It won’t go down as a particularly momentous or great moment in my life, but I still remember it as if it was yesterday.
August long weekend, 2004. It was a week after we had come back from summer vacation from the open sky and waters of Lake Huron. Back in land-locked Guelph it was stifling hot. We were miserable. Holidays over. No lake to jump into.
It just so happened a friend was house-sitting. House-sitting at a house that had a swimming pool.
“Would you like to come over for a swim?” we were asked.
Within minutes, in our bathing suits, towels in hand, we were there.
It was such a glorious break from the heat. It was a first for me, swimming  in a swimming pool in Guelph. It was literally and figuratively cool.
I won’t go so far as to say it was a ‘eureka’ moment, but thoughts of putting a swimming pool in my backyard started permeating my brain. I have the yard for it, a pool would make me a very popular person, and coming home for lunch and having a swim was most alluring.
However, I have always – and still do – harbour thoughts of owning a cottage.  Summers of my youth, I guess. A swimming pool pales in comparison with a cottage on Georgian Bay or on Lake Huron, where we vacation as of late.
No matter how I crunched the numbers, hoping for a cottage, there would be no cottage.
A waterfront cottage is financially out of reach unless you are rich, up for weekend treks to Ontario’s far north or you inherit one. A cottage can mean insufferable commutes for how many hours of peace of tranquility? A cottage is your home times two – taxes, upkeep and such. Then there’s the idea that when you are at home in Guelph you are wishing you were at the cottage and vice versa – all depending on the weather.
As you may have gathered, I opted for a swimming pool. Costly? For sure. Debt?  Yep, but considerably less debt than the cottages I covet.
My pool has brought me great pleasure and also made me a very popular fellow, especially during this scorching summer.
It’s hard to imagine that it was eight years ago this past weekend that the notion of building a swimming pool entered my noggin. I’ve had very happy August long weekends ever since. Besides, it certainly takes the edge off when coming back from two weeksholidays  at a cottage on Lake Huron.