wiki it and look at pictures. C) It is hotter than Kurt Busch’s tires on the 400th lap at Bristol. Yes this summer has been very hot all over the US. Like many others, I find myself trying to go to the nearest watering hole in order to have a good time with friends and also be able to stay cool.
Recently, while sitting at the pool, I realized there were a couple things wrong with how uncomfortable I was. The chairs and ground were so hot that I could not spend 30 seconds in contact with them without feeling like I had seared my skin. I needed something to protect me for the 5 min I was outside of the water. I have since come up with 2 ideas to help you relax even if you can cook raw chicken on the ground ala Cousin Eddie on Vegas Vacation.
This first idea just is a way to improve beach towels. Even though I’m not Yao Ming, I am somewhat tall. My problem with the towels is a couple things. First it is never long enough. Second when I am sitting up in a pool chair it is falling down, or if I’m lucky I have to “tuck in” my towel if the chair is constructed in a way that I can. Two easy solutions to these problems: for the first one, make the towels longer. Most pool chairs I’ve come across have been fairly close to the same length. Why can’t towel producers figure this out? It is like the old 8 hot dogs, 12 buns conundrum. I do not understand this at all. Let’s just take a nice sample of pool chairs, see how long the longest one is, and start producing towels at that length. Has anyone ever complained because there were a couple inches extra hanging over the end of their pool chair? Didn’t think so. As for them falling down all the time, we will just put 2 slots on each end where removable hooks can go in order to keep the towel up. The hooks slip in and out easily for convenience (No one wants to be drying off and feel like someone is fishing and they just got caught). Does this help with the heat at all? No, but for the 5 minutes you can endure in 110° heat, you at least will have a very warm, but colder and more bearable place to rest.
The next is an invention of a new chair altogether. This chair is set up like your normal pool chair but this one has small tubes running all along the top with water in them. Next to each chair there is a tube that the chair can connect to that runs cool pool water thru it and out the other end back into the pool. This does not have to be very complicated, Just a series of tubing with a small pump with an on and off switch. You go out, make sure the chair is connected and turn the pump on. It might take 5 or 10 minutes to get down to a nice relaxed temperature, but from then on you are golden.
So there are two simple ways to improve your time at the sweltering hot pool. Now remember kids wear sunscreen. If I could offer you one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientist, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.
